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

^63 THE GENUINE HISTOPvY OF
P. 94— 104. In thefe pages is contained the
fn-fl great argument " to prove that no Iriih
*' colony tranfmigrated into Britain in or after
*' the reign of Domitian" (p. 94). And in p.
103— 104 we are told thus.— " In the long pe-
*' riod which intervened between the acceffion of
*' the fons of Sevems to the imperial dignity, and
** the middle of the 4th age,—the frequent contefts
" for the purple,—the public diftra^lions which
*' arofe naturally from thefe difputes, the growing
*' imbecillity of the Empire, and the invafions of
*' the Barbarians of the northern Europe, di-
" verted the attention of the Romans from Ca-
*' ledonia. In a period fo long, and of fuch
" tranquillity, the inhabitants of North Britain,
" inftead of declining, muft have greatly multi-
'' plied their numbers. In the tenth ConfuKliip
" of Conflantius, the fon of Conflantinc, we
*' meet v.'ith the Scots, a formidable nation in
*' Britain. Ammianus Marcellinus, who found
" them firfi: in the ifland, does not furnifh one
" obfcure hint that they derived their blood from
** a foreign country/* •
This long argument is intended to prove two
points ; That, in all this period of time, from
the reign of Domitian to the middle of the fourth
age, the Caledonians were never reduced fo
much