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1851.

The Anglo-Saxons and the Americans.

187

THE ANGLO-SAXONS AND THE AMERICANS:

EUROPEAN RACES IN THE UNITED STATES.*

WE are glad to learn that a new edition] and power successively disappeared, to give We shall exof Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons is place to a proud Norman nobility, are about to be published in London. The among the subjects of the history undertaAmerican edition of 1841 of this excellent ken by Sir Francis Palgrave. and authentic work is, we believe, nearly out pect to see these and other topics connected of print. The sixth London edition was with the Norman Conquest fully detailed published in 1836, the first edition hav- in the volumes, of which the first is mainly ing been issued in successive parts between introductory. the years 1799 and 1805. In his preface to the edition of 1836, the author remarks: "That he should live to revise its sixth edition was more than he expected; for it is now thirty-seven years since he published its first volume. This is pleasing; but it is still a greater gratification to observe, that so much of the attention of the public continues to be directed to the transactions and remains of their Anglo-Saxon ancestors, and that so many able men still apply them selves to illustrate this truly national subject by various and valuable publications."

An American edition of the History of Normandy is also announced; the first volume only having as yet appeared in England. The author, Sir Francis Palgrave, is favorably known for his large work on "The Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth," and a smaller work on the "History In his History of of the Anglo-Saxons." Normandy, and the effects of the Norman Conquest on the English nation, he elucidates a most important portion of English history, the particulars of which have heretofore been much neglected by historians, as well as general readers. The origin and character of the Normans, and the manner in which nearly all the lands in the kingdom were transferred from their Saxon possessors to the conquerors; also the way in which the families that under the Anglo-Saxon dynasty had been distinguished by their opulence

The "English in America" is a work of a different character than we might have expected from Judge Haliburton, whose hap py delineations of American character in his "Sam Slick," and other humorous works, have gained him much celebrity. In the two volumes of his new work, the English in America are described principally as uncouth, disingenuous and repulsive Puritans, who emigrated to America in the early part of the seventeenth century, for the sake of an envied indulgence in disloyalty and schism. In his introductory chapter the author states in effect that one of the principal objects in writing the volumes has been to inform Englishmen that Democracy did not appear for the first time in America during the war of Independence; and that the peculiar form of religion that prevailed at an early period in the New-England States exerted a very powerful effect over their politics and modes of government. The author of "Sam Slick" cannot surely claim any originality for this idea. Doctor Robertson, in his posthumous History, George Chalmers, in his various works on the Colonies, Burke, in his speeches and writings, and other British statesmen, politicians and historians of the last century have fully developed, not only all the facts, but most of the philosoThe circumstances connected with phy which is contained in the present volumes. the early history of the British settlements

*The History of the Anglo-Saxons, from the Earliest Period to the Norman Conquest. By SHARON TURNER. In 2 vols. London and Philadelphia.

The History of Normandy, and of England. By SIR FRANCIS PALGRAVE. Vol. I. London: John Murray.

The English in America. By JUDGE HALIBURTON of Nova Scotia. London: Colburn.

in America are too well known to permit | conflict, and is equally conspicuous in revo-
any attempt at systematic and unscrupulous lutions of three days, temperance movements,
disparagement of the early Puritan colonists and meetings on the hill of Tara; the same
to be successful. Judge Haliburton con- sociability and demonstrativeness; the same
fines himself almost wholly to the events natural refinement of manners, down to the
which took place in the colony of Massa- lowest rank; in both, the characteristic
chusetts, and on that basis has written a weakness of an inordinate vanity, and their
book, half declamation and half treatise, ready susceptibility to influences in a degree
against Democracy and dissent to the Church to which the more obstinate races are stran-
of England. Still, this publication pos-gers; to what, except their Gaelic blood,
sesses very great merit, so far as the mere
composition is concerned. It is written with
the usual ability of the author; the style is
vigorous, lively, and sometimes eloquent.
The narrative parts are extremely pleasing,
and where the peculiar opinions of the wri-
ter on the subjects referred to are not prom-
inent, the reader is delighted with the acute
observation and good sense which distin-
guish the work. But the unfair statements
of the learned Judge respecting the early
settlers of New-England, and his attempt
to unsettle the verdict which an impartial
age has long ago pronounced on questions
relating to the character of the pilgrim fa-
thers and the Puritan colonies, will not be
likely to be received with favor by the un-
prejudiced at the present day, or to add to
the popularity the author enjoys as a delin-
eator of traits of human character.

Those who would obtain an accurate knowledge of the people of the United States, and look to the internal moving forces of human affairs as developed on this continent, cannot but attach great importance to the consideration of races. To understand the national character of our government and the spirit of our laws, we must go back to the earliest ages of the history of England, and study the character of the various races that from early times have settled on the island of Great Britain. Of the great influence of race in the production of national character, no reasonable inquirer can now doubt. "As far as history and social circumstances generally are concerned," says a late British writer, "how little resemblance can be traced between the French and the Celtic Irish-in national character, how much! The same ready excitability; the same impetuosity when excited, yet the same readiness under excitement to submit to the severest discipline-a quality which at first might seem to contradict impetuosity, but which arises from that very vehemence of character with which it appears to

can we ascribe all this similarity between
populations, the whole course of whose na-
tional history has been so different? We
say Gaelic, not Celtic, because the Cymri of
Wales and Brittany, though also called Celts,
have evinced throughout history in many
respects an opposite type of character, more
like the Spanish Iberians than either the
French or Irish ;-individual, instead of gre-
garious; obstinate, instead of impressible;
instead of the most disciplinable, one of the
most intractable races among mankind."

Historians who preceded Michelet had
seen chiefly the Frankish or the Roman ele-
ment in the formation of modern France;
Michelet in his History of France calls atten-
tion to the Gaelic element. "The foundation
of the French people," he says, "is the youth-
ful, soft, and mobile race of the Gaels, bru-
yante, sensual, and legère,-prompt to learn,
prompt to despise, greedy of new things." To
the ready impressibility of this race, and the
easy reception it gave to foreign influences,
he attributes the progress made by France.
It is certain that no people in a semi-barba-
rous state ever received a foreign civilization
more rapidly than the French Celts. In a
century after Julius Caesar, not only the
south, but the whole east of Gaul, was al-
ready almost as Roman as Italy itself. The
Roman institutions and ideas took a deeper
root in Gaul than in any other province of the
Roman empire, and remained long predom-
inant, wherever no great change was effected
in the population by the ravages of the in-
vaders. But, along with this capacity of
improvement, M. Michelet does not find in the
Gauls that voluntary loyalty of man to man,
that free adherence, founded on confiding
attachment, which was characteristic of the
Germanic tribes, and of which, in his view,
the feudal relation was the natural result. It
is to these qualities, to personal devotedness
and faith in one another, that he ascribes
the universal success of the Germanic tribes
in overpowering the Celts. He finds already

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in the latter the root of that passion for their appellations, had been deprived of equality which distinguishes modern France; their independence, at the same time that and which, when unbalanced by a strong others, amid the revolutions of two or three principle of sympathetic union, has always, centuries, had risen to a high pre-eminence he says, prevented the Celts from becoming of power.

a nation.

Although it is impossible at this time to estimate the full effect produced on the character of the British people by the Roman occupation and dominion of four centuries, yet it is certain that the influence of Roman institutions and ideas was far less in Great Britain than in Gaul and in other provinces. The Britons retained their language and many of their manners and customs, modified by the early introduction of Christianity. It is generally admitted that the numerous population which the Romans found in the occupation of the southern part of the island of Britain, about half a century before the commencement of the Christian era, was principally a wild race called Cymri, who had in all probability been immediately derived from the neighboring country of France, then known by the name of Gallia. Julius Cæsar, the first of the ancient writers who saw the people, or who has described them, informs us that their buildings were almost similar to those of the Gauls, and that their religion was the same; and it appears also that a close political alliance existed between Britain and Gaul, and that the Gauls were all along aided by the Britons in their contests with the Romans.

Cæsar makes a marked distinction between the inhabitants of the coast of Britain and those of the interior, not only describing the latter as much more rude in their manners, and less advanced in civilization than the former, but also expressly declaring them to be of a different race. Caesar could speak from personal knowledge only of the tribes that dwelt near the mouth of the Thames. These he informs us were of Belgic descent. Their ancestors had, at no very distant period, invaded the island, expelled the original inhabitants from the coast, and in their new settlements still retained the names of the parent states. The number of the inhabitants in the districts which fell under his observation astonished the Roman general, and there is reason to believe that many other districts were equally well peopled. The population of the whole island comprised above forty tribes, of which several, while they retained

It has been a much controverted question to which of the two great races from whom the population of the principal part of Europe appears to be derived-the Celts or Goths-the ancient Belgae or maritime Britons are to be considered as belonging. It must be admitted that the point is an exceedingly doubtful one. The distinction, in respect both of language and of lineage, between the Celtic and the Teutonic, Germanic or Gothic races, may be said to be the fundamental canon of the modern philosophy of the origin and connection of nations, but it is not very long since its importance came to be understood. The most elaborate discussion the subject has met with, is that which it received from the late John Pinkerton, a most learned and acute Scottish antiquary, in all whose historical investigations the radical distinction between the Celtic and the Gothic races, and the inherent inferiority of the former, are maintained with as much zeal and vehemence as if the writer had a personal interest in the establishment of the point. The correctness of the new views, in so far as respects the general position of the non-identity of the Celtic and Germanic nations, and also their importance to the elucidation of the whole subject of the original population of Europe, are now universally admitted.

Mr. Pinkerton, after long and laborious investigation, thinks he has established the fact, that the Belga, who were a German or Gothic people, and did not speak the Celtic but the Gothic tongue, came into Britain about three centuries before the Christian era. Their descendants were those Britons whom Cæsar saw, and who resisted the Roman army with such remarkable and continued bravery. The people of the interior were, says Pinkerton, palpably the Welsh, afterwards called Britons, as the most ancient inhabitants, for all memory of the Gael or Celts who are supposed to have preceded the Cymri in their emigration to Britain, was unknown to the Roman and Saxon writers.

It is also contended by Pinkerton, that the Picts or Caledonians were also of the Gothic or Scythian race, and, emigrating

from Scandinavia, settled in Scotland about | to the Romans under the name of Germans. the same period as the Belgæ-a kindred They occupied all the continent but the Gothic tribe from Belgic Gaul-settled in Cimbric peninsula, and had reached and South Britain, or about three centuries be- even passed the Rhine. One of their divifore the Christian era. The Picts, it is sions, the Belgæ, had for some time estabasserted, are the ancestors of the Lowland lished themselves in Flanders and part of Scotch, while the Highlanders of Scotland, it France, then Gaul. It is most probable, is well known, are Celts. We may here add says Sharon Turner, that the Belge in that many antiquaries consider the Low- Britain were descendants of colonists or inlanders as of Anglo-Saxon descent. The vaders from the Belge in Flanders (now proportion of real Gael or Celts in Scotland Belgium) and Gaul. On this point, it will and its isles, was estimated by Pinkerton, be observed, Turner agrees with Pinkerton. who wrote over sixty years since, at four hundred thousand, or about one quarter of the inhabitants of that part of the British isles. The north of Ireland, it is well known, is mainly peopled with the descendants of the Lowland Scotch, who emigrated to that quarter principally during the seventeenth century. It is from the stock of Lowland Scotch, it should be remembered, that most of the Scotch and Irish emigrants to America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries came, and but few were of the Celtic

race.

Although classed under one general head as Saxons, there were three tribes of AngloSaxons which composed the adventurers who conquered England. These tribes were the Jutes, the Angles, and the Saxons. Bands of adventurers from the Frisians and other German tribes joined the invaders, and also settled in Britain. These promiscuous conquerors have been since known in history by the common appellation of Anglo-Saxons. When Beda wrote, in A. D. 731, or nearly three centuries after the first appearance of the Saxons in England, he informs us that there were four languages spoken in Britain, namely, English, Pictish, British or Cumraig, and Scottish or Irish. Hence, Pinkerton infers that as the name of Angli was given to all the possessors of South Britain except the Welsh, this speech, which Beda calls Anglic, (or English,) was in fact the Belgic, with a new name. Pinkerton also thinks that the Latin language was very little used by either Belgians or Welsh. Tacitus, in Agricola, tells us indeed that the filii principum of Britain used the Latin; and it seems to have been always confined to the upper ranks, for all Roman Britain did not produce one Latin author, although Spain and Gaul did many: as Mela, Lucan, Seneca, Martial, Sidonius, Ausonius, and others.

The Anglo-Saxons were the people who transported themselves from the Cimbric peninsula (now Denmark) and its vicinity, in the fifth and sixth centuries, into England. They were branches of the great Saxon confederation, which, from the Elbe, extended itself at last to the Rhine. According to Sharon Turner, the Anglo-Saxons, Lowland Scotch, Normans, Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, Germans, Dutch, Belgians, Lombards and Franks, have all sprung from that great fountain of the human race, distinguished by the terms Scythian, German, or Gothic. The first appearance of the Scythian tribes in Europe may be placed, according to Strabo and Homer, about the eighth, or, according to Herodotus, in the seventh century before the Christian era. The most important conclusion arrived at The first scenes of their civil existence and by Pinkerton is, that at the conquest of Engof their progressive power were in Asia, to land by the Anglo-Saxons, the Belgic Britthe east of the Araxes. Here they multi-ons were not exterminated. While the plied and extended their territorial limits, Cymri were driven into Wales and Brittany, for some centuries, unknown to Europe. the Belga, he supposes, having been so lost Their general appellation among themselves in the luxuries of Rome during the dominion was Scoloti, but the Greeks called them of that power, that they seem to have toScythians, Scuthoi, or Nomades. They have become better known to us in recent periods under the name of Geta or Goths, the most celebrated of their branches. In the days of Cæsar, the most advanced tribes of the Scythian or Gothic race were known

tally abandoned their character of the bravest of the Gauls, could not exist without Roman protection, submitted to their Saxon conquerors, and became their serfs and vassals. The Jutes, Saxons and Angli were really the Gothic brethren of the Belgæ, but

finding them so defenseless, usurped their | stock, may seem a misnomer; but it should power, and became their masters. Admit- be recollected that names are often arbitrary ting the Belge only to the ranks of coloni or accidental, and applied incorrectly, of and villani, their natural enmity to the which we have abundant instances on this Cymri induced them to give them no quar- continent; but long-continued custom sancter, till driven to the highlands of Wales and tions what cannot be strictly approved by the rocks of Cornwall, after an extermina- the rules of criticism or abstract propriety. tion of nearly a third, and expulsion to We have thus endeavored to give our France (Brittany) and Ireland of nearly views of what races and people composed another third. The Belga Pinkerton rather the Anglo-Saxons or English, at the time of extravagantly estimates to have amounted at the Norman Conquest, since when Scotland that time to three millions, whereas, he says, and Ireland, with the colonies, have been their Anglo-Saxon conquerors never appear to added to the British empire. From that have exceeded one hundred thousand. The period until the seventeenth century, when numerous coloni and slaves of the Saxons, the settlement of the British colonies in even down to the Norman invasion in 1066, America commenced, no change of imporsurprise historians who know that the Cymri tance occurred to affect the relative position or Welsh were expelled, but forget that such of the different races inhabiting the British a people as the Belga existed. No traces Isles. Probably very little amalgamation of Welsh names being found among the took place between the descendants of the Saxons, these numerous coloni must all have Gothic and Celtic races. The Welsh, who been Belgae, who, by intermarriages, &c., we have seen are the descendants of the gradually changed their fortunes, so that be- Cymri, have doubtless mixed more with fore the Norman times the Saxons and Belgae their English neighbors than have the had nearly coalesced into one people; though Scotch and Irish; and of the emigrants to even then Domesday Book shows that the America, particularly to New-England, it coloni and villani possessed the far greater was often difficult to distinguish between part of the lands in England. "When the the Welsh and English who came over English history becomes studied by English together. There were, however, a few Welsh writers," Pinkerton sarcastically remarks, colonies in the United States in the last cen"and it is universally perceived that the tury, where the emigrants retained their lanBelga, a Gothic people, who fought in this guage, manners and customs. Such is the isle against Julius Caesar, are the real ances- county of Cambria in Pennsylvania, and tors of three quarters of the present English, some smaller settlements in New-York and it may prove a national question whether the other States. Belgae or Picts were the first Goths who took possession of Britain. This question might be agitated for ever, for it is absolutely impossible to decide it. All authorities, facts and reason warrant us to believe that the Belge entered the south and the Picts the north of Britain, about one and the

same time."

The British colonies in America forming the original thirteen States were settled by colonists, a large proportion of whom were natives of Great Britain. No considerable emigration of Celtic Irish, or other people of Celtic origin, took place to this country, until after the commencement of the present century. The New-England States, NewAdmitting the probability of Mr. Pinker- Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, ton's conclusion, we have the interesting fact, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and that what are now by general consent termed Georgia were mainly settled by Englishmen, Anglo-Saxons, at the time of the Norman as is well known. New-York, the only Dutch conquest included not only the descendants colony, passed under English dominion, of the Saxon conquerors of the fifth and with a small population, partly Dutch and sixth centuries, but those of the ancient Bel-partly English, in 1674. The Dutch regic inhabitants, besides the Danes and other cords of 1673 say: "They, and as many Scandinavians who made inroads in Britain, of the Dutch nation as are yet residing under in the ninth and tenth centuries; and among all these were few or none of Celtic blood. The term Anglo-Saxon applied to such a people, even after the Norman graft on the original

this Government, are calculated to amount, women and children included, to about six thousand." In 1698, the total number of inhabitants in the colony was 18,067, and

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