incline them to this measure: if they wish to improve their condition, or to have their sons advanced in the service of their country, they will find it necessary to have some English book-learning themselves, and to be at some pains to impart it to their children." * But I have said enough to justify the charges which I have advanced against the adversaries of the Irish tongue: and if I have been in any degree successful in my statement, I think it will appear, that the means employed to suppress it are all founded in ignorance of human nature; that they are not only barbarous, but absolutely inefficient as to the end in view. Before I leave this subject, I ought perhaps to mention, that in 1808, that part of the Irish population to which I refer, had few schoolmasters of any description; and of these I met with scarcely any who professed to teach the natives in their own tongue. Some of the Anglo-Hibernians at that time strongly maintained, that this dialect is so barbarous, that it cannot answer the purpose of instruction: others, that it would awaken the enthusiasm of the Wild Irish, (as they call them,) to make any attempt of this kind, and consequently that it might prove dangerous to the govern * See note E. ment and others, that they had no desire to be taught in Irish, and that it would be useless to send teachers among them for this purpose. Schoolmasters, however, of this very description have since been employed, and the people have received them with the utmost affection and gratitude.-But this subject is considered more fully in a subsequent part of this volume. The last circumstance which I shall notice as contributing to the preservation of the Irish language is, its association with popery. From the foregoing observations this particular must have been anticipated. It has been stated, that the priests, wherever it is necessary, are all acquainted with this tongue, while the protestant teachers are all ignorant of it, or at least do not take the trouble of making it the vehicle of religious instruction. This circumstance has become the occasion of considerable rancour and animosity. For, on the one hand, the understanding of English is the characteristic of Protestantism; on the other, the Irish tongue is the mark of Catholicism. This man hates his neighbour, because he speaks no Irish; and his neighbour treats him with contempt because he is not acquainted with English. By the principle of association, the Protestant confounds Irish with disloyalty and rebellion, and the Catholic considers English as allied to pro testantism and damnable error. This is only true, perhaps, of the uneducated part of the population; but it should be recollected, that when that population is immense, as in the present case, its very prejudices merit some degree of attention. The circumstance to which I have now alluded has given, I am persuaded, a very considerable influence to the Catholic superstition in Ireland; and there is no way in which that influence can either be counteracted or diminished, but by the adoption and prosecution of plans very different from those that have been hitherto pursued in reference to that country. It may, perhaps, be expected that I should deduce some inference from the Irish language respecting the probable origin of the Irish people. It has appeared that this is, with a very few variations, entirely the same as the Gaelic : it has also been shewn, that the great outlines of the Irish character are the same as those of the Highlander; and that the more minute shades of difference are to be ascribed to moral and political causes. The conclusion from this induction evidently is, that the Irish and the Highlanders are originally the same people. As to the question, whether the Irish emigrated from Scotland, or the Caledonians from Ireland, it appears to me, in point of utility, much the same as that of the Welchman, who endeavoured to ascertain, whether the Welch was the language of Adam and Eve in Paradise. CHAP. V. REMARKS ON SOME PARTS OF THE HISTORY OF IRELAND. MR. HUME remarks that the conquered provinces of free countries are more oppressed than those of absolute monarchies. "Com 66 pare," says he," the Pais conquis of France "with Ireland, and you will be convinced of "this truth; though this latter kingdom being "in a good measure peopled from England possesses so many rights and privileges as "should naturally make it challenge better "treatment than that of a conquered province. "Corsica is also an obvious instance to the "same purpose. Those principles in human nature which account for this general truth are very obvious; and the observation so far as it regards Ireland will be fully confirmed by a careful survey of the history of that country,since its conquest by Henry. Its situation before this period though Hume's Essay on Politics and Science, p. 30. |