AN EXPLANATION.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 100, 25 September 1878, Page 2

AN EXPLANATION.

TO THE KDITOB; Sib,— Will you kindly permit me, through the; columns of your paper, to correct an erroneous impression which your reporter has ; given (probably by misandorstanding) of the lepture of the 18fch instant. He ha» evidently thought that the lecturer aimed sv blow at ;the whole female population-of th» "Sister Isle." That is certainly not thecase. The question was— can certain cautea produce certain effects upon the feature! of any portion of the race?— and therdowntrodden inhabitants of a portion of that Island were brought forward m answer j and as the Dublin University Magaaine will •scarcely be a likely paper to go- " considerably'out. of its way to have a fling at a certain nationality," the Irish, we will quote ; quote it :— " There are certain districts m Leitrim, Stigo, and Mayo, chiefly inhabited by descendants of the native Irish driven by the British from Armagh and the south ' iof Down, about two centuries ago. Th**ft '■ people, whose ancestors were well grown* able-bodied, and comely, are now reduced to an average stature of iire feet two- inches 4 are pot-bellied, bow-legged, nod abortively featured; and are especially remarkable for open projecting mouths,' with prominent teeth and exposed gums (i.e., prognathous, jawed— the Negro type), their advancing cheek-bones and depressed notes bearing barbarism on their Teryfionfc. In other words, within so' short a period they seen to have acquired a prognathous type of skull, like the savages, of Australia, thu» giving such an example of deterioration from known causes' as almost compensate* by its value to future ages for the sufferings and debasement which past generation* have endured m perfecting tha appalling lesson." If, unfortunately,. a pin- hod nob fallen out of one of the cartoons, your reporter would have seen a drawing of another Irish girl, whose features, m refinement of . contour, express all* that Mrs 9. Q, Hail cant . claim for the Irish lady. The lecturer hat. too much faifch ia the "parliament of many • the federation of the world,"' to publicly or privately deride a nation that has produced.^ orators, statesmen, scholar?, writer*, poets, and - warriors, and whose people- can claim descent from the same source that the" Carthagenians of twenty-seven centuries ago derived theirs. If the lecturer did wish to "insult and deride" a nation he would 1 not;. select one that can trace its aoare* through Spain, Carthage, and Phonic* to the fi?st Egyptian Empire ; a people that could boast of high-class civilisation .twenty , centuries .before * Julius •" Ctesar invadefct Britain, and even m latter, times has proved its good old. stock by giving the world such men as Cardinal Wiseman, Dr. A. Clarke,, Bishop Ussher, and Parnell m the Church g Castlereagh, Boylo> Burke, Grattan m th» State j Steele, Sheridan, Swift, Moore, Deny ham, Goldsmith, and others,, as writers j, and the Earl of Orrery as astronomer and mathematician. It would indeed be bad policy to '< have a sneer? at such a race* especially when he has many friends, among this people, and may ptrhap* know almost as much about them a* the repprterof thi* paper. Apart from these considecotionf, & man who has the world. for hi* pariaH wouldi scarcely be likely tatry and gain the-" tym* pathy., of an audience " by insulting, any branch of the great famil/jt " the brotherhood of man.— l am, 4c., .; Terrace End, September 21st, 1878. [The authority qnoted by Professor Fr*ser appears a very high one, so. also would the slanders of the notorious Proud©, on th» Celtic race, but there is just as much troth m the one as the other. Wendw^M-be^ fore, acquit Professor Froser of any graver intention than adding a condiment to hi* bill of fare» v Perhaps, however, he might* by way of contrast, Vary his next lecture by throwing m a few of the orator*, divmes* &c., &c., which our strictures have brought back from the grave, and give hi» audienoa the benefit of the graceful picture to wbiek he has alluded U 1