178 CRITIQUES AND ADDRESSES. [vin. 



the English people, consisting in part of the descendants 

 of Cymric speakers, and in part of the descendants 

 of Teutonic speakers, made good their footing in the 

 eastern half of the island, as the Saxons and Danes made 

 good theirs in England ; and did their best to complete 

 the parallel by attempting the extirpation of the Gaelic- 

 speaking Irish. And they succeeded to a considerable 

 extent ; a large part of Eastern Ireland is now peopled 

 by men who are substantially English by descent, and 

 the English language has spread over the land far beyond 

 the limits of English blood. 



Ethnologically, the Irish people were originally, like 

 the people of Britain, a mixture of Melanochroi and 

 Xanthochroi. They resembled the Britons in speaking 

 a Celtic tongue ; but it was a Gaelic and not a Cymric 

 form of the Celtic language. Ireland was untouched by 

 the Roman conquest, nor do the Saxons seem to have 

 had any influence upon her destinies, but the Danes and 

 Norsemen poured in a contingent of Teutonism, which 

 has been largely supplemented by English and Scotch 

 efforts. 



What, then, is the value of the ethnological difference 

 between the Englishman of the western half of England 

 and the Irishman of the eastern half of Ireland ? For 

 what reason does the one deserve the name of a " Celt," 

 and not the other ? And further, if we turn to the 

 inhabitants of the western half of Ireland, why should 

 the term "Celts" be applied to them more than to 

 the inhabitants of Cornwall ? And if the name is appli- 

 cable to the one as justly as to the other, why should 

 not intelligence, perseverance, thrift, industry, sobriety, 

 respect for law, be admitted to be Celtic virtues ? 

 And why should we not seek for the cause of their 

 absence in something else than the idle pretext of 

 Celtic blood?" 



