his country: yet in
no more distant period than ten years after, Scotland was totally
subdued by a small handful of English, led by a few private noblemen.
All history is full of such events. The Irish Scots, in the course of
two or three centuries, might find time and opportunities sufficient
to settle in North Britain, though we can neither assign the period
nor causes of that revolution. Their barbarous manner of life
rendered them much fitter than the Romans for subduing these
mountaineers. And, in a word, it is clear from the language of the
two countries, that the Highlanders and the Irish are the same people,
and that the one are a colony from the other. We have positive
evidence which, though from neutral persons, is not perhaps the best
that may be wished for, that the former, in the third or fourth
century, sprang from the latter: we have no evidence at all that the
latter sprang from the former. I shall add, that the name of Erse or
Irish given by the low-country Scotch to the language of the Scotch
Highlanders, is a certain proof of the traditional opinion delivered
from father to son, that the latter people came originally from
Ireland.

NOTE [B]

There is a seeming contradiction in ancient historians with regard to
some circumstances in the story of Edwy and Elgiva. It is agreed that
this prince had a violent passion for his second or third cousin,
Elgiva, whom he married, though within the degrees prohibited by the
canons. It is also agreed, that he was dragged from a lady on the day
of his coronation, and that the lady was afterwards treated with the
singular barbarity above mentioned. The only difference is, that
Osberne and some others call her his strumpet, not his wife, as she is
said to be by Malmesbury. But this difference is easily reconciled;
for if Edwy married her contrary to the canons, the monks would be
sure to deny her to be his wife, and would insist that she could be
nothing but his strumpet; to that, on the whole, we may esteem this
representation of the matter as certain, at least, as by far the most
probable. If Edwy had only kept a mistress, it is well known that
there are methods of accommodation with the church, which would have
prevented the clergy from proceeding to such extremities against him:
but his marriage contrary to the canons, was an insult on their
authority, and called for their highest resentment.

NOTE [C]

Many of the English historians make Edgar