The genuine history of the Britons asserted against Mr. Macpherson ...

icS THE GENUINE HISTORY OF
P. 90— 91. At the conclufion of his refuta-
tion, Mr. Macpherfon fpeaks thus.— ** We mull
" have recourfe, in the lafl: refort, to the Cale-
** donian Britons for the genuine origin of the
" Irifh. Their riame of Gael, their language, the
" conformity of their manners and cuftoms with
*' thofc of the Old Britons, all concur in prov-
" ing, beyond any pofTibility of reply, that the
'' Irifh are the poflerity of the Gauls or Gael,;
** who, after having trajerfed the iflaiid of Great
" Britain, pafled over, in a very early period,
" into Ireland from the promontories of Gallo-
" way andCantirc.'*
All the arguments here hinted at have beeii
-urged before. And I ftiall not re-anfwer them
now—I have frequently remarked, before, Mr.
Macpherfon's repeated inconfiftency, in forac-
limes extending his Caledonia on the fouth to
the Wall of Severus, and in fometimes reducing
it to the Friths of Forth and Clyde. And 1 have
alfo obferved, that, as the real Caledonia never
included Galloway, no argument, for the palfage
of the firft colonifts into Ireland from Galloway,
will evince the Caledonian defcent of the Irifh.
I have repeatedly fhewn above, that the name of
Gael cannot alTift in proving the Irifli to be the
poflerity of the Caledonians. It will equally
prove them to have been the pofterity of the
Gallowefe, the WeKh, and the Cornifli, and of
any tribe in any part of this illand.—The cor-
refpondency