M. Michelet, the great Continental historian, writes:--“The Scottish
Highlanders will ere long disappear from the face of the earth; the
mountains are daily depopulating; the great estates have ruined the
land of the Gael, as they did ancient Italy. The Highlander will ere
long exist only in the romances of Walter Scott. The tartan and the
claymore excite surprise in the streets of Edinburgh; the Highlanders
disappear--they emigrate--their national airs will ere long be lost, as
the music of the Eolian harp when the winds are hushed.”