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To prove beyond the power of contradic tion, the disingenuity as well as the grofs ignorance of Mr. Shaw, on a fubject which he pretends to understand better than any man liv. ing, I will lay before the reader the following facts. Mr. Mackenzie has authorifed me to fay, "That Mr. Shaw had feen the manuscripts in "his cuftody before the publication of his pamph "let, had looked at them, and turned over the "leaves; but at that time had read only a few "words up and down in different places, but "not one complete fentence, though requested "fo to do by Mr. Mackenzie at that time, "That fince the publication of his pamphlet,

Mr. Shaw has again feen thofe manuscripts, "and again read fingle words in different parts: "but upon being preffed by Mr. Mackenzie, in "prefence of another gentleman, to try to read "a few fentences, he applied himself to one "page of a manufcript in verfe; and after por "ing about a quarter of an hour, he' made out three lines, which related, as read aloud by "Mr. Shaw himfelf, to Ofear the fon of Offian. "Upon being asked, how these lines agreed with "the doctrine of his pamphlet? Mr. Shaw an"fwered, That he believed, they were the "compofition of the fifteenth century, and not of "Offian."

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The disingenuity of Mr. Shaw is as obvious, as it is unpardonable. The manuscripts left in the poffeffion of Mr. Mackenzie, were not pla ced in his hands, as containing any of the originals of Offian's poems. They were only intended to prove, that Mr. M'Nicol had fhown to the public, that there ftill exfift Gaelic manuscripts written many centuries ago, in contradiction to Dr. Johnfon, who precipitately avered, that there is not a manufcript in the Highlands a hundred years old. Vide M'Nicol's Remarks on Dr. Johnson's Tour to the Hebrides, P. 303, et seq..

We have feen above, that his ignorance of the Gaelic is fuch, that he does not know what thefe manufcripts contain. I do not choose to follow the example of our Inquirer, by holding forth names to the public. But I am at present poffeffed of letters, which I am ready to fhow, written by a gentleman of Ireland, who is no native of Scotland, and who, I believe, never was there, lamenting that Mr. Shaw could not make ufe of the valuable materials , put into his hands, in Dublin, to enable him to write his Gaelic Dictionary, because he could not read one line of the Celtic character. This gentle

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man is at prefent univerfally acknowledged to be in the first rank of Celtic literati; and his name would be fufficient to establish whatever he asferted, were I at liberty to make use of it: This I must decline, because it is too refpectable to be written on the fame page with, that of Mr. Shaw.

In p. 59. he fays, that he is the only Scotchman, who can decypher old manufcripts; and the reafon assigned is, that he learned it in Ireland. I refided there as many years, as Mr. Shaw has done weeks; and yet I have feen many in Scotland, who can decypher them much better than I can. Mr. Shaw's words are thefe, "I believe, I may fay it without vanity, I un"derstand the language (Celtic) as well as any "man living," p. 43. The fame high ftrain of encomium is repeatedly pronounced on his own fuperior knowledge; yet the truth at laft comes out, and he acknowledges his ignorance. Says he, "I rumaged Trinity college, had dif "ferent perfons in pay, who understood the cha"racters and contractions," &c. p. 60. Very mortifying to be obliged to hire perfons for information in a language, of which he had written a Grammar and a Dictionary, and which

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(a few pages back) he himself knew as well as any man living! But it is an old obfervation, that a certain clafs of men require long memories.

Before we finifh the fubject of manufcripts, it is neceffary to take notice of a paffage, which Mr. Shaw has quoted from Dr. Johnson's Tour to the Hebrides: The editor has been heard "to fay, that part of the poem has been re"ceived by him in, the Saxon character. He "has then found, by fome peculiar fortune, an "unwritten language, written in a character, "which the natives probably never beheld."

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Here Dr. Johnson betrays ignorance, incompatible with his high pretenfions to letters. There is not a man in Great Britain or Ireland, at all converfant with old manuscripts, but knows, that the Saxons, Highlanders, and Irish, wrote their different languages in the felf-fame character. Whether the Irifh and Highlanders had them originally from the Saxons, or the Saxons from them, is a matter of no moment. They are undoubtedly the fame; and came originally from the Romans, who were certainly the introducers of letters into Great Britain;

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from which they were transplanted, with the Christian religion, into Ireland, St. Patrick, who was a Scotchman, is faid to have been the first who introduced letters into Ireland; and if that was the cafe, it is probable, that the Irish, Scotch, and Saxons, received the Roman letters through the hands of the ancient Britons.

Mr. Shaw exclaims, "I have the honour to mention the immortal Dr. Johnfon as my "friend." Had the refpect, which, throughout his pamphlet, he affects to pay the Doctor, been fincere, he would not, furely, have thus introduced him, to make him ridiculous. Mr. Shaw knew very well, that the Doctor had written without book in the above paffage. But, in place of throwing a veil over the Doctor's weaknefs, he brings him forward in a manner, at which Mr. Shaw himfelf could not help laughing; and leaves it in the power of one, born after he had written voluines, to tell him, that he is neither immortal nor infallible.

I truft, it has now appeared, that Mr. Shaw has impofed upon the public in his reprefentation of the Gaelic manufcripts and poetry. But as the ancient, and even modern, ftate of (d)

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