1892-9 ■>.] THE PRESENT ASPECT OF THE OSSIANIC CONTROVERSY. 327 



taining portions of poetry mixed with other compositions. MacPherson 

 wrote to a certain clergyman that he had met with a number of old 

 MSS. in his travels, and that he had endeavoured to secure the poetical 

 part of them. He further writes, that he has been lucky enough to lay 

 his hands on a pretty complete poem, and truly epic, concerning Fingal. 

 The testimony of a clergyman who resided in Mull, is to the effect that 

 he was assured by a certain nian that the latter in his younger days heard 

 Fingal repeated very frequently in the original, just as Mr. MacPherson has 

 translated it. Is it not apparent now, that, after all, some reliable evidence 

 is available to show, that MacPherson found Gaelic MSS. in the High- 

 lands, and that his modern assailants are by no means justified in dis- 

 missing with contemptuous indifferince the testimony of reliable men 

 concerning the having in his possession of Gaelic MSS. which he found 

 during his poetical mission through the Highlands ? In referring to the 

 intimacy which he had with MacPherson in London, the famous clergy- 

 man. Dr. Carlyle, is led to remark, that he was never able to discover in 

 MacPherson's most unguarded moments that he was any other than the 

 collector and translator of the works of Ossian. We have the authority 

 of Dr. Blair for believing, that MacPherson for some months left all the 

 originals of his translations open to inspection and examination in Becket 

 the bookseller's shop, London, an 1 intimated by advertisement in the 

 newspapers that he had done so. Dr. John Smith states, that the Gaelic 

 poems of Ossian lay for a considerable time in the hands of the book- 

 seller for the inspection of all who chose to see them ; and, as if this had 

 not been enoufjh, they were offered to the public, had subscribers been 

 found to encourage the undertaking. In his able Essay on the authen- 

 ticity of the poems of Ossian, Dr. Graham intimates that he saw in the 

 London Magazine for the year 1784 or 1785 an advertisement by Hecket, 

 a bookseller in the Strand, certifying that the originals of Ossian had 

 been at his shop for subscription for the space of a whole year, but that 

 the number of subscriptions bemg inadequate to the expense of publica- 

 tion, the MSS. had been withdrawn. As Biair and Smith and Graham 

 were gentlemen of the highest character, and, therefore, of great veracity,. 

 we have every reason to believe that MacPherson jilaced the Gaelic MS. 

 or MSS. of his Ossian in the shop of the bookseller whose name has 

 been mentioned. If MacPherson forged the poems of Ossian, there is no 

 likelihood whatever, that he would be bold enough to submit his Gaelic 

 MSS. for i)ublic inspection, it is somewhat extraordinary, that his 

 modern assailants, who cannot be accused of having an unduly modest 

 opinion of their own acumen, should virtually ignore the fact that Mac- 

 Pherson did submit the Gaelic MSS. of his Ossian to public inspection ; 

 and that, consequently, it is prima Jacie absurd to suppose, that he himself 



