and that they received their name upon that account. This opinion, fay they, is fupported by Tacitus, who, from feveral cir cumftances, concludes, that the Caledonians were of German extraction. A difcuffion of a point fo intricate, at this distance of time, could neither be fatisfactory nor important.

Towards the latter end of the third, and beginning of the fourth century, we meet with the Scots in the north (1). Porphyrius makes the first mention of them about that time. As the Scots were not heard of before that period, moft writers fuppofed them to have been a colony, newly come to Britain, and that the Picts were the only genuine defcendents of the antient Caledonians. This miftake is easily removed. The Caledonians in process of time, became naturally divided into two diftinct nations, as poffeffing parts of the country, intirely different in their nature and foil. The wefterm coaft of Scotland is hilly and barren; towards the east the country is plain, and fit for tillage. The inhabitants of the mountains, a roving and uncontrouled race of men, lived by feeding of cattle, and what they killed in hunting, Their employment did not fix them to one place. They removed from one heath to

(1) St. Hieron. ad Ctesiphon.

another, as fuited best with their convenience or inclination. They were not, therefore, improperly called, by their neighbours, SCUITE, or the wandering nation; which is evidently the origin of the Roman name of Scoti.

On the other hand, the Caledonians, who poffeffed the eaft coaft of Scotland, as the divifion of the country was plain and fertile, applied themfelves to agriculture, and raifing of corn. It was from this, that the Galic name of the Picts proceeded; for they are called, in that language, Cruithnich i. e. the wheat or corn-eaters. As the Picts lived in a country fo different in its nature from that poffeffed by the Scots, fo their national character fuffered a material change. Unobftructed by mountains, or lakes, their com munication with one another was free and frequent. Society, therefore, became fooner eftablished among them than among the Scots, and, confequently, they were much fooner governed by civil magiftrates and laws. This at laft, produced fo great a difference in the manners of the two

na

tions, that they began to forget their common origin, and almoft continual quarrels and animofities fubfifted between them. Thefe animofities, after fome ages, ended in the fubverfion of the Pictish kingdom, but not in the total extirpation of the nation ac

cording to most of the Scots writers, who feemed to think it more for the honour of their countrymen to annihilate, than reduce a rival people under their obedience. It is certain, however, that the very name of the Picts was loft, and thofe that remained were fo compleatly incorporated with their conquerors, that they foon loft all memory of their own origin.

The end of the Pictish government is placed fo near that period, to which authentic annals reach that it is matter of wonder, that we have no monuments of their language or hiftory remaining. This favours the fyftem I have laid down. Had they originally been of a different race from the Scots, their language of courfe would be different. The contrary is the cafe. The names of places in the Pictish dominions and the very names of their kings, which are handed down to us, are of Galic original, which is a convincing proof, that the two nations were, of old, one and the fame, and only divided into two governments, by the effect which their fituation had upon the genius of the people.

The name of Pitts was, perhaps, given by the Romans to the Caledonians, who poffeffed the east coaft of Scotland, from their painting their bodies. This circumftance

made some imagine, that the Picts were of British extract, and a different race of men from the Scots. That more of the Britons who fled northward from the tyranny of the Romans, fettled in the low country of Scotland, than among the Scots of the mountains, may be eafily imagined, from the very nature of the country. It was they who introduced painting among the Picts. From this circumftance proceeded the name of the latter, to diftinguish them from the Scots, who never had that art among them, and from the Britons, who discontinued it after the Roman conqueft.

The Caledonians, moft certainly, ac quired a confiderable knowledge in navigation, by their living on a coaft interfected with many arms of the fea, and, in islands, divided, one from another, by wide and dangerous firths. It is, therefore, highly probable, that they, very early, found their way to the north of Ireland, which is within fight of their own country. That Ireland was first peopled from Britain is certain. The vicinity of the two iflands; the exact correfpondence of the antient inhabitants of both, in point of manners and language, are fufficient proofs, even if we had not the teftimony of authors (1) of undoubt

(1) Dio. Sic. I. 5.

ed veracity to confirm it. The abettors of the most romantic fyftems of Irish antiquities allow it; but they place the colony from Britain in an improbable and remote æra. I shall eafily admit, that the colony of the Firbolg, confeffedly the Belga of Britain, fettled in the fouth of Ireland, before the Caël, or Caledonians, discovered the north but it is not at all likely, that the migration of the Firbolg to Ireland happened many centuries before the Christian

æra.

:

Offian in the poem of Temora (1); throws confiderable light on this fubject. His accounts agree fo well with what the antients have delivered, concerning the first population and inhabitants of Ireland, that every unbiaffed perfon will confess them more probable, than the legends handed down, by tradition, in that country. From him, it appears, that in the days of Trathal, grandfather to Fingal, Ireland was poffeffed by two nations; the Firbolg or Belga of Britain, who inhabited the fouth, and the Caël, who paffed over from Caledonia and the Hebrides to Ulfter. The two nations as is ufual among an unpolished and lately fettled people, were divided into small dynafties, fubject to petty kings, or chiefs,

(1) Temora, Book II.