Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1851-07-30
PROGRESS OF THE ANGLO-SAXON
RACE

of the American census taken last year mas Just
been received, and we are enabled, in conjunc-
ton with the returns made on the 3lst OF March
Tor this country, to measures the absolute pro-
gress of the Anglo-SaAon race in its two grand
divisions, and to compare the laws Of their re-
spective growths in relation to each other and
TO the rest of the world. II is estimated, inciu-
ding Ireland and the colonies, that there is
grand total of men speaking the same language
and manifesting the same general tendencies OF
civilization, of 56,O00,0O0, from which is to be
deducted the three millions of negro slaves in
the United States, leaving remainder OF fifty
three millions chiefly of Anglo-Saxon descent,
and deeply impregnated with its sturdy quail
ties of heart and brain, as the representative Of
this advancing stock.
Two centuries ago there were not quite three
millions of this race on the face of the EARTH
There are million more persons of Magyar de-
scent, speaking the Magyar language, atthe pres
ent moment in Europe than there were in Eu-
rope and America of this conquering and colo
nising people in the time of Cromwell. How
vain, then, for men to talk of the political me-
cessty for absorbing small races! Sixty years
ago the Anglo-SaxOn race did not exceed IT,
100000, in Europe and America At that time
it was not numerically stronger than the Poles.
Thirty years ago it counted only thirty-four
millions; being altogether only three millions
and fraction more than the population OF
France at that time, and considerably less than
the Teutonc population of Central Europe
In 1851, it is ahead of every civilized race in the
world. Of races lying within the zones OF civ
ilization, the Sclaves alone are more numerous,
counted by heads but comparatively few of this
plastic and submissive stock have yet escaped
L - 90 do In
energy and cultivation they are not to be COM
glo-Saxon Number is almost their only ele-
ment of strength.
OF all the races which are now striving for
the mastery of the world, to impress on the flu
ture of society and civilization the stamp of its
own character and genius, to make its law, idiom,
religion manners, government, and opinion pre-
vail, the Anglo-Saxon is now unquestionaby
the most numerous, powerful, and active. The
day when it might possibly have been crushed,
absorbed, or trampled out like Hungary or Po-
land, by stronger hordes, is gone by for ever
That it was possible at one time for this peo-
pie to be subdued by violence or to fall prey
to the slower agonies of decline, there can be
little doubt. In 1860, the United Provinces
seemed more likely to make grand figure in
the worlds future history than England. Their
wealth, activity, and maratime 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 empire was fixed and their in
f1uence paramount. England was then hardly
known abroad. Her difficult idiom grated on
foreign ears, and her stormy coasts repealed the
curiosity of more cultivated travellers. Had the
thought of day arriving when any single Eu-
ropean language would be spoken by millions
of persons, scattered over the great continents
of the earth from the Cape of Storms to the Arc
tic Ocean, occurred to any speculative mind,
Dutch, not English, would probably have been
the tongue to which he would have assigned
the marvellous mission. Yet, Holland has fall
en- nearly us much as the Saxon has risen in the
scale of nations. Her idiom is now acquired by
few. Her merchants conduct their correspond
ence and transact their business in French or in
English. Even her writer's have many of them
clothed their genius in foreign garb On the
other hand, our literature and language have
passed entirely out of this phase of danger
Dutch, like Welsh, Flemish Erse, Basvue, and
other idioms, is doomed to perish as an intel
lectual medium; but whatever may be the flu
ture changes of the world, the tongue of Shaks-
peare and of Bacon is now 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; isolating all rival idi-
Oms, shutting them up from intercourse with
each other, making itself the channel of every
communication. AT hundred points at once it
plays the aggressor. 1t contends with Spanish
on the frontiers Of Mexico; drives French and
Russian before it in Canada and in the Northern
Archipelago supersedes Dutch at the Cape and
Natal elbows Greek and Italian at Malta and in
the Ionian islands; usurps the right of Arabic
at Suez and Alexandria, maintains itself SUI
preme at Liberia, Hongkong, Jamaica, and St.
Helena; fights its way against multitudinous
and various dialects in the Rocky Mountains, in
Central America, on the Gold Coast, in the in
terror of Australia and among the countless ISL
ands in the Eastern Seas. No other language
is spreading in this way. French and German
find students among cultivated men; but Eng
lish permanently destroys and supersedes the
idioms with which it comes in contact.
The relative growth of the two great Anglo
Saxon States is note worthy In 1901, the pop
ulation of Great Britain was l0,942, SAG; in 1900
that of the United States was 5,3l9,762, or not
quite half In 1850, the population of the Uni
ted States was two millions and third more
than that of Great Britain in 1851; at this mo-
ment it probably exceeds it by three millions,
The rate of decennial increase in this country is
l.