The Sun.
London, England, 1824-11-06 00:00:00

HIGHLAND EDUCATION.

We are most happy that an honourable, and
we hope a vigorous attempt is now making by the Highland
Propnetors for the extending of English learning over their
estates. • An application will be made for the assistance of Par-
liament, and sure we are that, to a certain extent, that assist-
ance will not be refused. Undoubtedly, the Highlands are
at this moment, in respect to useful literature and the arts of
life, a very frightful waste. Whatever may be their virtues,
they are not the virtues of' civilised life. Two-thirds of the
population are divided by language, and, of course, by habits,
affection, and opinions, from all that genius and industry have
done to exalt this country : they form rile rude wreck of a system
which the law itself has destroyed, and, if it had not, must have
been crushed by the advancing intellect of the times. If we want
thellighlfnders to play their parts among us as men and coun-
trymen, we must give them our language. We must instruct
them in our habits and thoughts—dash down the hurtful
though respectable prejudices which make them a distinct
people,—and open a great career .of interest and honour
beyond their own poor and narrow territory. It Is ad,
nutted on all hands, and by none more readily than
their best friends, that vast masses of the Highlanders
are absolutely without education. The plan of Gaelic
instruction is • known to be a total failure. How, in.
deed, could it be otherwise, in a language which
has no literature, and must be, and is in itself, imperfect and
unfixed ? f one half of the attention that has been paid to
Celtic descents, and Celtic games, and Celtic dresses, and
Celtic histories had been given to the shattered remnant of the
Celts themselves, it could not now be...said that in the
North we had the worst, and in the South the best, in-
structed peasantry in the world. In our love of the tar-
tan, we forgot that the weavers could neither read nor
write. We forgot that the hands which wielded the
claymore, could not govern the plough. Above all, we
forgot that in the true business of life tartans and claymores,
coronacha, and clanship, pibrochs
the i
in s
bsertonncholsat sacrificeragtutal
. to
language
makeelgrees? are of no
earthly value. This roust be amended. And
f a fair
the While the Gaelic is na wdthiltieoil liseipsgaeuitoitiipeteamlne de-
lightful lightful to notice that the proprietors themselves, throwing aside
hoveall weak prejudices,
We
ls
r e bime)
they never can improve. Our first stroke must be aimed at the
vitals of this tongue.
wild dreams of feudal antiquity, or picturesque expression. For
wherever there is improvement in the Highlands it has followed
in the wake of the English language. Wherever there is rude-
ness, ignorance of letters, want of commercial enterprise, and
general poverty, we are sure to find the Gaelic. Now, if that
language be in any way admirable as an example of the pro.
gress of ancient tongues, it will be quite as useful in its death
as in its life. Let it be put down as a living tongue--and we
may yet find that the genius of %Vett and Burns is not limited
to the Lowlands.—{.Edinburgh Observer, Nov. 2.)

MATRIMONIAL LOTTERY.---Yesterday, accord-
ing to annual custom, on the sth of November, under the will
of Air. 'Leine, formerly a brewer in Wapping, six maidens,
educated in his hospital in Fawdon.fields, Wapping, met at
the Trustee's house, to draw lots, under the will of the founder,
for a prize of one hundred pounds, as a marriage portion. The
husband of the successful candidate must be a mechanic, be-
longing John,
to the parishes of St. Wapping; St. Paul,
Shadwell; or :it. George In the East ; he must not be a sailor,
soldier, or waterman ; and he must have testimonials of his
good character. The young woman must have attained the age
of 21, and have been in one place three years as a servant, with
strict propriety.
Muiti)Ett of Cutuntr.m.--The discovery of
two horrible murders has during the past week agitated the
town of Boston and its neighbourhood in an extraordinary de.
gree. The body of a female, who was about eleven years of
age, and has been missing nine months, was discovered doubled
up with its clothes on, in the roof of a granary, by some work-
men who were pointing the tiles, the poor thing's bonnet, cloak,
and pattens, first presenting themselves to view ; and the body
of another child, of the same sex, only nine years of age, with
its arms and legs tied together, who has been lost seven or eight
days, was afterwards found in a pond. A Coroner's Jury has
sat daily upon them since last Saturday ; but nothing as yet
has been made public.--(Stan ford Itfemity.)
On Thursday morning, as the servant of Mr.
BEI,Tow was walking with two of her master's sons, four and
six years old, in the Regent's Park, a motherly sort of woman
got into conversation with her, and affected to know the child-
ren, whose parents resided in Holman-place, near the spot.
Under pretence of getting the your boy some milk, the credu-
lous girl parted with the child, and he was not brought back.
The grief of the parents were Inconsolable, and bills offering a
reward of 201. for the
.apprehension of the worst of wretches
were distributed about the neighbourhood, but to no other
effect than ascertaining to whom the _ phild belonged. At 11
o'clock at night the poor boy was found near the Yorkshire
Stin-go,- by a patrol, literally naked. It was conveyed to its
Barents. The stolen clothes were riot worth more than thirty