174 Roijal Irish Academij. 



old customs, and old stories are fast disappearing before the inroads of 

 civilization. The very institutions of which we are most proud, our 

 improved education, our methods of access and communication, are 

 responsible for most of the devastation in this direction. Of course I 

 am aware that a great deal has been done by folk-lore societies, and 

 by dialect societies, but these reports differ from the work of such 

 societies in treating, as it appears to me, the life of the people 

 and their past as one organized whole. I have been reminded by 

 Dr. "Wright that the current report of the British Association speaks 

 of these Papers of Dr. Browne as excellent types of how such work 

 should be done. I am sui'e we are always glad over here to set a 

 good example to the other partner, who in this matter does not 

 appear to be the predominant one. 



" In the matter of dialects it has frequently struck me as curious 

 that we owe perhaps more to a foreigner. Prince Lucien Bonaparte, 

 than to any otlier one man, but I believe there are those who have 

 taken up and are energetically carrying on the work which he started. 

 One singular evidence of the increased interest taken in the study of 

 dialects which comes under our notice is the improvement we may 

 observe in the way in which the provincial dialects are treated on the 

 stage. Some years ago it was not an unusual thing on the stage to 

 htar a supposed Yorkshireman using expressions peculiar to White- 

 chapel in the intonation which belongs to the inhabitants of Somer- 

 setshire. I think that would hardly happen now ; but I fancy 

 the stage Irishman still leaves much to be desired in speech, in 

 address, and in the way in which he comports himself in society — a 

 manner which, I am bound to say, I have never observed during my 

 stay in this country. One feels that if a day comes, as I suppose it 

 will, when everybody, high and low, rich and poor, Irish, Scotch, and 

 English, will all speak the language of the morning newspaper in the 

 accents of the counting-house, the happy inhabitants of those days will 

 be glad to know the language their poor ignorant forefathers used when 

 expressing their ideas. But, after all, one cannot but feel that the 

 general support of work of this kind must depend not only on its 

 curiosity — scientific curiosity — but on its practical value, and I 

 venture to think that the other sciences, many of them, owe a 

 great deal to inquiries such as those undertaken by Dr. Browne. 



