avail force or effect in themselves.’[473] It has been necessary to quote this Act at some length, in order to show what a powerful weapon it placed in the hands of the Crown, and the embarrassing and precarious position in which it placed the greater proportion of the clans. Many of them had received charters of their lands which had perished during the troubles and conflicts which had followed the forfeiture of the Lords of the Isles. Others had no other right to their lands than what was derived from the forfeited lords. In other cases, where the right to the clan demesne was the subject of dispute between different septs, both parties had received at different times a quasi-title to them. In many cases the nominal superiority was feudally vested in an alien family, while the land was actually possessed by one of the clans; and in many others they had no title but immemorial possession, which they maintained by the sword; while, on the other hand, those who already possessed a nominal right to the lands under feudal titles which they had been unable to enforce, or who saw a great prospect, through the threatened forfeitures, of acquiring possessions in the Highlands and Isles, would eagerly avail themselves of the opportunity afforded them by this Statute. The chiefs of the clans thus found themselves compelled to defend their rights upon grounds which could compete with the claims of their eager opponents, and to maintain an equality of rank and prestige with them in the Heralds’ Office, which must drive them to every device necessary to effect their purpose; and they would not hesitate to manufacture titles to the land when they did not exist, and to put forward spurious pedigrees better calculated to maintain their position when a native descent had lost its value and was too weak to serve their purpose. [Sidenote: Spurious Pedigrees.]