Blair Collection > Celtic magazine > Volume 5

164 THE CELTIC MAGAZINE.
upwards of 300,000 Highlanders spoke Gaelic only, but the introduction of the word
"only" by Mr Koss was, of course, unintentional, though it comes in well as a prop to
his otherwise weak-kneed paragraph. Other paragraphs are equally unstable, and cuuld
just as easily bo tumbled over if time permitted. (Applause.) The man who composed
that paragraph is too clever by half. (Cheers.) I am not, however, done with Mr Ross.
This Society has given him 24 pages of their last volume of Transactions for an abuse of
themselves, which, in my opinion, for this reason alone, they thoroughly deserve. I
cannot understand why we at all exist as a Society if all Mr Ross says regarding us is
true ; and even if true, to publish his charges in our Transactions and at our own
expense is a thing for which I can see no legitimate reason, and a thing against which
I strongly protest. At the rate I pay for printing, his two papers cost the Society about
£10, and circulation for nothing. (Laughter.) This is a great deal more than in my opi-
nion they are woi th. (Applause.) He then, at page 79, goes on to cumulate all the bad
things said of the Celt by the enemies of the race for the last century and a half, pretty
much as follows .-—That the Celt is an impediment vanishing before civilization like
the Red Indian ; that from the dawn of history he has been centuries behind, hugging
crass creeds which more enlightened people had abandoned ; the best articles of his
theology are disjointed fragments [Where are the Rev. Dr Mackay and other orthodox
clergymen of the r^orth ?— (cheers and laughter)]; they are given to transparent pre-
tence ; they possessed incoherent eloquence [perhaps like my own— (oh ! and laughter)];
a volcanic tendency to revolt ; they have been visionaries dead to the laws of facts ;
pretentious bards ; and when not dreamers, they have been scourges in lands which
they failed to conquer or till. The best, the most law-abiding of them, have seldom
got beyond a melancholy wail, except when passion, the attribute of animal nature,
has driven them into fits of revenge ; until they change they can have no kindred with
the friends of progress or social reform. Their language is a fitting article for savage
imagery, and crude, conglomerate thinking ; their philosophies are audacious myths
or shreds of savage survivals ; and their much vaunted poetry is stolen or appropriated
from more fertile fields whenever it rises above the dignity of scurrilous twaddle, or
extends beyond the borders of rude elemental lyric. (Oh !) I did not think that there were
such a terrible lot of adjectives in Ogilvie's dictionary. (Laughter.) He admits that
this is a fierce indictment, but he has no doubt that a certain egotistical class of Celts
(like the members of this Society) merit this charge. (Oh ! oh !) He then goes
on to say in the same strain that that ignorant type of Highlander, who sees no
manly virtue except beneath the kilt, which, in his ignorance, he calls the national
garb ; who hears no sweet sound except that of the bagpipes, which with equal ignor-
ance he calls the national instrument ; and who finds no poetry except in <>aelio,
which he regards as the national language. Gentlemen, what an ignoramu.s the High-
lander has al» ays been before we had inspectors of schools— (loud laughter) — to think that
Gaelic was his national language. (Laughter.) What was it? This typical Celt is alto-
gether ignorant of the merest elements of his ancestral history ; he preaches manliness
and toadies to the nearest lord— [Where are you John Murdoch? (applause)]— his func-
tion is to ignore facts and to ovei-rule the laws of social polity and national sequence.
(Oh ! oh !) He calls himself a reformer, and he advocates a return to the kilt,
to the bagpipes, to Gaelic, all of which he loudly asserts to possess high national
antiquity as well as high national virtues ; but the Celtic savant in Europe— Mr Ross
of course ; and what a blessing it is we have ouu modest Celt — (gnat laughter) — knows
that the kilt is neither ancient nor Gaelic ; that the bagpipe is Sclavonic, and not
the national instrument of the Gaelic people ; and that Gaelic itself is a very modern
and yery composite dialect ; and so on through this remarkable article, which you have
published in your annual volume. (Hear, hear.) It is not for me to say whether this is
all true or not. Indeed I dare not when such a distinguished oracle — (laughter) — pro-
claims it in our own Transactions. But whether it be true or not, our annual volume
is not the place to publish such charges against ourselves and the race in whose interest
we have come into existence as a Society, (Loud Ai)plause.) As one of the originators
of this Society I strongly protest against its funds and its volume of Transactions being
used for such an uiijiatriotic purpose. (Cheers.) I have left myself but little time
to say anything about Mr Sinie's conclusions and the manner in which he expresses them
to "My Lords." He "should regard the teaching of Gaelic in schools, in any shape
or form, as a most serious misfortune." (Ob ! oh !) He then has a dig at the " patriots,"
[the word is in inverted commas of course^(laughtor)] and informs us that Gaelic "is
not and never will be of the slightest value in conducting the business of this world,"
forgetting, if common report be true, that he liimself owes his position as one of Her
Majesty's Inspectors of Schools to what I know to be, his very limited knowledge of it.
(Laughter and applause.) It mubt have been of some commercial value to him,
(Loud laughtur.) He says that there is the strongest reasons for not teaching
it ; which is perfectly true from his stand point, for the double reason, that he has not
a siiifKcient knowliitlge of it to examine the scholars in it, — (hear, hear)— and that most
of the teachers are so ignorant of it that they cannot teach it. (Applause.) The cure
for this is too obvious to need pointing out, (Hear.) I agree with him that " eTery