976
AN GAOḊAL.
were far superior to them in the social
scale.
Now, if those assembled at that con¬
vention be really the descendants of
Scotchmen, we exceedingly regret the
untenable attitude which they have
assumed. The genuine Scotchman and
Irishman are of the same flesh and
blood; and is it because they kneel at
different altars to-day that the dege¬
nerate offspring of Scotia Minor would
fain disavow the consanguineous bond?
Through the mouth of an English¬
man — a most bitter foe of Irishism
and Romanism — the Rev. William
Spalding, A. M., Prof. of Logic etc. in
the University of Saint Andrews, we
shall let our "Scotch Irish" brothers
know who and what they are, — We
quote from his History of English Li¬
terature, D. Appleton & Co., 1856.
The admissions which history com¬
pels this bigotted author to make in
relation to the Irish are by far more
valuable than volumes of laudation
from a friendly source. The foot notes
are ours. —
"INTRODUCTION.
I. Roman Period, B.C. 55 — A.D. 449
II. Anglo-Saxon — 449 — 1069. (Dark Ages)
III. Middle Ages — 1069 — 1509.
IV. Modern Times — 1509, to present time.
A hasty glance over the Roman or Classical pe¬
riod teaches two facts which we ought to know.
In the first place the only native inhabitants of
England, certainly with few exceptions, and per¬
haps without any, belonged to the great race of
Celts (a), Another Celtic tribe occupied Ireland,
and was spread extensively over Scotland.
Our Anglo-Saxon invaders were Goths of the
Germanic or Teutonic stock (b).
We do not look with much hope for literary cul¬
tivation among the Anglo-Soxons (c).
(a) Where are the Celts gone to? and they must
be numerous since the Romans were put to the
necessity of employing 70,000 soldiers to guard
them from the incursions of the Scots. If they did
emigrate (and we have not heard that they
did); they must be more numerous than the Goth¬
o-Saxon element.
(b) Why, then, assume a false name? Is it be¬
cause the Goths were so barbarous that you took
refuge under the mythical Anglen?
(c) And then, in the name of common sense and
decency, why compare ourselves to the cultivated
Celts?
"CHAPTER I.
Anglo-Saxon Times, A.D. 449 — 1066. (1)
During the Anglo-Saxon times, four languages
were used for literary communication in the Bri¬
tish islands.
Latin was the organ of the church and of learn¬
ing here, as elsewhere, throughout the Dark and
Middle Ages. Accordingly, till we reach Modern
Times, we cannot altogether overlook the literature
which was expressed in it, if we would acquire a
full idea of the progress of intellectual culture.
Of the other three languages, all of which were
national and living, one was the Anglo-Saxon, the
monuments of which, with its history, will soon call
for close scrutiny. The second and third were Cel¬
tic tongues, spoken by the nations of that race
who still possessed large parts of the country.
These, with their scanty stock of literary rem¬
ains, must receive some attention at present; al¬
though they will be left out of view when we pass
to those latter periods, in which the Germanic
population became decisively predominant in
Great Britain.
The first of the Celtic tongues has oftenest been
called Erse or Gaelic. It was common, with dial¬
ectic varieties only, to the Celts of Ireland and
those of Scotland. Ireland was wholly occupied
by tribes of this stock, except some small Norse
settlements on the seacoast. Whether Scotland be¬
yond the Forth and Clyde, was so likewise, is a
question not to be answered, until it shall have
been determined, whether the Picts, the early in¬
habitants of the eastern Scottish counties, were
Celts or Goths (2). It is certain, at least, that ei¬
ther before the Norman conquest, or soon after,
the Celtic Scots were confined within limits corres¬
ponding nearly with those which now bound their
descendants.
And here, while we are looking beyond the An¬
glo-Saxon frontier, it is to be noted that the Rom¬
ans did not conquer any part of Ireland, and that
their hold on the north and rest of Scotland was
so slight as to leave hardly any appreciable effect.
Of the two Celtic nations whose living tongue
was the Erse, Ireland had immeasurably the ad¬
vantage, in the success with which the verna¬
cular speech was applied to uses which may be
called literary.
To others must be left the task of estimating
rightly the genuineness, as well as the poetical me¬
rit, of the ancient metrical relies still extant in
the Irish language. They consist of many Bardic
Songs and Historical Legends. Competent critics
have admited the great historical value of the Prose
Chronicles, preserved to this day, which grew up,
by the successive additions of many generations,
in the monasteries of the 'Island of Saints'. In
the form in which these now exist, none of them
seems to be so ancient as the Annals compiled by
Tighernach, who died in the close of the eleventh
century, but it is believed, on good grounds, that,
both in this work, in the Annals of the Four Mas¬
ters, and in several such local records as the Ann¬
als of Ulster and Inisfallen, there are incorporated
(1) He ignores the Roman Period altogether
and spins out the next periods until the fifteenth
century, when he applies himself to the English
language which was then in its infancy.
(2) The Goths and Vandals, the forefathers of
the Anglo-Saxons, were the most sage, ferocious
and barbarous tribes of northern Europe.
