To The Editor Of The Time...
Sir,-I do not wish to tihink you determinied alol to be convinced, but really there is a pertinacity in youir adherence to your opinion, andu a cavalier contempt of evidence (which you yet admit " may be respectable"), that compels me to regard1 you as one who, convinced against hiis will, Is of the same opinion still." Vou miust bear with me also, if I express my convictioln, that you know little of the natare of thelrish language, or the character a.ntl citrcusmtaaces of the lower Irish pcople, when you maintain, that " fewv or no natives of Ireland, beyond lhae and there a linguist, curious in atrique lore, can read a word in the IriSh character." illy authority. certainly, is of little weight per se; but I state, on in- formation derived from persons who were nieither themiiselves deceiv- ed, nor intended to deceive me, that, upon a mederate calculation, there are 10,000 persons in Irelantl at this time capable of reading and understanding that language , and those, not, of the " learned in anique lore." but the. huniblest peasantry. Yot seem, Sir, not to be aware, that there does not exist a more simple or more easily agquired laniuage than the Irish. Its grammatical construe- tian, its rules of syntax, and the inflections of its nouna and verbs, atr tittainable by ans' moderate capacity in avery short time; this is thie case with persons previously igniorant of it altogether, and much more as with those whosc colloquial language it is fromn their youthi. Those viho tspeak it flaently can leatr wi(h case to read it in a few weeks, supposing them prevto:sly unacquainted withi any rlphabet whatever. It is still more accessi- ble to those who can read English. I have seen instances where tke rudlestclown's have acquire(i the Ifi3h alphaiaet, and the elements of spelling, in a few days; and whiose delight at liearing the Scriptures read to them in their native language was actutialyi amusing, from its sitiplicity and intenseness. In ihe more peculiarly Irish districts (Coniatigit tint Illtiister) the facility of speaking and preaching to the people in that latifdaye, Is justly appreciated by the Roman Ca- tholic Clergy, who exercise by this mneans an indluence over their poor anti ignoranit flocks, that the educated clergymen of the esta- blished church, kiiowing every language but that of their own eoun- trr, vainly emulate. I was acquaintted with two Protestant clergymen vho used to preach occasionallv in Irish, and notwithstan,ing the fttlmiinations fromn the aftar by the Romish pricsts,their churches were crowded bythelowerclasses of the Roman Catholics; anm I am per- stiaded that ifour EstablisheedClergyin Ireland werecapableofreading the Scriptures, and addre5sing the people in the Irish langniage, we ..hould have less reason to complain of defections amotng the poor Protestants, and to enumerate many niore instances of conversion from Popery. This I assert on personal experience also, baviiig lived many years aS parish minister in lilunster, where I would gladly havo exchanged Greek and Latin for a greater facility in reading and speaking Irish. The fallaciousness of your argumient'" from a particular to a universal," will be detectedl by thc mere undergraduate. Becaulse some boaster or knave chose to amuse himscf with giving vou ex- aggerated accounts of wshat he professed to have done, saying " that he had taught 50,000 Irishmen to rea.d that lanagrce," you argue, m'ost illogically, thaLt a considerably underrated estimate, upon au- thority weighed and sifted bv men of integrity, both in Enaland and Ireland,' and put forth in repeatetl publicaiions, which have never been controverted except by yourself, must of necessity be cqually false. Such an " arl" will not do. You ask for " evidence of the statement that 8,000 adults were tught by the London IHibernian So- ciety to read tie Irish language in one ,ear. Now, Sir, if you consult tie inanuscriptof my former leater you will observe(to the best of niy recollection, for I kept ;o copy) that I did not state that number to have been tatight in (oinC /ear. I certaiilv did state that 1.d00 persons had been prepared by the " lriah Societv," in the county Meathi alone, to read that language in nine mnonT7ls; this I asserted on the authority of the committee of that Societv, froni whose Se- cretary I took down the statement in Dublin last April; and I saw the documents authenticating Sitat statemept, in which there was no possible reason to suspect any exaggeration whatsoever. The " 8,000 adults" made the aggregaite number taught hy tihe London Hibernian Society, not in one year, but in several, if I utnderstano.' rightly the language of their annual report, for 1123. Thesc with the pupils unaer tile Baptist Irisn Society, according to the last re- port, make up the full number already stated, wbo (however incre- dulouis yoa may be), I msust repeat, are capable at this time of readling antI understanding -lhe Irish language in the Irish character. As to " the polics of striving to perpetuate that langtiace," * (sn and I, anti all who wish well to Ireland, are perfectly aFrecd. The sooner the Irish langua.e is abolished, tte hctter. \Ve differ, how- ever, as to the means of abolishing it; and I beg yotir attention to a few extracts from the first report of the Irish Sccicty of L,ondon to provc that if you wottld iutrodutcc slic English, vou c;;n onlv doit through the medium of the Irish lanutar.e.-l ann, Sir. resnectfalhl youlrs WILLIAM ALLEYN EVANSON. o, union-trerrace, uamfen-tosrrn, ?Nov. i;. " If it were desirable that the Irishl languege should ultimately give placc to the prevalence of the English. thc most efectual mc- thod tn accomplish that object would be to teach the more Irish to read their vernacular tongue; and this i- proved by ti-e followiug po- sitive evidence of the effect of that plan among the Wi'clsh, Scutch, and Germans. The Rev. G. Jones, in his account of schools. ob- serves, that in attempting to banish Wl elslh by teaching English. English chlarity schools prodluced no efiecus whatever in the country parts. All that thie children learned in threce, tour, or five vears, was to re:rd some easy parts of the English Bible, vithout knowing its mcaning, and thev soon forgot it. Thus, though so long at Eng- lish schools, they could not edify themselves or others. by rcadling, until they learned lately to read in their niative tongue at the We[lsh schools. And he adds these emiphatic words, as the result of his observation,-' Experience proves bevond di8pute. that ii ever it be axttentptetl to bring all the Welsh peoplc to underxtandl English, we cannot better pave the way for it, than by teach- ing then to read their own language first.' The Reverend T. Charles, of' Bala (WVales), writes, that in the beginning, the strong prejudice universally prevailing against teachirg to read Welsh first, anti the itdea assumed, that they woultl not learn 1nglish so well, if previously instructedt in Welsh, proved a great stumbling block; now, however, these groundless.conceits ire universally ex- plodetd. Again, if you teach Engmlish first. the same will occur as in the Highlands, where persotns were not unfrequently found readlinz English fluently, witltosit understanding a word of it, but if you instruct them in Gaelic first, everv word, learned or pronounced in reading, will hlave at once a meaning, because they have been ac- ustomed touscand hearit litconversation. Thesamegentleman observes, I can vouch for the truth of it. I That there are twentV to one who can now read English, to what could when the Welsit was entirelv neglected. Thie knowledge of the English is become necessary for the treasures contasined in it. English boLks are no-w generally called for; there are now a liundred English books, I amii sure, for every one that was in the country wslen I removed from England, and first became a resident- in these parts; mttl I have been obliged to send young men to English schools to be trained up for Engliish teachers, that I might be able, in some degree, to answer thd general demand for them.' "Attempts had been made for about 30 vears to introduce the Ger- m,'an languaste arng the Wendens, wfiose country began about three miles from gerlin, a people who *ised tihe Sclavonian language, by keeping them in ignorance of every thing which might have been learned through the medium of their own written laiiguage. To that end a German school was set tsp at every church ; to most of their congregations were sent Germian pastors, ignorant of the ScIa- vonic tongue, anfid no books printed in the language. The attempt conpletely failed, while the mtiscrable people vere in the most un- happy condition, destitiste of all spiritual knowledge. CQwing, however, to the pious labour of the Rev. Gotlieb Fabricius, the system waos Ctarged. The New Testament and a Catechism were translated into-the Veenden tongue-scheols for teachingwere set up- a taste for reading was induced, antd the consequence was, that the people of their own accord afterirards learneil Gdrman, so that vhat was believed woultd prove an hindrance to their acquisition of the German tongue, did, on the contrary, tend to Its increase. M1 JWe will now for a mnomentadvert to the contrast of the littlewbich had been done for the people of Ireland in the year 1810 in providing thern the nmeans of instruction in their own language, wvven compared with what had been profided fot others within the kingdom of Great Britain, under similar circumstances as to language with Ireland. For 20,e00 speakers of Mlanks, 25,0M0 Bibles and religious books have been provided, besides tile Bible stereotyped in tbieir language. For 400,000fGaeiscspealkers in the Highlands and the HebTides.50,000 Bibles and Testaments. For 690,000 Wirelsh, 100,000 Bibles and Testaments. For 2,000,00(1 o' Irish, speaking exclusively that language, 3,000 Bibles and Testaments only.+ Surely the Churcs of England is culpably supine, while shte sees bodies of Dissefiteis4 of various denominations, labouring in that field ripe for the harvest, without gathering a single sheaf into ier own bosom. And while a professorship of Irish is established in the College of illaynooth, to vhich an annual grant is made by Parlia- ment, an advantage is given to the Ronian Catholic vwbich we neglect to embrace. History tells us the advantage we lose. In the year 168, Antrim having been deserted by the Irish, on the landing of the English army near Carrickfergus, many families from the We6- tern islesof Scotland, who understood no other language than Irish, settled there, on their first coining to Irelanid, theyattenletd the seor. ship of the establishetl church, bat soon, being incapable of under. standing the service celebrated there, went over co the church of Romc, ou3y for the benefit, as they themselves acknowledged, of those exhortations which are usually given in Irish, where that lan- guage is prevalent. A certificate given by the Provost and Fellows of Trinity College, Dtblin, te a person who kad taught the students Irish, contains the following remark of that learned bodv:-' We are humbly of opinion, if the said work were promoted and en- couraged, it would prove a means, by frod's blessing, to convert the nadve Itish. and bring themn over to the Established Church:' and anmong the persons signing this certificate, we find the veserablc names of Bald win and Gilbert. "iThe very circumstance of the scantiness of boolcs in the Irish lan- guage is not without ihs advantages, inasniuch as it affords an oppor- euruity of cemmunicating the benefits of Teligious instruction, frec frorn the risk of corrupting the mnind by the productions of a iicen- tious and immoral press. It is the part of wisdomn to take pos- * Extract from the Ninth Report of the Hiberniasr Bible Soetety:- " Your Committee next turned their attention to the propriety of furnishing our fellor-countrymnen .vlth the Scrtitures in the Irish langutage. Oin tte lst ofJune, 1814, a Sub-committee vas appolnted for the inveatigation of this sinb3eet: and it was not tlll January last that theirreport was presented, and thesubject finallydtseaissedIn the committee. Thus a space of nearly eight months v::s tryen to the examination of the subject. and to the acquiring of such lnformation from different quarters as might ensable your committee t.a form the souuidistjudgmentin a matter of somuchimportance. The result was. tebat yourCommittee recommended it to theCommittee of the Brltish and Forefgon Bible Society, that there slhould be printed for circulation in Ireland an edltlon of the New Testament, con,tainUng,ii puiritiel columrns on the same page, the English version and the Irisi tran.slation In the Irtsh character." t Since th9 yearl8t5, 20,000lTestamnents ard 5,000 Bibles have been prlnted In the Irish chalrseter and ia,mgura6e by tho British and Foreign I Bble Societr'. Trhe venerable SocIety at iartsestt -butsdings. for Pro- motisig Christian Knowledgc. ha's made coussldecable progress in printing the Bible in tbe Irish chsaracter an d type. session of the field before an enemy plaits his standard upon it. In the words of Dr. Jolnson, -Let it he remembered, that &IC efficacy of ignorance has long been tried, and has not produced tha consequence expected. Let knowledge, therefore, take its turn, a-id let thc natrons o.' privation stand awhile osiele, and adnit theoper.- tion of pyositive principles.' It would be well, if all the advoeates for the exclusive use of the English language partook of the bcnevo- lent spirit of the Bishop of St. Asaph, in his chargeofl 710-' L ~liahalt be very glad for myg sa;e, tha:t there were but one Janguagc ommortn to il, and shst one Englssh, but tilt that wisl can beac- ninnlishedl 1 heartily desire tle larigusee of the minister may bi alwvavs UC as wiD best instruct andedifs' his reople.' *' TO TPIE EDITOIt op THlE TimfEs.