The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-06-30
LORD RUSSELL ON IRISH LITER
AZURE AND LANGUAGE.

49,
Russell of KiIowen,'' lord chief JUS
tice of England, and former counsel for
! Parnell in the case against the London
1 Times, takes quite a deep interest in
Irish literature and language. Recently
this gentleman presided at lecture
! given before the Society of Arts, Lon
! don, by Mr. j. L. Garvin, the subject
| being "A Hundred Years of Irish Jour
nalism." In the course of his lecture
! Mr.. GaTvin paid tribute to the journal
! istic genius of Irishmen, saying that In
! the early part of the century they did
! large part of the work of the London
| daily press.
Tom Moore was a contributor to the
! Times and Morning Chronicle, his
! Squibs being leading articles in rhyme,
! which are readable hundred years al
] ter they were written. Another charac-
| teristic and brilliant figure was Maginn.
| who was the Captain Shandon in the
! 'Pendennis" of Thackaray The lectur-
er went on to speak of the establish
ment of the nation and the great work
done by Gavan Duffy. and later by
! O'Leary and his associates in the Irish
People. He also spoke of the brilliant
work of O'Donovan, Russell and Nc
Gahan as war correspondents; j. B.
'Brien, who largely inspired the Char
fist movement, and Darcy MCGEE, an
early advocate of the policy of colonial
| federation
He, of course, considered the latter
from the British standpoint MCGEE,
as an Irishman, committed some glaring
faults. There was never any need for
him to have gone to Canada had he not
been afflicted with a provincial soul,
which "cribbed, cabined and confined"
his undoubted genius, both as an orator
and a writer. 1t was not necessary for
MCGEE to recant his early principles at
the period of the Fenian invasion of
Canada and. later when he paid visit
to Wexford town, where repose his
mothers remains meath SelSker'S
ruined WALL His assassination, soon
after his return to Canada, was barbar-
Gus and uncalled for, and was one of
those acts by an irresponsible individ-
ual which never fail to bring discredit
on the Irish cause. MCGEE was, intel
lectually, a great MANN fact, a giant,
but he was by no means noble char
acter, ana his name is not honored by
the Irish race at large, as it would be
had he remained faithful to the nation
al creed which he professed when one
of the most brilliant leaders of the
Young Ireland party in Dublin.
When putting the vote of thanks, af-
ter the lecturer had concluded, Lord
Russell took occasion to say;
Il do not think that the paper read
by Mr.. Garvin was less interesting be-
cause he took an Independent view,
which he very cordially and openly eX-
pressed, and view which is not the
view, perhaps. of all who listened to
him. Of all things, it was a sincere
speech. He gave the views which oc
Cured to him, and set an example that
was worthy of Imitation. l would like
to say two things only in relation to the
general subject dealt with. If | were
called upon to mark what | conceive to
be the essential feature of the journal
istic literature carried on under the au-
spices of the Nation writer's, [ should
say it was this-that it taught all Irish
men, of whatever race or mixed race
they came from, or whatever religion
they profeSSed, to be united as IriShmen
one with another for the common pur-
pose of their common country.
The other was the lesson of tolerance,
and the lesson of union especially. No
body can doubt that what has him
dered Ireland in the attaiDment of the
political position and advantage which
many think she ought to have, has
been disunion among Irishmen them
selves-largely arising from difference
of creed which properly ought to find
no place whatever in the discussion of
political questions affecting the coun-
try. The lessons by example, and by
the poetry and prose writings that
Thomas Davis taught, l think, sunk
deep into the minds of the Irish peo-
pie, and l think they are not forgot
ten even today l myself think it would
be difficult to produce from any coun-
try more brilliant writer's upon sub
jects political or partly political than
Thomas Davis, Finton Lalor, Charles
Gavan Duffy, and last, but by no
means least. John Mitchell. | am speak
ing of his writings entirely from the
literary standpoint l am not speak
ing of the things he did, and which
many think extreme and impractical
BILE, but 1 think for fncisiveness of
style, for ability to hit off an argu-
ment in a phrase, there are very few
men who have been the equal of John
Mitchell. a.
One other point. 1 must say l find
myself in agreement with Mr.. Taylor,
that it is not necessary for the asser-
ton of nationality that you should
have distinct andseperate language, /
because the argument of Mr.. Garvin,
if | understand it rightly, resulted in
one or two things-either that the r.
ish were to impose on themselves the
task of creating the Celtic language as
a living tongue which / am afraid is
an impossible task (No, no.. l am not
talking of it as a study interesting to
antiquarians and philologists; far from
it. In that category of learning it
plays, as the philologists generally adj
init, most important part but | am
speaking of a living tongue for living
men, and l repeat, and | may be al
lowed to express, the view I entertain
that the scheme is ir,o~acticable. I'M
real, and would involve a hopeless
waste of energy that might otherwise
be better employed. (No, no, and ap-
plause). Mr. Taylor has answered by
pointing to the cases of the Belgian
states and to Switzerland. Could it oc-
cur to the men who threw the tea into
Boston harbor that they could not
claim distinct nationality and set up
an independent government because
they were speaking the English ton
que, or did it occur to the Canadians
or Australians of the present day? 1t
seems to me that while it is quite
right to consider the question of Ian
guage as one of the characteristics
that go to form that entity called
nation it is not absolutely essential, al
though it is unquestionably one COM
monty to be found as characteristic of
a nation. (Applause.)
A vote of thanks was then put and
carried, and a hearty vote of thanks
having been passed to Lord Russell
for presiding, the proceedings termi-
mated.
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