An gaidheal - National Library of Scotland

April, THE GAEL. 59EDINBURGH UNIVERSITYCELTIC SOCIETY.This Society held its annual socialmeeting in Cragie Hall, St AndrewSquare, on the evening of Friday,the 7th ult—Mr. W. Eraser, M.A.,Stratheriick, in the chair.were opened byThe jDroceedingssingiug the 100th Psalm, after whichthe company sat down to tea. Apologiesfor absence were received fromProfessor Blackie; Sheriff Nicolson;Dugald M'Kechuie, Esq., advocate;and John Carment, Esq., S.S.C.Diplomas of honorary membershipwere presented to Messrs. NormanMacleod, Lachlan Maclachlan, M.A.,W. Morrison, Ewen Macleod, GeorgeCampbell, J. Graham, M.A., RobertReid, and Alexander Macdonald, M. A.The Chairman then rose amid applause.He was deeply sensible, liesaid, of the honour the Society haddone him in calling him to occupythe chair at so large and brilliant anassemblage. He then adverted tothe benefit of debating societies ingeneral, and of then- own in particular.To the Highland student, fi'eshfrom home, the opportunities sucha society offered for introducing hunto the university world, were mostinvaluable; and there should be asociety of this kind at every universityseat where the Highlands weresufficiently represented. Perhaps itwould be an improvement if the}'were made to approximate morenearly to the style of conversazioni.He hoped the establishment of aCeltic chair was not far distant." Time," he said, " has consecratedoiir traditions and language—a languagewhich is destined to hold aplace in classics undreamt of byour forefathers—which is now beingacquiredby the noblest in the landas part of the highest education—andwhich is second to none in copiousnessof expression or in philologicalvalue."The Rev. Dr. Masson gave an interestingaccount of the social conditionof the Canadian Highlanders,basing his remarks on his recenttravels. More Gaelic, he said, wasspoken in Canada than iu Scotland.He had travelled over 7000 miles ofthe Dominion and a few of the borderStates, everywhere preaching to largeGaelic congregations. He foundmany settlements as Highland as anypart of Scotland, and the CanadianGlengarry had a hundred Highlandersto eveiy one in the oldhome of the Macdonells. In manyplaces the Gaelic services in the openair rivalled the great sacramentalgatherings of thiity years ago in theBum of Ferrintoshj and whateverthe exiled Highlanders had gainedin independence, they had lost nothingof the simple piety of theirforefathers, nor of their love for theirmother tongue. Everywhere, too,the world had gone well with them.Many of them were rich, and somehad amassed great fortunes. Inthe Church, at the Bar, and in theGoverinuent of the country, not lessthan in agriculture and trade, theGael took a high place. The Premierof the Dominion, though bornin Glasgow, Avas every inch a Highlander,and the leader of the Opposition,a very able man, was broughtup, like Hugh Miller, a stone masonin the Highlands: the Premier ofOntario was a Caithness man, andthe Minister of Public Works, whosometimes addressed the House inGaelic, came of a worthy family inArgyll. A Ross-shire man whom hehad met had given £100,000 tofound a college for ladies.The Rev. Dr. Maclachlan referredto his own experience in Canadasome twenty-six years ago, contrastingthe state of the country then