Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1851-11-12
rrom I'D london Alhanenn. )
THE ANGLo-sAx oN r. Acls.l

Fifty-three millions Two centuries
ago there were not quite three millions of
this race on the face of the earth. There
are millions more persons of Magyr de-
scent. speaking the Magyr language at the
present moment in Europe, than there
were in Europe and America of this con-
quering and colonizing people in the time
Of Cromwell. How vain then for men to
talk of the political necessity for absor-
bing small races. Sixty years ago the
race did not exceed II, 000,-
600 in Europe and America. AT that
time it was not numerically stronger than
the Poles. Thirty years ago it counted
only 34,ooo,oo0; being altogether only
1000, 900 and fraction more, than the
population of France at that time, and
considerable less than the Teutonic popu-
ulation of Central Europe. In 1851 it is
ahead of every civilized race in the world.
OF races lying within the zones of ciyili-
cation, the Sclaves alone are more pumer-
Gus, counted by heads /; but comparative
ly few of this plastic and submissive stock,
have yet escaped from the barbarism of
the dark ages, In wealth, energy and
cultivation, they are not to be compared
with the Frank, the Teuton, and the An
glo-Saxon. Number is almost their only
element of strength. OF all the nations
which are 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 and manners, govern
ment and opinion prevail-the Anglo-Sax-
on race is now unquestionably the most
powerful, numerous and active. The day
whenit might possibly have been crushed,
absorbed, or trampled out, like Hungary
OR Poland, by stronger hordes, is gone
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 is little doubt
In 1850, the United Provinces seemed
more likely to make grand figure in the
worlds history than England. Their
wealth, activity and maritime power were
the most imposing in Europe. They had
all the CARRYING trade of the west in their
hands. Their language was spoken in
every port. In the great Orient their en-
pire was fixed, and their influence para
mount. England was then hardly known
abroad. Her difficult idiom grated on
foreign ears. and her stormy coasts repel-
led the curiosity of more cultivated travel
lers. Had the thought of day arriving,
when any single European language would
be spoken by millions fperSons, scattered
over the earth from New Zealand to the
Hebridcs, and from the Cape of Storms to
the Arctic Ocean, occurred to any specula-
tive minds, Dutch or English, would pro-
badly have been the tongue to which he
would have assigned the marvellous mis-
sions. Yet Holland has fallen nearly as
much as the Saxon has risen in the scale of
nations. Her merchants conduct their
and transact business in
French Or English Even her writers have
many of them, clothed their genius in for
cign garb. On the other hand, our litcra-
ture and language have passed entirely out
of this phase of danger. Dutch, like File
mish, Welsh, Erse, Basque, and other idi
oms, is doomed to perish as an intellectual
medium: but whatever may be the future
change of the world, the tongue of Shak-
spcare aud Bacon is too firmly rooted ever
to be torn away. No longer content with
mere preservation, it aims at universal
mastery. Gradually it is taking possession
of all the ports and coasts of the world ;;
all rival DEMONSTRATING them
up from intercourse with each other-ma-
king itself the channel of every cornI''',>;
catiOD Ata h..-i 4NCOntendS with the |
t,"MIIru on the frontiers of Mexico
riyes French and Russian before it in
canada, and in the northern Archipelago; !
upercedcs Dutch at the Cape and Natal
lbows Greek and Italian at Malta and in
he Ionian lslands-usurps the right of
Arabiac at Suez and acknowledgements
aims itsclfsuprcme at Liberia, Hong Kong,
amaica and st. Helcna-fghts its way
gainst multitudinous and various dialects
n the Rocky Mountains. in Central Amer
ca, on the Gold Coast, in the interior of
australia and among the countless Islands
# the eastern seas. SO other language
5 spreading its way. French and Ger
nan find students among cultivated men
english permanently destroys and super
cdes the idioms with which it comes in
ontact.
The relative growth of the two great
Anglo-Saxon States is noteworthy. In
sol, the population of Great Britain was
O,942, GAG ; in 1900 that of the United
states was $50, 762-or not quite half.
In 1850 the population of the United
states was two millions and third more
han that Of Great Britain in 185I-at this {
Cement it probably exceeds it by 3 mil
IolS The rate of decennial increase in {
1nis '0untry Is less than fifteen per cent {
whne y AmericN it is about thirty-five (
per cent In thegreat continental States t
inc rae Is considerably lower than in Eng i
Ia Il. e 6 :, Aeeoro:ng tone progress of the t
i S my SISrs N ranGNSnd in America
llation in l87o-in 1900 the, viii ori poPS .
hose of England, France, SPtn Port,'
gal, Denmark and Switzerland Z ,b G,oI !,