The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-08-29 00:00:00

ARCHBISHOP MANNING ON THE
PILGRIMAGE.

On Sunday evening, Archbishop Manning preached
after vespers in the Pro-Cathedral at Kensington on
the subject of the approaching Pilgrimage to Pontigny,
taking for his text, the well-known words of St. Paul,
"Jerusalem tlu.it is above is free," Sic. He began by
saying that the world outside seemed curious to know
why .the Catholics of England were about to visit
Pontigny, where the body of St. Edmund, Archbishop of
Canterbury, still remains enshrined. In order to
answer that question it would be well to say, first
of all, that " God is great in his Saints,"
and that in the preservation of St. Edmund's
body for 600 years in that venerable Abbey
of France, none could fail to see the work of the
hand of God. But there was a special reason for
thanking God for the manifestation of His power and
grace in St. Edmund, because that prelate, though not
actually martyred on behalf of the liberties of the
Church like St. Thomas a Becket, had died in the
sacred cause of freedom. The Archbishop then gave
a brief sketch of St. Edmund's life, his birth at Abing-
don, his pious youth at Oxford and at Paris, his labours
as a lecturer in the University, and his blameless life
an Chancellor at Salisbury and pastor of a Wiltshire
village, till suddenly called on by the Pope to rule a
diocese and, finally, the long struggle which he waged
with King Henry on behalf of the immunities not
merely of his See, butof the English Church. In respect
of this subject he drew out a parallel between the Saint
and three other Archbishops of Canterbury, Anselm,
Beckett, and Stephen Langton. each of whom had
carried on the same contest, though in a slightly
different way. In fact, English history divided itself
into three periods—one of liberty, under the Saxon
Kings, which ended in Edward the Confessor; and of
despotism, under the Norman line, the Plantagenets,
and the Tudors, which culminated in Henry VIII. ;
and lastly, one of reaction, in which, for upwards of
300 years, liberty had been slowly winning back the
ground from despotism. He then drew an animated
and graphic picture of the four Archbishops of Can-
terbury in succession, deserted or almost deserted by
their timid and courtly suffragans, but standing up
not only for the rights of the Church, but also, in the
main, for the political liberties of Englishmen holding
fast to the Pope as the Vicar of Christ, and thus de-
laying by centuries that unhappy merging of the
Church in the State which came about under Henry
VIII. If Stephen Langton and the Barons defended
the rights of the people against the weak but tyran-
nical King from whom they extorted Magna Charts,
not less really was a like contest waged by St.
Edmund on behalf of English freemen and citizens.
The world had now grown cold in its belief of the
Christian faith, and it was sneeringly said that
'the Christian Powers of Europe were things of the
past." Perhaps it might even be so; but that would
be only a stronger reason than ever fur showing to
the world at large that, in spite of penal laws and per-
secutionn, the true faith still lived in the breasts of Eng-
lish Catholics, and for asserting by their pilgrimage to
Pontigny their adherence to the principles for which
four out of the successive Folders of the See of Canter
bury had borne deprivation, exile, and death. They
would go forth, however, not merely to testify their
faith in these principles, but also to beg, at the side of
the shrine where his body lies, the prayers of St.
Edmund on behalf of England nod of the (In ietian
world, that the former may find her way back to the
true faith and centre of unity, and that the latter may
be spared from those wars and commotions which of
late have threatened to break up and disintegrate so-
ciety itself.
At the end of the service the Archbishop gave his
benediction, the church being crowded to excess.

THE EARLY RACES OF MANKIND IN
IRELAND.
At the meeting of the British Association at Belfast,
on Saturday, in the Biology and Anthropology Section,
there was a crowded attendance in the Anatomy and
Physiology Room in Queen's College, to listen to the
opening address of the President of the Anthropology
Department—Sir W. B. Wilde M.P., M.R.I.A.—on
m
the early races of
mankind in Ireland, their remains
and present representatives. The following extracts
give merely an outline of his interesting address :
Anthropology, "the science of man," so called, his origin,
age, and distribution on our globe ; hie physical conforma-
tion and his susceptibility of cultivation; hia various forms
of speech, his laws, habits, manners, customs, weapons, and
tools; his archaic markings, as also his pictorial remains,
his tombs, his ideographic arid phonetic or alphabetic
writing, down to hie present culture in different countries,
and his manufactures, arts, and degrees of intelligence in
his different phases of life throughout the world, are all
presented for investigation by this Section of the Associa-
tion. 1 am not going Into the subject of the single or multiple
origin of man, nor do I intend discussing the question of the
cave man, or the race whose early implements, weapons, and
tools are found in the drift. Upon the subject of what is
termed prehistoric, I may possess peculiar opinions. What
is prehistoric? Does it mean preadamitic, or noes it refer only
to the time when some scribe wrote down from word of mouth
the herdic tale, genealogy, or annal, no matter of what
era' We do not know where or by whom these annals were
first committed to writing, nor what means were taken to
alter them, but we possess what cannot be falsified by the
scribe and though styled prehistoric, they are far more truth-
fully historic than the writing that was largely interfered
with, and which, if old now, requires a gloss to interpret it.
Tile grassy mound or circlet erected into a cromlech, the
great sepulchral mound, the cinerary urn, the stone weapon
or tool, the grain rubber for triturating cereal food, the
harpoon for spearing fish, the copper and bronze tools and
weapons, and the gold ornaments of the most early tribes,
all now are in their way far more truthful than anything
which could have been committed to writing even if there
were letters in that day. They are litanies is stone, dogmata
in metal, and sermous preaching from the grassy mound.
But how are we to use or apply these early descriptions of
history so as to advance anthropology and to educate the
public mind? That is a serious question, well worthy the
attention of this Association. One meane, at least, is by
properly-arranged museums, to which, I am happy to say,
the working man may now resort for recreation and in-
struction almost every day of the week when his business
permits. . .
Instead of entering Into the wide domain of anthropology
generally. I shall confine my remarks to the subject of the
early races which peopled Ireland in consecutive order, their
remains still existing, and an inquiry as to what vestiges of
those different waves of population remain at the present
hour. That the skin-clad man, with his stone, bone, sad
wooden weapons and tools, his shell ornaments and rude un-
glazed pottery, the primitive nomadic bunter and fisher,
arrived in Ireland and occupied its plains, forests, and
pastures in the same state of life in which we find similar
primitive races of mankind in the present day, here con-
tending with the bear, the wolf, the Mx, the osprey, the
seal, and the otter for his food, as his predecessors
did with the aurochs in Mid-Europe, I have not the
slightest doubt. I think the reindeer and the elaphant,
and probably the niuekfox, bad become extinct before
man's arrival In Erin, and I have always inclined to the
Idea that he was not contemporaneous with that great
monarch of the cervine race, the Irish elk ; hut
In this opinion, however, I may be mistaken. With
respect to the authenticity of the early chronicles and
legends that relate the history of these immigratione, so
much sneered at by one sit of inquirers and so faithfully
believed in by another, let me make two observations—one
chronological and the other topographical. Our Irish annals
were first committed to writing by Christian scribes, in either
Melie or Latin, and were not only intermixed with classic
story, but with Scriptural incidents, particularly those re-
lating to the dispersion of mankind after the Deluge. It
has been objected to our Irish nianuscripts that, from the
material on which they were written, the form of their
letters, their philological construction, and thoirilluminations,
none of them were written earlier than the 9th or lath
century. Some, indeed, go so fares to say that there is not
an Irish manuscript later than the 12th or 13th century.
Now, granting all that, what does it prove ?Not that the
historic Instances recorded were concocted by the scribes of
those times, but that these vellum or paper manuscripts
were copied from earlier writings which were founded on
anterior materials.
I winnow tell you what has been the result of my own exami-
nation of the races that migrated to or are mid to have con-
quered Ireland. cannot say that the Firbolg was a
cultivated man, but I think he was a shepherd and an
agriculturist. I doubt if he knew anything, certainly not
much, of metallurgy but it does not follow that he was a
mere savage, no more than the slurries of New Zealand were
when we first come in contact with them. The Firbolgs
were a small, straight-haired, swarthy race, who have left a
portion of their descendants with us to this day. A genea-
logist (their own countryman, resident in Galway, about two
hundred years ago) described them as dark-haired, talkative,
spiteful, strolling, unsteady, disturbers of every council and
assembly, and promoters of discord. I believe they, to-
gether with the next two races about to be described,
formed the bulk of our so-called Celtic population—comba-
tive, nomadic on opportunity, enduring, litigious, but
fedual and faithful to their Chiefs, hardworking for a spurt
(as in their annual English emigration), not thrifty, but
when their immediate wants are supplied lazy, especially
during the winter To these physical and mental cha-
racters described by Macflrbis, let me add those of the un-
usual combination of blue or blue-gray eyes and dark
eyelashes, with a swarthy complexion. By statistics pro-
cured from our Great Midland Western Railway alone, I
learn that on an average 30,000 of these people, chiefly the
descendants of the dark Firbolgs and fair Demme, emigrate
annually to England for harvest work, to the great advantage
of the English farmer and the Irish landlord. The acreage
of arable land for these people runs from two to six acres.
Connecting this race with the remains of the past, I am of
opinion that they were at lint rath or earthen mound and
enclosure makers, that they meetly buried their dead with-
out cremation, and, in cases of distinguished personages,
beneath the cromlech or the tumulus their heads were
oval, or long in the anteroposterior diameter, and rather
flattened at the sides. The next immigration we hear of in
the annals is that of the "Tuatha-de.dannans." a large, fair-
complexioned, and very remarkable race, warlike, energetic,
progressive, skilled in metal work, musical, poetical, ac-
quainted with the healing art, skilled In Druidism, and believed
to be adepts in necromancy and magic, no doubt the result of the
popular idea respecting their superior knowledge, especially
In smelting and in the fabrication of tools, weapons, and
ornaments. From these two races sprang the fairy mytho-
logy of Ireland. The Dannans spoke the some language as Mr. J.. 5. Medd, Tiptree-hall, K elvedon, Essex again writes
their predecessors the Firbolgs. The met and fought for to The Tintee
the sovereignty. The "Man of Metal" conquered and drove
a great part of the others into the islands on the coast, Sir, —Now that we know the results of many thrash-
where it Is said the Firbolgs or Belgic race (so called) took legs if wheat in this county, there is evidence of a
their lag stand. Eventually, however, under the influence very heavy crop, and this arises principally and
of a power hostile to them both, these two peoples coalesced, peculiarly from the very cold, stiff, and undrained
and have to a large extent done so up to the present day. cp p ollasing cla, which in ordinary PpeCl
, and e
They are the true old Irish peasant and small farming all y
wet, seasons give such poor returns. The dry winter
class. The Mumma Lad a globular term of head, of which
I have already published examples. For the most part. I and hot, dry season generally have rent such clays
believe, they burnt their dead or sacrificed to their manes, into enormous cracks, deep and wide, thus airing and
and placed an urn with Its incinerated contents, human or drying the soil and aubsoil, but leaving sufficient
ma the grave where the hero was either stretched at moisture for the maturing of the wheat plant; while
length or crouched in an attitude similar to that adopted by on the more friable, drained, and well-farmed lands
the ancient Peruvians.
the drought. in many cases, has somewhat reduced
It is affirmed that the Dannans ruled in Ireland for a long and insured the wheat plant.
time, untfl another inroad was made into this land by the
ilesians, said to be brave rous, , chival skilled in war, good in some parts of a field having cold, stiff clay the
navigators, proud, boastful, and much superior in outward crop is abundant, while on the other lighter portion
adornment as well as mental culture to their opponents, there is a much smaller yield; in fact it has been a
They deposed the three first Darman Kings and their good heavy land season, the bearded wheat is almost
wives, and rose to be, It is said, ththee dominant d race, everywhere an abundant crop. On light soils the
assuming the aovereiguty, becomili aristocracy an
landed proprietors of the country,g and giving origin to weight per bushel has been diminished by the excessive
those chieftains that afterwards rose to the title of petty dry heat having shrunk the kernels, but it is all in
kings, and from whom acme of the beat families in the first-rate order for grinding. There is a great scarcity
land with anything like Irish names claim descent, and of green food in this county, especially on light lands,
particularly thoee with the prefix of the "0" or "Mac." When for want of rain.
this race arrived in Ireland I cannot tell, built was some time August 22.
prior to the Christian era. It is said they came from the
coast of Spain, where they had long remained after their • P.S. Both straw and corn being so dry and alitincl•
eastern immigration. Now, all those peoples were, according ant, the thrashing-machines average nearly 70 Rya.
It, my view, all derived from the one Celtic stock they spoke per day • the last two years about half that quantity
the same language, and
knowl their demendanta dthe oso stilt When was a day's work. Barley suffered no injury from
their history through the Irish language
they acquired the edge of letters, y o
doubt they e transmitted
,rost, and is a good crop on cool lands, but rather
. N
shrivelled on light soils, It is a bad bean and hay
fused, but somehow a quick fusion of races has not been the
general characterietic of the people of this country. It would season.
be most desirable if the Government or some Irish authority
would send a properly-instructed c.enmiasioner to investigate
the Spanish annals and see whether there is anything re- '
lating to the Spanish migrations to Ireland remaining in that
country. In Connaught in may youth the exception in most
districts was where the person spoke both English and Irish,
ln 1551. when we first took a census of the Irish speaking
population after the country had lost three-quarters of a
million of people, chiefly of the Irish race, we had then (to
speak in round numbers) one and a half million of Irish-
speaking population. In 1061 they had fallen off by nearly a
half million, and upon the taking of the teat census in 1871,
the entire Irish-speaking population was only 817,865. . . .
We thus see that the population of Ireland, which in the
present day might be computed at about five and a half
millions, there were at the time of taking the census in April,
1071, only 817,865, and I think I may prophecy that that is
the very largest 'amber that In future we will ever have to
record. On the causes of this decadence it is not my province
to descant The celts have heelt the groat pi, emery of CM-
lization and are now a power In the world. Are they not slow
numerically the dominant race in Arlleriell, and have they not
largely peopled Australia and New Zealand.
We have now arrived at a period when you might naturally
expect the native annalist to make some allusion to 17-,lolurst
or colonization by the then mistress et the world Without