The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-07-19
From The LondolsTiihsn9um.
Progress OF tho An2lo-Snxon Race.

Progress OF tho An2lo-saxon Race.
By fortunate coincidence, the general total OF
the American census taken last year has just been
received, and we arc enabled, In conjunction win
the returns made the 3lst Of March for this
country, to measure the absolute progress OF the
Anglo Saxon race in its two grand divisions, and
to compare the laws OF their respective growths IN
relation to each other and to the rest OF the world
It is estimated including Ireland and the colonies,
that there is a grand total of men speaking the
same language and manifesting the same general
tendencies of civilization Of fifty six millions from
which is to be deducted the three millions of negro
fifty three millions, chiefly Of Anglo Saxon de-
scent, and deeply impregnated with its sturdy
qualities of heart and brain, an the representative
Of this advancing stock.
Two centuries ago there were not quite three
millions of this the face of the earth There
are million more persons OF Magyar descent,
speaking the Magyar language, at the present mo.
nnent, in Europe, than there were in Europe and
America of this conquering and colonizng people
in the time of Cromwell. How vain, then, for men
to talk of the political necessity for absorbing small
races! Sixty years ago the Anglo Saxon race did
not exceed seventeen millions in Europea and Amer
lea. At that time il was not numerically stronger
than the Poles. Thirty years ago 1t counted only
thirty four millions; being altogether, only three
millions and a fraction more than the population
of France at that time, and considerably less than
the Tcutonc population OF Central Europe. In
1851 it ia ahead of every civilized race in the world
Ofraces lying within the zones of civilization the
heads; but comparatively few of this plastic and
submissive stock have yet escaped from the bar
barism of the dark ages In wealth, energy, and
cultivation they are lot to be compared with the
Frank, the Teuton, and the Anglo-Saxon. Num-
Der is almost their only element of strength. OF
all the races which now striving for the mastery
OF the world, to impress on the future Of society
and civilization the stamp OF its own character and
genius, to make its law, idiom, religion, manners,
government, and opinion prevail, the Anglo
Saxon is now unquestionably the most numerous,
powerful, and active. The day when 1t might
possibly have been crushed, absorbed, or trampled
out, like Hungary and Poland, by stronger hordes,
is gone by forever. That it was possible at one
time for this people to be subdued by violence or to
fall prey to the slower agonies Of Decline there
can be little doubt In 1850 the United Provinces
seemed more likely to make grand figure in the
worlds future history than England. Their
wealth, activity. and maritime power were the
most imposing in Europe. They had all the car
rying trade OF the West in their hands. Their
language was spoken in every port. In the great
Orient their empire was fixed and their influence
paramount. England then hardly known
abroad Her difficult idiom grated foreign
ears, and her stormy coasts repealed the Curl
thought OF day arriving when any single
European language would be spoken by millions
of persons, scattered over the great continents
OF the earth from New Zealand to the Hebrides,
and from the Cape of Storms to the Arctic Ocean,
occurred to any speculative mind, Dutch, not Eng
lish would probably have been the tongue to which
he would have assigned the marvellous mission.
Yet Holland has fallen nearly as much as the Sax
on has risen in the scale of nations. Her idiom il
now acquired by few. Her merchants conduct
their correspondence and transact their business in
French or in English. Even her writer's have ma
ny Of them clothed their genius in foreign garb.
On the other hand, literature and language
have passed entirely out of this phase of danger.
Dutch, like Welsh, Flemish, Erse, Basque, and
other idioms, is doomed TO perish intellectual
medium; but, whatever may be the future changes
of the world, the tongue of Shakespeare and OF Ba-
con ia now too firmly rooted ever to be torn away.
No longer content with mere preservation, it aims
at unver mastery. Gradually 1t s taking posses-
sion of all the ports and coasts of the WORLD /;
isolating all rival idioms, shutting them up from
intercourse with each other making itself the chan
mel of every communication. AT a hundred points
Mt once it plays the aggressor. 1t contends with
Spanish on the frontiers of Mexico; drives French
and Russian before il in Canada and in the North
ern Archipelago; supersedes Dutch at the Cape
and Natal; elbows Greek and Italian at Malta and
in the Ionan slands; usurps the right of Arabic at
Suez and Alexandria; maintains itself supreme at
Liberia, Hong Kong, Jamaica, and st. Helena
fights it's way against multitudinous and various
dialects in the Rocky mountains, in Central Amer-
ca, ON the Gold Coast in the interior of Australia,
and among the countless islands in the Eastern
Seas No other language is spreading in this way.
French and German find students among cultivat-
ed men but English permanently destroys and
suporaedes the idioms with which it comes in con-
tact.
The relative growth of the two great Anglo-sax-
on States is noteworthy. In l6O the population of
Great Britain 10, 042 ,646 in 1900 that of the
United States was 5,3l9762 not quite half. In
1850 the population of the United States two
millions and third more than that of Great Bri
tain in 1851; at this moment it probably exceeds
it by three millions. The rate of decennial in
crease in this country is less than Is per cent,
while in America it is about 35 per cent. In the
great continental States the rate is considerably
lower than in England According to the progress
of the last fifty years in France and in America the
United States will have the larger population in
1870; in 1900 they will exceed those of England,
France, Spain, Portugal. Denmark, Sweden, and
Switzerland combined. Prudent statesmen should
bear these facts in mind. Many persons now alive
may SEQ the time when America will be of more
importance to us, socially, commercially, and po-
liticaly, than all Europe put together. Old dplo-
matte traditions will go for little in the face of
transatlantic power numbering 100000 900 of free
and energetic men OF our own race and blood.