The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1808-05-27

OF the highlands presented equal inducements oil
| motives for musical or poetical inspiration. The
mountain nymph liberty and the hardy virtues
flourish in equal and perhaps superior vgor on the
blasted heath and snow-oapped mountain; but
the muses. have ever been wont to dwell in regi-
ons OF balmy softness and uxuriaiit fertility The
sunny slope, the flower Clad vaie, the living
FOUNTAIN crisp'd with moss and fringsd with wild
movers, the silen, grove where cooling zephyrs
ran the blood and animate the fancy these have
ever been the wizard haunts of poesy and song.
Down to the ara then of Edward the LIST. we
are justified by oral and written tradition, and
even by anology itself in asserting, that the
scotch were utterly unknown as a poetical or
musical people; whilst the Irish so high up as
their history or tradition extended, have been
distinguished by their own records, by the con-
current testimony of strangers and enemies and
by the sun higher evidence of the poetry and
song, which have been preserved, preeminent
Tor their unrivalled excellence in both.
lt REMAINS now to compare the circumstances
OF the two countries from the reign of the first
Edward to the present days an ara, when his
tory being wholly Invested Of fable, and the c.
vents recorded with fidelity, will enable us to
see things as they are, without resort to the IL
insve light OF fancy or the dubious CLEAN of ira
dition
The ingenious editor of the works ofBurns, in
ms lite OF this interesting man, has the following
singular passage, which cannot be considered
win TOO much attention by those who feel the
least interest IN the present dispute. cit is"
lsays he) "a circumstance not little curious,
and which does not seem to be satisfactorily
y" explained, that in the nineteenth century the
language Of the tzpo British nations if at all
:" different, differed only IN dialect, the gel;c
IN the one, like the Welsh or armoric in the
other, being confined in the mountain districts
y The Englishunder the Edwards, and the Scots
under Wallace and Bruce spoke the same Ian
SuaSe'" ~ Now nothing is easier of solution
than the difficulty this gentleman has imagined
Nv reason of the facility with which the artifc.
at frontier between both nations could be passed,
considerable intercourse had existed during the
wars OF the Romans and the invasions by Picts
oaxons and ormans, and as the tide of hos
uLty advanced, they mutually sought refuge
WIN eacn other. During peace considerable
commercial intercourse must have always sub
sisted There is even strong ground for believ-
ing that the whole Of the Scottish iow-iaitis
were peoplcd from England But the language
OF Ireland was not confined to her mountains
1t had no dialects; and the language fthe high
lands was not as he would infer, dialect ofthe
BRUSH to which 1t bore no resemblance ; but of
the celtic or Irish. Another quotation from the
same writer presentsjtself with curious felicity
There is (says he) some reason to believe
uiat the original nhabit ants of the British Isles
possessed i peculiar and interesting species of
music, which being banshed from the plains by
uie successive lnvas ions of the SaXons, Danes
AJAX tSoihiaiiS, was preserved with the native
race In the wids of Ireland and in the mount lins
OF Scotland and Wales" Nothing certainly can
De more lame and Inconsistent than this reason
ing III The former quotation are told the
Scotch and English, with the exceptions of the
scotch highlands, under Bruce and Wallace, had
One common language nav in order TO afford
probability to this con lecture, lie should have
gone on TO shcw that the Irish also had q COM
mon language with the Scotch and English
Ahis Is Certainly inferred but nothing can be
more I'm rue.-Accordng to sir William Temple
the Celtic language used by the Irish is the most
original and unmixed language in Europe. 1t
mas during the amazing course of three thousand
years, continued to be living language and is
proved by obvious inspection to be the identical
languages IN use amongst the Carthagenians i'll the
tunes OF Hannibal and Hanno. The analogy of
tns language to the Greek is infinitely stronger
tan any dialect of the British In fact but with
the inhabitants of the Scottish highlands, their
language Is the same for the obvious reasons that
the two countries approach each other at this
point and they are the same people. Mr. Cur
RE moreover seems to have been unacquainted
with the testimony OF Giraldus Cambrensis,
VINO states positively that the tunes md musi-
Cal instruments OF ireland differ from those of
britsdn and that they were eminently superior,
aud OF the authorities OF Powell, Cardoe and
the learned Seldeu, who concur in stating that
the people Of Armorlca or N. Britain received
their music and musical instruments from the
lrisb. But however defective the premises of
Mr.. Currie may be, his conclusion is Just. Ifthis
conjecture be true (says he) the Scottish music
must be more Immediately of highland origin.
and the lowland tunes, though now of chafac.
Ter somewhat distinct, must have descended from
the mountains in remote ages.
a very short time preceding the time of AL
Ian Ramsay, the Scotch made prctensions to
distinct National music. b arbour and Blind Har
ny. James tli- Lat. according to- some IanesI
9Th. Dunbar, Douglass and Lindsay in the four
teenth, fifteenth and sixteenthicenturies import
ed some warlike and ,matory ballads but it does
not appear that they gave birth to- a single 7ueio-
d., although it is probable that their strains were
sung to some antient Gaelic airs. Ramsay's col.
lection wasIpublished in 1719, sometime after Ca
rolan the last OF the Irish bartls had conceived
those divine strains, compared with which, Itali.
an trills arc tame. But even in the collection
Of Ramsay there is prima facie evidence of a
defective title to- the airs in question; for the
name Of single bard is not preserved. This o.
mission cannot be accounted for by a second loss
or deSfrRctf9H Of fhe national annals of Scofi1,i
for a long time after the subsection of Ireland
the Scotch remained distinct and independent
people and f(as is pretehded) they were adepts
IN music and passionately devoted Ia the CT cean
wtcheries Of this delightful science, how is il
that they have deliberately consigned to dumb
forgetfuiness the sutl ors of these divine inspir,
tons. Dark and melancholy indeed is the chasln