All old bonds were snapped in a moment; emigration (at first opposed by some of the chiefs) and the French wars depleted the country of its "lang-leggit callants, gaun wanting the breeks." Cattle took the place of men, sheep of cattle, deer of sheep, and, in the long peace, a population grew up again--a population destitute of employment even more than of old, because war and robbery had ceased to be outlets for its energy.

Some chiefs, as Dr.Johnson said, treated their lands as an attorney treats his row of cheap houses in a town.

Hence the Highland Question,--a question in which Scott's sympathies were with the Highlanders.
"Rob Roy," naturally, is no mere "novel with a purpose," no economic tract in disguise.

Among Scott's novels it stands alone as regards its pictures of passionate love.

The love of Diana Vernon is no less passionate for its admirable restraint.