OF THE ENGLISH TONGUE. 633 totally lose language, and neglected or forgot the customs, as well as the language of their Scandinavian ancestors. Very few localities in Normandy now bear any Normans traces of Teutonism in their etymology. A few their original vestiges may be traced by the diligence of the antiquary. Falaise is so-called from the Fels, or rock, on which it stands; Oistreham, Ouestreham, speak for themselves: yet, even in these cases, it may be doubted whether these and some others of the same kind are not due to a still more remote population-to the Saxons who peopled the Saxon shore, or to the so-called Gauls; for when we recollect that the great Druidical temple was called Eisern-thor, because it had iron doors, it is difficult to deny but that a Belgic dialect was spoken there before its annexation to the Roman Empire. Romance. Be this as it may, it is certain that when the Northmen occupied Neustria they found a population entirely Romanized, and the country full of Roman recollections and associations, still looking to the venerable shade of Rome as the mistress of the world. This Romanism the And learn the Northmen adopted with the utmost eagerness, and to such an extent, that when William the Conqueror was young, it was only a few old folks at Bayeux who could speak the Danish tongue. More singular, as evidencing the Roman impress given to the inhabitants of this region, is the fact, that, in Normandy, we find the earliest evidences of poetry in the Romance tongue. The Normans carry the Romance to Sicily. It reaches Yet the first jongleur whom we can quote as having chaunted the praise of the Emperor and his "doze peers," was Taillefer, at the battle of Hastings; for to suppose that the Chanson de Roland could have any reference to Rollo, is a theory as contrary to evidence as to the general tenor of Norman history. In Sicily, and in Apulia, the Greek and the Arabic were found as vernacular dialects by the Normans, and Roger assumed the diplomacy of Byzantium, and decorated his garments and his structures with the Cuphic scrolls of Bagdad. Yet here a Romance dialect preponderated; and the very name of Tancred de Hauteville shews how completely the Normans had become associated to the people whom they had subdued. Before the Conquest the same fashion was spreading. The palace of Edward the Confessor was filled with bishops and courtiers of Norman or Romance extraction. At an earlier period the Anglo-Saxons had begun to enrich their language by a macaronic intermixture of Greek and Latin, and so, in all probability, they now began to do with the more courteous phrases of the French or Romance tongues. The introduction, after the Conquest, of so many settlers of foreign origin, no doubt accelerated the process of intermixture. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle shews how, even amidst the seclusion of Peterborough, Romance words began to become familiar. Yet in all this we can discern nothing of compulsion, most under Henry I. but much of imitation, and of the influence resulting from intercourse and example; and thus, even in Scotland, the Romance became so prevalent, that an instance exists when the coronation oath was pronounced in the Norman or French language. The great era, however, of the introduction But spreads of the Romance language in this country must be placed in the reign of Beauclerc; and the taste and examples of his two Queens-Matilda, and still more, Adeliza of Louvaine-gave an impulse to the employment of that dialect, which rendered it the language of secular literature. Yet other causes contributed, and amongst them, as we conjecture, were the needs of commerce. In London, certainly the most Anglo-Saxon portion of the realm, the earliest entries of their municipal records are in Romance French, and written with such remarkable purity and facility as to shew how thoroughly it must have been cultivated as the common language of intercourse in our metropolis; and the fashion continued to encrease in the court, as well as in the city. Whilst Edward III., by his legislation, Progress prohibited the employment of the French language in the pleadings of the courts of justice, it was encouraged in the pleadings of the court of Love; and maintained its ground as exclusively amongst the higher classes as the French language in the court of Germany, in the days of Frederick the Great and a whimsical, as well as an extraordinary proof of the influence thus stayed under Edward III. on the probable dialects before the Conquest. acquired by habit, is found in the fact that the correspondence between George II. and the Prince of Wales, as laid before Parliament during their unhappy dissensions, is wholly in the French language. 8 21. With respect to the grammatical alterations which the English sustained, we should be inclined to venture upon the following hypothesis, which we merely submit for the consideration. of those who are better calculated to discuss it. Thorpe or Kemble, Halliwell or Wright, can alone investigate it with sufficient opportunity and Remark knowledge. It seems, therefore, probable to us, that England before the Conquest possessed at least two, if not more, concurrent dialects, as in almost every part of Germany at the present day. The book language, we suspect, was not the vulgar tongue; it was fully understood by the common people, and yet not employed by them in common discourse; and after the higher classes were, if not wholly extirpated, yet much diminished in number and in influence, the vulgar dialect of the common people rose, as it were, to the surface, and, combining itself with the book language, formed the basis of the English which we now employ. If, for example, fifty years ago we can imagine a revolution which should have carried off the Adel, and the Burghers, and the Predigers of Holstein, and dispersed or destroyed the stores of literature, the Hoch-Deutsch would in great mea sure have disappeared: the Platt-Deutsch might have become the prevailing language; and in the course of years, Klopstock would, in his own country, have required the labours of the lexicographer, like our Anglo-Saxon remains. This is a rough comparison, but we believe it is the only one by which the development of our modern English can be explained. The Church system in England Saxons. 8 22. According to the technical phraseology of some of our ecclesiastical historians, the tenth under the century is emphatically denominated the "seculum obscurum." Towards its conclusion, a brighter light began to be seen on the verge of the horizon of the other portions of the Christian Commonwealth, until the period of the Conquest, but the darkness hung over England, perhaps even with encreasing shade. I do not speak merely of learning considered as an ornament. The attempts made by Alfred to give to the priesthood that knowledge needful for the discharge of their duty, failed. The bright days of the English Church had passed away, and her priesthood had settled upon the lees. It is with communities as with individuals; those who do not advance in goodness decline, and we seek in vain for any token of redeeming vitality. The ecclesiastical synods, without which there can be neither the co-operation required for the administration of any human community, nor the gifts promised to those who assemble in |