SSI 



The Committee, Report, p. 58, mentions Gillies* collection of 

 Gaelic poetry, and falls foul of the poem called " Suireadh Ohein" 

 or, " Ossian's courtship." It tells us that the verse, " Is cuth duine 

 far nach Fionduin" with which the copy published by Gillies 

 begins, " is quite inexplicable." But if the Committee had read the 

 copy procured by Dr. Young, the late bishop of Clonfert, in the 

 Highlands of Scotland, and published by him, with some others, in 

 the first volume of the "Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy," 

 the difficulty would have vanished^ We have already noticed this 

 poem at p. 222, to which we refer. 



' From p. 59 to p. 77 of the Report, the Committee entertains us 

 with an account of the Rev. Doctor Smith's Gaelic poems, and with 

 some extracts from that work. But this we submit can have no 

 weight. Doctor Smith himself is accused of being a fabricator of 

 Ossianic poetry, and until he be acquitted of forgery, his testimony 

 cannot be received in favour of Macpherson. 



The Committee next proceeds to give an account of materials 

 which itself has acquired, for elucidating the questions which the 

 Society had committed to its inquiry, and mentions as important, 

 that several places in Scotland are called after Fingal and his heroes. 

 If this be received as a proof that Ossian belongs to Scotland, it must 

 be considered as equally so for Ireland ; for there is not, we may 

 venture to say, one county in our island in which there are not a 

 great number of places called after those ancient heroes. , 



The Committee applied to the executors of Mr. Macpherson to 

 know if he had left behind him any of those manuscripts, particularly 

 those ancient books which the Committee understood he possessed. 

 The reply of Mr. Mackinzie, who had been the trustee appointed for 

 the purpose of publishing the originals of Ossian, was clear and 

 decisive. There were no such ancient books to be found ; none but 



