a whole century of sad neglect, there are seven millions and a half! It is, therefore, to the natural increase of the people themselves that we must look for the great cause of the present number who speak, and who will speak Irish. This is their mother-tongue. Much has been said, if not written, on the influence of the female character, and here it must be own→ ed, the influence is somewhat like, or rather somewhat more than imperial authority. I need not here ask if any effort has ever been made, commensurate with the necessities and number of the people, to instruct them in the art of reading through this medium; which, however strange it may still sound, is the only measure which could have effectually reduced the proportion of Irish speakers. The language, therefore, of course, has gone on to increase with the natural increase of the population.

I am quite aware of its being almost every where replied in answer to all this,—“ But the English language is increasing, and in many districts." I know it is so, and that it cannot be otherwise, but this is no criterion by which to judge of the broad surface of Ireland. The question is not whether the English language is increasing, or has been, in certain given places, for of this there is no doubt,-but whether the Irish language on the whole has all this time been declining, that is, declining every where, so as to come down from its high proportion in the mountains and hills as well as the plains; or rather in the country at large, as well and as generally as in the immediate vicinity of cities and great towns. There is no competent individual who will say that it has; but if not, then look at the natural increase of the whole island, and then say, is it unaccountable that, instead of one million, as in the days of old, we should now find more than three, if not nearly four, who daily use this tongue ?

The fact is, that the true cause which has kept up the proportion of those who speak Irish, and must do so, if they speak at all, has been in general overlooked. Those who use this language have from time immemorial inhabited at least all the remote, all the mountainous and less fertile regions of every county, and almost, if not all, the islands. Meanwhile those of them, a mere tything, who came into towns or their neighbourhood, were laying aside their native language, and their chil

dren also of course spoke English, while no instance could be found in such parts of persons laying aside that tongue; hence it was concluded by some, that the Irish language was upon the decline, the great natural increase of those who used it elsewhere, and on a far larger scale, being altogether excluded from the general estimate.

To magnify the number of the Irish population, properly so called, the present writer can have no temptation, nor any interest whatever to serve, were he to attempt it. He has, however, been too long acquainted with this interesting part of the kingdom, to rest satisfied with the vague assertions of individuals on this subject ; and as he feels assured that this is a question of essential importance to the effectual illumination of the Native Irish people, all that he desires is to arrive at the knowledge of the facts of the case. It is happily now too late to bring forward general assertions, the advocates for a trifling Irish population must come to particulars. It is very possible, that, in some instances, the number in certain counties may have been mistaken and overstated,-in others, I have little doubt, it has been the reverse. But there is one most important reason for the truth as to every single county being no longer concealed. English education is making delightful progress in Ireland; now, if there is any desire for the effectual and permanent advance of that education, then should the proportion of those who daily speak Irish be calmly and impartially ascertained and observed. In the north or north-west of Ireland, the writer himself has seen scholars reading English who did not understand the language; and as for the south, when referring to scholars in its largest county, it has been said, "of these the greater part derive no eventual advantage from their schooling, being recalled at an early age; mixing then with a family who speak only Irish, the little smattering of English they had acquired is soon lost." Again, speaking of this immense county, embracing a population at this moment approachto 800,000 souls, Mr Townsend has said, " except in the towns they seldom use any language but Irish, and, even in some of the best cultivated districts, most of the people speak no other; they are, however, willing enough to send their children to school when the opportunity offers, though the little (English) they learn there is often forgotten soon after they return to their parents.

豪

The truth is, that large sums of money have been spent in vain, both in Wales and our Highlands, in former years, simply in consequence of reversing the order of nature, by teaching English first, and before the reader could comprehend a word." There is no occasion for doing the same thing over again in Ireland; but if it should be persisted in, the result will be the same. Sooner or later education must begin, wherever Irish is daily used, as it now does both in Wales and the Highlands —that is, if we are in earnest as to two objects—the moral benefit of education, and even the extension of the English tongue. I suspect, however, that at present money is thus spending in vain, in many instances, where it would go five times farther if the mother-tongue were employed as the medium. At all events, of the large sums voted by Parliament from this country for Irish education, none of it is at present applied towards the native Irish language!

If Irish, therefore, requires to be used at all in the business of education and oral instruction, and of this, I am sure, there need be no question now,-for whatever may be said, there is certainly no help, no substitute for it, but this being granted, my deliberate impression for some time has been, that there are certainly not fewer than three millions who require it. Two

* "I could find thousands in the Highlands of Scotland who will read the English Bible tolerably well, but cannot understand more than yes or no; and being thus obliged to continue reading a language completely unintelligible to them, it gives them no pleasure but rather disgust; and the moment they leave school, if they remain at home in those districts where nothing but their mother-tongue is spoI know some men ken, they lay their books aside, and never look at them more. who were at Inverness at their education sixty years ago; they could read and write (English) when they left school, and to-day cannot read any." After mentioning that the pastors of this people preach to them in their own language, the writer adds "The clergy read no more than the text, whereas if they would read, every Lord's day, a chapter or two out of the Holy Scriptures, the people in that case would be inclined to bring their Bibles and follow the minister. Even in the present day, I venture to say, that there are a few of the clergy in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland that cannot read a chapter out of the Gaelic Bible." Letter from a Highland clergyman, in a " Prize Essay on the State of Knowledge in the Highlands of Scotland, by John Anderson, W. S., 1827." p. 109.-It would be easy to corroborate the first statement by letters addressed to the present writer from the Highlands fifteen and sixteen years ago. I quote this simply as a recent and independent testimony. But what will the writer of this letter or the author who prints it say to the present condition of Ireland, as already described in preceding pages? But the Gaelic population is scarcely 400,000,-the Native Irish is eight if not ten times the number.

millions, the number specified in the memorial of 1814, will be found in Connaught and Munster alone,―a number equal to the whole population of Scotland!

At the same time, I cannot conclude without observing, that until Irish oral instruction make some advance, no wonder that there should be perplexity or contradiction with regard to the number of those who require to be taught to read the Irish language in the first instance. "There are, it may be," says the sacred writer, 66 so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them without signification. And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped? For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?" But in any country, every such instance of oral instruction is not only music to the ear,—it is like a torch illuminating the path of incumbent duty. Following in this path, education must come with a relish to the mind. "Doth not the ear try words as the mouth tasteth meat?" is one of the oldest proverbs in the world,—twice recorded in perhaps the most ancient written composition in existence.

SECTION VI. .

THE ISLANDS OF IRELAND

Viewed apart, by themselves, as an object demanding special consideration and assistance, including the number of inhabitants in each Island.

ONE important feature of Ireland, hitherto passed over in a vague and general style by all writers, consists in the great number of islands scattered round her shores, in most of which the Irish language is generally, in many almost exclusively, spoken. The extreme length of Ireland is 306 miles, its extreme breadth 207, and, speaking loosely, the circumference is about 880 miles. "The sinuous line of its seacoast, however, exclusive of such parts as lie within estuaries, or above the first good anchorage in every harbour, but inclusive of the river Shannon, as far as the tide reaches, and the shores of Bantry Bay, Dunmanus Bay, and Kenmare river, will, if accurately followed through all its windings, be found to measure 1737 miles. In this line there are not fewer than one hundred and thirty harbours, and places where ships may anchor for a tide, or find shelter."* Round the coast of this fine country, and including her inland lakes, the number of islands and islets cannot be calculated at less than six hundred. In Clew Bay alone, on the west coast, the islands, islets, holms, and rocks above the surface of the water, have been rated, I think,

* Newenham's View of Ireland, 4to, London, 1809, p. 6.