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Show LORD RUSSELL ON IRISH LITERATURE LITER-ATURE AND LANGUAGE. "Russell of Ki:owen," lord chief justice jus-tice of England, and former counsel for Parnell in the case against the London Times, takes quite a deep interest in Irish literature and language. Recently this gentleman presided at a lecture given before the Society of Arts, London, Lon-don, by Mr. J. L. Garvin, the subject being "A Hundred Years of Irish Journalism." Jour-nalism." In the cburse of his lecture Mr. Garvin paid tribute to the journalistic journal-istic genius of Irishmen, saying that in the early part of the century they did a 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 a hundred years after af-ter they were written. Another characteristic charac-teristic and brilliant figure was Maginn. who was the Captain Shandon in the "Pendennis" of Thackaray. The lecturer lectur-er went on to speak of the establishment establish-ment of the nation and the great work done by Gavan Duffy, and later by O'Leary and hLs associates in the Irish People. He also spoke of the brilliant work of O'Donovan, Russell and Mc-Gahan Mc-Gahan as war correspondents; J. B. O'Brien, who largely inspired the Chartist Char-tist 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 seme 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. It was not necessary for McGee to recant his early principles at the period of the Fenian invasion of Canada and. later, when he paid a visit to Wexford town, where repose his mother's remains, '"neath Selsker's j ruined wall." His assassination, soon after his return to Canada, was barbar- ous and uncalled for, and was one of those acts by an irresponsible individual individ-ual which never fail to bring discredit on the Irish cause. McGee was, intellectually, intel-lectually, a great man in fact, a giant, but he was by no means a noble character, char-acter, and his name is not honored by the Irish race at large,- as it would be had he remained faithful to the national 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, after af-ter the lecturer had concluded, Lord Russell took occasion to say: "I do not think that the paper read by Mr. Garvin was less interesting because be-cause he took an independent view, which he very cordially and openly expressed, ex-pressed, and a 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 occurred oc-curred to him, and set an example that was worthy of imitation. 1 would like to say two things only in relation to the general subject dealt with. If I were called upon to mark what I conceive to be the essential feature of the journalistic journal-istic literature carried on under the auspices au-spices of the Nation writers, I should say it was this that it taught all Irishmen, 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 purpose pur-pose of their common country. The other was the lesson of tolerance, and the lesson of union especially. Nobody No-body can doubt that what has hindered hin-dered Ireland in the attainment of the political position and advantage whicii many think she ought to have, has been disunion among Irishmen themselveslargely them-selveslargely arising from difference of creed which properly ought to find no place whatever in the discussion of nolitical miestiona a ffctinp- thf rmin- try. The lessons by example, and by the poetry and prose writings that Thomas Davis taught, I think, sunk deep into the minds of the Irish people, peo-ple, and I think they are not forgotten forgot-ten even today. I myself think it would be difficult to produce from any country coun-try more brilliant writers upon subjects sub-jects political or partly political than Thomas Davis, Finton Lalor, Charles I Gavan Duffy, and last, but by no means least, John Mitchel. I am speaking speak-ing of his writings entirely from the literary standpoint. I am not speaking speak-ing of the things he did, and which many think extreme and impracticable, impractica-ble, but I think for incisiveness of style, for ability to hit off an argument argu-ment in a phrase, there are very few men who have been the equal of John Mitchel. One other point. I must say I find myself in agreement "with Mr. Taylor, that it is not necessary for the assertion asser-tion of nationality that you should have a distinct andseperate language, because the argument of Mr. Garvin, if I understand it rightly, resulted in one or two things either that the Irish Ir-ish were to impose on themselves the j task of creating the Celtic language as j a living tongue which I am afraid is , j an impossible task (No, no). I am not talking of it as a study interesting to I antiquarians and philologists: far from j it. In that category of learning it ! I plays, as the philologists generally ad-j ad-j mit, a most important part, but I am speaking of a living tongue for -living men, and I repeat, and I may be allowed al-lowed to express, the view I entertain that the scheme is impracticable, unreal, un-real, and would involve a hopeless waste of energy that might otherwise be better employed. (No, no, and applause). ap-plause). Mr. Taylor has answered by pointing to the cases of the Belgian states and to Switzerland. Could it occur oc-cur to the men who threw the tea into Boston harbor that they could not claim a distinct nationality and set up an independent government because they were speaking the English tongue, ton-gue, or did it occur to the Canadians or Australians of the present day? It seems to me that while it is quite right to consider the question of lan- guage as one of the characteristics that go to form that entity called a nation it is not absolutely essential, although al-though it is unquestionably one commonly com-monly 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 terminated. |