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NOTES. 403Roman powor reached tliem in Britain, they had no alternativebut Ireland, and the islands of Scotland. When no Romanfound a single Druid on the continent of Britain, and Ammianusfound the rear of them in the Isle of Mann, there cannot remaina doubt that the main body had proceeded to Ireland, though afew individuals might perhaps straggle over the Hebrides, orshelter themselves in the most inaccessible parts of Wales andthe Highlands of Scotland. By this event Ireland became possessedof the literati, the traditions, the history^ the literature^and the records, of all the Celtic nations. Ireland was the neplus ultra of Celtic migration. Here Druidism found its lastasylum, and here it made its last agonizing effort, and expired.It has been most unfortunate for the history of Ireland, thatits early historians had not the candour to acknowledge the vastacquisition of records which they gained on the expulsion of theDruids from Gaul and Britain. It would have prevented muchconfusion, and afforded a handle to develope such parts of theirhistory as appear so hyperbolical as to baffle the most extravagantpitch of human credulity. But the truth is, that the Irish, availingthemselves of these records, to which they had no earthlyclaim, appropriated them to themselves, and framed a historyfrom that of all the other Celts ; and it is unquestionably theapplication of all the events which befell ail the Celtic tribes(since their first migration from Asia) to the solitary and detachedisland of Ireland, which makes its history appear so utterlylidiculous and absurd. The Irish historians say that the Firbolg(^Viri Belgici) arrived in Ireland 1500 years before the christianaera—the Tuath de Danan {Datnnu of North Britain) 1550,and the Milesians iOOO. Now as all these natiors unquestionablykept some accounts of their origin, as well as the Irish, theonly error which the Irish historians seem to have committed, issubstituting the date of their first migration from their respectingcountries, for that of their first arrival in Ireland. Rectifiedin this manner, the account is not only modest, but highly probable.The story of Partholaniis, NemediuSy Simon Breac, &c.&c. though not applicable to the Irish, may yet apply to some