[ 38 ] 



them by an offenfive war with an enemy who had never at- 

 tacked their country ; fo that we mull confider them as ag- 

 greffors in the quarrel. 



The author of the Introdudion to the Hiftory of the antient 

 Scots and Irifli, challenges the abettors of the old fyftem to fhew 

 a period at which the Irifh could poffibly have fettled themfelves 

 in fuch numbers as to have formed an independent ftate among 

 the brave Caledonians, who would foon have fent them back 

 to their own country with difgrace if they had made fuch an 

 attempt. If his reading had been equal to his invention and 

 ingenuity he might eafily have difcovered it : It was, " Cum Al- 

 " ba7iid penitus freqiieiitatio7ie barbarorum vajiata erat, et quicunque 

 " hojies Super-je7iiebant^ opportiinum intra ipfani habebant receptuculutn." 



Towards the middle of the enfuing century we have an ac- 

 count of another migration of Scots into Britain, and more fettle- 

 ments obtained there by the Irifh natives. This was at the 

 time when Britain was totally abdicated by the Romans, and 

 of courfe a fair opportunity offered to a needy enemy to in- 

 vade, plunder and conquer with little refiflance. Gildas defcribes 

 this invafion and the caufe of it in the following words : " Ro- 

 " manis ad fuos remeantibus, emergunt certatim dc curucis qui- 

 " bus funt trans fcythicam valleni evedi, tetri Scotorum Piclo- 

 " rumque greges, moribus ex parte diiTidentes, et una eademque 

 " Sanguinis fundendi aviditate Concordes. — Cognitaque conde- 

 " bitorum reverfione et reditus denegatione, folito confi- 

 " dentiores, omnem aquilonalem extremanique terra; partem 

 " Pro Indigcnis muro tenus capefTunt." Bede fpeaks of the fame 

 event in terms not very different: " iinno Theodofii o6tavo 



" recedente 



