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or vessels, called treck-schuits (treck-schuiten), some of which start every hour, and in all directions, and convey goods, parcels, and passengers, from place to place. These vessels, of which I have now seen many in this town, may be described as large open boats, containing wooden cottages of about thirty feet long and six feet wide, with flat roofs, on which the passengers may walk in fine weather. They are placed in, and form a part of the boat itself, and are divided by a partition into two parts. The interior division, which is by much the largest, is called the ruim. It contains the goods and baggage, and in it, as it is cheaper, the greater number of passengers take their seats. The smaller apartment, which is next the stern of the vessel, is called the roef. It is neatly fitted up, with a table in the centre, and cushions around the sides, and in it the quality are usually conveyed. It contains eight people, is furnished with one or two windows on each side, and in some a draft-board is painted on the table. In the event of one or two persons engaging the whole seats in the roef, it is only necessary to pay one-half of the price. The ruim, I should suppose, may contain upwards of thirty people.
These boats travel at the rate of one league per hour, or rather more; and the expense, including baggage, cannot much exceed a penny a mile. They are drawn by a horse, in the manner of our own canal boats, but the rope is fastened to the top of a small moveable mast, placed near the bow of the vessel. The cottage-shaped building before mentioned, does not extend the entire length of the treck-schuit, but both before and behind it there is an open space, in the former of which is placed a person who lowers the mast and unties the rope on passing other vessels, or under bridges; and the latter is appropriated to the helmsman, and such of the passengers as may prefor it to the roef or cabin.
Although the feelings of a merchant may no doubt be both acute and delightful in this most mercantile city, yet, upon the whole, there is not much to excite the attention, or to gratify the curiosity of a lounger.
If the weather is fine, I shall therefore start for Leyden to-morrow.
X. Y. Z.
(To be continued.)
LETTER FROM THE LATE DR M'LAGAN TO THE PRESES OF THE GAELIC SOCIETY, EDINBURGH, RESPECTING THE COMPILATION OF A GAELIC DICTIONARY.
[The following letter has been handed to us by Mr Campbell, editor of "Albyn's Anthology," in whose possession the original has been for many years, and who has also furnished us with the additional information contained in the notes to the letter. Authentic intelligence respecting the history of Gaelic literature will always be acceptable to us, and at the present moment can scarcely fail to be interesting to many of our readers, who are looking forward with eager anxiety to the publication of the Gaelic Dictionary now compiling under the auspices of the Highland Society of Scotland. The accomplishment of this desirable and often-defeated object, will be one of the many important public services performed by that highly respectable and patriotic body. We regret that our limits will only permit us to give one short extract from the papers they have printed, respecting the plan of the work and the progress that has been made in it. This we subjoin, along with a memorandum on Dr M'Lagan's letter, (Notes A, B,) with which we have been obligingly furnished by a gentleman who has the very best access to authentic information in whatever relates to the history of Gaelic literature.
In case any of our southern readers should be inclined to regard this subject as one of trifling importance, and our attention to it as a strong trait of nationality, we shall take the liberty to quote the opinion expressed by Dr Samuel Johnson, when the scheme of translating the Scriptures into Gaelic was strongly opposed by some individuals, from political considerations of the disadvantages of keeping up the distinctions between the Highlanders and the other inhabitants of the island. "I am not very willing that any language should be totally extinguished. The similitude and derivation of languages afford the most indubitable proof of the traduction of nations and the genealogy of mankind. They add often physical certainty to historical evidence; and often supply the only evidence of ancient migrations, and of the revolutions of ages which left no written monuments behind them."[1]]
Belfast, Feb. 27th. 1771.
DEAR SIR,
Your letter of 25th ultimo I was lately honoured with. I am sorry that my knowledge of the Galic language does not by any means come up to the notions you seem to entertain of it,
- ↑ See Letter to Mr W. Drummond, dated 1766; Boswell's Life, vol. ii. p. 142.