11. _Mr Hector MacLean_, Mr Campbell’s clever co-adjutor in much of his work, takes a similar view. He says—“The so-called Gaelic Ossian of Macpherson exhibits all the symptoms of being a translation from English. Anglicisms abound everywhere; the structure of the verse is fully as much akin to English as to Gaelic poetry. It is deficient in all the good qualities of style, strength, clearness, and propriety. The versification is exceedingly rugged and irregular; alliteration, so characteristic of Celtic poetry, is generally deficient, and frequently entirely wanting; the sentiment is usually morbid and vapid; and in fact the so-called original Gaelic Ossian is almost in every respect inferior to the so-called English translation.” MacLean at the same time speaks of the ballads in Campbell’s _Leabhar na Féinne_ as “characterised by purity of language, vigour of expression, and smoothness of versification.” MacLean’s thorough knowledge of Gaelic as well as his English culture and philological attainments entitle him to be heard. 12. _Rev. Dr Archibald Clerk._—The dissertation prefixed to the magnificent edition of Ossian, Gaelic and English, published in 1871, at the expense of the Marquis of Bute, and edited with a new literal translation into English by Dr Clerk, of Kilmallie, should be read by all who wish to know the history of the Ossianic controversy. Dr Clerk was an accomplished Gaelic scholar—a man of culture and sound judgment. He ably and warmly maintains that Macpherson was only a translator. In him his opponents find a writer thoroughly qualified, by his literary, scholarly, and philological attainments, to deal with this vexed question. When he and Mr Campbell fail to agree, it is very difficult for others less conversant with the facts of the case to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion. While Dr Clerk was patriotically engaged on his splendid new edition of Ossian, Mr Hector MacLean was regretting “that those who know Gaelic as their vernacular should be so far duped as to spend their time translating into English what is really nothing else than an inferior and incorrect translation from that language.”