be found almost exclusively in Connaught and Munster, not in the other two provinces. It was publicly asserted, in 1815-16, that the number of persons in Ireland who absolutely required the employment of this tongue, in order to their moral and religious improvement, was not above half a million; a number, by the way, larger than the population of our Highlands and Islands; and that all the rest of Ireland might be considered as capable of receiving solid and useful instruction through the medium of English. It is not two years since a gentleman from the county of Tyrone affirmed to myself in conversation, that there was little or no Irish in that county. Nay, even as to the whole of these Celtic dialects, it has been recently asserted and published, that they are falling away into oblivion, being superseded by the English."*

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Such vague and erroneous assertions as these, however, can no longer be received as evidence, and it is time, whatever be the remedy, that the eye be opened to the facts of the case as it respects Ireland. In a former publication, the writer had occasion to notice this subject; but it may be useful to refer to it again in a manner somewhat more distinct, and with more decisive proof, especially because this volume might otherwise be deemed deficient.

In the year 1806, some pertinent observations were printed and circulated in Dublin by the late Dr Whitley Stokes, of Trinity College, on the necessity of publishing the Scriptures in the Irish language. In this small tract we find the following passage: "In order to show the importance of

the subject, I shall state such information as I have received of the prevailing language in most counties of Ireland. I acknowledge my information has not been precise, or methodically obtained, but I suppose it was fairly given, and is sufficiently accurate for my present purpose.

That the reader may be the better able to compare the opinions here given with the following pages, I shall throw the whole into a tabular form, and insert also the population of each county, according to the last parliamentary census.

* Foreign Quarterly Review, No. ii. p. 395.

Such were the opinions received by Dr Stokes, and it should be observed, that the population of these two provinces amounted by the last census to 3,755,986; by the official corrected return since to 3,787,668; or, at the present moment, to above four millions. As for the affirmations respecting the Irish tongue, the reader may observe them, and then suspend his judgment till he has finished this statement. With regard to the province of Munster, containing 1,935,612 in the year 1821, and by the corrected return 2,005,363, in the tract referred to, it is said, that "Irish prevails in all the counties ;" and of Connaught, containing at that period 1,110,229, or by the corrected return 1,053,918, that "Irish is more prevalent than in the rest of Ireland." To say nothing more therefore at present of Leinster or Ulster,-with regard to the two last provinces, the Doctor adds, "In all the counties of the province of MUNSTER the Irish language prevails beyond comparison, if we except the large towns, their immediate neighbourhood, and some of the country along the coast. The native language is more prevalent in CONNAUGHT than in the rest of Ireland. In this province the gentlemen often find it convenient to acquire the language, in order to deal with the

peasantry without an interpreter." Now these two provinces alone, where Irish is so remarkably prevalent, include, at the present moment, a population of about three millions three hundred thousand souls, or one million more than the whole of Scotland!

In a statistical account of Ireland, published in 1812, the author of which had travelled for two years through by far the greater part of Ireland, the subject of the Irish language frequently occurs. It may be previously remarked, that this gentleman evidently appears to have had no predilection for the Irish tongue, nor any idea of the necessity for its being employed as a medium for education. On this account some may be more disposed to listen to his testimony.

LEINSTER.-In Louth and Meath, "the language universally spoken is Irish." In Queen's county "the Irish lan

guage is very common.'

ULSTER." The people who reside in the mountainous districts" of Antrim, Down, Armagh, and Londonderry, "retain the ancient Irish language, and to them it is chiefly confined." "Those who wish to become acquainted with the real state of the country must extend their journey to the mountains, where they will meet with a language intelligible only to those by whom it is spoken." "The mountaineers in Donegal speak the Irish language,” and, in general, never emigrate from the country." "On the coast of Donegal I met with a peasantry who appeared to be Native Irish, and who were very different from the people in the inland parts of Ireland.” "Most of them speak the original language; many do not know a word of English, which they called Scotch."

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CONNAUGHT.- "On the Leitrim mountains, which I crossed in the month of August, 1809, the Irish is the common language." Again, the mountainous districts of Leitrim, stretching across Sligo into Mayo, are fully peopled, -the poor all speak Irish." "In the province of Connaught, the gentry understand Irish, which facilitates their intercourse with the peasantry; they are consequently enabled to become acquainted with their wants, to assist them with advice, and restrain them by admonition."

MUNSTER." In the southern part of Ireland, the (Irish) language is everywhere nearly the same; even in the city of Cork, and in Youghall, the common people speak Irish.”*

* Wakefield's Statistical Account of Ireland, passim.

Having quoted the testimony of an Irish and an English gentleman, it may be proper to adduce one from Scotland. The Rev. Dr Dewar, who, from his knowledge of Gaelic, was able to converse familiarly with the Native Irish, published the result of his observations in 1812. 66 The number of people," says he, "who speak this language, is much greater than is generally supposed. It is spoken throughout the province of Connaught by all the lower orders, a great part of whom scarcely understand any English; and some of those who do, understand it only so as to conduct business; they are incapable of receiving moral or religious instruction through its medium. The Irish is spoken very generally throughout the other three provinces, except among the descendants of the Scotch in the north. It cannot be supposed that calculations on this subject should be perfectly accurate, but it has been calculated on good grounds, that there are about two millions of people in Ireland who are incapable of understanding a continued discourse in English." But, supposing this calculation to be overrated by half a million, there remain a million and a half, a number that is five times greater than all the inhabitants of the Highlands." Dr Dewar then enforces the absolute necessity of educating the Native Irish through the medium of their own tongue, and quotes, for illustration, part of a letter from the late Mr Charles of Bala to the present writer, in consequence of his having addressed him on the subject. The fact is, that during the winter of 1810, in the prospect of the formation of "The Society for the Support of Gaelic Schools," which took place in 1811, his attention was directed to the consideration of all these Celtic dialects, simply with the view of ascertaining what was the proper course to pursue; and the Highlands and Islands having been taken up by the public, it was impossible to overlook the still more claimant condition of the sister kingdom.

In the summer of 1814, the writer visited Ireland, with a view to ascertain the extent to which the Irish language was in use, and the condition of the people with regard to education through that medium; his previous connexion with the Highlands having created in his mind a strong desire to befriend, if it were possible, this interesting but longneglected race. For to whatever extent the language was daily spoken, from his previous intercourse with Highlanders, and acquaintance with the state of Wales, he felt

assured that to that extent it must be employed for the moral and religious improvement of the Native Irish. About five years before, he had travelled through Meath, Monaghan, Tyrone, Derry, Armagh, Antrim, and Down, and yet during that journey, paying no attention to the subject, the necessity for education, through the medium of Irish, had not once occurred to him; and so it had happened in a previous journey through the Highlands of Scotland, when the real state of things was not made an object of investigation and inquiry. He mentions this merely to account for the vague and contradictory reports of travellers, unless they have taken up the subject with candour, and then pursued the inquiry. In 1814, however, he laid aside every other consideration except this one point. Leaving Dublin, he went into each of the four provinces, and the result at that time was an assurance that there could not be less than two millions to whom the Irish was vernacular, and in constant use. The amount of his inquiries was then published in a Memorial on Behalf of the Native Irish, with a View to their Moral and Religious Improvement through the Medium of their own Language. The objects there recommended are now no theory. They have been reduced to practice, and are heartily approved by many individuals, though to the present hour the magnitude and urgency of the case are by no means understood.

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More recently this important subject has attracted the attention of the Commissioners of Education in Ireland; and in their first report laid before Parliament, dated the 30th of May, 1825, there is the following passage :—“ It has been estimated that the number of Irish who employ the ancient language of the country exclusively is not less than 500,000; and that at least a million more, although they have some understanding of English, and can employ it for the ordinary purposes of traffic, make use of their tongue on all other occasions, as the natural vehicle of their thoughts. This estimate agrees with the opinions of Dr Stokes, who published the results of his inquiry in 1806, of Dr D. Dewar in his observations on Ireland in 1812, and of Mr C. Anderson in 1814; it has been adopted also on the more recent investigations made by committees of the British and Foreign Bible Society and the Hibernian Bible Society, previous to the resolution which they successively took of reprinting the Scriptures in the Irish language, according to the translation of Archbishop Daniel and Bishop Bedell. A similar inquiry was made, and the same conclusion drawn