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

236
THE GENUINE HISTORY OF
** Northern and Southern dlvifions, according to
*' the tellimony of Marcel linus. (Eo tempore
*' Pi£li in duas gentes divifi, Deucaledonas et
" Vecturiones. Ammian. Marcellin. lib. xxvii.
'' Camdenus, vir in patria hilloria illuftranda ac-
*' curatiiTimus, legendum putat Deucaledonios,
** velut ficnominatos ab occiJua Scoiiae era, qua
** Deuealedonius oceanus irrmnpit).'*
This, we fee, is called " a concluding argu-
** ment" by Mr. Macpherfon. And I am forry
to obferve, that it appears upon the very face
of it, it appears even as he has ftated it, to
amount to no proof, to amount not even to
i prefumption, but to rife only to a mere pof-
libility. " As a concluding argument—, it
** may be proper to obferve, that the Caledo-
** nians might be called Hibernians, &:c." Nor is
the argument any other in itfelf, as it infers
that the Caledonians might be called Hibernians,
becaufe the Saxons had a Norfolk and Suffolk,
the Scots were once divided into Southerons
and Norlands, and the Pi£ls were broken into
Northern and Southern Vefluriones and Deuca-
ledones. And this is furely the firft, merely
poflible, argument that was ever advanced againft
an hirtorical fa6l ; and is, I hope, the lalt that;
will be denominated a conclufive one.
So