ment to sheer abuse. A sentence in Shaw's Inquiry proclaimed to the world that Blair and Ferguson had practised a base deception on Bishop Percy, in that, while he was in Edinburgh in the year 1763, some pieces of old Gaelic had been recited to him as the original of certain passages in Fingal. In the preface to the first edition of the Reliques of Ancient Poetry, this fact was alleged as definite proof that the work was authentic; but in the second and third editions of the Reliques the allegation was omitted. It was against Ferguson that the charge was chiefly directed; and he took it up with great warmth. A long correspondence ensued. That Gaelic poems of some sort had been brought to Percy's notice was on neither side denied; but as the facts in dispute had happened some eighteen years previously, there was little chance of any agreement. 1 1 The reader will find some of the letters in Small's Biog. Sketch of Adam Ferguson. In the Egerton MSS. in the British Museum there is a letter from Ferguson to Bishop Douglas, dated Edinburgh, 21st July, 1781, in which he declared that everything that related to him in Shaw's pamphlet was false, and that he never was present at any repetition of verses to Percy, although he remembers showing him some scraps of Earse poetry. He proceeded to attack } + At the same time Macpherson's friends were anxious that he should withdraw his attention from public affairs, and bring out the originals himself. But his friends were mostly satisfied as to the authenticity of his work; and the successful Scotchman was hardly the man to relax his political activity or diminish his fortune for the sake of satisfying abusive opponents. Sir John Sinclair tells us that about this period he was frequently in Macpherson's company, both in London and at Putney, and that he took various opportunities of urging him to complete the publication, and that, in spite of certain efforts, nothing effectual was accomplished. But in 1783 there came an appeal which could not ultimately be resisted. In response to a circular by Sir John Macgregor Murray, some the obstinate incredulity of the critics. "These gentlemen, I see, are never to be convinced: if conjectural evidence is brought, they call out for direct testimony; if testimony, they call out for the Ipsa corpora. If the Ipsa corpora, then Mr. Macpherson or some one else has made a translation into Earse from the original English of Mr. Macpherson's forgery. . . . If there be no merit in these productions they ought to have been forgotten long ago. The specimens I have seen are very interesting . . . and whether genuine or spurious, I shall never be ashamed of having mistaken them for originals." THE INDIAN SUBSCRIPTION. 279 Highland gentlemen in the Company's service in India collected a sum of nearly a thousand pounds, and sent it to the Highland Society of London, together with a high-flown letter to Macpherson, entreating him to gratify the wishes of his countrymen. John Mackenzie, secretary to the society, and an intimate friend, forwarded the money to Macpherson, and asked him to receive a formal deputation. To this Macpherson made the following reply : "My dear Sir, "Norfolk Street, 4th July, 1784. "I received the favour of your letter, dated yesterday; and I am sorry the gentlemen should think of giving themselves the trouble of waiting upon me, as a ceremony of that kind is altogether superfluous and unnecessary. I shall adhere to the promise I made several years ago to a deputation of the same kind; that is, to employ my first leisure time, and a considerable portion of time it must be to do it accurately, in arranging and printing the originals of the Poems of Ossian, as they have come to my hands. Funds having been established for the expense, there can be no excuse, but want of leisure, for not commencing the work in a very few months. "I am, am, with my best respects to the gentlemen of the committee, "My dear Sir, "Your faithful humble servant, Nevertheless, a few weeks later, a deputation sought and obtained an interview with Macpherson, when; as appears by the minutes of the society, he expressed his sense of the great honour done him, and repeated his intention to publish the original Gaelic of Ossian with his first leisure. The period of leisure had not yet arrived, and for some years further nothing was done. Macpherson was at the height of his social career in London. The Government was grateful enough for his services to make him an offer of the estates of Cluny Macpherson, which had been confiscated for nearly forty years; but he was strictly loyal to his clan, and the estates passed to their rightful owner.1 In 1785 he was received by the Prince of Wales, who presented him with a token of his regard. And in the same year, on the death of Whitehead, we find Macpherson's name in the long list of candidates for the office of poet laureate.2 1 Carruthers, loc. cit. 2 Thomas Warton was elected. One of the newspapers of the day in a tone of parody described an imaginary poetical combat between the candidates. A writer in the Celtic Magazine quotes the poem assigned to Macpherson as a serious and original effort. CHAPTER XIII. MACPHERSON'S LATER LIFE IN BADENOCH.-JOINS THE WHIGS.THE DEBATES ON THE REGENCY BILL.-LETTERS TO ROBINSON. THE GAELIC ORIGINALS.-MACPHERSON'S CHILDREN.-HIS LAST DAYS. WHILE Macpherson was still in the prime of life and in the full tide of success, he prepared to spend the evening of his days amongst his own people. If he had cherished any ambition of making a figure in the world, the ambition had long been satisfied; and his thoughts turned again to Badenoch. There he resolved to invest some of his fortune in buying land, and in building a house within sight of his native hills. He formed an estate on the banks of the Spey by taking over two or three small properties. Of these the principal lay to the east of the valley of Kingussie and not far from Loch Inch. It had formerly been the seat of Mackintosh of Borlum, who had disgraced his clan by a system of bare robbery on the highway, instead of contenting himself with levying black |