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

THE BRTTONS ASSERTED. 69
broken only into two. We fee the iflanders,
not divided, as Mr. Macpherfon has divided
them, into Gael, Cimbri, and Belgos ; but dif-
tlnguiflied merely into Belgse and Aborigines.
The former were known to have paffed lately
and recently from the continent, in coraparifon
with the latter, though they came 300 years be-
fore C^far. And the latter had been all of them
many ages before, all of them immemorially, fettled
in the ifland. The alTertion of Mr. Mac-
pherfon, therefore, is directly in the face of hif-
lory. And, when the Romans carried their arms
into Britain, the whole country was polTeired
only by two great divifions of people.
— " The Cimbri,— ^retirlng from the prefllire
** of thefe new invaders [the Belg£e], poiTefied
" the country to the Weft of the Severne,
'' and that which extended from the Humber to
*' the Tweed. The Gael, under the general
*' name of Caledonians, inhabited the reft of the
*' ifland to the extremity of the North."
The whole fouthern region of the ifland, from
the Bricifli Channel to the Humber and from the
Severne to the German ocean, is here configned
over to the Belgac. And this is done, equally v/ith-
cut any pretence of authority, and in dlre£l op-
pofition to proof. Any perfon, that has the
ieaft acquaintance with the Interior difpofition of
the ifland in the time of the Britons, mull know
F 3
this