Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 6.djvu/132

502 published at Edinburgh, under the descriptive title of "Grain Ghaidhealach, le Donacha Mac-an-t-soir ; it was reprinted in 1790, and again in 1804, and has long been out of print. One of the poems in this volume was "Oran na Briogais," or, as it may be freely rendered, "The Anathema of the Breeks," being a pretty open expression of the most disloyal sentiment on the part of the author, respecting the abolition of the Highland, and the substitution of the Lowland dress, which formed one of the measures of the government for breaking the Jacobite spirit, after the rebellion of 1745. It is well known that the Highlanders in general resented this measure very bitterly, and none more so than such as, like Macintyre, had been loyal to the king during the late broils. They deemed the breeches at once a literal and emblematic restraint—a thing unsuited to their habits as well as tastes—and, as is plainly intimated by Donacha Ban, a sufficient cause of offence to cause a universal rising in favour of prince Charles, should he ever again appear in the country. Of the spirit of this poem we can give no fair specimen—though the first stanza has been cleverly rendered in the following terms:—

When by the exertions of the marquis of Graham, the act for abolishing the Highland dress was repealed (1782), Macintyre celebrated the event in a paean of clamorous joy, such as would have done honour to a repelled invasion or a liberated country. These poems, with an English translation, are to be found in the Cambrian and Caledonian Magazine for October, 1833.

In 1793, the poet, though advanced to a considerable age, became a private in a fencible regiment then raised by the earl of Breadalbane, in which situation he continued till the corps was disbanded in 1799. It is probably to a period antecedent to either of these dates, that we are to ascribe an anecdote of Macintyre, which was related to the editor of this dictionary by the late Mr Alexander Campbell, editor of Albyn's Anthology. The earl of Breadalbane, being anxious to provide permanently for the latter life of his ingenious dependent, consulted the poet himself, as to the way in which he thought that object might be best accomplished. Macintyre, whose whole life had been passed in the humblest obscurity, undisturbed by so much as a wish for any thing better, took some time to consider the matter, and to make inquiries, and then came to his lordship with a request that he would exert his influence to procure a place for him in the city-guard of Edinburgh, a military police whom Sir Walter Scott has since rendered classical by his pen; but who were then the alternate scoff and terror of their fellow townsmen at sixpence a day! Into this antiquated corps—for such it was, both in its general character, and in respect of the age of most of its members—Macintyre was accordingly transplanted; thus exchanging the Highland solitude, whence the inspiration and enjoyment of his whole life had been derived, for the duties of a peace-officer in one of the most crowded streets in the world, where every object must have been to him artificial