res of his conduct misreprefented; as is well known to many hundreds of perfons of credit, both in England and in Scotland. Without

fuch a detail of facts, it would be difficult to explain to the reader, what motives could induce a man to deviate, as much as Mr. Shaw will appear to have done, not only from truth, but from his own former written, printed, and publifhed declarations." The fact is, that he himself had the folly to declare to feveral perfons, That, as there was no fale for Gaelic li terature, he would write fomething against that literature, which he was certain would fell; and that fo he would receive from the prejudices of the English, what the generofity of his countrymen the Scotch had denied. This cir- cumftance, joined to the vanity of being patronised by Dr. Johnson, whose inveteracy to the translator of Offian's poems is unconquerable, led our worthy clergyman aftray from the direct track of truth, to the devious paths of malignant fiction and unauthorised romance.

Having premifed these facts, I fhall now proceed to the investigation and detection of the various falfehoods, fcattered up and down through Mr. Shaw's pamphlet. In almoft every

page, he gives us a piece of intelligence, which might have been delivered once for all, viz. That Mr. Macpherfon had impofed upon the public, by giving his own compofitions in Englith as translations from the Gaelic language: That the Highlanders of every denomination endeavoured to fupport the imposition: That the principal men of character and learning in the Highlands had figned their names to a falfehood, and got Dr. Blair to write in defence of it: and That every Scotchman loves his country better than truth.

In place of taking up the reader's time with an ostentatious display of argument, or å critical minutenefs in tracing out the contradic tions in this pamphlet, concerning the translations from the Gaelic publifhed by Mr. Mac pherfon; I fhall fimply narrate, what confifts with my own perfonal knowledge on this fub. ject.

The epic poems of Fingal and Temora I have never heard rehearfed by any fingle Highlander, in the fame arrangement, in which Mr. Macpherson has publifhed them. By different perfons I have frequently heard almost every

paffage in these two poems, with no more dif ference from the translation, than what the genius of the language required; and not near fo much, as there is between the different edi tions of thefe poems in the different parts of the Highlands. This variation was well accounted for by Mr. Shaw himself, before he thought it his interest to disguife the truth.

The Highlanders, who rehearse these poems at present, divide them into as many different pieces, as Mr. Macpherson has divided them into books. As his fearch after ancient poetry has been many years prior to mine, he might have found perfons, who could rehearse more of these two poeins, than I have : whether he has found manufcripts containing them, or introduced the epifodes from different pieces of Gaelic compofition, I fhall not pretend to fay. But this I can aver, that they are familiar to the Highlanders, although not in the direct arrangement, in which he has placed them. He might, however, have collected them from dif ferent perfons, and exercifed his own judgment afterwards in joining them, without being ei ther branded with the appellation of a forger himfelf, or thofe, who gave their teftimony to

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what they knew to be true, ftigmatized with collufion and imposture.

From thefe circumftances, however, our inquirer has taken the liberty of drawing very unwarrantable inferences. Although he uniformly pronounces every paragraph, not only of Mr. Macpherson, but of every other translator from the Gaelic, to be an impofition: yet the poems of Fingal and Temora are thofe, which he feems particularly to ftrike at. Mr. Shaw fays, "Many were the thorough fceptics, as to the "poems of Fingal and Temora," p. 2. "Offian, "who was a real character, although not the "author of Mr. Macpherfon's Fingal and Temo"ra," p. 61. "Were I to call upon him (Mr. "Smith) to produce the Gaelic of any forty li"nes, in either Fingal or Temora, he could "not produce them," p. 42.

The variation, we have fpoken of, in the arrangement of these two poems, is all the foundation, Mr. Shaw had for the prefent publication. How far it can operate towards a total annihilation of the Gaelic poetry now exfifting in the Highlands, fhall be left to the public to determine.

Had

Had our author attacked Mr. Macpherson in a proper manner, and where he was really liable to fome degree of cenfure, he would have met with my moft hearty concurrence. Had he informed the public of what he has often acknowledged to me in private, that the translator of Offian has really curtailed and left out a great part of thofe poems, which he has introduced as episodes: he would then have fpoken the language of an honeft man, and asferted, what he well knows himself, and a thoufand others can prove. can prove. The Maid of Creca, for example, an episode in Fingal, in my poffeffion, is a large complete poem of itself, and extends to fome hundred lines, all which are omitted in the translation.

So much did Mr. Shaw lament the curtailing of these poems, that he preffed me to print propofals for a general collection of them as well as of others, and to arrange the whole, fimply as they are rehearfed by the people, without making them up into epic pieces; which accordingly. I did. The originals and transla-, tions were to have been publifhed in feparate volumes. Mr. Shaw himfelf, with the greatest enthufiafin, voluntarily undertook to procure (c). 4

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