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which we have very much lost is its joyousness. (Hear, hear.) We are often told, particularly by the Scotsman, that our ancestors were in great misery. No doubt the people who say this believe it, but I think the belief springs from the grossness of their own minds (Hear, hear)—which teaches them to think that because people had only the simplest food, and sometimes not quite enough of it, and lived in bothies, they must have been miserable. reading such records of the past as we have, however, the impression left on my mind is that life was then a joyous, free, happy life. Take, for instance, that most delightful of books, Mrs Grant's "Letters from the Mountains." Mrs Grant was not brought up in the Highlands, and when she settled at Laggan, she wrote many accounts of her life and of the life of those about her to her friends in the South, and the distinct impression they leave on the mind is that in those days Laggan was a sort of Arcadia. Roups lasted for a fortnight, weddings for three or four days, and if the minister and his wife did not join in the dancing, they were present and encouraged it. I was much struck recently with one expression of Mrs Grant in describing her life. She says "Haymaking is not merely drying grass; it is preparing a scene of joyous employment and innocent amusement for those whose sports recal to us our gayest and happiest days." (Cheers.) That life among the old Celts was one of much enjoyment we may judge from the following passage in the Irish laws giving the occupations of a king:-"There are now seven occupations in the corus-law of a king---Sunday for drinking ale, for he is not a lawful chief who does not distribute ale every Sunday-(Laughter)-Monday for judgments for the adjustments of the people; Tuesday for chess; Wednesday seeing greyhounds coursing; Thursday the pleasures of love; Friday at horse-racing; Saturday in giving judgments." But since Mrs Grant's time we have had two or three generations of excellent and well-meant clergymen, who have lived in the belief, and preached it, and enforced the practice of it, that all sports and amusements, music and dancing, and all those modes by which the exuberance of healthy animal spirits find expression, are sinful. The result is that they have killed joy out of the lives of the people—(Hear, hear.)— -and I believe this is one great cause of the discontent with their lot which is now so noticeable a feature among the peasantry. (Cheers.) It has even become a burning question, as we see by the papers, whether is it lawful to play shinty. (Laughter.) It appears to me that if the worthy gentlemen who preach against the game would only join their parishioners in playing it, and would encourage this and

other similar healthy and innocent amusements, as the more robust clergy of the good old times did, the people would be happier and the grosser vices less common than they are. (Cheers.) Let us hope, then, that in all its efforts, and especially in its effort to restore the contentment, the simplicity, and the joyousness of the life of the past, this Society may continue to prosper, and let us drink the toast with full bumpers. (Loud cheers.)

Mr John Macdonald, Exchange, proposed the "Members of Parliament for the Highland Counties and Burghs." He said-The toast I have been asked to propose is always well received by the Gaelic Society. If it can be true anywhere, it is true of us, that Whig and Tory all agree in our meetings. And, I think if this is true of Scotland generally, it is most true of the Highlands. There are many things that we might expect Parliament to help us in education, for instance. Then there is the fishing industry. Our members might urge the Government to give a grant to aid in the prosecution of this important industry. I think that we might fairly ask them to do something for us in this way. I am afraid that it is, perhaps, the case that the services of Members of Parliament are not appreciated by the people as they should be. I have lately had the privilege of visiting the House of Commons, and it requires that we should see the order of business there before we can form a full estimate of the work of the Members. (Hear, hear.)

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Mr Alex. Macbain, M.A., Raining's School, proposed the Language and Literature of the Gael." He said-Patriots of a generation or two ago used to claim for the Gaelic language an antiquity coeval and even superior to the Hebrew; but in the present day-these days of science and accurate thinking-we can claim for the Gaelic, on true scientific grounds, antiquity in Europe greater than any of its sister languages, and rank equal to the best of them. (Applause.) It is well ascertained now that of the so-called Aryan race, the Celts were the first to enter Europe, and of these Celts themselves, the Gaelic branch was the firstthe pioneer of all the civilisation of the East. (Hear, hear.) For we must not think that these early Gaels were savages-far from it. They were even a civilised people, having homes and families, houses and domestic animals, knowledge of metals and agriculture. They had, too, a highly organised language-a language that then was superior to Latin in inflectional power, and superior to Greek in flexibility of structure. For the last two thousand years it has not fared so well with our mother tongue. It has been sadly shorn of its inflections in the struggle which the European lan

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guages entered on in the middle ages to get rid of all grammar. Nor have we kept up to the old literary forms of our ancestors. The old Gaels must have possessed a vast and important literature. We see that from the Irish. They preserved much of it from the wreck of time through their monasteries and men of learning and leisure, and valuable MSS. still exist of poems, which, through the ravages of time, have just escaped the epic power and the reputation of Homer. Our language here is, however, more popularised and less learned. We have but scraps of the old literature and the old inflections; we are in consequence more homely and more near the heart both in language and literature, for both are a people's tongue, as opposed to a mere literary instrument. may console ourselves in this matter by the reflection that the English would have been the same had it not stolen 29,000 Latin words-two-thirds of its vocabulary! Our literature and language are therefore of the people and for the people, and for every individual of it. (Hear, hear.) The extent of our literature in such circumstances is not great, but its depth is great—it is steeped in the feelings of the people; it is composed mostly of songs and elegies and lyrics that gush from a nation's heart, warm and instinct with life. (Applause.) It is, therefore, concrete and personal; laudations of persons living, or some dear one recently dead, are found in the language; these laudations and praises are extended also to natural objects—a hill, a river, or a vale, and their description is entered into with a minuteness and gusto that is quite distinctive of the Gael. No language can express better strong emotion; the passionate outburst of the lover or the pathetic wail of the widowed and distressed. We must not expect in such a literature Matthew Arnold's "Criticism of Life" to enter very much; we do not claim any philosophical or learned height for Gaelic literature. It expresses the feelings, aspirations, and wishes of the people much as Burns' poems do those of the Lowland Scotch, rising at times to heights such as Burns attained in his "Cottar's Saturday Night" or his "Mary in Heaven," equal to him in the love songs, and, I venture to say, superior to him in satiric power. Satire is a special feature of Gaelic literature. The prose literature naturally runs into the groove of conversations, as popular prose compositions must do; but the literature in popular tales is something to boast of. Campbell's collection of Highland tales is the envy of every nation in Europe. They cannot beat us on that point, not even in Germany. (Applause.) I cannot but refer to the recent opening of the Celtic Class in Edinburgh. (Cheers.) We may congratulate ourselves in the

choice made, for, judging from the start Professor Mackinnon made in his excellent address, we may have every confidence in his success. That speech, which in pamphlet form makes thirtysix pages, and which travelled over the whole Celtic ground, ethnologically and philologically, is an admirable specimen of accuracy and learning. I do not believe that one error can be pointed out in it —a new thing almost in Scotland for a man to speak an hour on general Celtic subjects, and make no rash assertions. For, if anything, we are too inclined not to study our language, our literature, and our history with that care which modern science insists on, and without which we are laughed at beyond our own borders. We have done all that can be done in a popular way. We must now submit to scientific treatment, and we shall find our language and literature will stand that too. But we are not here in Inverness quite idle in this matter. (Applause.) No man has been busier or more successful than the gentleman with whose name I have the honour to couple this toast Mr Alexander Mackenzie of the Celtic Magazine. (Cheers.) Not to speak of the success and excellence of his histories of several of the Highland clans, and of his collections of traditions, the Celtic Magazine is itself a monument of his industry and genius. (Applause.) Now in its 100th number, having thus lived longer than any other previous Gaelic or Scoto-Celtic periodical, or truly Highland paper, it happily augurs the success of his forthcoming paper-"The Scottish Highlander." (Loud cheers.)

Dean of Guild Mackenzie, Editor of the Celtic Magazine, in reply, said I need not tell you that I feel very highly honoured in being asked to respond to this important toast; and especially so, proposed as it has been, by a gentleman like Mr Macbain, whose information in the Celtic literary field is very extensive, and who treads very closely in the matter of Celtic scholarship, on the heels of the foremost men of the day. (Hear, hear.) It is gratifying that we should have, in the Highland capital, a man of that stamp. (Applause.) He has the advantage of many men who dabble in this question, in his having an intimate knowledge of the classical languages-Latin, Greek, Sanscrit, and Old Irish, which, I need hardly say, is of immense value in pursuing Celtic studies. I am not going to inflict a speech upon you, but referring shortly to other matters, I may be allowed to say how pleased I am to see you, sir, occupying that chair; and let me say that I never heard you speaking at a gathering of this kind, but I admired the fine Celtic spirit which always pervaded your speeches. (Applause.) At the same time,

I may be permitted to say that the Society ought to feel pleased that perhaps the only peer of the realm who can speak the Gaelic language correctly and fluently, holds the position of present chief of the Society. I think it is a good thing to have such a man as the Earl of Dunmore as our chief, and I am quite satisfied that he will not make the same use of his Gaelic as he infers others have been making of their knowledge of it recently in the Highlands-(Laughter)—and especially in the Western Isles; but this is a matter to which I need not here further refer. I will not say

that I am, in one sense, very sorry that we have not his lordship here to-night, because I think we have quite as good a man in the chair as we could possibly wish to have, and one who has done more in the Celtic field than most people are aware of. (Applause.) I may tell you in that connection that considerable additions have been made to our store of Celtic literature, even within the last twelve months. A volume of Gaelic poetry has been issued, since our last meeting, by Mr Neil Macleod, a native of Glendale, where we had some good men. Neil's uncle left that famous glen some years ago as a common soldier, and has recently retired, with honours, as Major Macleod of the Royal Artillery. (Applause.)

I have no hesitation in saying that Neil Macleod's volume is about the most correct specimen of Gaelic printed in modern times — (Hear, hear)—and not only so, but that the volume, notwithstanding the great discussion which is reported to have taken place at a recent meeting of the Celtic Society of Edinburgh, contains sentiments, beautifully and poetically expressed, equal to some of the best poets of a bye-gone age. (Applause.) I had also a very handsome volume of 500 pages sent me only last week from the City of Toronto, the compositions of a bard famous in this country so long ago as 1838-Evan Maccoll, the Bard of Loch-Fyne," who was described by Hugh Miller, in the Inverness Courier at the time, as "The Moore of Highland Song." (Cheers.) Another poet, who started under very disadvantageous circumstances, from Argyllshire, some years ago for South Australia has also issued a volume of poems, printed in Australia. It will thus be seen that the field of Celtic literature is expanding; that the labourers in it are increasing at a very rapid rate. (Hear, hear.) I have not included the excellent volume by Mary Mackellar, our own Society Bard, as it was published in the previous year. We shall soon, if I may be permitted to let you into a dead secret—(Laughter) — have a new addition to Celtic literature in the town of Inverness, my friend who has asked you to drink this toast having a work in the press, which we shall have the honour of presenting to the