ences, vast and varied. I arranged the queries according to three three leading heads, viz. :-I. Under the System of Teaching previous to the introduction of the Code; II. Under the Code Regulations; and III. Under a Modification of the Code. Those divisions respectively refer to the past, the present, and the probable future. And now, after a careful analysis of the replies, and a pretty thorough sifting of the evidence obtained, I may state the result, as follows:-the numbers given being per centages of the aggregate opinions :— I.-Under the system of teaching previous to the introduction of the Code, or keeping out of view its present regulation and system of Standards :: 1. To what extent should Gaelic be used in teaching the children?-47 per cent. would read Gaelic and teach it fully; 42 would use it only for explanation of lessons; 8 would ignore it wholly; and 3 state no opinion. 2. Would the time required by them in learning to read Gaelic fluently be better spent in acquiring English alone?-51 answer no; 45, yes; and 4 are doubtful. 3. When the General Assembly's Committee, about 1826, started their scheme of Highschools, they issued a regulation that children should be first taught a course of Gaelic reading and after that English : :--- (a) Was this a wise regulation?-41 reply in the affirmative, but some of these qualify their replies; 47 deny the wisdom of the regulation; and 12 give no reply. (b) Was it carried out in practice?-15 reply that it was; 30 that it was partially; 31 that it was not; and 22 are doubtful, or give no opinion. (c) If not, were the parents or teachers to blame ?-18 answer the parents; 12 the teachers; 30 both parents and teachers; 2 neither; and 38 doubtful, or give no reply. (d) Would the children at the age of 10, or after four years' schooling, be better or worse English readers than if taught without Gaelic reading?-51 answer better with Gaelic; 36 worse; and 13 doubtful, or give no reply. (e) Would it entail less labour upon teachers and pupils to take Gaelic reading after a fair course of English ?-32 favour Gaelic teaching, and affirm it would entail more labour; 55 state the contrary; and 13 are silent or undecided. II. Under the Code regulations, as now in force : 1. Is Gaelic reading now less taught than formerly ?-81 state that it is less taught; 8 deny this; 9 are not certain, and give no reply. 2. Is the simple reading of Gaelic at all necessary, in addition to oral explanation, as a means towards securing passes in the standards?-18 reply that Gaelic reading is necessary, or ought to be; 73 that it is not; 5 are doubtful; and 2 do not venture an opinion. 3. Should Gaelic be made a specific subject?-70 that it should; 22 the contrary; 1 is doubtful; and 7 are silent. 4. Would children learn Bible knowledge and Scottish History more easily in Gaelic?41 that they would; 26 that they would, Bible knowledge only; 28 are opposed to the idea; and 5 give no reply. III.-Under a modification of the Code: 1. Were individual examination of children under 10 abolished, and Gaelic made a special and paid subject for children over 10 (a) When should Gaelic reading be commenced?-22 reply at five years of age, or when children enter school; 2 reply at 6; 2 at 7; 5 at 8; 14 at 9; 30 at 10; 4 at 11: 2 at 12; and 2 at 13; 9 cry out never; and 8 are silent. Here the greatest number say at 10 years of age; but 45 per cent. prefer below, or at 9; and 38 prefer a higher age. (b) Should grammar in a simple form be attempted?-55 reply yes; and 33 no, but not a few of them on the ground that Highland children always speak Gaelic grammatically; while 12 give no reply. IV.-Training of teachers, &c. :- 1. What special means should be adopted for training teachers?-33 wish students to attend Gaelic classes in Normal Schools; 23 that they attend the lectures of the Celtic Professor; 12 no training; 8 are doubtful; and 24 give no reply. 2. To what extent should salaries be increased for teaching Gaelic ?-45 advocate grants as for other special subjects under the Code; 11 would increase the present salaries from to: 13 desire grants of from £5 to £10; 11 are against any increase; and 20 do not reply. In addition to the above queries, I requested the parties addressed to favour me with any other particular information about Gaelic and its Teaching within their reach; assuring them, however, that their replies and information should be considered private, unless they otherwise desired, considering that this would have the effect of drawing out more freely the opinions that existed, and in this I have not been disappointed. The information is profuse and the suggestions are various and opposite in character. Upon one point, however, they appear to be almost all agreed, in the rapid decline of Gaelic both in and out of school. There appears to be large districts of the Highlands where, within a few years, it has almost entirely ceased to be used. In the Highlands of Perthshire, which I know best, it surprises me much to find that it is not taught there now, and that in two at least of its largest and most Highland parishes, the people are almost Saxonised, and only a small minority of the teachers know Gaelic. Another striking fact presents itself. The replies shew that at least 20 per cent. of my list of clergymen, teachers, and others throughout the Highlands, who know Gaelic and whose duty it is to use it, make no secret of their wish to see it dead and gone. A teacher in the West Highlands writes that the Committee of Presbytery who annually examined his school never asked whether the children could read the Bible in their native tongue. Another intelligent teacher in the North-West Highlands states that he taught Gaelic successfully before the introduction of the Code and was paid for it, as many others were, in terms of his Government certificate; but that it is now necessarily neglected in their schools, as the Inspectors ignore it, and besides, "School Boards, as a rule, disapprove of its being taught, for they are composed of lairds, factors, clergymen, doctors, and sheep-farmers-classes which generally have very few Celtic sympathies, indeed a strong desire to have the whole race Saxonized right off,—and although teachers may continue from a sense of duty and patriotic motives to teach the vernacular, such teaching is not efficient as the grants are not thereby increased." A worthy Parish Minister in Argyleshire attributes much of the prevailing ignorance and immorality to the want of Gaelic teaching, and deplores that "children who have been years at school can neither read their own language, nor any other as they ought"; and adds, that "in some remote parts a puppy of a Highland laird may denounce Gaelic and Gaelic teaching, and have his whims too frequently gratified by obsequious tenants and schoolmasters." Yet he knows that " many schoolmasters have done a great deal of good by teaching thousands of children to read their Bibles at home for their own spiritual edification and that of their parents, who could neither understand English nor read Gaelic." Take also the following remarks sent me by a good old minister, of whose piety and truth I once knew well, now located in one of the remoter Hebrides. He says, "I am pained with the horrible fact that one-seventh of the Gaelic-speaking population cannot read the Word of God in their native tongue, and it is disgusting to see the manner in which some teachers speak, write, and translate our expressive language, powerful in its very simplicity." And sad to say the same state of matters is not confined to teachers and teaching, it extends to preachers and preaching. An excellent Gaelic scholar and an eminent divine, the Rev. Alex. M'Gregor of Inverness, favours me with his experiences, but I prefer to quote from a published paper of his in the Celtic Magazine of July last, and I only wish time and space would allow me to quote the whole of it. Writing about the "Present Position of Highlanders," he states that "preachers and teachers possessing a thorough acquaintance with the Gaelic language, the mother. tongue of the Highlanders, are become 'few and far between."" Also that as "preachers are possessed only perhaps of a meagre provincial knowledge of Gaelic, orally acquired in whatever district may have been their birthplace, they go blundering and stammering through their uncouth addresses, regardless of the idiom, grammar, and beautiful structure of the language, and thereby eliciting the smiles of the heedless, as well as the sorrow of the pious and the devout." And further, to quote his words"Can it be permitted in a highly privileged nation that hundreds of thousands of our people should remain unable to read the Word of God in their own language, and should be denied the privilege of listening to a purely preached Gospel in that language?--the language that raises their souls in devout aspirations to the living God, and the language which alone. comes home to their minds with enchanting power." And all this he states is owing to the system so long practised, whereby Gaelic is not only neglected, but despised by the better classes, and, in consequence, banished and utterly excluded from the schools, as a thing not to be tolerated. (To be concluded in our next.) SHERIFF NICOLSON ON OSSIAN.-In a lecture on the "Poetry of the Scottish Highlands" recently delivered before the Edinburgh Literary Institute, the genial and learned Sheriff Nicolson " gave in his adhesion to the authenticity of the poems collected by Macpherson under that name (Ossian), and protested in vigorous terms against the impudence and effrontery of Saxon critics who dared to speak on this question without having a single Gaelic word to bless themselves with. To the question whether these poems were really good and worth reading, he answered unhesitatingly in the affirmative; and asked his audience, after having given them a specimen, whatever they might believe as to the authenticity of the Ossian poems, at anyrate to believe in their inspiration. Passing to the lyric poetry of the Highlands, he said it was settled that this did not date farther back than the last 300 years. This lyric poetry might be said to be a terra incognita, of the natural beauty and richness of which no stranger had any idea; and in order to their better appreciation of his statement on this point, the learned lecturer favoured his hearers with a few choice morceaux culled from four poets, who, he said, had been acknowledged to stand in the front rank of the Highland bards."-Glasgow Highlander. TO THE EDITOR OF THE CELTIC MAGAZINE. SIR,-In the Inverness Courier of 11th January, I was amused by finding a letter from the well-known Celtic scholar, Mr Carmichael of Creagory, Benbecula, in which along with a pleasant account of the mildness of the climate in those far western regions, there was an allusion to certain verses which I had written in disparagement of the aspect of Nature in that part of the world. The passage in the letter is as follows: We still have primroses in our garden, and we have had a succession of them there all the year round. And, besides primroses, we have just now in bloom daisies, marigold, forget-me-nots (myosotis dissitiflora), carnations, gladioli, geraniums, and roses. A cynical poet says As well seek roses in December As faithfulness in women. At the present time we could give this misanthrope a handful of the most beautiful carmine roses to cure him of his disease. Your friend Alick, who follows his mother in her love of flowers and plants, is sending you some rosebuds and carnations as a Christmas gift. Several of our rose trees in front of the house have rosebuds in different degrees of development. We have had Christmas roses and chrysanthemums in flower for some time past, and we have the crocus, tulip, and narcissus already far advanced. Of course all these are grown in the open air, and without any artificial heat whatever. Nor need I hardly remind you how completely exposed our house and gardening are to the Atlantic gales, nor that when we came here four years ago, the surroundings of our house were in a state of nature. I mention these things to show that something, even of the poetic as well as the prosaic productions of nature, can be grown, and that in great delicacy and beauty, even in Benbecula, the scathing anathema of the high-souled Åltnacraig notwithstanding !— O, God forsaken, God detested land, Of bogs and blasts, and moors and mists and rain. This is New-Year's day, and a most delightful day it is. The wind is calin and the sun is warm and bright. Now, what I have to say in reference to this matter is, that the four lines here quoted were not part of a serious composition, but a skit of goodhumoured banter in reference to an accident that befell the linen of myself and Inspector Jolly, when hospitably entertained in those parts. But I did write a serious composition-fourteen lines of a sonnet-which, as they have not yet been printed, I may as well give to the light on the present occasion. A word of explanation as to the opening line is required. When in that part of the world, I ascended the Ben-not a very high one-from which the Island of Ben-Becula takes its name— and, of course, had a free survey of that flat country in all the range, from the mountains of Harris in the North to the heights of Barra in the extreme South. I also had, of course, a full view of the extraordinary manner in which the east shore of the country is cut up by irregular tongues of water that give it a drenched appearance, which, combined with the bleakness of the moors, and the blackness of the peat-bogs, and the smoke of the burning kelp, produce an effect not at all genial to the eye of the aesthetical tourist. When making this bleak survey from the height, I was informed by my fellow-traveller, that a learned gentleman, whom he had decoyed into those regions, on casting his eye round, had given vent to his feelings in a grim iambic, thus O, God forsaken, God detested land! With which sentiment at the time, I felt only too much inclined to agree. I had not, however, been long in the country before I learned that the flat islands in those extreme regions, are like a medal, with copper on one side and silver on the other. The side exposed to the Atlantic, so far from presenting the wet and rugged aspect of the eastern shore, is chiefly made up of long stretches of grassy machars, redolent of rich clover, abounding like the Homeric Argos, in horses, and producing milk and butter of the most delectable savour, and the most nutritious quality. Considering this, and reflecting on how many harsh and uncharitable judgments both of men and things are passed in the world, from the hasty trick of making the worse aspect of a thing pass for the whole, I expressed my better judgment in the following sonnet : NORTH UIST. "O, God forsaken, God detested land, Half drowned in water, and half-swathed in mist, With leagues of ragged waste on either hand, And by the Sun's rare glimpses coldly kissed! Say, did the Almighty Regent of the sky, Or did he turn his back, and leave half dry Of green delights He left a shining track In grassy swells that fringe the bright blue sea, And fragrant knolls, where the fresh sea breeze passes To which old lines I add the following, dashed off to-day, by way of registering in verse some of the floral contents of Mr Carmichael's letter: 66 O, God forsaken, God detested land, Of bogs and blasts, and moors and wind and rain!" As fools are wont to spare themselves the pain We spread our Summer greenness to mild skies, -Yours, &c., EDINBURGH, 16th Jany. 1877. JOHN STUART BLACKIE. |