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fubfcribers for me in England; and wrote me feveral letters on that fubject from London, asfuring me, in the moft pofitive manner, of his fuccefs. But inftead of performing what he had thus fpontaneously undertaken, the very next part of his conduct towards me was, to hold me forth as an impoftor in his pamphlet'; in which character I foon faw myself attempted to be expofed in the periodical papers of England.

The reader, who does not know me, may poffibly fufpect my word. But, if he will take the trouble to demand them, he may fee in my poffeffion, the original letters of Mr. Shaw, in his own hand-writing, addreffed to me, on this fubject.

The next thing which offers itself to our confideration, is manuscripts. "Why not produ "ce and publifh the manufcripts?" is the conftant cry through every page: yet, if the whole were produced, and published, our author gives us to understand, he would confider them only as translations from the English.

When I produce the originals, in my own hand writing, taken down from the mouths of

illiterate countrymen, who rehearse them: Mr. Shaw anfwers, that I have translated them from the English, and read them to thofe perfons, until they have learned to repeat poems of great length, and without one word of variation. When thefe perfons offer to fwear, that they could repeat thofe poems, twenty years before I was born: Mr. Shaw replies, that they are Scotchmen, and that their oaths deferve no re gard: "for a refpectable minifter (p. 81.) "offers to produce as many witneffes as Mr. Shaw pleafes, to fwear to a falfehood, knowing "it to be fuch;" and "another gentleman (p. "87.) offers to fwear to a falfehood." If I fend to an hundred perfons, in the most remote cor. ners of the ifles, who have never been within an hundred miles of me, and they rehearse the fe poems, to any perfon appointed to hear them: Mr. Shaw will fay, that there has been a collufion, and that no Scotchman, except himself, can be believed.

Our Inquirer, however, has fixed upon one thing, which, he fays, will fatisfy him effectually: If we will produce the origi

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nals, in Offian's own hand-writing, "with pro"per vouchers that there is no collufion," he (c) 5 will

will condefcend to be converted.

"How comes "it (fays he), that neither Offian himself, nor "any contemporary bard, has reduced them to "writing?" p. 61. What anfwer does the reader imagine I fhould give to a man, who demands originals in the hand-writing of one who never heard of letters! He would certainly think me highly reprehenfible, did I honour thefe demands with any further notice than a contemptuous filence.

Although the evidence of every Highlander now living (our author alone excepted) is, thus laid afide, and every Scotchman rejected as an exceptionable witness: I was particularly anxious to fee, what method he would fall upon, to discredit the authenticity of the old Gaelic manufcripts containing fome of those poems. Our ancestors furely could not anticipate the prefent controversy, five or fix centuries ago: no collufion could, therefore, have been exfpected among them. This, however, he has endeavoured to effect by a bold stroke, unmatched in any other writer; and with a mode of reafoning, as abfurd, as it is weak, impudent, and fallacious.

It is perhaps neceffary to inform the reader, that Earfe is a name for our language, totally

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unknown to us Highlanders, till we come abroad; and learn it from the natives of the Low Country, who apply it to our Gaelic, in contradiftinction to the dialect of the fame language spoken in Ireland. The language of the Highlanders and Irifh, the characters they use, and their mode of contraction in writing, are, in a great measure, the fame, and known to both by no other name than Gaelic. In our Inquir er's two first publications, his Analytis and Dictionary, the word Earfe is not to be found: but in the pamphlet now under confideration it is introduced about fifty times, and the Gaelic of Scotland is never wrote by any other name. There is a feeble, but impudent and disingenuous attempt at policy here, which the mere English reader cannot easily detect.

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I will take advantage, fays Mr. Shaw, of the term Earfe, which prevails in the Low Country, for the Gaelic, and divide that language into two; the one I will call Irish, and the other Earfe. All the old manuscripts, that are to be found in the Highlands, I will call Irish; fince the 'language, character, and contractions, are, in a great meafüre, the fa

me.

I will maintain, that they contain

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not the Scotch, but the Irish poetry and genea, Jogies, I will then challenge the Highlanders to produce their Earfe manufcripts, and as no fuch language ever exfifted, except in the imagi nation of the inhabitants of the Low Country this will embarrass the reader, and wrap the fubject in a cloud, which cannot easily be dis. pelled. Hence our author proceeds, "the ma"nufcripts in the poffeffion of Mr. M'Intyre of "Glenacha, Argyleshire, are written in the Irish "character, dialect, and contractions," p. 59. "The old Gaelic manufcripts in the poffeffion "of John Mackenzie, Efq. fecretary to the "Highland - Society of London, are faid to be "on the fubject of Irish and Highland genealo "gies, and written in the Irish dialect and cha"racter," p. 84. There certainly never was a higher infult offered to the judgment of mankind. Will Mr. Shaw prefume to say, that the Irish and Highlanders ever had a different language, character, or contractions? Until he has effrontery enough to make fuch a declaration in public, the reader will not furely hesitate to apply to this Inquirer after truth, the appellation, which he beftows on every Scotchman, that he writes with an illiberal intention to de ccive.

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