To this statement of my sentiments on the subject, published in 1822, I will now add, as further applicable to your enquiries, that I consider the edition of Mr. Laing as having rather established than shaken the authenticity of the poetry of OSSIAN. For, in the first place, he has egregiously failed in substantiating his charges of plagiarism from ancient and modern authors; a vast proportion of the instances, which he has selected, being vague and casual resemblances, brought forward in utter forgetfulness that similarity of objects and circumstances, that identity of scenery and character, will necessarily, in the hands of genius, produce a similarity of thought and expression. I will venture, indeed, to affirm, that, on the plan, which Mr. Laing has adopted, any work descriptive of the features of nature, or the play of human character and feeling, may be accused as imitating any other. In the second place, by publishing the poems of MACPHERSON, which he wrote before and subsequent to his OSSIAN, Mr. Laing has placed before us a body of evidence, which operates very powerfully against the very conclusion, that he wishes us to draw; for their inferiority to the OSSIANIC poems is so decided, they exhibit, indeed, such a mediocrity of conception and execution, as to warrant the assertion, that the author of these pieces could not have written the poetry ascribed to OSSIAN.

But perhaps the most convincing proof of MACPHERSON'S being not the author, but merely the editor and translator of the poetry of OSSIAN, is the circumstance, - that he has frequently mis-interpreted the original Gaelic of the Seventh Book of TEMORA, which he early published as a specimen; a result, which could not have taken place, had he, as Mr. Laing affirms, first written his OSSIAN in English, and, as he wrote, 'translated it into Gaelic.' In fact, he was so imperfectly acquainted with the Gaelic, as to find it necessary to call to his assistance those better instructed in the language than himself. One of these coadjutors was Captain Morison of Greenock, who, in a Letter quoted by Dr. Graham, states that he was intimately acquainted with his' (MAC'PHERSON'S) abilities, and knowledge of the Gaelic language; that he ' had much merit in collecting, and arranging, and translating; but that so far from composing such poems, as were translated, he' (Morison) assisted him often in understanding some words, and suggested some 'improvements.' It is further stated in the same work, by the Rev. Mr. Irvine, an intimate friend of Captain Morison,' that he' (Morison) 'assured him, that MR. MACPHERSON understood the Gaelic language very imperfectly; that he' (Morison) wrote out the Gaelic for him, for the most part, on account of MR. MACPHERSON's inability to 'write or spell it properly; that he assisted him much in translating; and that it was their general practice, when any passage occurred, which they did not well understand, either to pass it over entirely, or to gloss it over with any expressions, that might appear to coalesce easily 'with the context.' +

The inference from these passages is obvious, and strangely must be the faculties of that man constituted, who does not acknowledge them as totally subversive of the supposition that MACPHERSON conld be the author of the Gaelic specimens, or anything more, indeed, than their translator and occasional interpolator.

I have only time now to add, that I am, dear Sir,

Yours, ever faithfully, NATHAN DRAKE."