426 
wonderful and omnipotent efficacy of 
voltaic electricity. The earths, alkalies, 
and other bodies, have submitted and un- 
folded their most secret connections, and 
the door seems to be opening to the most 
inward recesses of Nature. Lime, among 
other substances, has yielded its consti- 
tuent principles, and proves to be a me- 
tallic oxide ; but the case is not so de- 
cided in regard to silex. .Wilren this re- 
fractory body shall have also parted with 
its elementa racter, and its com- 
y demonstrated, 1 shall, 
ed satisfaction, reject a doc- 
originated with myself, viz. 
e silex t3 the base of orygen gus. 
ver shall be the fate of this opi- 
nion, it will always give me pleasure to 
reflect, that it was imbibed, encouraged, 
and even published, before the late very 
interesting discoveries respecting the al- 
kalies and the earths, and, consequently, 
I cannot be accused of an attempt to 
wmbvert or anticipate the just claims of 
others, whose meritorious labours are 
» stamped withso mutch genius and success, 
Long- Acre, Your’s, &c. 
Apri 17, 1809. Jos. Hume. 
Se 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
ERMIT me, through the channel of 
your very entertaining and instruc- 
tive Magazine, to offer a few remarks to 
your learned readers, on tvhat appears 
to me, a very extraordinary circumstance 
30 the literary world. 
'. There actually exist at this moment 
two learned Englishmen, who, by strict 
enquiry I find, have no communication 
or correspondence with each other. One 
(Captain Wilford) situated at Calcutta, 
in the East Indies, a perfect master of 
the Sanscvit tongue; the other (General 
Vallaacy) situated in ‘Ireland, who is also 
acquainted with the ancient language of. 
that country. The first, from exploring 
the Puranas of the East, asserts, that 
the old Hindus had a knowledge of these 
western, islands, Britain and freland. 
The second, from very ancient Irish ma- 
nuscripts, asserts, and with strong rea- 
son, that the ancient Hindu m ythology 
prevailed in Ireland, iwtroduced by a 
colony of Scythians from India, known 
to the Greek writers by the name of 
Indo-Scythe, and that with these came 
a colony of Chaldeans. 
{have been led to these remarks by a 
letter in your Magazine of June last, 
signed Agricola, who there gives a short 
Analysis of the General’s recent Obierta- 
On the Introduction of the Hindu Mythology [June 1, 
tions. on the primitive Inhabitants of Great 
Britain and Ireland.—Ilaving sought 
this book, in vain at all the bovksellers’ 
in Londen, I was induced to apply to a 
friend in Dublin, to procure for me all the 
General’s pablications on the history and 
antiquities of Ireland. My friend could 
only obtain two, viz. the Essay before- 
mentioned, and the “ Vindication of the 
Ancient History of Ireland,” translated 
from various Irish manuscripts, with 
notes and observations. 
This Vindication was printed in 1786, 
in which the author shews, that the Coti 
of Ireland were the Indo-Scyihe of the 
ancients, the Coti of the Alps, and the 
Cuthi of Scripture (that is, the ancient 
Persians), and that Persia was the centre 
of population of the western world. In 
this he was followed by Sir William 
Jones in 1792 (see Asiatic Researches, 
vol. I.), and afterwards by Pinkerton. 
Goropus, a German or Dutchman, in 
his Historia Mundi, written in the last 
century, shews that the Indo-Scythz first 
peopled Germany; and the General 
proves from language, that the Cot of 
the Alps were the Coti of Ireland. 
These Alpes Coit have been taken for 
Celtz by some writers: but Procopius calls 
them Dxeras, Scythe; and he must be al- 
lowed, as the General observes, to have 
been the best judge of the origin of these 
people, having been Secretary to ‘Beli- 
sarius during his wars in Italy. They 
were known afterwards by the names of 
Valdois, Waldenses, &c. and their coun- 
trv was called the Pays de Vaud by the 
French. 
Alex, on the ancient Churches of Pied- 
mont, p. 169. acquaints us, that in 
his time, in Cambridge, were written 
copies of divers pieces of the Wal. 
denses, and amongst them an old manu- 
script of some books of the Old and New 
Testament; these, it was said, were 
brought over by Morland, sent ambassa- 
dor from England to Turin in behalf of 
these people. (Essay, p. 69.) : 
In 1700 Chamberlayne published his 
Oratio Dominica plus centum linguis.’ 
Among these we find that of the Wal- 
denses. The reader will be surprised 
to find, that so little alteration had been 
made in the language of the Alpes Cott 
and the Coti of Ireland of ee day, in 
that distance of time. 
The General then proceeds to the col- 
lation, which appears to me to be as cu- 
rious a subject in literature, as is to be 
met with, and well worth recording in 
your learned Slagazine, 
THE 
