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Scottish bard. We shall, however, avoid quoting such foreign autho- 

 rities, and produce that of only one Scottish writer, but that one shall 

 be such as no stickler for the authenticity of OSsian's poems can 

 reject. It is no less a person than James Macpherson himself, the 

 translator and commentator on Ossian's poems. That gentleman, in 

 his "Introduction to the History and Antiquities of Great Britain and 

 Ireland," (Dublin edition, I2mo. 1771, p. 109,) in denying the 

 Irish extraction of the British Scots, says, " It is difficult for the 

 unprejudiced part of mankind to believe, that a colony sufficient to 

 occupy the western Highlands and isles, could have wafted them- 

 selves, their wives, and children, at once, from Ireland into the nor- 

 thern Britain, in curraghs, or miserable skiffs, whose hulls of wicker 

 were wrapped up in a cow's hide. In these wretched vessels, it is 

 true, an irregular communication was kept up between both the 

 islands, but the navigation was dangerous, and performed only in 

 the fairest days in summer." To add weight to this opinion, Mr. 

 Macpherson quotes Solinus. Here then we have Macpherson against 

 Ossian and Macpherson. The Irish and Scotch, we are told by the 

 Highland Society, were one people, having the same language, and 

 the same manners and customs. Ossian tells us that the Scotch had 

 " high-masted ships with white-bosomed sails." Macpherson tells us, 

 that at the same period in which Ossian lived, "an irregular com- 

 munication was kept up, in summer time only, between the two 

 nations, by the means of curraghs, or miserable skiffs, whose hulls of 

 wicker were wrapped up in a cow's hide." What does all this prove .'* 

 It proves, first, that a certain description of persons have need of 

 good memories ; and secondly, that this affords an " internal proof," 

 stronger than any of the sworn testimonies brought forward to prove 

 the authenticity of the poems, that those poems are modern compo- 

 sitions. 



