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

52
THE GENUINE HISTORY OJf
ha?c tempora cultam & habitatam prlmiim Bri-
tanniam arbitrantur nonnulli '. And about the
fame period the progrefs of population, as far
as it can be traced in the ifland, concurs with the
argument to fettle it ". From the one reafon it
may be concluded, that the ifland "was firft inha-
bited no lefs than this number of years before
the Chriftian sera. And from the other it ap-
pears highly probable, that the ifland could not
have been inhabited many more before it. And
the coincidence of two fuch arguments, that de-
rived from the ft ate of population on the con-
tinent, and this deduced from the progrefs of it
in the ifland, the concurrence of both with the
authorities of hifl:ory, and the convergence of all
to one common point of time, give us as much
certainty on the fubje^l, as we mufl: ever expe6l
in inquiries of this very remote nature, and fix
the firfl: migration of the Gauls into Britain, with
as much precifion as the difficulties of the quef-
tion will admit, about a thoufand years before
the coming of our Saviour, or about the reigus.
pf David and Solomon among the Jews.
^ P. p, » Hift. of Manch. p. 7 and 466.
a