226 
rom their transient place of residence- 
he waves of population have been suc- 
cessively flowing westward through ‘the 
middle zone of Europe; and the same 
nations which are first heard of in the 
Fiuxine are finally met with along the 
Channel. Throughout this section of 
the inquiry, our author has evidently 
the advantage of Mr. Pinkerton. 
In the fifth section, on the contrary, 
which examines whether the Germans 
are Scytho-Goths, Mr. Pinkerton has 
the advantage over our author. “This 
subject is continued in the sixth section, 
which includes an inquiry whether the 
Belge were Goths: this topic is not ex- 
hausted; but Mr. Pinkerton’s opinion is 
sensibly enfeebled. The same investi- 
gation is pursued in the seventh section, 
Whether t 
who first peopfed Scotland, were a Go- 
thic nation, is one of the most curious 
questions started by Mr. Pinkerton. We 
apprehend that he has established their 
Gothic origin, in contradiction to the 
received notion. The passage from 
Beda proves, that the Gaelic population 
of the Highlands came from Ireland 
after the christian xra. The Caledo- 
nians of Agricola were therefore Goths. 
And as the present provincial dialect of 
these Piks and Caledonians, in fact, ex- 
tends southward at least to the Hum- 
ber; it is highly probable that this is the 
first Gothic population which entered 
Britain. Our present language cannot 
be a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon, or 
Danish: the whole system of construc- 
tion and inflection is different. Of the 
extant continental dialects, the Low- 
dutch most resembles our own. This, 
if the Belge were Goths, they no doubt 
imported; butit is on the whole more 
probable that the Belge, as Schlo- 
etzer maintains, were Kymri; because 
they were subject to the druidical or 
bardish discipline; because their lan- 
guage was with difficulty learnt by the 
Goth or German Ariovistus, or Ehren-, 
vest; and because their name Belgish 
has been modified into the word Welsh. 
The Caledonians therefore seem to be 
the proper ancestors of the British na- 
tion, to have founded the main body of 
interior population, and to have far- 
nished the basis of the language esta- 
blished by our worship and our litera- 
ture. 
The subsequent sections relate to to- 
pics less connected : it will be the easier 
to detach an independent passage :' our 
Picts, Piks, or Peucini, , 
HISTORY, POLITICS, AND STATISTICS. 
author seems most at home where Welsh 
antiquities are in question. » 
«© We shall divide our animadyversions on 
this point into two heads; the first, relative 
to the two distinet races of Celts, wholly 
differing from each other in language and 
customs; and the second, relative to the 
Belgic population, which he calls German. 
‘© Ist, The Celts. 
«« This principle, that the Celts were di- 
vided into wvo distinct races, was first ad- 
vanced in the dissertatioh, to account for 
the striking traces of the Celtic people, which 
Mr. P. could not avoid discovering in vari- 
ous parts of Europe, even long after he had 
pent up the old Celts in the furthest west of 
Gaul, in the same manner as he afterwards * 
made a distinction between the Celtic and 
German Gauls, to extricate himself from an- 
other dilemma. 
‘** He conjectures that these people were 
separated into two divisions, the southern, 
or western Celts, or Celts proper, whom he 
ar in Gaul; and the Cimbri, Cymri, or 
Northern Celts, * the apparent offspring of 
ihe Celts proper, who, spreading into an- 
other region, had assumed a new appella- 
tion.” (Diss. p. 49.) 
‘** He supports this conjecture by sup- 
posing, first, that the latter Celtic migra- 
tions were made from the west into Ger- 
many, and the north; and secondly,’ that 
the Gwyddelian language, or that of the first 
race of Celts, of which traces are still pre- 
served in local names in England and Wales, 
was alnfost wholly different from the modern 
Cymraeg, or Welsh, and can alone be ex- 
plained in the Irish, or Gwyddelian. 
‘«« The only proof of the first supposition 
he groands on the authorities of Posidonius, 
Strabo, and Plutarch, who, he says, state 
that the Cimbri, or Cimmerii, came from 
the German ocean to the Euxine; and then 
he concludes that they originated from the 
north-west, from the constant burthen of 
his song, that the Celts were confined to 
the furthest north-west. (Diss. p. 48.) 
‘+ "Tle two first of these authorities amount 
to a mere conjecture of Posidonius, which 
Strabo does not confirm, but only calls it 
not an inept eS eel and as to Plu- 
tarch, he acknowledges the extreme uncer- 
tainty concerning the origin of the Cimbri, 
and among several conjectures, states that 
they were supposed to have come from the 
Northern ocean. But his authority, if it 
proves any thing, proves the great number 
and power of the Celtz at that period. 
«The argument, in regard to the great 
dissimilarity of the Celtic dialects, namely, 
the Southern Celtic, or Gwyddelian, and 
the Cymraeg, or Welsh, is founded on the 
respectable, but in this instance, fallacious 
authority of Llwyd, the Welsh antiquary, 
who supports it by no historical documents. 
«© According to his opinion, the Irish, or 
Gwyddelians, were the original inhabitants 
