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

THE BRITONS ASSERTED. 17J
attribute the fame incident to different caufes.
From feme of the many, Bede and Richard tran-
fcribed the account which they have given us
and the latter, as I have already fhewn in the
Hiftory of Manchefter, happily met with the
year of the deed prccifely afcertained *. But
neither of them found any hiflorian, that had
inveftigated the adtuating motive and principle of
it. That is left to the conjectural criticifms of
later writers. And in the Hiftory of Manchefter
I have gueffed at a motive, which has feveral
coincidences of reafon and hiftory in its favour,
and is therefore in all probability the true and
genuine principle *.
P. 105— 106. " If the PiCls Were fo feeble that
*' a band of Irifh adventurers could tear from
*^ them one third of their dominions, how came
" they fo frequently to provoke the Roman le-
*^ gions, and harafs the provincials from the
" time of Chlorus to the total derelidlion of Bri-
*' tain by Honorius ? To invade the territories
*' of a warlike and difciplined people when they
** fuffered a great part of their own to be WTefted
*' from them by a dcfpicable enemy, is a folly
^ P. 446. * P. 447.
" too