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language Gaelic Ei'rinarch, i. e. Caledonian Irish, when, on the con- 

 trary, they call the dialect of the North Britain a Chaelic. A cir- 

 cumstance of this nature tends more to decide which is the most 

 ancient nation, than the united testimonies of a whole legion of 

 ignorant bards and Senachies." It would be foreign to the nature of 

 this Essay, to enter into an investigation of the historical inferences 

 which this pretender draws from the difference between the Scotch 

 and Irish Gaelic. I should therefore pass this part, as unworthy of 

 observation, if his futile claims to credit, as a Gaelic scholar, and as 

 a translator ofOssian, did not call for animadversion. The Gaelic 

 examples he has given, however, save me the trouble of an elaborate 

 criticism. The words " Cael Eirinarch," and " a Chaelic," prove, 

 beyond the possibility of a doubt, the bare-faced falsehood, as well 

 as the errors of the writer. Those words are not Gaelic, either 

 Scotch or Irish. They never so were written in either dialects before 

 the days of James Macpherson. No Irishman would use them ; and 

 if such jargon has found its way into the colloquial dialect of the 

 Highland Scots, it is the strongest possible proof that their language 

 has become barbarous indeed. 



There is one assertion contained in the above quotation, which, 

 notwithstanding the ignorance of the Gaelic language, so strongly 

 apparent in the writer, might, if uncontradicted, have some weight 

 with those not intimately acquainted with the subject. He says, the 

 Irish call their own language Gaelic Eirinarch, i. e. " Caledonian 

 Irish," and "they call the dialect of North Britain a Ghaelic." I 

 suppose that by " Gaelic Eirinarch," the author meant Gaelic Eirin- 

 nach, or, as it should be properly spelled, Gaoidhilig Eirionnach, 

 and that by "a Ghaelic" he intended something to express an 

 Ghaeilic, or correctly an Ghaoidhilig. If this were his intention, he 

 was wrong in the translation. " Gaelic Eirinarch" even supposing 



