New-York tribune., 1882-02-09
THE OLDEST ENGLAND.
DR. f. A. FREEMAN's SECOND LECTURE.


past and was presented to the audience by Benja-
min II. Field. Edwards Pierrepont sat upon the
stage with iIr. Field The reading of the lecture
occupied nearly an hour and half and was in part
as follows:
Let mo begin thc present stage OF argument by
stating rs strongly as may be the manifest points OF
difference between the colonization OF Britain in the
fiji IA and sixth centuries from the European mainland
and The colonization OF America in the scyenteenlh cen
slight The connection between the English people IN
l'laln and the English people in Amereaa II plain on the
the North American States settled by Engllsll-
g cOlonsts trom Britain. those states proclaim 10
thus day by keeping unbroken OF the Engsh Ian
guago and not stop 20 this good by evidence
}, who speak, and YOU, who hear. ourselves the
best witnesses to the fact We exchange our thoughs
without interpreter; each speak TO the other IN
our tongue in which were born. statesman
IN England lately deceased once spoke ol IIe oni'co
States country which mad borrowed its Language
ana several other things from another country Nhat
did he think that you New England were II Is hardly
possible that he looked ON the people OF the Enlteu
States red Indians who had learned hhgllsn; leC %
words taken literally could hardly pear any oIh. & az
ing Truly there is no borrowing i'll this case Eact Gi
vision Of the English folk. each OH its own sdo Oh lae
ocean. kept the possession which was common 10 Uo,
OF equal right; aud, as Tue Iest lart ol % INA
We speak the same tongue, with e same srannaIvni
forms-ihe same vocabulary. We nave a eou,inVn ,
posesion IN the older literature OF the mohertohgne'
Older than the days of separation. And We nave com
mon possession, too in the literature which since the
English books read in America, American DoOhs
are read in England not books belonging to foreign
at home on both sides OF the ocean.
A COMPARISON FURTHER BACK.
Now after comparing New England and Middle Eng
land in s matter let us 20 back and compare Mldde
England and Old England We shall now find another
state OF things. Allow again to take in with the
name Of old England not merely the older Angelo or
the older Saxony but the whole NetherDutc-speaking
Of the European continent Anywhere Iii that re-
qoG choose that the tongue is the same as the
tongue Of Middle and New England, shall be saying
what is perfectly true in certain sense But IL VIII NOT
he true in the same that is when say that the
tor mes of Middle and New England the The
tongue Of Britain aud Amfr1ca II no' practl-
cslly ntelgble in those Neher-Dutch lahds, ano me
iutclgiole Britain and America. one constantly
hears stores oI now an EnSlish'hdh III fidhueis OF
Holland, 0r even in Denmark, cOnrived while speaking
ni e l,UI I;ut tales like these are always told as
something rcmaTkabie-sometLing which we are, eX-
pected he rather surprised at hearing But nobody Is
surprised ii ii from Britain finds himself understood
IN America, if a man from America finds himself
undersood in Britain. The truth that the Neither
Dutcn Oi TIE European mainland ana the NetherDntch
that is the EngiSh-oi Britain and America have
long since ceased to be mutually iutelligble;
telgibe under certain circumstances |
can believe that il can happen through happy accident
Practically, therefore, the two languages are no longer
one The tongues have no common literature. he who
spcas Of them by nature ana vishcs 10 read books
i'm ne o,hcr must learn that other tongue "a foreign
language. The unity of speech between Middle and
New England the unity OF every y-day usage when
every man can fee and understand The unity of speech
bc. Ween Old England and Middle is merely uuiiy OF
might carry on this same kind of contrast through
aany points of detail the result of all OF which would be
TO sno in the thai there has been for
division between the English IN Britain and their nearest
ktusfnk on the European Continent Of quite another
kind from the division which parts the English III
America from the Eugsh in Britain. This wide differ
enc n owing to widely different circumstances ulder
which the earlier and the aterc were founded First
OF all the settlement OF the English IN Britain took place
fourteen hundred years ago; the settlement or the
III. Sn @ ~ II s so happcn that three hundred wears
hua 6orted OFF more widely is not TO be found
SO much in the mere difference in the
number Of years as in the fact that, the later
formed; while the earlier settlement WAS the work OF
people whose national being was not yet fully formed
or rather whose national being derived its fully dcve
oned shape from the Of the settlement itself AT the
time OF settlement OF Brlta the consciousness OF
distinct national Lille could hardly have began among
the Neither Dutch people; their language their nstitu
TONS sill only iOrnng-not yet formed; their h
erature, il it had begun, was only iteiauLe OF IRA
aona FORMS and il presently to receive deadly
blow from the teaching OF christianity part Oh thls
land The culOnlsts who were thus parted from their
InOtherand did not forget whence they mad Gomez but
III the nature oi tnnSo tneJ Gpu no. StP ui ,c io
connection with that nVtnerand wmch tLc cOUnlsts 10
America in the seventeenth century, no less Naturally
"T nt png tended so greatly to part the earlier set
tiers from their mother land as the nature Of tho land IN
which they mace theH AJit ~
planted Britain that Is III an Island III great island
0iher world No migration To any other part OF the
continent could have had the same consequences as onr
FROM tue continent TO the Isle OF Bllian AZ
an carly stage Of our national lie We planted ourselves
i'll ne" world calryi1S VIII m o, @ ut f icTi U'i
ny rSt encrfecton oar insuIar position determined our
history anu determined our nallOhaI Character
EFFECT OF ROMANCE INFLUENCE.
When the Romance influence came into England IL
came in shape i'll which it never affected any other OF
me kindred lands. For it came in the form OF a con-
quest but conquest of peculiar character that it
rather strengthened the national life than weakened it.
Ditai in ahort ed at
stage from the English OF the continent that their
history took a wholly distinct COURSE that they grew up
a wholly distinct people.
"In opposition to all this the second migration Of the
English folk, the migration which made large part OF
North America English land was mace when the
English nation was in every way full formed when It's
ansuage. its literature ITS nsutHlohH' had Pul on
tncir dis met shapes and chaIace erstics Ihc English
settlers in North America did not, according TO the
time back, borrow the laws, language and Institutions
of some other country they took with them ready
IJws language and institutions, which were equally
their own IN the old country ana IN the new. some
mere change from isle in the old world to continent
In the new some things needed to be modified
colonies f England by n4rpendence en- en- ola B5 % all o fqG &
erection OF Il new fabric. The work was already done
The fabric was already reared the English nation hau
formed and had waXed to ITS tu growth on BRITISH
soil. There WAS no need, no posslblniy mat another
nation in any but strictly political sense should
grow up on American SOL. Inc 0d tongue the OLD
memories the old life lived on III D0th divided branches
Of the English race. lDtre cOud hot Dc hc Iacls OF
history would allow, the amount of change the
same amount separation between the second England
ana the the facts of earlier history wrought be-
tween the first England and the second
THE FIRST VOYAGE AGAIN.
II is time that should try and call up some
definite notion of the first great journey Of the English
folk across the The migration from the fret England
TO the second and the migration from the second Eng
LAND the third were alike made by But the mode
Of grafton which natural and even necessary in
the seventeenth century, altogether exceptional in
the fifth. In the whole OF the waudcrIngs OF the
nations the only great TeutOnc settlement made by sea
within the Roman Empire, in lands which had been
part OF the Roman Empire, was the settlement Of