Blair Collection > Address to Highlanders respecting their native Gaelic

Gentlemen of ttie Press,
Awave of your great powers, I stand before your bar
to plead, that ye may plead for my countrymen, that they may be
taught first to read their mother tongue, which would not only be
the most rational, but also the most natural way of teaching them.
What an encouragement would it be to children to find their
mother tongue in their lessons — the very words they heard from her
lips and their playmates. How different from groping their way in
the dark, in reading a language they know nothing about. In the
former case their judgment would not only be in exercise, but
would also assist and help to keep them right; whereas in the latter
case their judgment would give them no aid, the whole depending
upon their memory.
Were they thus taught first to read the Gaelic, and then to com-
mence with the English alphabet and the English pronunciation,
and when reading, to translate every word into Gaelic, it would
not only exercise their memory, but their judgment also, and
encourage them to persevere, seeing they were enabled to master
the difficulties, being aided by one another as well as by the teacher.
Is there no native Scotchman also that will stand at your bar to
plead for his mother tongue? Is that not the tongue, gentlemen,
that many of you heard from your mother's lips, and that soothed you
in the days of your childhood ? And ought you not to have the
natural instinct to plead for it yourselves? — to plead that the
Broad Scotch should be the first language taught in every part of
Scotland, except where the Gaelic is spoken; and when they could
read their mother tongue, to commence at once with the English
alphabet and the English pronunciation, and when reading it to
translate every word into bi*oad Scotch, such as have, hae ; to, sae ;
o/ ; o'; with, wi, &c.