The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-12-01
The English-Speakiug Race.

i speaking Countries during 1866 and 1877 |
speass as ollows ABOUT The progress OF the Eug-
llsh-speaking laCe:-
4 The kingdom OF Elizabeth is so great in song,
in science, in adventure, that we are apt 20
forget how small 1t was In tact. The companion
OF Shakespeare, OF Bacon, OF Raleigh, are so
famous IN story that they I'LL our hemisphere OF
4 thought Ike the star, in a summer sky. We
4 need to rein in the wld steeds OF Imagination
before We can picture TO ourselves the trdc
image of our lace IN the reign OF Queen Be,s
for any purpose OF comparison with the Saxon
4 Common wealth of the present day.
In the time OF Elizabeth England wa the sole
home of tngllSh speaking men and women. j.
was a marrow country, tenanted by small
family OF Sons; and IN mere size of territory aud
extent Of population we were regarded by some
Il spectators as u siXth.Iate power.
Spain was then paramount. France was nearly
her equal, and OF course claimed to be her
4 first State in Iauk, and, perhaps, the third Ia
actual power. Turkey, which IN those days
stood apart, splendid, meteorc, mysterious,
was not less formidable In the East th an Span
was in the West These few countries held the
wcrld in fee. All other powers, though some.
times exercising Influence, were OF importance
only as the allies OF euher Germany, Spain, or
France. Savoy gained Il sphere by thro wing
herself between France and Spain, just as her
4 interests prompted her to arm and act. Venice
j acquired importance as ChJlstian naval po Wer
in the Levant. But the North was yet DARK and
Silent Prussia was sill q desert OF saud and
pools. Russia was forest OF larch and pine;
Sweden gave only htful signs of life. Holland
4 was crippled by war; the Rhine princes were
i divided by religious feuds. England claimed il
is true, Tlace among the foremost atoms: bat
her claim, which certa,nly looked ridiculous on
i a map, was only too often rejected by France
and Spain AS a practical j)ke. One king OF
Spain SAID his bastard daughter was good
enough vile for Prince OF Wales.
The whole OF England was not English. In
Cornwall remnant OF the ancient race could
not read Bacon's Essays" could not hear and
understand Shakespeare's plays. West OF GlOu-
cestcr in the south, and Chester in the north,
very few persons could use the English tongue.
All the Welsh used Welsh all the Highland
Scots used Gaelic; all the lrishry used Erse
When Elizabeth came TO her crown fewer
people spoke English than now reside within
the limits vi London. Thrice as many living
men spoke French; five tunes as many spoke
II German; seven times as many spoke Spanish.
How stand these points OF COMPARISON now?
A nan specializing on material data only as to
the chance OF any one race ever coming to
practical mastery OF the world would. in the
DAYS OF Charles the Fifth, undoubtedly have
given that chance TO the Spanlards. The earth
seemed theirs, to mould It as they would. Madrid
was the centre OF vast system OF 1uie, which
embraced Europe on the right hand, America
on the left. Spain was but the home county,
so 10 speak, OF this great empire; Germany was
the chief proYince; America The main colony.
But the empire was established in Sicily, in
Flanders, in the Mllanese, as firmly as iu
Jamaica in the Caribbean Sea, and on the
Pacific shores. The Rhine and the Danube were
treated Spanish rivers. Spanish was the
fashionable speech at Naples, at Quito, at
Brussels at Mexico at Vienna as well as in the
courlly circles nearer home. 1t vas the language
of trace as we'll as of compliment and OF diplo-
macy-the only tongue ever heard beyond the
/ Line al d beyond the Cape. What is true of the
idiom is also true OF the coinage. Spanish
money the circulating medium OF the
world. English merchants, when they sent out
vessels to lambay, were obliged to exchange
their unrecegniZed native cons for those fine
Spanish doublooLs which were known to every
trader III The East.
Since that day. what a change! From the
times OF Charles toe Fntb, though the popula-
tion OF Spain itself has probably increased, the
area OF Spansh-speakmg country has greatly
diminished and that to our own all Dat excl l.
sive profit. u der Elizabeth we began to grow.
II Then we left off fighting France-a tpastme
which had illustrated our capacity for war,
which had carried us into French vineyards
once OF twice in every century, but which had
been wasting our money snd our manhood in
contest without end. We could not hope to
conquer France aud hold it in easy lee. When
we gave up the attempt and turned our strength
towards The sea coast OF the New World III the
west, we began to thrive in q way OF which only
such keen politicians as Kalelgn mac hau ever ever
and lance; we fought the Spauiards with spade
and plough. We had done well enough with
the first IN Picardy and Guienne; we did still
better with the second on the Jane. river and
in the neighbOrhOod OF Plymouth Rock. In
time we drove the Spaniard out OF northern
America, and in some measure out OF the West
Indies. We kept him away from the Cape, and
we superseded his douboous III Hndostan. 1T
fact, we upset the speculatons of those vic
could have given the chance OF mastery to the
",
islanders have belted the whole globe with oul
colonies.
Nor is this great triumph all. We have done
more than spread ourselves abroad and multiply
until we have become "manY nations tor We
have not only crown from three mllllols o
Englsh-s h-speak ing people INTO seventy millions a
least with rate OF growth which will make u
hundred millions in twenty years, three hun
dred millions in a hundred years, but haV
drawn into our current good many alei
forces. The language OF Shakespeare is spokel
by millions OF men whose fathers, in Shake
speaTe's day, spoke Danish, Dutch, French, Gel
man, Italian, Erse. Tnese men have been use
into an English mould. Wnetner they live i
America OF in Australia. they have been in
duced 10 adopt new idloD, a new law, ne,
habit.
The primary cause of the Anglo Saxon emf
grafton is not easy TO see. 1t was not want
The one explanation offered by modern theorst
tor all great movements of our race. Th
men who moved out from England TO the New
World were not poor. They dii not lack bread
and very few OF them lacked money aud LAND
in truth, the hrst adventures were either nc
themselves or were connected with people VIII
were rich. The ships were Irechted with 'geI
tlemenn and the colonies Settled at RoanoK
and Jamestown almost per,shed Tor lack
men who could reap AMI sow. England wa
not then Gro wded; ana ministers were 50 ia
from moaning that people pressed on th
means OF life, that the cry was every day raise
and repeated that the country was perisning iC
want OF men. During the relgns of ElZabet
and James the Fnst patriots we're CONSTANT
urging that the land was being uppeope(
that houses we're left empty, that farms wei
ruined that the plough was falling out OF us
and that the orchard and the cOIn-held wei
being given up 10 sheep. In every session th