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It seems to have been given to the world becaose something 6f the 

 kind was expected from his high character as an Irish scholar. Did 

 the various duties of the Rev. Mr. Loftus, his learned successor in the 

 Irish Chair of Maynooth, permit him to favour the world with the 

 result of his deep and valuable researches in our language, our li- 

 terature would be considerably benefitted. 



The three last preceding Grammars were published within the 

 short space of two years, 1808 — 1809.*' Their respective authors 

 have since paid the debt of nature. Truly grateful to them should 

 we be for the assistance they have afforded us in the stiwly of our 

 language. And if they have not succeeded to the full in its eluci- 

 dation, yet they have done much, and have left the less to be done 

 by their successors. To them I feel truly grateful. If, in my ob- 

 servations on their works, I have been obliged to dissent from some 

 of their views, I did so with the utmost respect, and have not, I 

 trust, indulged in a single expression which would derogate from 

 their merits, or hazarded an opinion to which, if living, they would 

 not assent. Because their intentions were patriotic, and they were 



* In 1815 a small Irish grammatical tract was published, entitled " Foroidebs Ghnatth- 

 Ghaoidheilge na h-Eireand. An Introduction to the knowledge of the Irish language as now 

 upoken ; containing a complete Analysis of the declinable parts of speech, with the pronunciation 

 of each Irish word employed in illustration, so far as could be effected by the substitution of 

 English characters : Systematically arranged and methodically disposed in fourteen short 

 Synoptic tables. To which is added, I. Examples of the Gaelic or Caledonian conjugations, and, 

 a curious specimen of the Erse of the 16th century, from the Rev. Alexander Steward's Gram- 

 mar, 2d Edition, Edinburgh, 1812." By Patrick Lynch, Secretary to the Gaelic Society of 

 Dublin — The chief object of this little tract appears to have been tiie instruction of students in 

 the correct pronunciation of the Irish language as now spoken. It begins with the Alphabet, 

 of which the figures and names of the letters in Irish and English are given with the pronuncia- 

 tion, and Hebrew and Greek names of their correspoding letters in those languages. The an- 

 tiquity of the names and origin of our letters are also shewn. It answers the purpose for which 

 it was intended, and will be found useful to persons not capable of speaking the language when 

 'earning it. 



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