solitary traveller is plodding his way amidst the shadows of an autumn evening, or under the shivering stars of a winter night, can drench the skin and curdle the blood. No wonder though the actors in the tragedy felt, in their dire experience afterwards, that the infatuation of crime dissolves the moment it is perpetrated; that Breadalbane sought the sons of the murdered MacIan to gain impunity for himself by signing a document declaring him guiltless; that Glencoe haunted the couch and clouded the countenance, and shortened the days of Glenlyon. Hamilton apparently felt no remorse, and his only regret was that any had escaped, and that a colossal crime had been truncated by some colossal blunders. He might have said like the Templar in the Talisman, when some one tells him to tremble, "I cannot if I would." And yet as God comes often to men without bell, so there might be some secret passage through which, on noiseless footsteps, remorse might reach even the sullen chamber of his hardened heart.

Many lessons might be derived from the whole story, none, after all, more obvious and none more useful than the old old story of the desperate wickedness of human nature when unpenetrated by brotherly and Christian feeling; and that he who has sounded the ocean, the grave, the deepest and the darkest mountain cavern has yet a deeper deep to fathom in the abyss of his own heart; and that the moral of the subject may be yet more briefly condensed in the one grand line which Shelley has borrowed from Burke:—

"To fear ourselves and love all human kind."

GEO. GILFILLAN.

Professorship of Celtic at Oxford.—In a congregation held on Tuesday, March 7th, a form of statute was promulgated to provide for the establishment of a Professor of the Celtic languages and literature in this University. The Principal and Fellows of Jesus College have offered the sum of £500 annually, to be applied by the University for the foundation of the professorship, and a further sum of £100 is to be paid from the University chest, until an equivalent provision is made from some other source. The statute also provides for the constitution of a board for electing the professor. Such professor will be required to reside within the precincts of the University for six months at least, in each year, between the tenth day of October and the first of July next following. The professor must apply himself to the study of the Celtic languages, literature, and antiquities, and give lectures on those subjects, and also give instruction on the same subject to members of the University. He is not to hold any other professorship or public readership in the University. Matters are looking up for the Celtic languages at last; thanks to the redoubted Professor Blackie. Two Celtic Professorships are now practically established. We understand that Charles Mackay, LL.D., F.S.A., the well-known poet, and Celtic scholar, is a candidate for the Chair.

The Prophecies of Coinneach Odhar Fiosaiche—The Brahan Seer.—John Noble, bookseller, Inverness, is about to publish those "Prophecies" in small book form, collected and edited by Alex. Mackenzie of the Celtic Magazine. Some very remarkable instances of second sight by others than Coinneach Odhar will also be given. Parties forwarding any prophecies in their possession, or known in their district, to Mr Noble, or to Mr Mackenzie, will be conferring a favour, and will receive due acknowledgment. It is desirable to make the work as complete as possible.

TEACHING GAELIC IN HIGHLAND SCHOOLS.

This is a question which has for some time engaged the earnest consideration of many who are interested in the welfare of the Highlands. Much has been said and written on the subject; on the one hand by those who wish to see the language of the inhabitants excluded from the schools—nay more, use every means at their command, by word and deed, to extinguish it altogether. They argue that it is better we should only possess one living language throughout the whole country, and that, of course, the language of the Legislature, the Courts of Justice, and of Commerce. No doubt a good deal can be said for this view of the case, and we shall have something to say regarding it hereafter. On the other hand, we have those who would have the language cultivated, supported, and maintained as an active living tongue, spoken by the Highlander and used in the common conversation and business of life; and with that object have it taught in our schools just as we teach English. Others do not exactly go that length. They wish it taught as a Special Subject only, in the same way, on the same principle, and with the same encouragement to schoolmasters and pupils that is given in the case of Latin and Greek, French and German. And last of all, we have those who only go the length of advocating its use for conveying information to Gaelic-speaking children regarding what they read in their English class-books—making it the medium by which the intelligence of the pupil is appealed to, and so enable him the more easily and speedily to understand and grasp the substance of his lessons in English, a language which is to him as much a foreign one as Sanscrit or Hindustani.

On the present occasion we shall refer more particularly to the latter—those who wish to give Gaelic the dignity of being taught as a Special Subject, and those who only wish it applied as a means with which to reach the intelligence of the child while receiving an English education. We will admit at the outset, that the primary object of education in the Highlands, as well as elsewhere, must be to fit the children for the active duties of after life. We will also admit that a Gaelic education, however perfect, is not enough for this purpose. If this be so—and no writer possessed of ordinary common sense can reasonably dispute it—the teaching of Gaelic in our Highland schools can be discussed only as a question of secondary importance; unless we can show that it is through the native language of the scholars that we can best appeal to their intelligence; and, that while giving Gaelic its proper place in our system of Highland education, we can also show that we are taking a more direct and more natural course, in the end, to secure a more intelligent and vastly superior English education.

No one approaching the subject with an unprejudiced mind, after giving the smallest consideration to the subject, can maintain that a system which wholly ignores the only language known to the child when he enters school for the first time, can be either a sensible, a reasonable, or a successful one. It is doubtful if ever such a system was adopted anywhere else, at home or abroad, out of the Highlands of Scotland, and the Gaelic-speaking districts of Ireland; but whether, or not, it was ever adopted in the past we are unable, at the present day, to discover any trace of such an unnatural, senseless, and, we might say without exaggeration, idiotic system in any other part of the world. The disadvantages of such a plan of teaching are so apparent to every one except those teachers and their friends, who are totally ignorant of the language of the children they are so well paid to teach and who, from the manner in which they disregard the necessities of children in Highland districts, must, we are afraid, be held to place their own interests and that of their class far above the requirements of the country; forgetting that the Legislature passed the Education Act not so much in the interest of teachers as with