Perhaps it may be alledged that the Irish prince brought with him fo powerful a colony of Scuit, that the name infenfibly became common to the whole nation. But in this cafe, where could he have fettled them, or wherewith could he have fed them? The more fertile parts of Caledonia, that could well receive an increase of the number of inhabitants, were an acquifition made to Scotland long after his days. The north-west part of our country, which conftituted the whole of his kingdom, is mountainous and unfertile. Nor can we fuppofe that the Creones of those days would have been more willing to have given up their herds and mountains to their new guests, than our fathers would have been to have delivered over their estates to William's Dutchmen, or George's Hanoverians. The kingdom of Scotland too was elective till towards the end of the tenth century, with this only reftriction, that the electors were obliged to chufe one of the royal family. Now, as this foreign prince was called to reign in another ifland, where his best title to the crown arofe from the good will of his conftituents, we can fcarcely fuppofe that he would have attempted a meafure, in which, confidering the force of national prejudices, he nuft have been oppofed by the unanimous voice of his fubjects. An idle measure too, from the fuccefs of which he could have reaped no advantage, but from its failure he might have felt the worst of confe vincing proofs of their probability as the nature of the subject can ad mit. "Mankind was early divided into two distinct profeffions, one that lived by agriculture, and the other that trufted for fubfiftence to hunting and the increase of their cattle. The firft would naturally, and almost neceffarily, fettle upon the fpots where they had cleared away the woods, and drained the marshes; the other ranged from place to place, as fresh pafture fprung up, or new game was ftarted. These last were in reality Scuit, or wanderers, and received that appellation. The coincidence of the language and the manners, where the customs of the people are expressed in the idea conveyed by the word, feems to be a proof of its propriety fimilar to our knowing the portraits of our friends by their having a ftriking refem blance of the originals. As the Celtic language once extended over an immenfe tract, I have not the leaft doubt that this was the true origin of the name of the people whom the Greeks called xvda. Quorum plauftra vagas rite trahunt domos; the oppofition of the way of living of thofe people to that of the Romans was fo ftriking, that the poet has here expreffed, and indeed, without knowing it, has properly tranflated the word Scuit by Vagas: And, if an old Scot was to tranflate the Vagas Domos of Horace, he would call them Tigh-Scuit, which in modern English means Scottish houfes.. Though the Greeks, according to their conftant manner, lurned the word to fuit the idiom of their own language, the Exuba were in reality the Scuit, behind the Palus Moeotis, and the Scuit in Ireland and Caledonia were the Exvda, in this other remote corner of the then known world. Accordingly, in the few few fragments of their poems that have reached us, we find frequent mention of, and allufion to hunting, and herds of cattle, without the leaft mention of agriculture; a ftrong proof of the agreement of manners between the Scuit and Exubai. This appellation may feem to us a term of reproach, but to people habituated to this way of life, it would appear an honourable diftinction. They would even look with contempt on the inhabitants of cities, as many of the Tartars and Arabs do at this day; and, in comparing the oppofite manners of live ing, they would fay moft fincerely, and more from the heart than Horace did, quanto metius Scythae. Even at this hour, it is the custom in the mountains of Scotland, and in fome parts of Ireland, that people in fummer remove to feed their cattle on the hills, dwelling, during that feason, in huts, called theelings among us, and in winter retire to > their warmer habitations in the val- lies. So the Irish prince, when he came to Caledonia, found his people were Scuit, and he left them Scuit. Nor is it hard to find the reasons for the name's being loft in the one country, while it flourished and fpread wider in the other. The Firbolgs, the Faolans, the Tuathals and others, had conquered and peopled the greatest part of Ireland, fo that the original Scuit were reduced to finall numbers, and narrow bounds. The different invaders by degrees forgot their former diftinctions, till at last the custom prevailed of the whole being denominated from the ifland they inhabit ed. On the contrary, the afperity of their mountains defended the Caledonian Scuit from foreign arms, fo that there was no reafon for changing their former name. Their king, Kenneth Macalpin, 1792. having, by a long and bloody war, made good his claim to the Pictish crown, the cuftom prevailed to call all his dominions by his former title. "That the Romans mention hot the Scoti at their first acquaintance with Britain, is no reafon to conelude that there was no fuch people in it. They at that time knew little of the island; and their own hiftorians tell us, that they were uncertain whether it was an ifland or not till the days of Vefpafian. Befides, the Romans defpifed every language but their own. Rome had flood fome hundreds of years before they would condefcend even to learn Greek. Thus they could have but a very imperfect knowledge of all the diftinctions among a people with whom they had fo fhort an acquaintance, as they had with thofe of the North of Scotland. Were I to mark out the time when the Romans came at length to learn the name of Scoti, I would conclude that it was when their chains were fo faft riveted on the Britons, that these unhappy islanders found themselves under, what would be to them, a very difagreeable neceffity, of learning the language of their oppreflors; when thofe polite and humane conquerors had fcourged the mothers, and ravifhed the daughters. "Mr. Whitaker attempts to fupport the truth of his fuppofitions, from the name of Argyle-fhire, and from our calling the language Erfe. But thefe two words require only to be explained in order to fhew that they give no fupport to his hy pothefis. As all the original inha bitants of Britain were Gaël, Argyle was naturaily diftinguished by the appellation of Jar-gaël, that is, Weftern, Gaëls, being fituated in the most western divifion of that M part >part of Britain, and indeed in the most wefterly part of the whole ifland, except the narrow promontory of the Land's End in Cornwall. If we call the language Erfe, it is because in the lowlands of Scotland we ufe the Anglo-Saxon dialect, which began among us from the multitudes of the English Saxons, who found a refuge in North Britain from the lafh of the Norman tyranny, and we ufe the word that was in ufe among them who had been more acquainted with the Irish. nymph Ierne as prefent on the fpot and weeping over the heaps of her flaughtered friends, who lay before her. For it is well known that these local Genii very rarely, if ever, travelled out of their own country; So we must look for this Ierne fomepect that I am biaffed by national where elfe. If any one should fufture of the dismal fate of my own vanity to affirm that this was a piccountrymen, he is certainly little acquainted with the feelings of the human heart. I cannot think it an honour to any nation to be defeated: and, even at the distance of 1400 years, I feel the natural partiality of my country fuggesting a wish, that these cumuli had been cumuli of Romans, or of any other people, rather than of Caledonian Scots. But however unwilling, the love of truth, and the honour of the poet, whom I am defending from mifreprefentations, compel me to acknowledge, that the Ierne he mentions is the river known by the name of the water Erne, in StrathErne. The poet feems to have of the country, fince he does not been well acquainted with the map at random mention any river in Scotland, where there are fome others more confiderable, but with a partithe water of Erne, which the Racular propriety, points out to us mans could meet with in the first "The firft paffage 1 fhall take no- day's march beyond their own walls. tice of is, "As to the two paffages that Mr. Whitaker has quoted from Claudian, they are fcarcely worth animadverfion; as they contribute nothing either to his purpose or mine, whether the Scoti mentioned by the poet, were the Scoti of Hibernia or Caledonia. But perhaps, after having been fo long wandering with our ancestors, it may not be difagreeable to find fome flowers from the claffics scattered in the defert. I will, with a truly chriftian fpirit, pardon the poet who trefpaf fed against us by singing a fong of triumph over our country, and, returning good for evil, I will clear his words from the falfe interpreta tions that have been put upon them, and fhew that, he knew very well how to exprefs his own meaning, to all but fuch as were determined to mifunderstand him. Scotorum cumulos flevit glacialis lerne." "Where fhall we find the Roman hiftorian who fays his countrymen ever invaded Ireland? Yet fuch an invafion is abfolutely neceffary to make any fenfe of this line, to thofe who think thofe Scoti were Hibernians. For the poet here places before our eyes the goddess or and which it was neceffary for them their hoftilities farther north; and to pass to enable them to carry be ftrongly defended by the_afwhich, on that account, would fembled Caledonians. I am forry they had fo ill fuccefs in their at tempts to defend their country from fo powerful invaders. I know it but a very finall part of Scotland; will be alledged, that Strath-Erne is but it has been already shown to be a país 1 "There is an epithet in the line I have been treating of, that pointedly shows Ireland not to have been intended here by the word lerne. I dare fay nobody will deny this propofition, that Claudian either did understand or did not underftand, the fubject of which he was writing. If he understood it not, his words muft pafs for nothing; if he did understand it, he could never call Ireland Glacialis, fince it is certainly the part of Europe, to the north of the Alps and Pyrenees, that fuffers leaft from the feverity of froft. Offian, whofe authority is admitted by Mr. Whitaker and who certainly vifited it much oftener than Claudian, calls it Green-Erin. Several plants, which, when imported to Britain, are often cut off by the froft in the gardens of England, are indigenous in Ireland, and flourish fpontaneoufly in the forefts. I travelled through more than twothirds of its length in winter. The fnow, which melted as it fell, difcovered as fresh a verdure as ever I faw in England in April: as it was then in the middle of December, I foon felt how the froft bit, when, after a fhort paffage of three hours, I landed in the ifland of which the Caledonian Ierne makes a part. It may even be doubted whether the poet did not infert the word Glacialis intentionally, to prevent that line from being applied to Ireland, as the ambiguous word Ierne might otherwife have led people into a mistake. "A few words will fuffice for the other pailage of Claudian: -Totam cum Scotus Iernem Movet, et infetto fpumavit remige Tethys." "The poet could not have told us more diftinétly that the Caledonians had ftirred up all Ireland, who came to aflift them with fo numerous an army, that it took a multitude of curachs to carry them. Who could understand this otherwife? could any man doubt my meaning, if I fhould fay, that North America has ftirred up France and Spain, who now fead their fleets to the British Channel? In the lines quoted, the Scotus and the Ierne are as oppofite, and as diftinét from one another, as America is from France and Spain in the profe. "Having been obliged, in this difquifition, to overthrow an opinion that had a powerful fupporter, it has run out to a greater length than I expected; yet as the doubt about the ancient name of the Scots has arifen from the filence of the Latin writers of a certain period, I cannot help remarking, that there is fomething very unaccountable in the names that one nation gives to another; of which I will trouble you only with a few ftriking examples, though I could make out a long lift of them. "Egypt and Nile are words unknown to the Egyptians. The word Graecus was fcarcely known to the Greeks. M 2 "The 2 1 "The Merlachi, fubject to an Italian ftate, knew not the word Italian. "The people whom we call Dutch, know not themselves by that name. "The nation whom we call Bohemians, acknowledge not that name. "I purposely leave out fome of the true names of nations, as it more evidently fhows how people may be eafily mifled, and mifguided in that point. But there are other inftances more immediately to the prefent purpose. Few Englishmen know that the true name of the Welsh is Cymri; thousands of the Cymri never heard of the Englib, though living under the fame government, and ruled by the fame laws. We need therefore be the lefs furprifed if Latin authors have led us into mistakes and ambiguities, by not mark ing diftinctly the proper appellations of the different people of the British Isles, fince every nation of Europe falls into fimilar blunders every day. "Ift, Mr. Whitaker feems to me to be mistaken when he calls the Caledonian Scots by the name of Creones; but I chose to use the same name he gave them, that the queftion might not be perplexed by a geographical difcuffon. "2d, Pol moi is Gaelic for the miry place in the plains; or, if we take it in another way, pol moi't-is, the miry place of the watery plain. Thofe who have read the account of the manner in which that palus meotis is formed, may judge whether there does not appear fome connection of the language of the Gaelic with. that of the Scythians. "3d, The affecting ftory of the afflicted, but heroic queen, who was forced, by the oppreffion of the Romans, to take up arms against them, is fo well known, that it would be needless to repeat it here.” The CEREMONIES for HEALING thofe who were DISEASED with the KING's EVIL, ufed in the Time of HENRY VII. [From the LITERARY MUSEUM, comprizing, fcarce and curious Tracts, &c.] 86 Firf, the king, kneeling, fhall fay, N the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghoft.' Amen. IN Or elfe he fhall fay, "Chrift hear us. In the name of And as foon as he hath faid that, he the Father, and of the Son, and of fhall fay, Give the bleffing. The chaplain kneeling before the king, and having a stole about his neck, fhall anfwer and fay, "The Lord be in your heart, and in your lips, to confefs all your Ans. In the name of the Father, the Holy Ghost. Amen. Then by and by the king hall fay, "I confefs to God, to the bleffed virgin Mary, to all faints, and to you, that I have finned in thought, word, and deed, through my fault. I pray holy Mary, and all the faints of God and you, to pray for me, The |