15 
OSS 
with Mr. Macpherfon, and had either affifted him in his 
refearches, or witnefied the profecution of his undertaking, 
were Hill living; and the immediate defendant of the 
laftof the Caledonian bards remained, to give his tefti- 
motiy as to the manner in which Macpherfon had become 
poflefled of an ancient Gaelic MS, which was laid to have 
fupplied him with a great part of his materials. By the 
direction of this committee, queries, very diftinftly and 
accurately worded, were tranfmitted to every one who, 
from pertbnal knowledge or opportunities of en¬ 
quiry, was fuppofed capable of throwing light on the 
lubjeft. In 1805 the report of this committee was pub¬ 
lilhed, fanftioned by the name of Mr. Henry Mackenzie, 
chairman. The line of condudl purfued by the commit¬ 
tee was very fimilar to that which had been chalked out 
by Hume, in a letter to Blair, loon after the firll appear¬ 
ance of the poems of Offian by Macpherfon. Dr. Blair 
had written to Hume refpefting the reception, in England, 
of his diflertation on thefe poems. Mr. Hume, in his 
anfwer, mentions the general incredulity of the Englilli 
literati on their authenticity arifing partly from the be¬ 
haviour of Macpherfon, who refilled to fatisfy any one 
who doubted of his veracity, and partly from the ex¬ 
treme improbability that fuch long connected pieces 
fhould have been preferved by oral tradition for fourteen 
centuries. Mr. Hume there points out the line of con¬ 
duct which it would be necelfary for Dr. Blair to purfue, 
if he wilhed to lilence this general fcepticifm : “ The tef- 
timonies may, in my opinion, be of two kinds. Macpher¬ 
fon pretends that there is an ancient MS. of part of Fin- 
gal in the family, I think, of Clanranold: get that faft 
afcertained by more than one perfon of credit; let thefe 
perfons be acquainted with the Gaelic ; let them com¬ 
pare the original and the tranllation ; and let them teftify 
the fidelity of the latter. But the chief point in which 
it will be necelfary for you to exert yourfelf will be, to 
get pofitive tcftimony from many different hands, that 
luch poems are vulgarly recited in the Highlands, and 
have there been long the entertainment of the people. 
This teftimony mull be as particular as it is pofitive. It 
will not be fufficient that a Highland gentleman or clergy¬ 
man fay, or write to you, that he has heard fuch poems : 
nobody queftions that there,are traditional poems in that 
part of the country, where the names of Offian and Fin- 
gal, and Ofcar and Gaul, are mentioned in every ftanza. 
The only doubt is, whether any of thefe poems have any 
farther refemblance tothepoemspublifhed by Macpherfon. 
Generality muft be carefully guarded again ft, as being of 
no authority.” 
It is evident from thefe precautionary directions, that 
Mr. Hume was well aware of the loofe and unfatisfadlory 
evidence which moft probably would be produced in fup- 
port of the authenticity of Offian ; and the Highland 
Society, notwithftanding they tranfmitted very clear, pre- 
cile, and diftindl, queries, received, in molt cafes, only 
very general anfwer5: fuch was the impatient zeal, or 
fuch the clouded underftandings, of the Highlanders on 
this fubjedl, that they either would not permit themfelves 
to reply to any objections with an appeal to fafts, or 
they mifapprehended the quefiion, and fuppofed it was 
the exiftence of traditionary poetry refpedting Offian and 
Fiagal, and not the fidelity of Macpherfon’s tranllation, 
on which they were requefted to give evidence. The 
confequence was, that much of the evidence produced on 
the report of the Highland Society is quite exceptionable, 
on the grounds which Hume ftates and wiflies to guard 
Dr. Blairagainft; and the evidence which goes to the point, 
only confirms that fcepticifm which it was intended to 
remove ; iince it only proves that there were in the High¬ 
lands KlSS. and traditionary ballads refpeCting Fingal 
and his heroes, attributed to Offian, of which ballads 
Macpherfon had made ufe, but which were not the originals 
of his poems. 
In the report it is exprefsly admitted that, “ The'com¬ 
mittee has not been able to obtain any one poem the 
I A N. 
fame in title and tenor with the poems publilhed by 
Macpherfon.” This admiffion is fufficient to put the 
feal upon the queftion of their forgery: and the High¬ 
land Society, after this admiffion, fhould have difdained 
the unworthy and ridiculous fubftitute to which they 
have had recourfe, in order to make out fomething like 
an original for fome of Macpherfon’s poems. 
There can be no doubt that Macpherfon collected 
Gaelic poetry, and made ufe of it in his Offian; but his 
materials were few and fcanty, and of a very different 
character, in every refpeCt, from the poems which he 
conftrudted from them. Fingal is principally founded on 
a ballad narrating the invafion of Ireland by Magnus 
the Bare-footed : this ballad contains about fifty ftanzas 
of four lines each ; which Macpherfon has enlarged into 
fix books, and thrown into the form of a regular epic 
poem. The ftory of the ballad bears fome refemblance 
to that of Fingal; but, in the former, there is no mention 
of the battle between Cuthullin and Sivaran, nor of thole 
circumftances related by Macpherfon-in fuch detail, and 
by means of which he has fwelled Fingal into fix books. 
Befidesthis ballad of Magnus, Macpherfon, in the com- 
pofition of his Fingal, has made ufe of other fmall genuine 
pieces of Celtic poetry. 
The Battle of Lora, the next piece for which any au¬ 
thority has been difcovered, is founded on a poem called 
Erragon : the incidents are nearly the fame, but the man¬ 
ner of relating them, the fentiments, and the language, 
are extremely unlike ; and thefe fufliciently prove, that 
the peculiarities of Offian’s poetry are, in fa£t, the oft- 
fpring folely of Macpherfon’s mufe. 
Carthon, the next poem, is founded on the tale of Con- 
loch, natural fon of Cuthullin, who, being educated in 
Scotland, comes to Ireland, encounters his father there, 
without being known to him, and is flain by him. Mac¬ 
pherfon has altered the incidents in lome refpefts; and, 
as ufual, fubllituted his own fentiments and language. 
There is good reafon for fuppofing that the famous ad- 
drefs to the fun, with which this poem concludes, is not 
genuine. No Gaelic original has been difcovered for the 
death ot Cuthullin. Darthula is well known in the High¬ 
lands under the name of Devidre; but Macpherfon has 
very materially altered the ftory. The ballad of Lammon 
Mor feems to have been the foundation of Macpherfon’s 
“ Luthmon ;” but, in the latter, the ftory is told different¬ 
ly ; and the night-attack, by Offian and Gaul, with the im¬ 
agery which Blair extols, are not in the ballad. For the 
firft book of Temora there is fome authority, in a poem 
celebrating the fatal battle of Gablira, in which Ofgur 
and moft or the Fions were flain : as however Mac¬ 
pherfon intended, when he publilhed the firft book of 
Temora, to add a fecond, he has omitted this cafaitrophe : 
and the Fions Itill live and fight. Such are the ilender 
materials on which Macpherfon conftruCted the pieces 
contained in his firft publication -. for thole contained in 
his fecond volume no genuine authorities can be found. 
The refult, therefore, of the enquiries of the High¬ 
land Society, muft be confidered as having finally and 
completely fettled the queftion refpe&ing the authenti¬ 
city of Qilian’s poems. As publilhed by Macpherfon, 
they are much more his own, even in incident's, and 
moft efpecially in fentiment, imagery, and language, 
than the compofition of Offian, or any Celtic bard; and 
the ballads which he employed in their conftru&ion, or 
fuch as exilt in MS. or in tradition in the Highlands, can 
on no pofitive or probable evidence beafcribed to Oifian, 
nor indeed traced up to any particular bard or era what¬ 
ever. 
It feems not to have been the delign of the Society to 
refute the objections urged by Mr. Laing, in his Difierta- 
tion ; or at lealt they have not attempted to carry fuch a 
defign into execution. This talk, therefore, was left to 
fome other admirer of Offian’s poems, and it has been 
performed by two writers, Mr. Archibald Macdonald of 
Liverpool, and Dr. Graham. The former of thefe gen¬ 
tlemen 
