frequently complained that the English version did not come up to 

 the strength of the original ; 8th, That the Rev. James Macgillivray, 

 a student of poetry and rhetoric, an admirer of the ancient classics, 

 and a contemner of Erse poems, being converted by the translation of 

 Macpherson, paid more attention to Farquharson's comparison than 

 he would have otherwise done ; 9th, and finally, That Farquharson 

 was a man of great sincerity and good information on the authenticity 

 of Ossian. 



Such is the substance of the new evidence which Sir John Sinclair 

 has brought before the public, and which he thinks capable of remov^ 

 ing the doubts of the most incredulous. 



That Mr. Farquharson did make a collection of compositions in 

 the Gaelic language, is not disputed, nor that it was contained in a 

 large folio paper book, about three inches thick, written close in a 

 small letter. The evidence for this is satisfactory. It is equally so, 

 that he was assisted in his studies by Mrs. Eraser, of Culbokie, who 

 had made a similar collection, which she called a Bolg solair, written 

 m Jine large Irish characters, and that Mr. Farquharson acknow- 

 ledged he had got a great many of his poems from that lady. But 

 it does not appear that his collection was confined, as Sir John Sin- 

 clair's proposition might lead us to suppose, to poems called by him 

 Ossian's Poems, but that it was of a very miscellaneous description, 

 and " contained," as the compiler was repeatedly heard to assertj 

 " various Gaelic songs, a few fragments of modern composition, but 

 chiefly extracts of Ossian's Poems." Bishop Cameron speaks of it as 

 containing only "a very considerable part of what was afterwards 

 translated and published by Macpherson." Mr. Macgillivray was 

 convinced that it contained them all ; nay, it must have contained 

 more; for he avers, that he "often heard Mr. Farquharson regret, 

 that Macpherson had not found or published several poems contamed 



