The sun., 1899-07-23

love OF song. although most Of heir manuscripts
have persisted. is certain; for Mr. HYDE has col
but alsu a volume OF love poems aud
two volumes Of religious poetry: sbmos,
the peasantry. With regard to the present
century. not much can be said about native
which irish was still the general language ot
The nation. witnessed fey or no 4ttempts at
except among the people themselves. who. too
poor to employ the press. kept on copying
their beautiful MANUSCRIPTS with religious
zeal, Then came the famine. and. after it,
total COLLAPSE. The old literary life OF lreland
horrors @ cd' Of starvation fever and eEpstriaton. ~
1t is in the last chapter OF Mr.. Hyde's COM
prchensve work that he follows the fortunes
OF the Irish language. considered as spoken
tongue. that language which. after i'm posing
itself upon both Dane and Norman. was
brought. in the fourteenth century. face to
face with its great competitor. English. before
which. after n struggle of Ave centuries. it has
nearly, though not quito gone down. As early
as the year 1850 the English seem to have
taken alarm at the inroads which the irish
Language. at that time more highly cultured
form OF speech than their own. had made upon
tho colony. Thus we find King Edward Ill.
issuing orders in tho barbarous law French
Of the period to the Sheriff OF the Cross
and the Senosrhal OF the Liberty OF Kill
kenny. In tho following terms: AS many
OF tho English nation in the Marches and
elsewhere have again become like Irishmen
and refused to obey our laws and customs. and
hold pariam"ntS after the Irish fashion. and
learn to speak the Irish tongue. and send their
children among the Irish to he nursed and
taught the Irish tongue. so that the people OF
the English race have for the greater part. be-
come Irish; now we order first that no
EnElishman Of any state or condition shall.
under forfeiture of life. limbs and property.
follow these Irish customs. laws and parla-
ments; and. secondly. that any ono Of English
race shall forfeit English liberty II. after the
next feast Of st John the Baptist. he shall
speak Irish with other Engshmen. In tho
meantime every Englishman must learn
English. and must not have his children nursed
amongst the Irish In 1867. the last year
OF the administration OF the Duke OF
Clarence. third son OF Edward Ill. n par
lament held at Kilkenny passed a famous
act that intermarriaGo with the Irish should
be punished as high treason. and that any man
OF English race using the Irish language should
forfeit all his land and tenements to the crown.
These first attacks upon the Irish tongue can
not have produced much effect. for. within
century thereafter. We find the English power
reduced to the lowest point. so that there was
scarcely an English or Norman noble IN Ire
land who had not adopted an Irish name. Irish
speech and Irish manners A hundred years
after the statute Of Kilkenny above mentioned
the English, driven pack into the Pale. which
then consisted OF less than four counties,
passed q law in 14t5 enJoinng all men OF Irish
names within the Pale to take an English
name. and he and his issue were ordered to use
those names or forfeit all their goods This
trans s'ormation. however. the Parliament wa1
unable to effect; none ot the great Irish names
been influenced Ivy it in, the least degre".
Next, an effort was made to maintain tho
and boroughs. for we find an enactment of tho
year 1898 commanding that in Waterford.
c,ty m mannSr 9 man or foreign Of the
defend in tn" Irish tongue against any man In
the Court, hut all they that any matters shall
man that can speak English to declare his
matter except one man be OF the country that
suit in 1920 and enacted that mo irish Jntigs
ur n4 %nnS It ssrsetS NOT
with the Kings law" How far these cndeav-
fact that in the Dublin Parliament Of l54l all
the peers except Mac GiIlapatrick were Of
Norman or English descent. yet not one, OK;
English. Even in the Pale tho attempt TO
eytirrsato the Irish language had not sue
tie" "F cCnty "a Kaas ise in
is not one husbandman that speaketh English,
great Eprl Of EHlare had ' in ISis nearly as
sHY Srag EG%e' T 5 he Mo aos'a aet n
tllnR in Ireland. got his lands in Kings
srs g" the .hSad %HdSn ae R% o4 h: h: moss
the the EnGIiSh Il h tongue. habit and govern;
% ha1ceor "[f% Gerard i"Ti nrmnr nH "G lG5s fss
English. and the most part with delight. even
in Dnnn spSnE gsh and gTs2ty are sp9ttsd
stains" Tho English language cannot have have
made much progress during the next seventy
the MuniGpa CouneI Of Dublin to to the the effect eff
that "wherGas. by the laws; all rersons ought
Irish is commonly and usually sPoken and the
irish habit worn, not only In the streets and
city only on market days. but also by several
i1mi,i.s IN this city TO the scAndalizing OF the
n4ha6"R,s n4ad me ana t mpEsraes Eayn Is
language in bub!in at this time. OMoT'oy. in
hook published sii IN lG73 sGys that mo Ian
1t need hardly be said that once tho English
Of itss own in the di9ceses and parishes through-
the nominees that they shou i'd have no deal
ings IN the national irish language They
Of the peopH beng bH 20 a "n"ans
t" them in, tongue which could be UNDER
n,, stool IS, So f9r HUNDRED and Gity years the
pny n, tenth Of their produce to a Tor.
.gn rlcrgy whom they could not UNDER
stand. and who never trOu bed them selves to
understand them. The desire to see tha Iriah
language stamped out was stronger Than tho
desire to MAKE Protestants Of the lnhabitants
anrs h"' bc %n noble Ss Re%% Gw Ss
70 abolish the Irish language in the Kingdom"
N"verth"less. as late as 1850 Irish was so gem
sarally spoken In the regiments of the Irish
a@sn Of Ed@uHd nd m Burkes NEf learned "a f whs
on foreign service
1t is, from the middle Of the eighteenth cen-
tnry that the Irish language begins to die ont.
III" process was far from being com mplated at
the beginning Of this century. Dutton. In his
statistical history of the county Clare, nub-
lished in 1909, says that almost all the gentIe-
me men @t thot county SRok. Irish with the, c3un-
sons Is able TO hold a conversation in this
language" In lSl2 a Srotchman. DANIEL
newar, IN hook setting forth the observations
made by him in Ireland, saws The number
n Tn rn neonIe so Wh" sEcak the Irish language is
Il is spoErn throughout tn" province OF
Connaught hv all III" lower orders great
EHrt Of whom scarcely understand any
generally through the other three prov.
inccs except among the descendants Of tho
nh Ia rth IL h.u l.,,K,