aelic with them.
They have Gaelic newspapers, which have a large
circulation--larger, perhaps, than any Gaelic newspaper at
home. They have Gaelic preachers. In fact, there is one part of
Canada which might be called the new Scotland; and it is a
Scotchman who is now at the head of the Canadian
Government--John Macdonald.[A]

The next is a paper by Archibald Farquharson, Tiree, headed "The Scotch
at Home and Abroad," but really a thrilling appeal in favour of teaching
Gaelic in Highland Schools. It is impossible to give an idea of this
excellent paper by quoting extracts. We, however, give the following on
the teaching of Gaelic in the schools:--

Reading a language they do not understand has a very bad effect
upon children. It leaves the mind indolent and lazy; they do
not put themselves to any trouble to endeavour to ascertain the
meaning of what they read; whereas, were they taught to
translate as they went along, whenever a word they did not
understand presented itself to their minds, they would have no
rest until they would master it by finding out its meaning. And
I am pretty certain that were the Gaelic-speaking children thus
to be taught, that by the time they would reach the age of
fourteen years, they would be as far advanced, if not farther,
than those who have no Gaelic at all; so that, instead of the
Gaelic being their misfortune, it would be the very reverse. It
would, with the exception of Welshmen (were they aware of it),
place them on an eminence above any in Great Britain, not only
as scholars, but as having the best languages for the soul and
for the understanding. And should they enter college, they
would actually leave others behind them, because, in the first
place, they acquired the habit of translating in their youth,
which would make translating from dead languages comparatively
easy; and in the second place, they would derive great aid from
their knowledge of the Gaelic. If Professor Blackie has found
500 Greek roots in the Gaelic, what aid would they derive from
it in studying that language? and they would find equally as
much aid in studying Latin, and even Hebrew.

Comparing the melody of the English with that of the Gaelic, Mr
Farquharson says:--

Certainly, compared with Gaelic and Broad Scotch, it [English]
has no melody. It is true that it may be set off a