means try could never have extended to its present magnitude, had it not been sanctioned and supported by his probity. For the same rea→ son, he is not a man of compliment. If he means to render service, he will do it without promising and without parade; if he sit not, or thinks it cannot be performed, he will be silent.— Nor is he at any time a boaster; for, knowing the deceptions of self-love, he fears lest they should lead him into falshood. When most he has deserved commendation, he can with patience bear to lose it; even envy and unjust reproach he can despise; the consciousness of having done his best, supports him; but praise unmerited is shame and torture to him. His generosity and compassion are inseparable. A tale of sor row never fails to melt him, and pity flows from him in showers of gold. Where gold cannot relieve, he tries such other means as seem more suited to the case; but his first movement is, to give.-The humanity of conquerors that save their enemies is more congenial to his soul than the desire of victory itself; and yet for victory no one has done more, or more successfully. The efforts of an Elliot amazed the continental nations; but Curtis, saving the lives of the enemy, at the imminent hazard of his own, was idolized in his native country. Without this trophy, the triumph would have lost its brightest ornament to Britons. The religion of the True Briton is rational and firm-equally remote from the folly of superstition and the impudence of infidelity. He was among the first to see and to reject the gross corruptions of the Christian faith; he will be the last to countenance a worse corruption, on pretence of farther reformation. He will never leave religion for the emptiness of false and infidel philosophy. His strength of reason teaches him in what points human reason must be weak; and he will never boast his knowledge, where he feels his ignorance. His intellectual qualities, like all the rest, are more for use than ostentation. Sagacity and wisdom are allowed him by all surrounding nations; nor can a name be mentioned to which all sciences have higher obligations, than to that of the True Briton. Others may excel him in invention; in profundity and accuracy of research he is unrivalled. Yet is he not deficient in true genius. It is his pride, that in the line of poetry his country stands the first of modern nations, and not unfrequently has rivalled the best models of antiquity. The tricks of false taste and ambitious ornament, in spite of temporary fashion, he despises. The writings that obtains his praise must satisfy the judgment and affect the heart. By the same rule he values eloquence, and every other effort of the intellectual faculty. At the present day, one striking feature not to be omitted in the character of the True Briton, is, veneration for the constitution of his country. He views it as the work of wisdom, tried and meliorated by experience. That there are imperfections in it, he may perhaps admit; for he is attached, not bigotted; but they are such only, as he hopes by time and prudent counsel to remove; or such as, being necessary concessions to the imperfections of mankind, cannot safely be removed till human nature is corrected. He is sensible of the value of that knowledge which is the result of experience-and in so important a point as the constitution of his country, he is least disposed to yield to the theories of speculative men. To this system he adheres, from strong conviction of its excellence. Innovation, proceeding from levity, he contemns; attended with injustice, cruelty, or public danger, he abhors. He loves his king with some restrictions, and his country without any; nor will he lightly rise against the one, or throw the other into discord and confusion. To politics he is addicted, and not, perhaps, sufficiently averse from parties. But when the public is in danger, he forgets all subdivisions, and knows no party but his country. This is the True Briton, of which description a large majority exists in every class of social life throughout the nation: more or less perfect, indeed; but enough so to fix this as the public character, and thereby to deserve the respect and veneration of the world. AN ENGLISHMAN. POPULARITY. In Great Britain popularity is of more consequence to a gentleman or nobleman, than it was in France before the revolution, or is at present in Germany and other European countries. There are many, no doubt, who would shew attention and hospitality to their neighbours in the lower ranks of life, from the mere sentiments of benevolence and generosity; but it has been observed, that nothing has more influence in keeping those sentiments alive in the bosoms of the great, than their having something to ask or expect from the favour of the little. This is the case in England-at least once in seven years. REVIEW OF LITERATURE. Qui monet quasi adjuvat. MISCELLANEOUS. Report of the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland, appointed to enquire into the Nature and Authenticity of the Poems of Ossian. Drawn up, according to the Directions of the Committee, by Henry Mackenzie, Esq. its Convener, or Chairman. With a copious Appendix, containing some of the principal Documents on which the Report is founded. 8vo. pp. 343. 12s. A. Constable and Co. Edinburgh, and Longman and Co. London. 1805. THE question respecting the authenticity of the poems ascribed to Ossian, and said by Mr. Macpherson to have been translated by him from the original Gaelic, collected in his Tour through the Western Highlands and Isles, has agitated the literary world, more or less, for about fifty years. Prose-writers and poets have alike touched on the subject. Thus Mason,* in his imitation of this passage in Horace Thence issued forth, at great Macpherson's call, The Prophecy of Famine. Hume, the historian, thus expresses himself, in a letter to the Rev. Dr. Hugh Blair. "The absurd pride and caprice of Macpherson himself, who scorns, as he pretends, to satisfy any body that doubts his veracity, has tended much to confirm this general scepticism; (which prevailed in 1763) and I must own, for my part, that though I have had many particular reasons to believe these gepuine, more than it is possible for any Englishman of letters to have, yet I am not entirely without my scruples on that head." He also * See the poetical works of the author of the Heroic Epistle to Sir William Chambors, Phillips's Edit. NVOL. XX. observes, that he was told by the great Burke, on the publication of Macpherson's book, that the Irish cried out" We know all those poems; we have always heard them from our infancy." This might be, though it was not then clearly proved, since Ireland was in ancient times so much connected with the adjacent coast of Scotland, that they might almost be considered as one country, having a coinmunity of manners and of language, as well as the closest political connexion. The opinion of Dr. Johnson is well known. He was shut against conviction, even when he affected to seek the truth in the heart of the Hebrides. He went still further than a doubt of their being genuine, and endeavoured, by all possible means, to underrate their merit; for, being asked who else could have written the poems attributed to Ossian? He replied-" Many men, many women, and many children." When Dr. Blair, in 1763, wrote his Dissertation on Ossian, he proposed to accompany it with certain documents in support of the authenticity of these poems. He previously applied to Mr. Hume, for his opinion, as to what should be the nature of the evidence which he should endeavour to obtain on that subject. In answer to his request, Mr. H. wrote a letter, from which this is an extract. "You think that the internal proofs in favour of the poems are very convincing: so they are; but there are also internal reasons against them, particularly from the manners, notwithstanding all the art with which you have endeavoured to throw a vernish* on that circumstance; and the preservation of such long and such connected poems, by oral tradition alone, during a course of fourteen centuries, is so much out of the ordinary course of human affairs, that it requires the strongest reasons to make us believe it. My present purpose, therefore, is to apply to you, in the name of all the men of letters of this, and I may say of all other countries, to establish this capital point, and to give us proofs that these poems are, I do not say so ancient as the age of Severus, but that they were not forged within these five years, by James Macpherson. These proofs must not be arguments, but testimonies. People's ears are fortified against the former; the latter may yet find their way, before the poems are consigned to total oblivion. Now the testimonies may, in my opinion, be of two kinds: Macpherson pretends that there is an ancient MS. of part of Fingal in the family, I think, of Clanronald. Get that fact ascertained by more than one person of credit let these persons be acquainted with the Gaelic; let them compare * So in MS. the original and the translation; and let them testify the fidelity of the latter. But the chief point in which it will be necessary for you to exert yourself will be, to get positive testimony, from many different hands, that such poems are vulgarly recited in the Highlands, and have there long been the entertainment of the people. This testimony must be as particular as it is positive." This conduct the Committee have, in general, pursued, but, in the absence of testimony, have not refused to use argument. Their exertions have been great, and their success slightly satisfactory. Frequently, to their sanguine wishes, trifles light as air seem confirmation strong as proofs of holy writ. The evidence arising from the comparison made by the committee, p. 130 of the original (as it is termed) left by Mr. M. with his translation, is a sword that cuts both ways, and its execution depends on the hand that wields it. The publication of the whole of Mr. M.'s Gaelic MSS. might afford some light. Mr. Hume has given us a lively picture of the character of Mr. Macpherson. He notices his scornful demeanour in a passage already quoted from a letter to Dr. Blair, and in a second on the same subject, he observes-" You need expect no assistance from Macpherson, who flew in a passion when I told him of the letter I had wrote to you: but you must not mind so strange and heteroclite a mortal, than whom I have scarce ever known a man more perverse and unamiable. He will probably depart for Florida with Governor Johnstone, and I would advise him to travel among the Chickasaws or Cherokees, in order to tame and civilize him." Of Mr. Macpherson's proficiency in the Gaelic, we are in some measure informed in " Ewan Macpherson's declaration." Meeting in his tour with Mac Codrum, the poet, Mr. Macpherson asked him the question-" A bheil dad agad air an Fhéinn ?" by which he meant to enquire, whether or not he knew any of the poems of Ossian relative to the Fingalians; but that the terms in which the question was asked, strictly imported whether or not the Fingalians owed him any thing; and that Mac Codrum, being a man of humour, took advantage of the incorrectness or inelegance of the Gaelic in which the question was put, and answered, that really if they had owed him any thing, the bonds and obligations were lost, and he believed any attempt to recover them, at that time of the day, would be unavailing. Which sally of Mac Codrum's wit seemed to have hurt Mr. M. who cut short the conversation, and proceeded on to Benbecula. And the declarant being asked whe |