guage spoken daily; but in the following pages the reader will find that all these resolutions were as nothing,-that in no instance did they lead to any course of action,—that each of them was but the expression of an unpursued order-Vox et præterea nihil. He will find that so entirely has the subject been neglected or opposed, that it is now above one hundred and sixteen years since the last of these public expressions of a sense of duty was uttered; and that, though Irish education and oral instruction were precisely what this people at that time required, and require still, then it was that in regard to these subjects, all parties at home drew the curtains and retired to rest. In the following pages the reader may then observe what others were doing elsewhere while they slept. In becoming more intimately acquainted with the sister kingdom, it will become a received maxim, that whatever evils exist, they are not to be, as they have often been, all run into one, or ascribed to one source, and of course one remedy or one species of benevolence cannot meet her condition. Each of those evils requires to be individually and wisely met with patience and kindness. Particular departments of her four provinces differ from each other as much as if they were a thousand miles apart, the main land is surrounded, especially on the west and south, by thousands of Islanders, living detached in the adjoining seas, and the whole population of seven millions and a half is divided into two distinct classes, who daily speak two very different languages. It is to one of these languages, the Native Irish, and the people who use it constantly, that our attention must be confined in the subsequent pages. If an accurate knowledge of the real state and condition of many a neglected district in Ireland be desired, it is absolutely necessary that a vigilant eye be fixed on this language. For illustration, I may ask, what should we think of any man, when referring even to Scotland 66 who should affirm, that in reference to it, there can be no pressing occasion for carrying education much farther at present, as the average now able to read there is about the highest in the world. If," he says, 66 you have one in nine, if not eight, able to read, what can you say to other countries?" I reply, we have first to say, in reference to Scotland, there happens to be another langauge spoken there, and that the average in our Highlands and Islands is but as one to sixteen or seventeen. Now in the same manner, when any writer with regard to Ireland numbers up her 560,000 English scholars, then looks at the average as one to twelve or thirteen, and begins to speculate as to the state of education—we have to add-but there is another language spoken there; and oh what a falling-off is here, whether we look at average or particulars! Perhaps not one in sixty able to read, and that only within these very few years, or one in two hundred under tuition, is an average sufficiently melancholy. But every average supposes certain particulars or exceptions, compared with which the average itself would be a paradise. Now for the actual state of things, whether as to education or oral instruction, in certain Irish mountains and plains and islands, we must refer the reader to what follows. ; Did this people constitute only a small proportion of the population, our duty by them would be the same but when their number in comparison with the aggregate body has become so large, it is not saying too much when we affirm, that there is nothing which essentially regards their best interests, that can safely be viewed as inferior to a subject of national importance. It is not denied that in contemplating the important interests of the United Kingdom, generally, the effectual improvement of Ireland is now the question of by far the greatest national importance. It is no longer important to Ireland alone, but almost equally so both to England and Scotland, and that not since the Union only, but since the application of steam-navigation. For though always lying in the bosom of Great Britain, as if intended by nature for the most intimate and cordial connexion, past ages have shown how possible it was for 'nations intersected by a narrow frith' to abhor each other. These days are now past, it is hoped, for ever; at all events, the estate is now one, and the moral condition of any given spot in it must needs become the interest of all, otherwise it cannot now be long before the effects are felt in every corner of the empire. Let not then the present condition of the Native Irish population be disregarded. Setting political union altogether out of view, a bridge across St George's Channel could not more effectually have opened up Ireland to us, or this country to it, than the invention referred to has done. To check or obstruct intercourse between the people of these lands, if once practicable, is now impossible. The channel between them is now no obstruction, and the people of both countries, to a great degree, like kindred waves, must affect each other, if not mingle into one. Already we have about ninety or one hundred thousand of the Irish in London, about or above thirty thousand in Glasgow and its neighbourhood, to say nothing of other places. Past neglect may be regretted; so it ought to be, and so it will; but the crisis to which we have come is not to be deplored. It had been far better for both countries had it arrived long since. An interchange of kind offices is now no more a thing of choice,-a matter of option, if we have any regard for the prosperity and morals of Great Britain; and it is a good thing, when circumstances conspire to render the duty we owe to God and man imperious. If we are governed by sound Christian principle, the improvement of such Irish districts must follow as one effect of such frequent inter course. This may, or, at least, certainly should rouse to the duties of brotherhood, and ultimately increase the sum of national happiness, and peace, and power. 'Tis thus reciprocating, each with each, In such circumstances, the history of a people, with reference to their intellectual and moral condition, must prove interesting as well as profitable, and an acquaintance with it is an incumbent duty. But the history of the Native Irish, as such in any sense, has never been written. Noticed they have been, casually, in connexion with Danish and Norman invaders,-with Saxon, and English, and Scottish settlers; but, viewed as an ancient and distinct race, with a language peculiar to themselves, to pursue the thread of their narrative is, at present, next to impossible. The following pages, therefore, must be considered merely as an attempt, accurate, I believe, as far as it goes, but still only an essay, which may perhaps be of some utility to a future historian. At the same time, the object in preparing these pages was neither the amusement of the writer, nor the mere entertainment of his reader. Interest him, he hopes, they will, but something beyond mere interest is intended. As to their moral condition in past ages and the present hour, here are certain tracts of our own country or kingdom laid open for consideration, but with no other view than to suggest how it is possible to convey something more than fugitive good, or temporal happiness only, to a long-neglected though warm-hearted people. When we say long-neglected, the reader will find that this is spoken advisedly, not in ignorance of all, or rather the little that has been done in past ages for the Native Irish, or of all that has been effected or proposed, within the last ten or fifteen years. Yet, with every disposition to rejoice in the recent exercise of more be nevolent feeling, it may still be added, when looking at the great body of this people,-without a vernacular literature, without books, without schools, and without the ministration of the divine word in their native language, why marvel at the state of many parts of this fine country? If Wales, unable or unwilling to help herself, which she was not, had been so left, what had been the condition of England?-If the Highlands and Islands, what the condition of Scotland? But the population of both these put together amounts not to above a third of the Native Irish in number. Besides, the inhabitants of Wales and the Highlands in general dwell apart and alone. It is not so with the Native Irish, as the following statements will prove. In every province of Ireland, and one might almost say in every county, there are to be found the Irish districts, properly so called. It is repeated, therefore, without a vernacular literature, and solid Christian oral instruction, among an ancient, shrewd, and interesting people, swarming through every part of the island, are there no specific and appropriate remedies? When speaking in good earnest of this country, the writer has been too often there, and seen too much of every province, to think for one moment of ascribing its present state to any one cause. He desires not to dwell so much on the presence of evil as the absence of good; but, until there be conveyed into the possession of this people, through the medium of their daily speech, some of the same blessings, which in ours have raised us to our present level, all other schemes and plans must prove in the infallible result just what they have ever done,-inefficacious and vain. On both sides of the channel considerable curiosity has recently been excited as to this particular branch of British subjects, but a distinct account of whatever has actually been done by them or for them does not exist. The first Section of this volume, therefore, refers more immediately to men and books; the second to schools of |