The Irish standard., 1892-08-20

the Parlisment 81 Grattan, but the Par
lament Of Tyrconnell, was prepared Tor
publication by his own hand, and it has
remained without publisher for two
generations. Nothing Of the miscel)ane-
Gus writings Of John Blake Dillon, John
O'Haean, Thomas Meagher, or Charles
Kickham, have been gathered into books.
And how much Of the wealth OF our
ancient Gaelic literature still lies buried
in untranslated MSS. or in the transac-
tions of learned societies! (Hear, hear).
A man who has done and suffered much
for Ireland during the last forty years
has often avowed that he was made
patriot by reading the poems OF Thomas
Davis, when recovering from severe Ill
ness: and how many other Irlshmen have
confessed the same debt to him and his
associates! The great Dominican, Father
Burke, and Professor Tyndall, OF Belfast,
the fierce Unionist, are equally warm IN
their acknowledgment f the effect pro-
duced upon them IN their youth by the
writings of the Young Irelanders. The
late Judge O'Hagan, one of the most up
right and gifted Of .1rishmen, used to de-
clare that the evening when he first read
the address of John Blake Dillon to the
College Historical Society, he was
Wing, but the next day, and ever after,
he was Nationalist (cheers}. 10 how
many Of us is that address still inaccess-
ible? Would it not be benefclent work
to republish it? Surely there is no Irish
man of any political persuasion who
would not be glad of the opportunity OF
reading work which produced such al
effect ON such a man (hear, hear, and ap-
plause). What do we hope and desire
| to make of Ireland? This is the question
% which the character of education
ought to depend. Let me say, though
I have said it more than once before,
that the Celts are among the most teach
able of races (hear, hear). 1t has been
asked scornfully what we can hope to do
in this little country with diminishing
population and resources. Ought not
some Irish student teach our people that
! il is not great states like those which the
greed of conquerors has accumulated,
but states scarcely larger than an Irish
province which have done the greatest
| work of humanity and civilization? The
achievements in art, arms, science, ana
discovery, and in the art OF government
of the Greek Republics, of the Italian
Republics, of the trampled provinces OF
Spain in the Low Countries, of the little
rib taken out of the side of Spain, called
Portugal, how emphatically they teach
the lesson that it is not by the quantity
but by the quality OF their men that
states are glorifed! A little book which
told this great story would be a boon to
our people. 1t would be presumptuous
to name the books which ought to be
published, but we may proftably con-
slider the class and character to be pre-
ferred. Big books OF history are only
for students, they are never read by the
people. But the people, young men at
any rate, will read picturesque biograph-
les, which are history individualized, or
vivid sketches of memorial eras, which
are history vitalized (cheers). A dozen
lives of representative Irishmen would
teach moro Of the training and growth OF
Ireland than library Of annals and
State papers. They would familiarise
us with men that the Celt loves better
than systems or policies. This is the
class OF books in which we are most def
ciant; there are no memoirs OF Roger
O'More, none of Luke Wadding, none OF
Patrick Sarsfeld, none of a man as fertile
in intellect, as firm in judgment as any
of these, man whom some of us have
seen in the flesh, the wise and fearless DR.,
Doyle. Mr.. Fitzpatrick has collected bis
letters and literary remains with COM
mendable care; it only needs that some
sympathetic student should ponder over
them till the electric spark is kndled
that u new figure may be given to our
imagination forever. The first great poet
who sang the wrongs Of Ireland with
civilized Europe for an audience, has
never had q memoir. He has been
singularly unfortunate in his biographer'
Lord John Russell discharged on the
public several cart-loads of undigested
diaries as 'Tne Memoirs and Journals Of
Thomas Moore" They are OF little use
to anybody, but a skillful literary work
| man could extract a delightful little vol
| ume from the chaotic mass. How profit
able it would be if the best men of this
time would contribute each OF them q
study to a gallery OF representative
Irishmen! We are accustomed to say,
| with not unjust reproach, that England
knows little of our country but, alas! my
friends, we Irishmen know too little of it
ourselves. 'Tis q great possession given