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

•TO THE GENUINE tilSTORY 0$"
lirmation of it, that one tribe of the Caledonians
was aftually denominated Albanii in the days of
the Romans. But, when we come to examine it
more accurately, even in this light it is incompe-
tent and ufelefs. The inference, that, as the
Highlanders have prefervcd the antient name of
the Englifh, Saffon, they have therefore much
more probably preferved their own, very reafon-
able as it certainly is, is dire£tly Confronted by a
faft. And all inferences of reafon, on points like
thefe, mufl: bow dov/n to the authority of fa6ls.
The Welfli have equally retained the name of
Saffon for the Englifh. And yet they have ac-
tually lofl their own indigenous name of Welfli.
Though this appellation, as I have previoufly
Ihewn, was even borne by them as late as the
lixth century, it is now lb totally loft among
them, that the criticks have denied them ever to
havfe borne it at all. Thus uncertain is all this
fort of argumentation. And thus does the dancing
meteor continually elude us, even when wc
think it raoft fubftantial and folid.
The whole body of the Caledonians, however,
could never have been, and are not now, deno-
minated Albanich. The name of Caledonia com-
prizing all that large peninfula of land which
lies to the North of the Friths, the appellation
of Alb-an, or the mountains, could have been
given only to the hilly part of the country, in
oppo-