more disgraceful history than this of the Douay collection. Its fate 

 reflects dishonour on all who had a knowledge of its existence, but 

 particularly on those who should have felt an interest in its preserva- 

 tion. Why were they so wanting to their country's fame and their 

 own, as to suffer it to be destroyed ? Let it not be pleaded that this 

 was done without their knowledge, or a consciousness of its value. 

 Macgillivray, who is praised as " a great proficient in poetry, and 

 much admired for his taste," saw it hastening to decay in 1775 ; but 

 notwithstanding the interest which he appears to have taken in the 

 general subject, he left it quietly to its fate. It was not, however, 

 doomed to rapid destruction, neither was it surreptitiously removed 

 by an Irish Ulysses, jealous of his own dear country's renown. When 

 Bishop Chisholm left Douay in 1777, it was still in existence, and 

 might have been saved. But he also forbore to take it under his pro- 

 tection ; and thus, this most invaluable collection of Gaelic poems, 

 this Ossian, " not inferior to Homer and Virgil," this precious and 

 unique treasure is deserted by its best friends in a foreign land, to be 

 treated as a thing vile and contemptible, torn and mutilated by stu- 

 dents ignorant of its contents, and at last employed, leaf after leaf, as 

 a substitute for fire-wood to kindle their stove ! And all this at the 

 very time the Ossianic controversy was raging, when its appearance 

 would have acted as a charm in stilling the noise of the combat, 

 turned Doctor Johnson, with all his literary myrmidons, to flight, and 

 for ever secured the triumph of Scotland, and put her enemies to 

 shame ! Was there no library in Douay College, in which books 

 might be safely lodged ; nor librarian, nor provost or rector, to pro- 

 hibit the licentious waste of such valuable manuscripts ? We can 

 imagine only one plea by which we think it possible to justify or pal- 

 liate the neglect and destruction of Farquharson's miscellany, and 

 this is, that it was not worth preserving. It would have rendered 



