they made in those parts, before they took another flight, is not known, but that they migrated westward and traversed various regions from time to time, which bordered on the Mediterranean, Tyrrhene, and Egean seas, you have sufficiently shown. That a party of these Scythian rovers should in the course of ages, find their way to the Britannic isles, we need not deny, as the fact is possible, and denial will be vain. When the fact is proved true, it will reduce some modern hypotheses into a heap of ruins. "Several of these facts extracted by you, Sir, from foreign do cuments, are paralleled by similar passages in our book of Migrations. Therein we have a recital, that the leaders of the last heathen colony, who possessed Ireland, were of Scythian extraction, and named themselves Kinea Scuit, i. e. descendants of Scythians. That in the east they learned the use of sixteen letters, from a celebrated Phenius, from whom they took the name of Phenii or Phenicians; that the descendants of this Phenius traversed several countries, particularly those bordering on the Mediterranean and Greek seas; that they sailed through the straits of Hercules, landed on the island of Gadir [Cadiz], and having sailed along the wes tern coasts of Spain, settled there among the Celtes of that country, and particularly in Brigantia; that, finally, they sailed from Spain to Ireland, where they have put an end to their peregrinations and disasters, and made a lasting settlement. I need not inform you, Sir, that these accounts are swelled with the fabulous and marvellons: it is enough that some of the principal facts are supported by parallel relations from foreign history. "Of this origin of the *Scots from Scythians, and of their mixture * Of the expedition of the ancient Scots from Spain, and of Ireland, of their establishing colonies in future times in North Britain, all the historians of the latter country have been full, down to the seventeenth century. John de Fordun, Hector Boethius, Bishop Lesly, and Chancellor Elphinston, have been unanimous on this head. So constant a tradition amongst the Caledonians was far from being rejected by Buchanan. Thus he begins his fourth book: "Cum nostræ gentis historiam aggrederemur, pauca visum est supira repetere : : ea potisimum, quæ a fabularum varietate abessant, et a vetustis rerum scriptoribus non dissentirent. Primum omnium con stans with the Celts of Spain, and of their arrival in Ireland from that country, the tradition has been invariable. It has been invariable among the Scots of Britain; also Nennius, the Welsh antiquary, has recorded it; and the excellent Mr. Lluid + bas, from researches on our Celtic tongues, declared the expedition of the Scots from Spain to Ireland an indubitable fact. In my tormer letters to you, Sir, I have examined this matter more in detail, and to those I refer. "I shall now take a short view of our insular affairs, and begin at the commencement of the revolution now mentioned. After some sharp conflicts, the foreign invaders brought the old natives to submit to their authority, and to a monarchical form of government, established under very limited powers. It is remarkable, that the Scytho-Celtic dialect introduced by those strangers was so intelligible to the old Belgian and Danan inhabitants, as to require no interpreter between them. This fact, useful to history, is of use in chronology also. In the times antecedent to the Roman conquests in Gaul, the several dialects of the Celtic or ScythoCeltic, underwent no great variations in the west, from the shores of the Baltic to the pillars of Hercules. It was only when nations quitted the roving state for fixed settlements and regulated govern ment, that those dialects were formed into distinct tongues of different syntaxes, and that the copiousness and strength of each was in proportion to the degree of improvement made in the civilization of the speakers. Of these Celtic tongues of different construc tion only two remain at this day, preserved in old manuscripts; one in Ireland, and the other in Wales; the latter, formed from stans fama est, quam plurima etiam indicia confirmant, Hispanorum multitudinem, sive a potentioribus como pulsam, sive abundante sobole ultro profectam, in Hiberniam transmisisse: ejusque insulæ loca proxima tenuisse, &c." * Novissimè venerunt Scoti a partibus Hispaniæ ad Hiberniam, Nen. edit. per Bertram, A. D. 1757. Nennius and others wrote many ages since, an unquestionable truth when they asserted the Scotish nations coming out of Spain. See Mr. Lluid's translation of his Letter to the Welsh, in Bishop Nicholson's Irish Historical Library, page 228. the the old Celtic of Gaul, and the former from that of Spain, mixed with Phoenician or Carthaginian terms. In both we find a community of Celtic words, both being certainly derived from the primæval language of the greater part of Europe; but the different syntaxes of these words prove demonstrably that the old Scots of Ireland, and old Cambrians of Wales, originated from different. Celtic stocks. "The first inhabitants of Ireland being swarms mostly from Britain, spoke the British-Celtic undoubtedly; but they spoke it in its original simplicity, and with small variations: confined to few words, as the speakers were to a few ideas, it was adapted to the rudeness, and accommodated to the ignorance, of the earlier ages. Until the introduction, or rather improvement of literature, the primeval Celtic was a language of great sterility. It split first into dialects; and when civilization and letters were introduced, those dialects (as I observed before) were gradually formed into different tongues. The dialect brought into Ireland by the Scots took the lead (so to speak) in forming the language of Ireland; but it took a long time undoubtedly before it arrived at the energy, copiousness, and harmony we discover in some fragments of the heathen times, which are still preserved "In fact, the tongues of Wales and Ireland on the introduction of letters, and in the first stages of improvement, were no better than the uncouth dialects of a people emerging from antient rudeness. They must expire with the causes that gave them existence.; and had they survived in monumental inscriptions to this day, they would be no more intelligible to us, than the Latin jargon in the days of Numa Pompilius would be intelligible to the Roman people in the times of Augustus." Without presuming to decide finally on this very intricate subject, we shall conclude with observing, that the general, who is now upwards of eighty years of age, by a dignified economy, has been enabled to educate and provide for a large family. He is a member of all the useful institutions in Ireland; and has collected 1803-1801. I i collected a cabinet of the most curious productions of that country, in the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms. RIGHT HON. LORD CATHCART. THE subject of the following pages is sprung from one of the most ancient and illustrious families in the united kingdoms; a family which has produced statesmen and military characters of the first respectability. The Cathcart family may be traced to a very early period, for in 1178, a member of it was a witness to a deed which is still extant. The name is derived from lands in Renfrewshire, now known by the town of Cathcart. Another of the family was one of the barons who swore allegiance to Edward I. of England. James II. of Scotland, in 1443, ennobled the house of Cathcart, and the present lord is the tenth who has held the title in lineal succession. His grandfather was a general in the service of Great Britain, being colonel of the third regiment of horse in Ireland, now the sixth dragoon guards, and governor of Duncannon Fort. He was appointed by George II. to command an expedition in conjunction with Admiral Vernon against Carthagena, but his lordship died at sea in 1740, and was buried on the beach of Prince Rupert's bay, in the island of Dominica, where a monument is erccted with an inscription to his memory. The late Lord Cathcart, father to the present, was also also a general officer, and during the war of 1741, served on the continent under the great Earl of Stair, with much credit. He was severely wounded on the head, at the battle of Dettingen in 1743, where George II. commanded in person. After the accession of the late Catherine Empress of Russia, he received the appointment of ambassador at her court, and was much noticed by that enterprizing and politic princess. On his return, his lordship represented his Majesty as lord high commissioner to the general assembly of the church of Scotland, during many years. William, the present Lord, was born in the year 1755, and succeeded his father in 1776. In North Britain the study of the law is looked upon in so respectable a light as to form part of the education of the nobility and gentry. Among the number instructed in it, was Lord Cathcart, who had for a fellow student, among many others who have distinguished themselves, the present Earl of Lauderdale. In 1776, his lordship took his degree in the faculty of advocates, but, we believe, never practised. His name, however, still remains in the list. On the commencement of the American war, the martial spirit of his ancestors, which seemed inherent in him, induced this nobleman to enter into the army, and he became first a cornet, and afterwards a lieutenant in the seventeenth regiment of light dragoons. This corps then formed part of the army under General Sir William (now Lord Viscount) Howe. On the 10th of December 1777, he obtained a troop li 2 |