Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1854-07-26
From Chambers journal.

| been received, and we are enabled IN conjunction
! with the returns made on the 3lst OF March ior
| England, 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 the rest of the world
| Ii is estimated including Ireland and the colo
MES tbatthere is grand total OF men sharing the
same general tendencies of civilization of 56,oOO,
900, from which is to be deducted the three NH
millions OF slaves in the United States. leaving
remainder of fifty three millions, chiefly OF An
Clio Saxon descent, and deeply impregnated with
its sturdy qualities of heart and brain, as The
representative of this advancing stock.
Two centuries ago there was not quite three
millions of this race ON the face of the earth -
There are a million more persons nf Magyar dc8-
cent, speaking the Magyar language, at the pres
ent moment in Europe, than were in Eur pe and
America ofths otnqnering and colonzing peo-
pie in the time of Cromwell. How yan then for
men to talk of the political necessity of absorb
ing small races Sixty years ago the Anglo Sax
ON race did not exceed 1000, 900 in Europe and
America. At that time il not numerically
stronger than the Po.es. Thirty years ago 1t
counted only "a, 600 900, and fraction more
than the population of Central France. In 1851
it il ahead ofeyery civilized race in the world
OF races lying within the zones of civilization, the
Sclayes alone more numerous, counted by
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
civilization, they are not to be compared with
the Frank. the Tenton, and the Anglo Saxon
Number is their only element of strength.
OF all the races which are now striving for the
mastery OF the world, to impress on the future OF
society and civilization the stamp of its char
acter and genus,and to make its law, idiom, relig-
ion, manners government, and opinion preyall,the
Anglo Saxon is now unquestionably the most
numerous, powerful and active. The day they
might possibly have been crushed, absorbed, or
tranpled out like Hungary or Poland, by siron-
ger hordes is gone forever That it was posi-
BILE at one time for this people to he subdued by
violence, or fall prey to the slower agencies Ut
decline, there eau be little doubt. In 1880, the
United Provinces seemed more likely to make n
grand figure in the world's history than England.
Their wealth, activity,a maritime power,where
the most imposing in Europe. They had all the
carrying trade to the West in their hands. Their
language spoken in every port. In the great
Orient their empire was fixed and their influence
paramount. England was then hardly known
abroad. Her difficult idom grated on foreign ears
and her stormy coasts repealed the curiosity OF
more cultivated travellers.
Had the thought of n day arriving when any
single European language would be spoke by
millions of persons scattered over the great con
tnents of the earth, from New Zealand to the
Ilebrdes, and from the Cape of Storms to the
Arctic Ocean, occurred to any speculative mind
Dutch or English would probably have been the
tongue to which he would have assigned the
marvellous mission. Yet, Holland has fallen
nearly as much as the Saxon has risen in the scale
of nations. Her idiom is now acquired by few.
Her merchants conduct their correspondence
and transact their business in French or English.
Even her writers have many of them clothed their
genius in foreign garb. On the other hand our
literature and language have passed entirely out
of this danger; Dutch, like the Welsh, Flemish,
Erse, Basque, and other dioms is doomed to
perish an intellectual medium; but whatever
may be the future changes of the world, the
tongue of Shakespeare and of Bacon is now too
! firmly rooted ever to be torn away.
No longer content with mere preservation, 1T
| aims at universal mastery. Gradually it is TIA
king possession of all the ports and coasts of the
world; isoatng all rival idioms. shutting them
up from intercourse with each other making it
/ self the channel of every communication. At Il
/ hundred points mt once it plays the aggressor.-
| 1t contends with tine Spanish ON the frontiers OF
Mexico; drives the French and Russian before
it in Canada and in the Northern Archipelago;
supersedes Dutch at the Cape and Natal: elbows
Greek and Italian in the lonian Islands; usurps
the right of Arabia at Suez and AleXandrlamain-
tans itself supreme at Liberia, Hong Kong and
Jamaica and St. Helena; fights its way against
multtudinous and various dialects in the Rocky
Mountains, in Central America, on the Gold Coast
in the interior of Australia, and among the count
less islands in the Eastern Seas. No other Ian
guage is spreading in this way. French and
German find students among cultivated men, but
English permanently destroys and supersedes
the idoms with which it comes in contact.
The relative growth of the two great Anglo
Saxon States is note worthy. In 1901 the popu'
lation of Great Britain was l0,942,646. In 1896
that of the L. States was 5.3l9, 1862, not quite
half. In 1850 the population of the United
States was two millions and a third more Il an
that of Great Britain in 1851 at this moment il
probably exceeds it by three millions. The rate
of decennal increase in this country is less than
I3 per cent, while in America it is about 30 pei
cent