216 



but he did not publish those testimonies, as Hume advised, perhaps 

 from a conviction that such as he procured were not quite satisfac- 

 tory. What the Doctor left undone in this instance, the Com- 

 mittee has supplied. It procured the letters from the executors of 

 Doctor Blair, and published them in the Appendix to the Report. 

 The Committee, it appears, thought the letters important, and it calls 

 the attention of the Society, particularly, to the letters of Sir James 

 Mc, Donald, Doctor John Macpherson, and Mr. Angus Mc. Neill. 

 Let us consider these testimonies. 



The letter of Sir James Mc. Donald says, " I am not able to give 

 " you a satisfactory answer to any point, in regard to the question, at 

 present * * * * J have little hopes that any manuscripts will be 

 found in the Highlands, which have not already fallen into his " 

 (James Macpherson's) " hands. These islands were never possessed 

 of any curious manuscripts, as far as I can learn, except a few which 

 Clanranald had, and which are all in Macpherson's possession. The 

 few bards that are left among us, repeat only detached pieces of those 

 poems. I have often heard, and understood them ; particularly from 

 one man, called John Mac Codrum. I have heard him repeat for 

 hours together, poems which seemed to me to be the same with Mac- 

 pherson's translation ; but as I had it not along with me, and could 

 not remember it with sufficient exactness, I cannot positively affirm 

 that what I have heard is precisely the same as the translation," All 

 this is very fair ; but what does it prove ? Why it proves, that " the 

 islands," the Western Islands, " were never possessed of any curious 

 manuscripts, except a few which Clanranald had, and which were all 

 in Macpherson's possession." It also proves, that the bards of the 

 islands could "repeat only detached pieces of these poems." Oh ! but, 

 it will be said, it proves more; it proves that Sir James had often heard 

 the poems repeated for hours together. Sir James, however, does not 



