of the Exchequer, who has command of the national revenues, must be a member of the House of Commons. The House of Lords, which is not chosen by the people, has no control over the revenues raised by taxation.

(6) Members of corporations of towns, local boards, and guardians of the poor, who have the power of levying rates for various local purposes, such as the relief of the poor, elementary education, the maintenance of the police, and the supply of water, are all elected by the ratepayers.

(c) Our colonists are subjects of the Queen equally with ourselves; but since they are not represented in the British Parliament, they are not required to contribute to the Imperial Treasury. They are taxed by their own colonial assemblies, to which they send representatives.

(d) This principle is also acted on even in the case of private institutions, such as hospitals, schools, asylums, etc., supported by voluntary contributions. These are governed by committees, or bodies of managers, chosen by the individuals who contribute to the maintenance of each institution, and who represent the subscribers.

(22) What was Poynings' Law of 1495? Explain its object.

Poynings' Law, or the Statute of Drogheda, was a famous Act, passed chiefly through the agency of Sir Edward Poynings, Lord Deputy of Ireland, in the reign of Henry VII. Its object was to establish the authority of the English Government in Ireland. The Irish had been in an almost constant state of disaffection for many years. Frequent rebellions had taken place, and the insurrections of Simnel and Warbeck had received great support from Ireland. These cases, in addition to the fact that the Irish had generally favoured the cause of the House of York, made Henry VII. desirous of bringing Ireland under entire subjection to England.

The chief provisions of this statute were :-(1) That all laws lately passed in Ireland should be of force in Ireland. (This clause was held to refer to all statutes passed prior to this

enactment). (2) That no parliament should be held in Ireland without the consent of the king and his council, and that any parliament convened without the royal licence should be held null and void.

It contained various other provisions for checking the lawlessness of the Irish, and especially that of the English colonists in Ireland, who were animated by a desire of maintaining a kind of independence of the English Government, in which they were frequently assisted by the ambition of the lords-deputies.

The statute was, on the whole, effectual, and had great influence in maintaining the authority of the English Government over the native Irish, and still more over the lords-deputies of the Anglo-Irish.

(23) Give instances from our early history in which the principle of primogeniture was not followed in the succession to the throne.

(24) When and where did Napoleon I. die? Explain how he came to be there.

(25) Describe events which made the first five-and-twenty years of George III.'s reign an unfortunate era in our history.

(26) How would you explain the circumstance that while Scotland has a history independent of England down to the beginning of the 18th century, the same cannot be said of Ireland?

(27) "Rodney, Howe, Duncan, and Nelson, made their country mistress of the sea." Give dates and particulars of their principal achievements.

(28) At what broad periods of our history has this island fallen under the influence of Scandinavia, Germany, Holland, France, and Spain respectively?

(29) Give the names and dates of any sovereigns of this country since 1060 who may be considered as usurpers, and in each case mention the name and title of the person having better claims to the throne.

(30) Who were Arthur, Prince of Wales, 1502; Henry, Prince of Wales, 1612; and Frederick, Prince of Wales, 1750?

ENGLISH

GRAMMAR.

SOURCES AND GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH
LANGUAGE.

I. ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. The countries of Europe have been peopled by races who came originally from Asia. Most of those countries now contain inhabitants descended from the Indo-European, or Aryan family, which had its original seat north of the Himalaya Mountains.

The various branches of the Indo-European family speak languages derived from the same source, and therefore resembling each other to a greater or less degree, according to various circumstances which have caused them to deviate less or more from the original and common language. English is one of the modern Indo-European languages.

The ancestors of the modern Indo-European races introduced themselves into Europe in three great waves of migration, representing three principal offshoots from the same root.

(1) The Celtic, or Keltic, who settled in Gaul, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the British Islands. The Celts were gradually driven farther west by the Teutonic tribes and the Greeks and the Italians, all of whom spring from the same stock.

The Celtic dialects now spoken in Europe are Welsh, Irish, Gaelic (in the Highlands of Scotland), Manx (in the Isle of Man), Bas Breton (in Brittany).

(2) The Gothic, or Teutonic, who first settled in the centre and north of Europe and gradually extended themselves farther west and south.

The English, Dutch, German, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian languages are derived from this source.

(3) The Slavonic, who settled in the eastern and northeastern portion of Europe.

The Russian, Polish, and Bohemian languages are derived from this source.

The South of Europe was settled by tribes of Pelasgians (sea-farers) who belonged to the same original family, and took possession of Greece and Spain.

From this source are derived the Ancient Greek, Modern Greek, Latin, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Roumanian, and Wallachian languages.

The present English language, as before observed, belongs to the Teutonic group. It was introduced into this country by the Saxon tribes who conquered England during the fifth and succeeding centuries. They consisted of the Jutes, Saxons proper, and Angles (from whom the name England, that is, Angle-land, is derived). It will not be necessary here to relate the particulars of this Saxon occupation of the country. We must refer the pupil to the full account which has been already given of it in the English History contained in The Pupil Teacher's Course." It will be sufficient to add, that the Saxons succeeded in driving out the Celtic inhabitants from the greater part of the country, and establishing their own religion, customs, and language instead of those they supplanted.

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Thus, till the fifth century after Christ, the Celtic dialect prevailed in this country, but during that and the succeeding centuries it was superseded by the Saxon (a branch of the Teutonic) which took deep root in the country, and now forms the foundation of our modern English language.

II. ELEMENTS OF WHICH THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IS COMPOSED.

It has been already shown that the English language is, in the main, Saxon, and therefore Teutonic. The grammar of the

English language is almost entirely derived from the Saxon, but a large number of words have been introduced from some The chief sources of English words may be

other stock.

thus classified.

(1) SAXON, or ANGLO-SAXON. A great majority of the English words are Saxon. It has been calculated that about 60 per cent. (sixty out of every hundred) of the words in the English language are from this source. Most of the common words are Saxon, such as day, night, earth, body, ox, sheep, fox, ask, drink, head, heart, father, mother, brother, sister, wife. Our authorized translation of the Bible consists mainly of words of Saxon origin. In the Lord's Prayer, for example, consisting of sixty-nine words, only eight are derived from non-Saxon sources.

For

Modern English differs greatly from Anglo-Saxon. example, there are two letters in the latter which are not found in the former, representing nearly the two sounds of th (in thin, and that).

The Anglo-Saxon language contained more inflections than the English of the present day. The latter, like other modern anguages, has dropped a great many of the ancient inflections, and uses auxiliary verbs, prepositions, and other particles in their stead. We here give examples of the difference in this respect between Anglo-Saxon and Modern English.

(a) The English noun only admits of two inflections; one to denote possessive case, and the other to express the plural number. Thus, we have day, pl. days, poss. day's, days'. The Anglo-Saxon word dag was inflected thus :

(b) The English adjective has no inflection. We say, a good man, a good woman, a good house, good men, good women, good