[ 3° ] 



no danger of 'till after Britain was totally fubdued. There is d 

 paflage in Tacitus which ftrongly confirms this conjedure ; where 

 fpeaking of the utility of an expedition againft Ireland, with 

 refped to the fecurity of the Roman conquefts in Britain, he 

 adds, among other motives, " Ut Libertas tanquam e Co7iJpe£tu tol- 

 katur." " To take away that hankering after freedom which the 

 " fight of a free ally fo near at hand would naturally excite." 

 This hint gives the reader to underftand that Agricola had 

 already fuffered fome inconvenience from this connexion of 

 interefts, and was defirous of putting an end to it, if poffible, 

 for ever. This expedition never took place, becaufe that gene- 

 ral had work enough cut out for him by the valour of the 

 Caledonians under Galgacus, without crofling the fea in fearch 

 of a new enemy ; and his return to Italy a fhort time after, 

 and the fame caufe continuing, prevented the defign from 

 being ever refumed. But the increafing intercourfe and alliance 

 between the two nations at that period, for the above reafons, 

 in all probability opened the way to that fettlement under 

 Carbic Riada, which, according to the Irifh accounts, was ef- 

 feded in the Weft of Scotland about the middle of the fe- 

 cond century : When the antient pofterity of the Caledonians, 

 under a Milefian leader, returned to their original country, with 

 the new appellation of Dalriadans, where the devaftations of a 

 long war that had lafted near a century had made ample room 

 for their reception, without inconvenience to the remaining 

 natives, and where they, moft probably, were received with 

 open arms. 



This 



