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language, and could not read a manuscript in that language, even of 

 the fourteenth century; and of course, that he was much less qualified 

 to read or understand the genuine compositions of Ossian, if such 

 were in existence, and before him. This ignorance of the translator 

 is acknowledged by some of those who bear testimony to the genu- 

 ineness of the originals published by the Society, though those so 

 called originals were copies said to be prepared by him for press, but 

 the genuine originals of which never were produced either by him 

 or any other person. 



In examining the internal evidence of their own antiquity, which 

 Doctor Blair thought he discovered in the poems, we have shewn 

 that no such proofs are there to be found. On the contrary, we 

 have shewn from a variety of internal proofs, that those poems could 

 not have been composed by Ossian, or by any author or writer of his 

 times. The silence of the poems with respect to things which did 

 exist in the days of Ossian, and were fit subjects for poetry, and the 

 mention of things that did not exist at that period, must be admitted 

 as irrefragable proofs that the poems were composed by some much 

 more modern author. 



We have paid particular attention to the body of evidence which 

 the Committee of the Highland Society has produced in favour of 

 the authenticity and antiquity of the poems, as well as to the addi- 

 tional proofs brought forward by Sir John Sinclair and by Doctor 

 Mc Arthur, for the same purpose. But in all those testimonies pro- 

 duced, whether in the shape of letters, certificates, or aflftdavits, there 

 is not one positive proof that the poems ever existed, in their present 

 form, before the days of James Macpherson. On the contrary, we 

 again repeat it, there is sufficient evidence to shew that they were 

 fabricated by him, from materials stolen from Irish poems, supposed 

 to be written by Ossian, or from corrupted Scotch copies of those 



