Aware of your great powers, I stand before your bar to plead, that ye
may plead for my countrymen, that they may be taught first to read their
mother tongue, which would not only be the most rational, but also the
most natural way of teaching them.
What an encouragement would it be to children to find their mother tongue
in their lessons—the very words they heard from her lips and their
playmates. How different from groping their way in the dark, in reading a
language they know nothing about. In the former case their judgment would
not only be in exercise, but would also assist and help to keep them
right; whereas in the latter case their judgment would give them no aid,
the whole depending upon their memory.
Were they thus taught first to read the Gaelic, and then to commence with
the English alphabet and the English pronunciation, and when reading,
to translate every word into Gaelic, it would not only exercise their
memory, but their judgment also, and encourage them to persevere, seeing
they were enabled to master the difficulties, being aided by one another
as well as by the teacher.
Is there no native Scotchman also that will stand at your bar to plead
for his mother tongue? Is that not the tongue, gentlemen, that many of
you heard from your mother’s lips, and that soothed you in the days of
your childhood? And ought you not to have the natural instinct to plead
for it yourselves?—to plead that the Broad Scotch should be the first
language taught in every part of Scotland, except where the Gaelic is
spoken; and when they could read their mother tongue, to commence at once
with the English alphabet and the English pronunciation, and when reading
it to translate every word into broad Scotch, such as _have_, hae; _so_,
sae; _of_, o’; _with_, wi, &c.
Before the time of the singing of birds shall ever dawn upon Scotland,
the Scotch must not only return to their native tongue but to their
native melodies also. Is it not a fact that there are no songs listened
to in the city of London with so much pleasure as the Scotch. I would
not be surprised although the native language and the native melodies of
Scotland are destined to give songs of praise to every part of the world
where the English language is spoken.