Daily Los Angeles herald., 1881-03-11

IL directory, which will appear every
sunday morning.
Deoisans Rases ana Language.
Oelpg to succession Of fortu.
itous circumstances the Euglish
language appears to have got .
foolhald In the world which 10 not
solely referable to Its merits. great
- these are. As explorers and ad.
venlursrs, until the past hundred
and nifty year,, the English were
surpassed BY the Spanish and At
least rivaled by the Dutch. It was
the fact that the North American
continent was first largely settled
by an English speaking race that
win, In the end, give the chief inn
petus to the extended use Of the
English language as . means Of
International communication. A.
= matter Of fact the puissant ma
tion which is now growing up In
the region comprised within the
territory OF the United States 10
mot In any sense an English on
shoot. Our people resemble the
English in very few charasteris-
tics, mental or physical. The pro.
portion Of Celtic and Latin blood
IN the United States probably ex-
eeeds that of the pure English
stock by two to one. Bat, from
Whatever race our people may have
sprung, and It would require a
lengthy inventory to incluls all
the diverse elements which have
contributed to the total, they all
speak the English language. Fifty
millions of people now, the inhab-
itauts Of this country will, by the
opening Of the Nineteenth century,
number nearly one hundred mill
lions: Canada, also, In her modest
fashion, will come out In tolerably
expanded proportions. While we
do not adopt the complacent Eug-
llsh idea that tAs Uuited States Is
the "Greater Britain" to employ
the words Of one Of her indefatiga.
bic travellers and most enjoyable
Writers, we nevertheless think that
the Idea Is q true one in the sens e
Of spreading the reach and useful
functions Of the English language.
So great is the dominance of the
Eoglish speaking peoples In the
a6airs of empire and commerce
that We learn, on perhaps not abso-
lutte authority, that English has
been adopted in the Navy of the
German empire al the language
for conveying orders on board ship.
We have also met the staten ent
that, In the system OF French In.
tsrnational ocean cables, the Eng
llsh language IL beginning to
crowd out most Of the Others.
Assuming that the present i'm
petus shall continue. q slight retro.
spect Of the later progress of the
modern languages is not without
interest. To-day they stand In re-
gard to the number who speak
them about as follows, leaving out
the Asiati0 languages: English,
Spanish, French and German.
The English language is now
spoken by about one hundred mil.
lions Of people, Including those OF
the United States, of the Kingdoms
OF Great Britain and ireland, Aus
tralis, and other scattered races in
al quarters of the world. 1t is the
progressive tendencies of these peo-
pies that make the outlook for the
English language SO pro omisiug
Almost an equal number of the
worlds Inhabitants speak Spanish,
which 10 one Of the most sonorous,
musical, flexible and test equipped
Of al languages. The danger to
the dominance of the Spanish Ian.
guage lies In the at present latent
genius Of that once superb and
progressive nation.
The French language, during the
past hundred years, has retrograded
a. to the number Of people who
speak 1t. At one time French was
the language Of polite people In all
seetions Of Europe outside Of the
British Isles. One hundred and
nfty years ago no educated Rus
sian or German spoke bis own
language; or, II he did, he infinite
" preferred to speak French or
Latin. As mattsr Of fact, Fred.
srick the Great could not speak hi 9
own native language, aud would
have disdAinsd to do so, if he could.
0eflnau scholars and literary men
employ ed either Latin or French In
their com positions. Both In Rus
sla and Germany the French Lam
guags 10 losing ground and 1t will
probably soon be dropped from the
court circles Of those countries.
During the last hundred years
.the0srman Language has proba-
bly, made ths greatest ratio Of ad-