been presented to the public. In the prehminary matter of a learned 

 work, to which reference has been already made, " The Ogygia Vin- 

 dicated," the author animadverts with just severity, not only on the 

 blundering inventions of the poet Macpherson, but on the historical 

 " inconsistencies, contradictions, and impositions," of his friend and 

 coadjutor Doctor Macpherson, author of certain fabulous "critical 

 Dissertations on the origin, &c. of the ancient Caledonians," which 

 endeavour to subvert some of the most clearly attested facts in our 

 early annals. Wynne, also, in his History of Ireland, (published 

 in 1773,) speaking of Whitaker, says, that so far from his account 

 of " Fingal, sovereign of Morven, and chief of the Caledonians, 

 bearing any token of the genuine Irish History, it has scarcely 

 the resemblance necessary to work up the circumstances into a 

 drama. If some of our northern neighbours took it into their 

 heads to reverse the chronicles of Ireland, in order to make poems 

 out of them, in support of their own particular prejudices, there 

 is surely no occasion for our grave historians to follow in their foot- 

 steps, and to insist, that, without any one real superior advantage 

 over their neighbours, these Caledonians should know the history of 

 that country better than its inhabitants, who profess to have kept its 

 records for many succeeding ages." But a Scotch avenger of insulted 

 historic truth arose in Pinkerton, a writer of pith and marrow, who 

 did not hesitate to give his sentiments all that energy of expression 

 which he could well command, and expose to merited reprobation, 

 the attempts which had been made to overthrow, by shallow argu- 

 ments, the positive testimonies of Claudian, Orosius, Isidorus, Gil- 

 das, and Bede.* " God knows," says he, " our antiquities were too 



* Pinkerton's Essay on the Origin of Scotch Poetry. 

 Macpherson says, in his Introduction to the History of Great Britain and Ireland, that 

 he rejects the testimony of Ossian ; but, replies Pinkerton, " it is as false as if it rested on it. 

 To say of his Introduction, that it " teems with every error which a man can fall into, who 



