sons who speak the Welsh language in America. Deducting the number of adherents of the Welsh churches, we should have the following: Welsh-speaking persons in the United States.... ... 150,000 Adherents of the Welsh ch's, 61,500 Welsh-speaking persons not in Welsh churches ..... increase .... 88,500 If these figures are approximately correct, they show clearly that the great majority of the Welsh people in America are connected with the various American churches, and that only a small number comparatively are connected with the Welsh church es. These latter do not increase in proportion to the of Welsh immigrants, which shows that many, as they become imbued with American life, leave the Welsh churches, and form new religious associations. This is probably inevitable and a part of the process by which the Welsh, like all other people, are absorbed into the future great American nation. Many comments might be made on the above census reports and estimates of pop ulation, which would prove instructive and interesting, but want of space forbids enlarging further at present. In closing, we would again remind the reader that all these figures are only rough estimates, based on very incomplete data, and are only intend ed to give a general idea of the Welsh population of America. N. B. Our acknowledgments are due to Mr. J. F. Jones, Phila., for the census figures for 1870. MRS. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS Why is it, I wonder, that we never hear of Mrs. Christopher Columbus? Now when we read so much of the wonderful discoveries of Columbus, perhaps people would smile if one were to say that America was really discovered by a woman. And yet it is true, that if it had not been for his wife, Columbus never would have had the ambition to discover anything. About the year 1470, Columbus went to live at Lisbon. There he met and fell in love with Dona Felipa, daughter of the deceased Bartolomeo Monis de Palestrello, an Italian cavalier, and a navigator of great distinction, who had colonized and governed the island of Porto Santo. Bartolomeo and his daughter Felipa had been the closest of friends, and on many of his voyages she had been his constant companion. She had inherited his love of adventure, and having a fine artistic nature, the it was who wrote her father's journal, drew his maps and geographical charts, and later, at his dictation, wrote many uable books and papers relative to his Voyages. val When Bartolomeo died, he left to his daughter all his papers, charts and journals, and land on the island of Porto Santo. It was there Felipa went to live with Columbus after their marriage. There they lived happily their son Diego was born. and quietly for several years. There for her father, and encouraged him in Felipa had always been ambitious his exploration when many thought them simply adventurous follies. Now she tranferred these ambitions to her husband. To be sure, Columbus had always hoped and dreamed that he might some day become an explorer and discoverer, but, like so many men, his ideas would probably have always remained dreams had he not found a wife who encouraged him, stimulated his ambition, helped him, influenced him in innumerable little ways as only a woman can. Their life at Porto Santo was necessarily a quiet one, and Columbus, perhaps because he loved his wife, perhaps because he had no one else to go ANCESTRY OF THE WELSH NATION. TION. LECTURE BY PROFESSOR JOHN RHYS. 139 The chemical Lecture-room at the University College, Cardiff, lately was occupied to its full extent by an audience of students and others, who had assembled to hear Professor John Rhys, the well-known Professor of Celtic at Oxford, lecture on the anThe cestry of the Welsh nation. chair was occupied by Professsor Powel. to, came to rely more and more upon ANCESTRY OF THE WELSH NAher for society and sympathy. Then her opportunity came. She read to him, studied with him, talked with him, told him of the voyages she had made with her father; of his ideas; of the different navigators, friends and companions of her father whom she had known; of the opinions they had held; of the breathless interest with which she had listened to their many discussions; and she pictured to him the glory and honor that would be his, were he to become a successful explorer, and she suggested a possible country in the far west. Finally she roused in him an enthusiasm equal to her own. Then came his struggle for recognition. It was his wife that stood by him, cheering and sustaining him when others ridiculed. It was her indomitable will that forced him to be encouraged and persevering, when of tentimes in his despair he was ready to give up everything. These were hard days for Felipa; besides her anxiety for her husband's welfare, she endured uncomplainingly many days and nights of pain. She knew that her life was drawing to a close, and she longed to live, that she might see the fulfillment of her de sires. But it was not to be. Until the very last she forced herself to think for Columbus, and to forget herself. When she was dying she called him to her, and told him that she felt sure Queen Isabella of Spain would assist him, and begged him to promise her that he would go to the queen and implore her aid. Poor Felipa ! she died without knowing the success of her heart's wishes. If Christopher Columbus discovered America, certainly Felipa discovered the latent genius in Columbus, and by her remarkable influence helped him to his life's work.-Selected. Professor Rhys began by tracing the Celts to the great family of nations termed Aryan, Iudo-European, Indo Germanic, or Indo Celtic--for all these names have been applied to that family. The preference is now given to the shortest of them--Aryan. So far the matter looks quite simple; but the moment one begins to enter into details one has to meet various complications arising out of the fact that language is not synonymous with race. Take for instance, the people of Cornwall, who formerly spoke a Celtic language nearly akin to the Welsh of Glamorgan, but they have given up their Celtic language for English and that without any real modification of race, for it is not known that Cornwall has ever been largely taken possession of by Englishmen. Here, then, we have in Cornwall a people which is English in speech, but other than English in point of race. In the case of the Aryan family of nations as a whole this sort of distinction becomes a serious difficulty, giving rise to much speculation among the students of language and race. Linguistically speaking, the Aryan family embraces the following nations in Europe, Celts, Teutons, (including the English), Italians, Greeks, Letto-Slaves, and Albanians, and in Asia, Armenians, Persians, and some of the Hin dus. But ethnologists will not admit that these nations are of the same race, so we are forced to suppose that the Aryan race spread its language among non-Aryan peoples by conquest or otherwise. Then comes the question, which of the people speaking Aryan languages is most purely Aryan? And to this various answers have been given. Perhaps the preponderance of opinion is in favor of the notion that the original Aryan was a tall, blue-eyed, light-haired sort of person, so that he is sometimes thought to have come from Scandinavia. Another opinion, however, has recently been advanced by Canon Isaac Taylor. In any case, the latest authorities incline to the view that the Aryan race had its origin as such in Europe rather than in Asia. This is a question as to our race, our Aryan ancestry, and not of the origin of man; so the question of the position of the Garden of Eden was not raised by the lecturer, as he did not consider that it was directly involved. To come to the narrower question of the Celts, the lecturer spoke of them first in the linguistic sense, treating them all as Aryans in the matter of speech. He then remarked how the Celts of the present day differ among themselves in language just as an Englishman does from a German. There are, he said, two groups of languages in use among the Celts, namely, those of the Brython, or descendants of the Ancient Britons, and those of the Gwyddyl or the Goidels. The Brythonic languages were the Welsh, old Cornish (extinct now rather more than a century) and Breton, in the north. west of France. The difference between the Brythonic idioms he described as comparatively small. The Goidelic group of languages embraces the Gaelic dialects, namely Irish Gaelic, or Irish, Manx Gaelic or Mans, or Scotch Gaelic. These differ also comparatively little among themselves. But the difference between the one group and the other is very great, so great in fact that it is inferred that the people who introduced Goidelic and Brythonic respectively to the British Islands came here separately and possibly at widely different dates. The lecturer thought that it was the Goidels or the linguistic ancestors of the Gaels of Ireland, Man, and Scotland that came first; but he thought not even the Goidels found these islands devoid of human inhabitants. These last, he thought, were represented by the Picts of history. Thus we have three strata-first, the Aborigines, who were non-Aryans; secondly, the Goidels, or the first Aryan invaders; and thirdly, the Brythons, or the people who introduced the language, which is now Welsh. The Goidels had, he thought, conquered the Southern half of Britain before any of them crossed the Irish sea to occupy Ireland. Later than the Goidels came the Brythons or the Ancient Britons, and they in their turn, seemed to have conquered Southern Britain from the Goidels, probably between 300 and 100 B.C. The lecturer, with the aid of Caesar's statements, traced them back to the Belgic portion of ancient Gaul, namely, that bounded by the Seine and the Rhine, with the tributaries the Marne and the Moselle. He then showed at some length how place-names went to prove this to have been the last continental home of the people who introduced to Britain the Gaulish dialect, which, in the course of ages, has become the language of the Cymry. Then with a passion would I shake the world.-Shakespeare. The fountain of the only beauty that lasts is the heart.-Emerson. THE WELSH PEOPLE AND BILINGUALISM. THE WELSH PEOPLE AND BILINGUALISM. BY PRINCIPAL DARLINGTON, M.A. [AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT OSWESTRY ON ST. DAVID'S DAY.] Principal T. Darlington, M.A., who was received with loud and continued cheers, proceeded with his lecture, said there were but few questions which to the Welshman of to-day vied in interest with the future of his language. It was evident to all who read the signs of the times that they were on the brink of revolutions which would have & great effect on the languages of the world. Even the present generation had seen the the death of many a minor language, and the growth and expansion of the English was one of the most striking features of the century. It had chased away to out of the way corners, the Erse, Manx, and the Gælic, it had penetrated the distant Isles of the East to India, China, and Japan, and wherever the Englishman settled his language would be heard, and everywhere the minor languages drooped and died in its presence. It was but natural therefore for the patriotic Welshman to enquire "What effect will this produce on Wales," and it was generally felt that it was not merely a matter pertaining to language but that its effects would be infinitely more important to the nation's future, for it was felt that with the loss of language there would be a loss also of their national characteristics, and that Welsh nationality itself would sustain an irrecoverable blow. It would therefore, while study ing the subject, be necessary to scrutinize the cause of the revolution from a fair standpoint, and to consider not only its immediate consequences, but its effects on the life of Wales in the long run. He took it for granted as a premise that a knowledge of Eng 141 lish was indispensable to any Welshman, and they would acknowledge that a knowledge of English was not only absolutely necessary from a commercial point of view, but also he ventured to believe from an intellectual, moral, and social standpoint. (Cheers.) He did not hesitate to say that the great thing: the Welsh were in need of was more intercourse with the English mind whilst clinging faithfully to the language of their fathers. (Cheers.) Its monoglotism was in danger of making Wales one of the most exclusive nations in Europe, and the only means of rescuing themselves from an intellectual solitude was to learn a common tongue such as English, German, or French. All: who saw in national prejudices an un-mixed evil would wish to remove all hindrances to perfect understanding between nations. There was now no nation in Europe which was such. a complete stranger to the average Englishman as his near neighbor theWelsh. But if they were better acquainted with each other the English character with its sound common sense, its practical views of life, its mental independence, its untiring energy and love of bodily exercise, would unite with the love of the Welsh for philosophy and poetry, and its dreamy intercourse with the unseen to restore in Great Britain what existed under the old civilization of Greece. (Cheers.) He did not believe in the Welsh maintaining unchanged their national characteristics. No nation was so perfect but that it could learn from other nations. He held that the best Welsh writers of the present day were those Welshmen who were good English scholars, but their knowledge of English not only did not depreciate the literary merit of their Welsh compositions but rather increased it. He was glad to think. that day there were Welshmen who perceived that they were not only Welshmen but were using all means to adapt themselves to take a worthy part in the State, and whilst maintaining their Welsh nationality to the backbone, they did not hesi tate to claim their glorious heritage of literature and intellect which was theirs by right of citizenship in the empire of Great Britain. (Cheers.) But the great question which they would have to decide was what relationship would the Welsh hold in the future to the English language? Many people believed in a common tongue, in deleting the various tongues from the face of the earth, and in making one language the medium of intercourse between all nations. (A Voice: "Volapük.") (Laughter.) But it was no easy task to transfer the traditions and ideas of one language to another, for the internal music of languages were totally different. It was an interesting question to see what caused the difference in expression between languages. The solution was to be found in the fsct that language was an expression of the mind, and a nation's language reflected the peculiar mental color of that nation. (Cheers.) If the soul of the language, the mind, was beautiful it would shine through the body, and would transform it with its own light. Mr. Darlington then traced the influence of environment on language, and proceeding said the Welsh in giving up their language would lose the old traditions which clustered around it, and folk wisdom incorporated in the proverbs, they would lose the contact with their old literature, the only monument of the intellectnal history of the past and the most precious heritage which had descended to them from bygone ages. But they would lose even more, they would loose the power of expressing much that was most characteristic of the mind and genius of the nation. It followed, therefore, that if Wales was to hold her own in life's struggle, and at the same time maintain her characteristics, she must be bilingual. Having dwelt upon the mental benefit of knowing two languages Mr. Darlington said in order to preserve the Welsh language it was important that Welsh should be spoken at home on the hearth-(cheers)-in the national institutions such as the Eisteddfod― the University of Wales-and be used as the language of literature. On the latter point the lecturer said that wonld be the only means of preserv ing the many poetic and literary words which were an embellishment to the language. (Cheers.) Having quoted Ibsen as an instance of a small nation's literature becoming through genius cosmopolitan property, he said whenever the sacred fire of genius burned in a nation that light would be seen in the heavens from afar. As soon as Wales produced literature of the first rank there would be no need for translating it. Foreigners would only be too glad to learn the language in order to become acquainted with its literature. (Cheers.) He then came to the most important part of his lecture Was it possible for Welsh bi-linguists to preserve their Welsh? He admitted that a nation's natural state was monolingual. No nation remained bilingual except under the compulsion of exceptional circumstances. There were three periods in the history of a nation-(1) when two-thirds of the nation spoke different languages without understanding each other; (2) when one language was understood by all although another language was spoken by a few; (3) when only one language was understood by all. English History during 1066-1400 was a good instance. The cause of England becoming monoglot again |