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that, by so doing, his usefulness is greatly diminished. I believe he has applied to your committee for some additional annual allowance, to enable him to devote his whole time to the duties of his ministry and to missionary labours, in Newport and other districts in the neighbourhood: most unquestionably this would be of great importance. But it deserves consideration with the committee, how far it might not more effectually promote the interests of Mr. Creighton and of the congregation also, to assist them in finishing the chapel, so as to unite the whole Presbyterians, and to accommodate others who are disposed to take seats; and in this manner establish such a congregation as would probably supersede the necessity of a continued annual grant to the minister, and enable him, at the same time, to cease from keeping the school, and devote his whole time to the interests of his people. I have thrown out this hint with great deference.

At Westport I received a letter from a friend in Cavan, earnestly urging me to visit that place, and to preach to the Presbyterians there, who were anxious to have a clergyman in connexion with your church settled among them. I therefore resolved to proceed to Cavan. In travelling by Sligo, I did myself the pleasure of calling on the Rev. Mr. Heron, the Presbyterian minister in that town; from him I experienced much brotherly attention, and learned with pleasure the prosperous state of the congregation. I travelled from Sligo to Enniskillen in company with an intelligent Scotch gentleman, resident at present in Sligo. From him I had ample confirmation of what I had often heard, but had some difficulty in believing, relative to the spiritual destitution and deplorable ignorance of the inhabitants of a lonely island which lies some miles from the coast of Sligo, called Innis-murrain. The people of that island actually worship the figurehead of a ship, which was probably wrecked on their coast. It is a figure rudely carved in wood, and painted red; and to this image the poor people pay devotion. They call it Molash-Mad-Ios, which, in the Irish, signifies the servant or representative of Jesus. They have an altar within a sort of unroofed chapel, on which they place a certain number of round stones, which they turn and arrange in a certain manner, according as they are disposed to bless or curse. This altar they call the altar of curses. The idol was carried off a few years ago, and cast into the sea at a considerable distance from the island; but the tide and wind carried it back again, and left it on the beach, directly under the chapel, and this confirmed the poor people

more than ever in their superstitious reverence for their idol. In this state of deplorable ignorance have the inhabitants of Innis-murrain, and of many other islands around the coasts of Ireland, lived and died from generation to generation! How important and interesting to visit the one hundred and forty inhabited islands which surround the coasts of Ireland, and to ascertain the actual spiritual condition of the forty three thousand souls living in these long-neglected solitudes. The condition of these poor islanders has never yet, as I know of, been made the subject of distinct consideration. Some of these islands contain a population from one hundred to four thousand, attached to parishes on the mainland, from which they are fifteen and twenty miles distant; and (to use the words of Mr. Christopher Anderson, one of Ireland's best friends,) "if the parish itself contain from three to ten thousand souls, and that there be no Irish school or Irish preaching on the mainland, what must be the condition of these poor people?" When my venerable friend, Principal Baird, and I were commissioned, a few years ago, to visit the Western Isles of Scotland, to ascertain the state of education, Government made no hesitation in appointing a revenue vessel to convey us from island to island. Why should not the islands on the coast of Ireland be visited? and their actual wants made known?

At Cavan I met with the greatest anxiety to hear a Presbyterian clergyman. The Rev. Mr. Denham, the pious and respectable Presbyterian clergyman, in Killisandra, officiates in the county jail of Cavan as one of the chaplains, and I doubt not but he has communicated to your committee the desire which exists in Cavan of having a Presbyterian clergyman established there. I went to Killisandra on purpose to see Mr. Denham, and to communicate to him what I had heard and witnessed in Cavan, so as to know his sentiments before I met your committee; but I was much disappointed in not finding him at home. I preached at Cavan on the Sabbath forenoon in a public hall, which was crowded; and in the evening of the same day, I preached in the county jail. The chapel in the jail was nearly full; and with the exception of seven, they were all Roman Catholics. The poor prisoners listened with profound attention. They all joined in prayer apparently with candour and deepdevotion. I do not know that I ever felt more deeply impressed in addressing any audience; and after concluding, they loudly and fervently expressed their gratitude, and prayed that the Lord would bring the kind stranger home in safety to his own place. I mention this cir

cumstance to show, that if ministers preach Gospel truth plainly, without attacking particular creeds, or going out of the way to have a blow at a priest or at priesthood, the Roman Catholics will listen with deep attention to the message of the Gospel. I was so earnestly urged to remain in Cavan, and preach on Tuesday afternoon, being the evening of the fairday, that I consented. I obtained the Methodist chapel; and it was really cheering to witness the crowd that attended, and the eagerness with which they listened. Many from the country remained; the chapel could not accommodate them; the very passage leading to the door was crowded. I have been induced to state these facts, as they are calculated to encourage your committee, and afford reasonable ground to hope, that a respectable and numerous congregation of Presbyterians could be formed in that place. I met in Cavan, as in all other places which I visited, respectable Scotsmen disposed to unite with your church, and to cooperate in securing the permanent settlement of a Presbyterian chapel in that town. I therefore beg leave to recommend Cavan to the attention of your committee, as being, in my humble opinion, a promising station for an ordained preacher who would itinerate in Ballyhays, Belturbet, and other villages and popular districts in the neighbourhood of Cavan.

It was my intention to proceed from Cavan to the district of Kings-court, to visit Mr. Winning, and see the Irish schools in his neighbourhood. This I was particularly anxious to do, desirous of being able to speak of the excellence of the system and its success from personal observation. But I was confined at Cavan for a few days by a severe attack of illness, and reluctantly obliged to return to Belfast, without having the pleasure I anticipated from seeing Mr. Winning, and the schools under his inspection.

Wherever I went, and with whomsoever I travelled while in Ireland, my attention was at all times directed to the state of the population speaking in Irish; and as I travelled outside of the coach, and had opportunities, in the course of the five hundred miles I travelled, of meeting with persons from all parts of the west and north, I endeavoured to ascertain the character of the different dialects of the Irish, as spoken at present. I met with persons from various parts of Munster, Connaught, and Ulster. I am convinced that a Gælic teacher from the Highlands of Scotland would not be understood, in the first instance, in Galway, and by the Cun

nemara people-far less by the people in the counties of Munster. He might converse with the people on the ordinary affairs of life; he might buy, and sell, and find his way through the country; but beyond that, though the Irish and Gælic languages are substantially the same, he could not go. In a lengthened discourse, he would not be understood. But while I make these observations, I must, at the same time, state my decided conviction, that, in the course of a few months, he could make himself master of the Irish, so as to speak it plainly and acceptably. In a very short time he would acquire the peculiar idiomatic expressions and the very tones of the Irish, and be as useful a preacher as if he had been born in the country. As I travelled north, the Irish became more and more intelligible; so that I have cause to believe, that in Innishowen, the mountainous districts of Antrim and Londonderry, a Gælic preacher would, on his first arrival, be almost thoroughly understood by the people. I met with several persons from these districts, who had been attending fairs in the county Mayo, and their dialect was as intelligible to me as that spoken in some parts of the north of Scotland is.

Such being the result of my observations on the character of the Irish language, as at present spoken in the districts through which I passed, I would earnestly recommend that a trial be made, as soon as possible, of two Gaelic preachers from Scotland. They would very soon acquire a knowledge of the Irish; and, in the meantime, their services would not be lost, as they could itinerate and preach in English. Knowing, therefore, the sentiments of the Synod and of their Missionary Society on this subject, I shall make their intentions as public as possible. I shall endeavour to interest influential clergymen in the Highlands on the measure; and should fit or duly qualified young men cast up, disposed to proceed to Ireland under your superintendence, we shall not fail to inform you. Preachers having all the necessary qualifications are not readily found-indeed talents and gifts of no ordinary nature are required. Piety-zeal-a love of souls-a high spirit of missionary enterprise conjoined to prudence-knowledge of the world-moral courage-a powerful and familiar mode of conveying instruction, are all necessary, nay, indispensable qualifications. Young men, richly endued with these qualifications, and wishing to go to itinerate in Ireland, are not easily found.

I have no doubt, from the spirit that animates your own

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church at present, but young men, natives of Ireland, will very soon be found to go forth in this field, and preach the Gospel to their countrymen in their own language. Until then, the experiment of sending forth some Gaelic preacher may be tried. It is now near three hundred years since this measure was recommended to Queen Elizabeth by Sir Henry Sidney, the then Governor of Ireland. "I wish," said he, "that your Majesty would write to the Regent of Scotland, where there are, as I learn, many of the Reformed Church speaking the Irish, that he would prefer to your Highness so many as shall seem good to you to demand, of honest, zealous, and learned men, who can speak that language: and though, for a while, your Majesty would be at some charge, it were well bestowed; on the peril of my life," said he, "you shall find the charge returned with fame before many years have expired." I shall rejoice to find that the Synod of Ulster have resolved to act up to this sound advice. Until Irish preachers are found, and funds secured to defray the expense, it is gratifying to know that church are resolved to encourage your the reading of the Irish language-to countenance the societies engaged in promoting Irish reading, and the circulation of the Scriptures in that language. The people speaking the Irish are but very partially taught as yet to read in their own language; and the Irish Scriptures are but scantily supplied to them, In the report of the London Hibernian Society for this year, I notice, that while they have distributed eight thousand seven hundred copies of the English Scriptures, their issue of Irish has amounted only to twelve Bibles and thirty-eight Testaments. Thousands, and hundreds of thousands of the poor Irish are, at present, in a state of the grossest intellectual darkness; and every society engaged in instructing them, is entitled to countenance. But especially so, those societies whose direct object it is to promote the reading and free circulation of the Gospel of light in that language which the people understand. Could the poor Irish be rescued from the yoke of Popery-brought to read and love the book of God-subjected to the ennobling influence of the Gospel, there would not be a more intellectual people on the face of the earth: but, situated as they are, they are a degraded people; and the withholding from them the word of God, is, of itself, a dooming them to that degradation. What Ireland wants is the word of God. The only Redeemer that can benefit them is the Lord Jesus Christ. So long as they are Papists, they will remain ignorant, superstitious, and debased. Popery is at the root of all the woe and all the

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