6

from reading. He who knows how forcible are right words, and how apt man is to be moved by man, has consulted the constitution of our frame, by appointing an order of men, whose office it is to address their fellow-creatures on their eternal concerns. Strong feeling is naturally contagious; and if, as the wise man observes, as iron sharpeneth iron, so doth the countenance of a man his friend,' the combined effects of countenance, gesture, and voice, accompanying a powerful appeal to the understanding and the heart, on subjects of everlasting moment, can scarcely fail of being great. But, independently of the natural tendency of the Christian ministry to convert the soul and promote spiritual improvement, it derives its peculiar efficacy from its being a Divine appointment. It is not merely a natural, it is also an instituted means of good; and whatever God appoints by special authority, he graciously engages to bless, provided it be attended to with right dispositions, and proceed from right motives."

Is it possible, then, in the nature of things, that Ireland is doomed to remain longer in this condition? That the Native Irish in particular are to continue from Sabbath to Sabbath to spend that day as they have done for ages? It cannot be. Shall men continue to leave their native shores, and go far hence to the heathen only? Will the inhabitants of Ireland itself, and those of Britain, continue to encourage and call forth such men for their work, and shall our countrymen and fellow-subjects be forgotten? Shall we enforce the necessity and importance of acquiring the languages of India, of China, and Japan, in order to reach the heart through the ear; and shall it seem a hard task to acquire the use of a tongue spoken by such a multitude in the immediate vicinity of our own, nay, spoken by our fellowsubjects, intersecting a sister country in almost every direction, and now dwelling to such extent in every city of the empire?

"I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all: yet, in the Church, I had rather speak five words, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand works in an unknown tongue." PAUL.

"Obtestantes in Domino, et pro obedientia qua Summo Pastori teneris injungentes: ut ejus gregem quem suo sanguine acquisivit, tibi commissum, diligenter pascas, et in fide Catholica instituas, officia divina Lingua a populo intellecta, peragas; exemplar ante omnia teipsum præbeas fidelibus in bonis operibus, ut erubescant adversarii, nihil habentes quod in te reprehendant." BEDELL.

SECTION IV.

THE IRISH LANGUAGE,

With proofs of the extent to which it is at present spoken, or used daily by the Natives as the natural vehicle of their thoughts; and this extent accounted for or explained.

IN Britain it has for ages been a favourite idea with some, that the perfection of territorial unity can only be attained by uniformity of language; but it is still true, that there is not a kingdom in Europe where only one language is spoken. Even within the narrow limits of Denmark there is German as well as Danish, and in Sweden we find Norse and Finnish as well as Swedish, while the monarch of the day, like our Norman Conqueror of ancient time, speaks French. In France there are three if not four languages, independently of French proper. In Spain and Prussia there are at least three, perhaps four in each. In Austria five or six,—and the Czar of Russia, whether his kingdom in any sense resembles Nebuchadnezzar's image or not, like him, in addressing his subjects, may truly say, "The King, unto all people, nations and languages." As for the united kingdom of Britain and Ireland, within its own comparatively little boundary, from before the days of Cæsar until now there has always existed diversity of language. At present there are five colloquial dialects, and in some of the early ages such diversity has existed, owing to the entrance or invasion of other tribes, that the tongue once spoken by different tribes, in different parts of Britain and Ireland, even still engages the research and the discussion of the antiquarian.*

"The cause of the obscurity into which these populations have sunk," says Monsieur Thierry, "is not that they have been less worthy to find historians than the rest indeed most of them are remarkable for an originality of character which powerfully distinguishes them from the great nations with which they have been incorporated." But, to use in part the language of the same author, the disposition of historians to go at once from the conquered to the conquerors,-being more willing

Meanwhile, if the subjects of the British crown at home are ever destined to be in fact populus unius labii,' it seems strange that so many political advisers have been so long in perceiving, that the end, if attainable, is certainly never to be reached by a direct attack, but by fetching a compass; not by legislative enactment, but the exercise of humanity. For certainly it is not under the influence of a disposition which led to our denominating the dialects spoken by the subdued tribes, barbarous, and in France, patois, and then coldly dismissing the subject, that these parts can ever contribute their share to the strength and unity of the empire. Such feelings, it is to be hoped, are now rapidly declining in our own country: many, indeed, as if conscious of past harshness and injustice, begin to feel a peculiar interest in the actual condition of these neglected populations; and abroad, the same wise and considerate humanity is now discoverable. "In place of what we call patois, we find complete and regular languages; and that which appears to us now but as want of civilization, and a resistance to the progress of improvement, assumes, in past ages, the aspect of original manners, and a patriotic attachment to ancient institutions. It were falsifying history, to introduce into it a philosophical contempt for every departure from the uniformity of existing civilization, and to consider those nations as alone worthy of honourable mention, to whose names the chance of events has attached, for the present and for the future, the idea of that civilization."*

As to the Irish tongue, one of those which, under the influence of something like this philosophical contempt,' has been often denominated 'barbarous,'-several remarks with regard to the language itself will be found in the Appendix; a question which, whatever happen to be the opinion of the reader, has, however, no connexion with the point now before us, or at least no practical bearing upon it. Wishing, therefore, to avoid here every thing of a disputable or theoretical nature, we proceed to notice the extent of the Irish language as now spoken.

to enter the camp of the triumphant than that of the fallen, or to represent the conquest as completed as soon as the conqueror had proclaimed himself master.Each of these tendencies has contributed to the mystery and confusion in which the antiquities of Britain have been involved. Hence, to notice only modern times, in scarcely one of the authors who have treated of the history of England, do we find any mention of Saxons after the battle of Hastings, and the coronation of William: and, I may add, hence the terms English and Irish,' in the Irish history of the twelfth century, (if not the thirteenth), although Ireland, correctly speaking, was then invaded by the Norman-French, and the Anglo-Saxons in their train.

Thierry's Norman Conquest, Introduction, p. ii.

When contemplating the present condition of Ireland, this is a subject of vital importance, and it is one which should certainly no longer be treated in the manner in which it has been for the last two hundred years, but especially during the eighteenth century. It was during that century that all reasoning upon the subject was condemned, and that every statement of facts was either hushed into silence, or treated with the most perfect indifference. If at any moment the subject chanced to cross the path of any writer, the blindest policy passed for sound wisdom, and the wildest theories as to abolishing the language were vented with perfect confidence of success.

“I am deceived," said Dean Swift, “if any thing hath more contributed to prevent the Irish from being tamed than this encouragement of their language, which might easily be abolished, and become a dead one in half an age, with little expense and less trouble."* Again he says"It would be a noble achievement to abolish the Irish language in the kingdom, so far, at least, as to oblige all the natives to speak only English on every occasion of business, in shops, markets, fairs, and other places of dealing: yet I am wholly deceived if this might not be effectually done in less than half an age, and at a very trifling expense; for such I look upon a tax to be, of only six thousand pounds a-year, to accomplish so great a work."+

Dr Woodward, the Bishop of Cloyne, after having stated that "the difference of language is a very general (and where it obtains an insurmountable) obstacle to any intercourse with the people," adds, very coolly, in a note,-" If it be asked, why the Clergy do not learn the Irish language, I answer, that it should be the object of government rather to take measures to bring it into entire disuse." Nay, though it is quite practicable to speak both English and Irish with the utmost propriety, the childish bugbear of an Irish accent was held over the head of any gentleman who should think of acquiring the use of the Irish language. Even in Hardy's Life of Lord Charlemont we find the following passage:- I have heard many gentlemen among us talk much of the great convenience to those who live in the country that they should speak Irish. It may possibly be so; but I think they should be such as never intend to visit England, upon pain of being ridiculous; for I do not

* Swift's Works, 4to, vol. viii. p. 263.

+ Swift's Works, 18mo. vol. xiii. p. 66. + Present State of the Irish Church, seventh edition, London, 1787, p. 43.

L

remember to have heard of any one man that spoke Irish who had not the accent upon his tongue easily discernible to any English ear!"

To refute such opinions as these is now quite unnecessary. But the Bishop of Cloyne's method of quieting the consciences of the clergy was certainly very simple. Unhappily it exposed him to the irony of the echo in Erasmus,

Quid est sacerdotium ?-otium !"-and he was asked in return, whether it would not be easier for one man to learn Irish than for a whole parish to learn the English language. As for the scheme of Dean Swift, which was to have finished its course in about fifty years, and banished every Irish word from the land, at the small cost of three hundred thousand pounds, perhaps the secret died with him, for he gives us no particulars: but it is certain, that since his time upwards of two millions sterling have been professedly spent upon gratuitous English education in Ireland, while the number who speak Irish has been going on to increase since the day on which he wrote these sentences.

Very different indeed have been the sentiments of some other men. We have noticed the exertions of Bedell and Boyle-"But government," says Reginald Heber, the late Bishop of Calcutta, "which ought to have given the first impulse, was bent on a narrow and illiberal policy of supplanting the Irish by the English language, to which the present moral and religious instruction of millions was to give way, and which, though it has in part, succeeded, (through circumstances of which the march was altogether independent of the measures taken to forward it), has left a division of the national heart far worse than that of the tongue, and perpetuated prejudices which might, at first, have been easily removed or softened."*

The loose and erroneous estimates which were formed for many years respecting the prevalence and extent of the Irish tongue, and which long passed current, must have led many to overlook the subject, or disregard it as of no moment. During a second visit to Ireland, in 1814, I remember it was admitted, that the Irish language was indeed spoken in many parts, but then, it was added, that these were to

*Life of Jeremy Taylor, p. cxix.-The "moral and religious instruction of millions" having been thus neglected, is unquestionably by far the most painful retrospection. At the same time it may be observed, that unwise policy, to say the least, is always very expensive. Hence it is, to mention but one proof, that only "seven thousand nine hundred and five children (educated and) apprenticed, have cost just one million sterling." See First Report of Parliamentary Commissioners, p. 30.