Various

“ When the pupil is sufficiently advanced in English to justify the teacher in taking up any of the Special Subjects, does he, for instance, while teaching Latin or Greek, French or German, begin by throwing aside the knowledge of English already acquired by his pupil, and commence to teach these foreign languages in the same way adopted by him in teaching the child English—a language quite as foreign to him as Latin or Greek, French or German? ”

“ A man who can sing a Gaelic song well is properly considered a favourite. It is felt that he spreads kindness, and infuses joy and happiness in the social circle—the language and the sweet melody of the piece will banish all melancholy and bitter feelings from the mind. A man influenced by a wicked malicious disposition is certainly not disposed to sing. The practice they have of fulling or shrinking cloth in the West Highlands has had a great tendency to keep up the native melodies. ”

“ Although the English were sung with the greatest art, and in the best possible style, it would neither warm our hearts nor melt our souls like singing in Gaelic. I feel that the great "mistress of art" has a tendency to puff me up, whereas I have no such feelings in my Gaelic. Perhaps one-third of the songs of the Gael are love songs, and the delicacy of feeling which is manifest in most of them is extraordinary. They will not offend the most refined ear; so that we have reason to be proud of our race in that respect. Our songs may be divided into two classes—the cheerful and plaintive. ”

“ A gentleman who could publicly use such an argument as, "If the language ought to be kept alive by being taught in school, surely Edinburgh and Glasgow are the places where this should be done, where the children know nothing of it, and not in the Highlands where the children already speak it with fluency,"—is perfectly innocent of the real question at issue, and deserves little notice or attention in the controversy. ”

“ Gradually, however, the dark truth came out, and orbed itself into that blood-red unity of horror, which has since made the firmest nerves to tremble, and the stoutest knees to shake, which has haunted dreams, inspired poetry, created new and ghastly shapes of superstition, and which, even yet, as the solitary traveller is plodding his way amidst the shadows of an autumn evening, or under the shivering stars of a winter night, can drench the skin and curdle the blood. ”

“ And last of all, we have those who only go the length of advocating its use for conveying information to Gaelic-speaking children regarding what they read in their English class-books—making it the medium by which the intelligence of the pupil is appealed to, and so enable him the more easily and speedily to understand and grasp the substance of his lessons in English, a language which is to him as much a foreign one as Sanscrit or Hindustani. ”

“ If this be so—and no writer possessed of ordinary common sense can reasonably dispute it—the teaching of Gaelic in our Highland schools can be discussed only as a question of secondary importance; unless we can show that it is through the native language of the scholars that we can best appeal to their intelligence; and, that while giving Gaelic its proper place in our system of Highland education, we can also show that we are taking a more direct and more natural course, in the end, to secure a more intelligent and vastly superior English education. ”

“ If it be so very absurd to teach all other languages, on such a false and ruinous plan, upon what reasonable grounds can the system be maintained in the case of teaching English to a Gaelic-speaking child? We are afraid the only valid reason which can be given is,—that our teachers are, as a rule, quite ignorant of Gaelic, and unable to teach it ”

“ We have even seen a gentleman who has been elevated since, much to the surprise of the profession, to the position of an inspector of schools, stoutly maintaining it in large type in the columns of one of our northern newspapers. Such arguments amount to this—that a real and thorough knowledge of his native language, whether it be Gaelic, English, or French, is a drawback and a disqualification for acquiring and writing a foreign one, and that the greater his ignorance of his native tongue the greater the proficiency of a scholar in a foreign one ”

“ The disadvantages of such a plan of teaching are so apparent to every one except those teachers and their friends, who are totally ignorant of the language of the children they are so well paid to teach and who, from the manner in which they disregard the necessities of children in Highland districts, must, we are afraid, be held to place their own interests and that of their class far above the requirements of the country; forgetting that the Legislature passed the Education Act not so much in the interest of teachers as with the view to secure a really substantial education to the pupils. ”

“ The thistle and the wild myrtle shake their heads in the winds, and utter their low monody which mingles with, and is swelled by the voice of the Cona, all seeming to mourn over crime, and to pronounce for doom. ”

“ Their quarrels, amongst themselves, is the only thing that makes us feel ashamed of them. Several of their songs raise us in our own estimation, with good cause, above our neighbours the Lowlanders, the English, and the French. The songs of the Gael embrace every variety—their language, mountains, corries, straths, glens, rivers, streams, horses, dogs, cows, deer, sheep, goats, guns, field labour, herding, boats, sailing, fishing, hunting, weddings—some of them as funny as they can be, and some the most sarcastic that was ever written. ”

“ We much regret that there should be any necessity to point this out, as the interest of both teachers and children should be identical; but this clearly cannot be, so long as teachers maintain and advocate a system contrary to reason and common sense, and opposed to every system of education throughout the civilized world; and, indeed, quite the reverse of what they do themselves in the case of all other languages taught by them, except that of English to Gaelic-speaking children. ”

“ There is such a silence that a tear might have been heard falling to the ground. Campbell's heart beats high with joy and fear to think that by drawing out the pardon in his pocket he is to turn despair into delight. He keeps his hand a moment longer on the reprieve, and then draws it forth, but with it drew—O God, the handkerchief; the soldiers fire, Ronald Blair falls, and his Indian maid is found clasping his dead body to her breast and dying by his side, and the frenzied Colonel exclaims—"The Curse of Heaven and of Glencoe is here." ”

“ We think it, therefore, quite unnecessary to teach Gaelic beyond the stage at which it fails to be useful in helping to a better and more intelligent understanding of their English class-books, except to those who are to become ministers or schoolmasters; when the teacher, in the case of smart boys, should be encouraged to take it up and teach it as a Special Subject. ”

“ It is quite unnecessary to prove that those who advanced their social position from home, have acquired a better pronunciation than those who have never left it, and who have forgotten all they were ever taught; and in reply to the objection that those who are taught Gaelic can never write English with the same ease and fluency as those who obtain an exclusively English education, we assert that those of our Highland countrymen who knew, spoke, and wrote Gaelic best are pre-eminent amongst us as the best writers of English—such, for instance, as "Old" Norman Macleod ”

“ Led through the gloom, as if following the lurid eyes of some demoniac being, the soldiers find their way from house to house, from one cluster of cottages to another, rush in, seize their victims, drag them out, and shoot them dead. ”

“ So far as I know, singing Gaelic songs has had no evil effect upon our countrymen. Indeed, singing is one of the prettiest, and one of the most harmless things connected with human nature, even in its degenerate state. ”

“ I was, in a measure, prepared to enjoy them, as I found several of the melodies I used to sing, in the hymns. M'Gregor was my great favourite. He was every inch a man, a Gael, a scholar, a poet, a Christian, and a great divine. I regret that his hymns are not more extensively known. Forty-two years ago I composed several hymns—six or seven years afterwards a few more—but during the last ten years, I suppose, nearly fifty. I have done as much as I could to regenerate the songs of my country. ”

“ They are made the scapegoats of their masculine companions. Though this is too often the case in real life, it is much more pleasant in a Fairy Tale, that all the amiable characters should be married and "live happy ever after."
Eudæmon, the hero of the Highland story, is the son of Valbion, the wild sea-king, who has deserted him and his mother. Eudæmon, as may be supposed from his mixed parentage, is a singular being, living a hermit-like life in the lonely Castle Brochel, on the Island of Raasay. Carefully educated by his mother, he knows all the medicinal properties of herbs and minerals. ”

“ No one approaching the subject with an unprejudiced mind, after giving the smallest consideration to the subject, can maintain that a system which wholly ignores the only language known to the child when he enters school for the first time, can be either a sensible, a reasonable, or a [Pg 170] successful one. It is doubtful if ever such a system was adopted anywhere else, at home or abroad, out of the Highlands of Scotland, and the Gaelic-speaking districts of Ireland ”

“ Does he begin with a Latin spelling book without any translations in English and teach him these languages on the same parrot system by which he managed to get him to pronounce and read English, in most cases without ever having carried with him the intelligence of his pupils? Not he. He knows better. If he were foolish enough to teach Latin and other foreign languages in such a way, he would soon discover that his labours were mainly thrown away, and that he would earn few special grants by the time his pupils left him. ”

“ They arise in haste, make for the mountains, and by their knowledge of the dark and devious paths through that horrible wilderness, are enabled to escape. From every house and hut there now rise shrieks, shouts, groans, and blasphemies, the roar of muskets, the cries of men, women, and children blended into one harmony of hell! ”

“ I am certain that the Scotch must return to the melodies in their native language. Sankey's melodies may do for a short time, but will never find a lasting lodgment in the Scottish heart like their own delicious melodies. There is as inseparable a connection between their melodies and their native language, as there is between our Highland melodies and our native Gaelic. The Gaelic may easily take up their melodies, but the English never. ”

“ This impassioned address is immediately answered by the appearance of a beautiful maiden, who informs him that she is sent to teach him the spell of love, and to try to lead him through the influence of human affections to believe in the immortality of the soul. She becomes his wife, but exacts a promise from him, that once every month she is to spend the evening hours in undisturbed solitude, as her life depends on the strict observance of this. ”

“ They find it is a party of Argyle's soldiers, commanded by Captain Campbell of Glenlyon, whose niece (a sister by the way of Rob Roy) is married to Alastair Macdonald, one of MacIan's sons. They ask if they have come as friends or foes. They reply, as friends, but as the garrison at Fort-William is crowded they had been sent to quarter themselves for a few days at Glencoe. They are received with open arms, feuds are forgotten, and for a fortnight all is harmony and even hilarity in the hamlet. ”

“ We feel sure that no one whose opinion is worthy of the slightest consideration, will, for a moment, attempt to argue against a system of teaching children through the only language which they understand. ”

“ A person standing outside would only hear one thump. The chosen leader commences the song, all unite, and by raising and lowering their hands they beat time to the tune. This generally attracts a crowd of listeners. I have seldom listened to finer singing.
Lachlan M'Lean, the author of "Adam and Eve," and one of the greatest enthusiasts for the language, the songs, and the music of the Gael, that ever lived, was one day on board a steamer going from Tobermory to Oban. A number of Skye females were on board. ”

“ The Legislature has also made other special provisions for the peculiar situation and educational requirements of the Highlands, and we feel sure, if it can be shown to be a necessity, that the Education Department will also alter the Code so as to put teachers who may possibly be kept back a little in the first two standards, in consequence of any time that may be lost in teaching Gaelic, in a more favourable position, and so enable them to draw the same grant as if they devoted their whole time to the exclusive teaching of English. ”

“ They live happily for a time, but at length, through the machinations of a wicked Countess Olga, a spinster of uncertain age, who had hoped to have gained the Baron for herself, he becomes uneasy, and one night is so worked upon by the wily insinuations of the spiteful Countess, and irritated at the non-appearance of his wife at a Grand State Ball, that he rushes home in a frenzy of suspicion, and regardless of his promise, breaks in on the Baroness' seclusion. ”

“ A writer of ripe experience, on Highland subjects, adverts to the anxious state of public feeling at this time [B] —"In 1793, and the succeeding years, the whole strength and resources of the United Kingdom were called into action. In the northern corner a full proportion was secured. A people struggling against the disadvantages of a boisterous climate and barren soil, could not be expected to contribute money. But the personal services of young and active men were ready when required for the defence of the liberty and independence of their country." ”

“ When one begins to tell what is not true, it is better to tell falsehoods which no one can believe. Now I am certain that children at the age of four would not believe "Gille Callum's" lies, and would understand at once that they were all for fun, and still it would have the effect of setting them a-thinking, perhaps more than had it been sober truth. ”

“ He and his songs have been held forth as a great curse to his countrymen; but when these Rev. Divines and their hot, but mistaken, zeal is forgotten, Robert Burns will shine forth, and in the long run will be found to be a greater blessing to his country than his accusers. For certainly no man ever did more to keep up the native language and the melodies of the Lowland Scotch than he has done. The same is equally true respecting our Highland bards. ”

“ The boy is set astride on a man's knee, which is kept in motion like a trotting horse. Stretching both his hands, the boy, in imagination, is trotting to Perth, where he expects bread and ale; and as a finish to the whole, a knock on the back of the head, and leave to go home. Many a hearty laugh have I seen boys enjoy when they got the knock on the head. ”