255 



Committee says, is not to be found in the Highland poems, though 

 it acknowledges that Ireland sheltered and preserved that learning 

 which Scotland in a great meiasure lost; though Mr. Macpherson 

 asserts that the traditions and songs of his ancestors " were lost or 

 altogether corrupted ;" and though the same gentleman avows that, 

 the Highlanders had fallen "into the last degree of ignorance and 

 barbarism." Are we to give implicit credence to the Committee .'' Are 

 we to believe that ancient literary documents must be corrupted by 

 men of learning, as the Irish confessedly were, and that they were 

 preserved in all their original purity amongst a people " fallen into 

 the last degree of ignorance and barbarism," without books or 

 records ? The idea is preposterous. 



At p. 55 of the Report, the Committee introduces two travellers 

 to our notice, — no less personages than " Lord Webb Seymour, and 

 Mr. Professor Playfair, the former of whom was so obliging as to 

 communicate to the chairman of the Committee an extract from his 

 note-book." This, the Committee, no doubt, thought of vast impor- 

 tance to its inquiry. The substance of his Lordship's extract, which 

 is of considerable length, amounts to this, that he had heard repeated a 

 poem, or part of a poem, he could not tell which, that Mr. Mac 

 Donald had translated for him, and that it represented Fingal and his 

 heroes encamped on the shore, when they saw two ships, one pursuing 

 the other. In the first was a lady in distress, who, upon landing, 

 implored the protection of Fingal and his men. Immediately after, 

 the second ship arrived, and a warrior landed, with whom Oscar and 

 Gaul fought, but were defeated : the hero, however, and his followers 

 were afterwards despatched to the other world by the remainder of 

 Fingal's people. Another poem, a description of a battle, was 

 repeated by one of the Macphersons. Another Macpherson, who 

 had accompanied James Macpherson through Sky, &c., told his 



