I am not going to enter into the controversy respecting the antiquity of the _Highland_ kilt and tartans, nor when and where they were invented. But in reference to these questions, I beg leave to cite a passage, which may be found in the second book of the _History_ of Tacitus, in which is designated a garb having a very distinct analogy to the _trews_ and tartans of the Highland chiefs. In lib. ii. sec. xx. the return of Cæcina from Germany into Italy is thus described:-- "At Cæcina, velut relictâ post Alpes sævitiâ ac licentiâ, modesto agmine per Italiam incessit. Ornatum ipsius, municipia et coloniæ in superbiam trahebant, quod _versicolore sagulo, bruccas_ tegmen barbarum, indutus, togatos adloqueretur." Cæcina and Valens had been the Imperial "Legati" in Upper Germany, and the former is thus described in lib. i. sec. liii.:-- "At in superiore Germaniâ, Cæcina decorâ juventâ, corpore ingens, animi immodicus, scito sermone, erecto incessu studia militum inlexerat." So it seems that this handsome Roman, "great in stature," and "graceful in youth," thought (like many of our modern fine gentlemen when they get among the hills) the partycoloured plaid and barbarian clothing so extremely becoming, that he was determined to set the fashion of wearing it in Italy, and actually was intrepid enough to appear like a male Bloomer before the astonished eyes of the "Togati," and to answer the addresses of the "Municipia" and "Coloniæ" clad in this outlandish costume. I leave to more learned antiquaries the task of tracing this Celtic habit, "in superiore Germaniâ," into the Scottish Highlands. For myself I have little doubt that from the earliest division of the community into septs or clans, the chiefs assumed the pattern of this "tegmen versicolor" which best pleased them, and in course of time the pattern distinguished the wearers as belonging to such and such chiefs. As to the kilt, in all probability it was the apology for nudity. The chiefs wore the trews, the humbler vassals or serfs either wore no nether garments at all, or covered their loins with a scanty apron, which gradually comprising more ample folds, has been modernised into the kilt. But I beg leave to put forward these speculations with all possible modesty, feeling quite inadequate to discuss such momentous matters from being only A BORDERER. RELIGIOUS STATISTICS. (Vol. iv., p. 382.) I have a memorandum (not dated) which states that M. Pradt, in his work on _Ancient and Modern Jesuitism_, gives curious calculations on the religious statistics of the world. The terrestrial globe, he estimates, contains 670,000,000 inhabitants, who are thus divided:--