Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1854-05-03
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WEDNESDAY,, MAY 3, 1854.
The Amglo-Saxon Races

BY q fortunate tOluClQence, Ile SeutTul lO-
tai Of the American census taken last year
has Just been received, and we are bled, in
conjunction with the returns made on the
3lst of March for England, to measure the alb
solute progress OF the Anglo-Saxon race in its
two grand divisions, aud to compare the laws
of their respective growth in relation to each
other and to the rest OF the world. 1t is esti-
mated, including Ireland and the colonies,
that there is grand total of men sharing the
same general tendencies of civilization OF 56,-
600 900, from which is to be deducted the
three millions Of slaves in the United States,
leaving remainder of ffty-three millions,
chiefly of Anglo-Saxon descent, and deeply
impregnated with its sturdy qualities of heart
and brain, as the representatives of this adj
vanciug 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 descent, speaking the Magyar Ian
guage, at the present moment in Europe than
were in Europe and America of this conquer
ing and colonizing people in the time of Crom-
well. 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 II 900, 900 i'll Europe and America
AT that time it was not numerically stronger
than the Poles. Thirty years ago'it counted
only thirty-four millions, and fraction more
than the population of France at that time,
and considerably less than the Teutonic popu-
lation Of Central Europe. In 1851, it is ahead
ofevery civilized race in the world. OF races
lying within the zones of civilization, the
Sclayes alone are more numerous, counted by
heads; but comparatively few of this plastic
and Submissive stock have yet escaped from the
barbarism of the dark ages. In wealth, ener-
I la. Al. H.
pared with the Frank the Teuton, and the
Anglo Saxon. Number is their only element
of strength. a 3at ~ i aHl ta
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 own character and genius, to make its law,
idiom, religion, manners, government, and opin-
ion prevail, the Anglo-Saxon Is now unques-
tionably the most numerous, powerful and ao-s
tive. The day when it might possibly have
been crushed, absorbed, or trampled out, like
Hungary or Poland, by stronger hordesis gone
for ever. Thatit was possible at one time for
this people to be subdued by violence, or fall
prey to the slower agencies Of decline, there
can be little doubt In 1860 the United Prov
inces seemed more likely to make grand fig
ure in the worlds future history than Eng
land. Their wealth, activity, and maritime
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 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. 6afF
Had the 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 English, would propably
! have been the tongue to which he would have
assigned the marvellous mission. Yet, Hol-
| land has fallen nearly as much as the Saxon
has risen in the scale of nations Her idiom is
now acquired byfew. Her merchants con-
| duet their correspondence and transact their
business in French or in English. Even her
writers have many of them clothed their
genius in foreign garb. On the other hand,
our literature and language have passed en-
tirely out ofthis danger. Dutch, like Welsh,
, Flemish, Erse, Basque, and other idioms, is
doomed to perish as 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. ~ M
Nolonger content withImere preservation,it
aims at universal mastery. Gradually it is
taking possession of all the ports and coasts
Of the world; isolating all rival idioms, shut
ting them up from intercourse with each other,
making itself the channel of every commune
cation. AT a hundred points at once it plays
the aggressor. 1t contends with Spanish on
the frontiers of Mexico; drives French md
Russian before it in Canada and in the North
ern Archipelago; supersedes Dutch at the
Cape and Natal; elbows Greek and Italian in
the Ionian Islands; usurps the right Of Ara
bia at Suez and Alexandra; maintains itself |
supreme at Liberia, Hong Kong, and Jamaica
and St. Helena-fghts its way against null
tudinous and various dialects in the Rocky |
Mountains, in Central America, 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 cul-
tivated men, but English permanently destroys |
and supersedes the idioms with which it comes
The relative growth of the two great An |
glo-Saxen States is note worthy. In 1901, |
the population of Great Britain was 10,942,- |
GAG; in 1900, that of the United States was s. |
3l9, 1872, or not quite half. In 1850, the pop |
ulation of the United States was two millions |
and third more than that Of Great Britain in
1851; at this moment it probably exceeds it |
by three millions. The rate of decennial in |
crease in this country is less than Ii per cent, !
while in America it is about S5 per cent In |
the great Continental States, the rate is con-
sideably lower than in England. According I
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 |
willexceed those of England, France Spain,
Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, and Switzer-
land combined. Prudent statesman should |
bear these facts in mind. Many persons now
alive may see the time when America will be |
of more Importance to us, socially, CONNER
cially, and politically, than all Europe put to-
gether. Old diplomatic tradition will go for
little in the face of Trans Atlantic power
numbering lO0,O00,000 of free and energetic
men of our own race and blood Chambers
Journal, asd a1 tne oGW sitlnY ~ iSGte A8
Important Discovery sli s
Great guns, boulets asphyriants, liquid fire,
Paixhan's and Warner S long rangers and 9TH