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

i(iz THE GENUINE HISTORY OF
back upon the parts, when he had compleated
the whole.
P. 93. "It has akcady appeared that nothing
*' certain is known concerning the affairs of
" Ireland, prior to the miffion of St. Patrick."
This is a reference to the preceding pages of
the work. And, what is very extraordinary, it
is directly contradictory to them.—We are here
told, that nothing certain is known concerning
the affairs of Ireland before the days of St.
Patrick. And yet in p. 80 Mr. Macpherfon
himfelf argues from Diodorus, that the Irifli were
Britons; in p. 81 (and again in p. 95) from Ta-
citus, that in the days of Agricola the Iriih were
fo weak, «s to be deemed a ready conqueft to a
Legion and a competent number of Auxiliaries
in p. 82 from Ptolemy, thit the Velaborii, Bri-
gantes, Caucii, and Menapii were fome of the
tribes of Ireland ; in p. 60, 61,62, and 6^, from
Strabo, Diodorus, Mela, and Solinus, that the
Irifli were then rude and uncivilized ; and in p.
63 (and again in p. 95)
from Tacitus, that in
his time the Irilli ports were even more fre-
quented by the n^ierchants, and were therefore
better known to the world, than the Britiili.