271 



Prayers." In this collection, and in others in possession of the Com- 

 mittee, we are told there are several passages the same, or nearly the 

 same, as in Macpherson's translation, though neither in Kennedy's, 

 nor in the other collections, " does the poem in which they occur 

 always correspond in its title, story, or general tenor, with that in 

 which the resembling passages are given by Mr. Macpherson.'? 

 From these poems Doctor Donald Smith, at the desire of the 

 Society, formed a selection given in the Appendix, No. 15. We 

 are told that " in this selection, the Doctor has, by the Committee's 

 direction, taken the same liberty which Mr. Macpherson may be 

 supposed to have used, namely, that of collecting passages, and some- 

 times even lines, from different poems, and different editions of the 

 same poem, the disjecta membra poeta, which seemed to relate to, or 

 to be connected with the principal event in the main poem, as found 

 in Macpherson's publication." Is not this a confession that the poems 

 of Ossian, as published by Macpherson, are not original poems, but 

 that they are made up of shreds and patches from popular tales and 

 poems, many of which we have already shewn to be of Irish origin .'' , 

 o The Committee conceives, (Report, p. 127,) that Kennedy's Col- 

 lection " hardly admits of any suspicion of forgery or fabrication." 

 This cannot be conceded. From what has been published of that 

 collection, there can be no doubt that the original text has been 

 much corrupted. The Cento formed by Doctor Smith, puts it out of 

 our power to point out particular instances of forgery, for he gives no 

 reference to any particular poem ; but it does not remove the just 

 suspicion of fabrication, and the language and versification prove cor- 

 ruption and modern composition of some of its parts. 



The poem of " Bas Chairrill" (the Death ofCarrill,) published 

 in the Appendix to the Report, p. 336, though certainly of much older 

 composition than any of those poems published as the originals of 



