Upon the whole, this canal, even in its contracted state, will exceed the most sanguine hopes of the public, with respect to its general utility. The distance between the entrance into the Clyde, and the Forth is, by the Pentland-frith, six hundred miles; by the canal, scarcely one hundred. But this disproportion of distance, in a sea-voyage, is rifling, when compared with the delays, the shipwrecks, the positive and casual expences attending a passage by the Hebrides and the Pentland-frith, or even by the Land's-end, particularly in time of war, when the charge of insurance is from fifteen to twenty per cent.; while, by means of the inland navigation, it seldom exceeds five per cent.

Another canal, called the Caledonian canal, is now nearly constructed, to open a communication between the Western sea and the Murray-frith, by the chain of lakes which nearly intersect the island. This great work, which is hardly equalled in Europe, in its wideness or in its depth, is most assiduously carried on, and will, when completed, open a navigation of twenty feet water, by an hundred feet wide.

NAME, ORIGINAL INHABITANTS, HISTORY, &c.

Scotland is supposed by some to derive its name from the Scotti, a Scythian tribe, who invaded and settled in it about the fourth century: it is, however, more probable that the appellation of Sco was first a term of reproach, framed by enemies, rather than assumed by the nation. The highlanders, who are the genuine descendants of the aucient Scots, are absolute strangers to the name, and have been always so.

All those who speak the Galic language call themselves Albanich, or Gael; and their country, Alba, or Gaeldochd: whence Caledonia, the most ancient name of that part of the country which, according to the testimonies of Tacitus, Dio, and Solinus, comprehended all that country lying north of the Forth and Clyde. In proportion as the Silures, or Cimbri, advanced toward the north, the Caledonians, being circumscribed

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cumscribed within narrower limits, were forced to emigrate into the islands on the western coasts of Scotland. It is in this period, probably, we ought to place the first great migration of the British Gael into Ire land; that kingdom being much nearer to the promontory of Galloway and Cantire, than many of the Scottish isles are to the continent of North-Britain. To the country which the Caledonians possessed they gave the name of Caël-doch; which is the only appellation the Scots, who speak the Gaelic language, know for their own division of Britain. Cael-doch is a compound made up of Gael, or Caël, the first colony of the ancient Gauls, who emigrated into Britain, and doch, a district, or division of a country. The Romans, by transposing the letter l in Cael, and by softening into a Latin termination the ch of doch, formed the wellknown name of Caledonia. This appears to be a much more natural etymology than that of Camden, from the old British word kaled, hard, because the people were a hardy rustic race.

The Picts, who possessed originally the northern and eastern, and, in a later period, also the more southern division of North-Britain, were, at first, more powerful than the Caledonians of the west. It is therefore probable that the Picts, from a principle of pride, were ready to traduce and ridicule their weaker neighbours of Argyle. These two nations spoke the same language, the Gaëlic. In that language, Scot, or Scode, signifies a corner, or small division of a country. Accordingly, a corner of North-Britain is the name which Giraldus Cambrensis gives the little kingdom of Argyle, which the six sons of Muredus, king of Ulster, were said, according to his information, to have erected in Scotland. Scot, in Gaëlic, is much the same with little, or contemptible, in English; and Scotland, literally speaking, signifies a small flock; metaphorically, it stands for a small body of men. Others observe, that in the same language the word Scuit signifies a wanderer, and suppose that this may

have been the origin of the name of Scot; a conjecture which they think is countenanced by a passage in Ammianus Marcellinus, who characterizes the me by the epithet of per diversa vagantes. On the whole, it appears, that for some one of the reasons couched under the above disparaging epithets, their malicious, or sneering neighbours, the Picts, or the Britons, may have given the appellation of Scots to the ancestors of the Scottish nation. At what time the inhabitants of the west of Scotland came to be distinguished by this name is uncertain. Porphyrius, the philosopher, is the first who mentions them, about the year 267 ; and towards the middle of the fourth century we find them mentioned with other British nations by Marcellinus, in the passage above alluded to.

The origin of the Scots has been warmly disputed by many antiquaries of note; some contending that they are of Caledonian, while others suppose that they are of Irish extraction; but what appears most probable is, that the Scots were originally descended from Britous of the south, or from Caledonians, who being pressed forward by new colonies from Gaul, till they came to the western shore of Britain, passed over into Ireland, probably about one hundred years before the christian era. About the year 320 they returned again into Britain; or at least a large colony of them, under the conduct of Fergus, and settled on the western coasts of Caledonia, from whence they had formerly migrated.

Caledonia, in its largest extent, from the Tweed and the Eden, on the south, to Caithness point, on the north, was possessed by twenty-one tribes of Aboriginal Britous, who were populous, in proportion to the greater or less fertility of the districts which they severally occupied. The tribes on the west coast must have been fewer in number than the more potent cians on the eastern shore. Every tribe enjoyed the ncient privilege of being each independent of the hole; and who only united under a Pendragon, when

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danger

danger pressed, and necessity demanded the authority of a single person, for the safety of the whole people, according to the Celtic principle of disunited independence.

As early as the year 340 we find them associated with the Picts in their expedition to the Roman province; and for upwards of ninety years after, their ravages are frequently mentioned by the Roman and British writers.

By the historians of Scotland, the reign of Fergus, the first Scots monarch, is placed in the year 330, A.C. He was the son of Ferquhard, an Irish prince, and was called into Scotland by the Caledonians, to assist them against the southern Britons, with whom they were then at war. Having landed on one of the Ebude, or western isles, he had a conference with the Caledonians, whose language and manners he found to be the same with those of his countrymen. Having then landed in Scotland, and taken the field, at the head of his new allies, he engaged the Britons, under their king Coilus. Victory declared in favour of the Scots; Coilus was defeated and slain; and from him the province of Kyle first received its name. ter this, Fergus was declared king of the Scots, with the solemnity of an oath : but having been recalled to Ireland, to quiet some commotions there, he was drowned, in the year 305, B. C. by a sudden tempest, on his return, at a place in Ireland, called from him, Knock-Fergus, or Carrick-Fergus; i. e. Fergus's Rock.

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Fergus I. was succeeded by his brother Feritharis, to the prejudice of his two sons, Ferlegus and Mainus. This was done in conformity to a law, by which it was ordained, that, whilst the children of their kings were infants, one of their relations, who was reckoned the most fit for the government, should be raised to the throne; but after his death the sovereignty should return to the sons of the former king. But Ferlegus, impatient for the crown, demanded it from his uncle. The dispute being referred to an assembly of the states,

Feritharis

Feritharis was confirmed on the throne, and Ferlegus would have been condemned for sedition, had not his uncle interposed. He was, however, imprisoned ; but having made his escape, he fled first to the Picts, and then to the Britons, to excite them against Feritharis. With both he failed in accomplishing his purpose; but his uncle being afterwards stabbed in his bed, the suspicion fell upnu Ferlegus, who was thereupon set aside from the succession, and died in obscurity, the throne being confirmed upon his brother Mainus.

Mainus succeeded his uncle, in the year 291, A. C. and is celebrated for a peaceable and just reign of twenty-nine years; and for a treaty with Crinus, king of the Picts. He died in the year 262, A. C. and was succeeded by his son Dornadil, who was a great buuter, and instituted the laws of hunting in this country. He died in the year 233, A. C. and was succeeded by his brother Nothal; who, in the twentieth year of his reign, 213, A. C. was killed in a battle with Reuther, his nephew; upon which the latter was immediately invested with the sovereignty. A bloody war now ensued with the Picts, in which both parties were reduced to the last extremity, and glad to conclude a peace; which continued many years. Reuther died in 187, A. C. the twenty-sixth of his reign, and was succeeded by his brother Reutha; who is said to have encouraged trade and manufactures, and to have received an embassy of learned men, from Ptolemy, king of Egypt. He died in the year 171, A.C. and left the throne to his son Therreus, who, proving a ty rant, was banished, and died at York, in the year 161, A. C. His brother Josina succeeded, and cultivated the arts of peace; studying medicine and botany, &c. He reigned twenty-four years, and died in the year 137, A. C. when his son Finnan succeeded, who is celebrated as a wise monarch, and in his reign we find the origin of the Scottish parliament; as he enacted, that kings should do nothing without the consent of their grand council,