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( 249 )
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VOL . V . T
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To an impartial and reflecting observer reviewing the history of mankind , there will , perhaps , appear few objects more singular and inexplicable , more difficult to reconcile to what might be expected to be the prevailing motives of action with enlightened statesmen and civilized nations , than the past and present condition of Ireland , Such an observer , now for the first time directing his attention to the history and circumstances of this country ,
would not be easily brought to believe it possible that a land richly endowed with a fertile soil , a temperate climate , and a situation yielding to none in the facilities afforded for intercourse with all the world , blessed by Providence apparently with all the natural requisites for wealth and prosperity , whose inhabitants have been connected for centuries , by the most intimate political ties , with a people who claim to be the first upon the earth for civilization , refinement , and philanthropy , should nevertheless , in respect of
a large portion of its population , be more abandoned and destitute of the fair advantages of intellectual or moral culture than any other people above the rank of savages . That a community , generally understood to be sufficiently alive to their own interests , should continue obstinately ignorant of the actual condition and natural resources of a country almost visible from their own shores , with which they are more closely united than witli any other , and whose progress in wealth and cultivation is more nearly connected with ,
and more powerfully influences their own than that of any other nation whatever , would seem at first view a most strange and unaccountable paradox . Yet so it has been ; and , though there are symptoms of approaching change , so in a great measure it continues to be to this day . An enterprising people , whose self-interest and curiosity incite them to explore every other corner of the habitable globe in pursuit of wealth and of knowledge ,
allow one of the most valuable portions of it at their own doors to remain , if not absolutely a terra incognita , at least very imperfectly examined ; a people in general deservedly celebrated for their zealous exertions to spread the blessings of knowledge and the gospel throughout every clime , allow several millions of their fellow-subjects , nominally united under the same political constitution , and entitled to share in all its privileges and distinctions , to remain in a state of gross intellectual , moral , and spiritual
darkness . We have been led into these reflections by a very interesting and valuable work recently published , the title of which we have prefixed , containing , along with much ingenious reasoning and eloquent remonstrance , some extraordinary and startling facts , which , notwithstanding that they relate to the condition and circumstances of three or four millions of our countrymen
in Ireland , will , if we mistake not , be almost , if not altogether , new to the great bulk of its English readers . We refer more particularly to the information which it contains respecting the comparative prevalence of the English and Irish languages ; the history of the measures , to say the least of them , impolitic and absurd , which have been and are still pursued with reference to this subject , and the course which a more liberal and enlightened as well as truly Christian policy would suggest .
• Historical Sketches of the Native Irish and their Descendants , illustrative of their past and present State with regard to Literature , Education , and Oral In- * struction . By Christopher Anderson .
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ANDERSON ' S HISTORICAL SKETCHES OP THE NATIVE IRISH . *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1831, page 249, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2596/page/33/
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