under the names of Britannic Ierne, and Albion. Polybius, a Greek, but living many years at Rome, 200 B. c., and Strabo, a celebrated geographer, cotemporary with Christ, each refer to Britain in undoubted terms.

Ireland received, before the Christian era, colonies from Spain, then called Iberia; and England must have acquired, during the same time, additions from some of these trading nations. The name now borne by the country is Iberian, the language spoken by the inhabitants of ancient Spain. The syllable tan entered largely into the Iberian names of localities in the Spanish Peninsula. But the language which Cæsar found on the Island of Britain, undoubtedly, was Keltic; and it is now to be ascertained what amount of that element is existing in the present English. That element is to be found there, but to a very limited extent, and has been introduced in five different forms of words:

1st. Those which have been brought in lately, and cannot be part of what was left by the inhabitants of Cæsar's time; such as flannel, crowd or crouth, meaning fiddle, kerne, an Irish foot-soldier, galore, enough, from the Irish branch, and tartan, plaid, from the Gaelic.

2d. Those which are common to both the Keltic and the Germanic, and are derived from a common source, probably the Sanscrit, such as mother, brother, which in Keltic are mathair, brathair; the numerals, &c.

3d. Those which have come to us, indirectly, from the Keltic, but directly from other languages, as Druid and bard from the Latin.

4th. Those which were of Continental origin, and were brought over by the Normans from France, having been acquired there, by them, from the Gaulish Keltic; and

5th. Those which, retained from the original language of the Island, now form component parts of the present English.

The last must be subdivided into three classes :—

1. Proper names of localities, as Thames, Kent, from the old Keltic word, Canti, the name of a British tribe.

2. Dialectic words, not in general use, but only spoken in parts of the Island, as gwethall, household-stuff, and gwlanen, flannel, used only in Herefordshire, and

3. Words in common use in the whole language. Of this last subdivision there are only about thirty words, still lingering with us. M. Latham, depending on the investigations of another, says they are the following. The corresponding Welsh words are given:

It can not be said with any degree of certainty, that more than two hundred words have come from all these Keltic sources, to form component parts of the English. Some of these, although classed with the Keltic, are of very doubtful origin. Yet, for fourteen centuries, the two languages have existed, side by side, in full force, not only spoken by people of the same religion, of the same manners, living within the same Island, and under the same government, but written, and with some degree of advance in literature by the Keltic. Indeed, the Keltic had a literature of its own, and of no common merit, before the English was in existence. This fact must be accounted for, because, the English is pre-eminently rapacious, seizing and appropriating with avidity, for its own use, from other tongues, whatever appears necessary or even desirable, and it would seem hardly credible that from such a contact it would not have more than this small number of vocables.

The Keltic has two branches: one, the Irish, represented in Ireland, in the Isle of Man, and in the highlands of Scotland-the Erse, the Manx, and the Gaelic; the other, the Cymric, represented in Wales, in Cornwall, and in Bretagne-the Welsh, the Cornish, and the Armorican. The Manx is fast dying out, existing only on the western side of the Island; the Cornish, as a spoken tongue, is extinct. Here, then, we have the English, with these branches of the Keltic almost belting it, and yet no stream of words flowing from the one into the other. There has been no amalgamation of the two, no fusion. If any language, no matter however opposite in its genius and characteristics, the Choctaw, even, had been placed side by side with the English, the latter would have borrowed, but there could have been no

union, no blending of the one into the other. If such a state of things had existed between the English and the Choctaw, and, in consequence, a few Choctaw words had been sprinkled among the former, it certainly would not prove that the basis of the English is the Choctaw. Yet some philologists argue that the English is based upon the Keltic. The Keltic and English are widely variant from each other in most of the characteristics which mark a tongue and distinguish it from others. They differ in structure, in inflexion, and in the power of their vowels. The Keltic, in some measure, is agglutinate, especially in a peculiar form of the verb, where the plural pronoun nominative is joined as a suffix to the root of the verb. Thus, the pronouns we, ye, and they, in Welsh, are ni, chwyi, and hwynt. In the conjugation of the verb to love, car, the plural number is this:

Car-wn-we love.

Car-ych-ye love.

Car-ant-they love.

These suffixes, wn, ych, ant, are the personal pronouns, so that here is a modified form of agglutination, an evidence of that state where language is in the formative process.

The English, then, did not come to us from the Keltic, and we must seek elsewhere for its origin.

In A. D. 55, Cæsar invaded Britain, and, after his time, the Romans occupied the country for several centuries. Their occupation was complete from the channel almost to the borders of modern Scotland. Their armies, at times, were encamped at different parts of the country. The government was essentially Roman. Roman governors ruled the land. The Druids were, at one blow, massacred, and the religion of the conquerors imposed on the people. Schools were established in the large towns, where the Latin language was taught, and every means adopted to Latinize the people. Agricola, a wise and prudent statesman, left nothing untried to fasten Roman manners and customs upon the people. He educated the sons of the chiefs in Roman arts, and instituted a rivalry in their acquisition. Imperial edicts (still extant) were passed, regulating the affairs of the seminaries, from the most important down to the most minute. The character of the people was such as to receive a marked impress from these measures. The Britons of Cæsar's time wer eby no means barbarians. For centuries they had carried on a trade with representatives of the then most civilized nations. They had long known the process of smelting metals, were acquainted with some manufactures, which, in addition to their tin, they bartered with the Phoenicians and Carthagi

nians, who brought them, not their rudest, but some of their best fabrics. They fashioned their own weapons, made war chariots with much skill, had tamed and harnessed their horses, plowed and cultivated the ground, and were gathered together into towns and cities. London may have been a town of huts at the time of Cæsar's invasion, but within a century after it was a place of considerable size, and much resorted to by merchants and strangers, and many foreigners resided there. The history of the war with the Romans evinced on the part of the natives much military skill, and it is evident that, had the Britons been united, the result would have been doubtful. The description which is left of the dress of the celebrated Boadicea will give some idea of their progress in the acquisition of the comforts of life. She "wore a rich golden collar, and a parti-colored, floating vest, drawn close about her bosom, and over that a thick mantle, fastened with a clasp." That the Druids possessed more than ordinary learning, is evident from Cæsar's statement, that when a Gaulic priest desired to become more learned in Druidic lore, he passed over to Britain, and spent some time there. It is probable that the people were indebted to their religious leaders for a portion of the education which they enjoyed so largely.

Notwithstanding this care of the Roman, it is somewhat remarkable that no name of any distinguished British writer is mentioned during the first centuries of Roman rule, while many Gaulish authors are named, some of whose works survive, not entire, but in the shape of extracts. Juvenal, who lived at the end of the first, and the beginning of the second century, speaks of British pleaders, but adds that they were instructed by lawyers from Gaul.

The present English was not affected, except in a very slight degree, by the Roman occupation and rule. Very few words remain which were introduced prior to the Saxon conquest, and those relate mainly to military matters, street, from strata, coln, from colonia, as Lin-coln, and the word entering so largely into names of localities in England, in two forms, cester, and chester, as Leicester, Dorchester, &c., from the Latin castrum, originating in this manner. The Romans established, in different parts of the country, permanent encampments, substantially fortified and regularly laid out with streets. In process of time, as the surrounding people flocked thither out of curiosity or for purposes of trade, these camps became places of abode, at first as hamlets, then swelling into important towns, and, eventually, some of them into cities. The positions chosen were commanding, the locations advantageous, so that every appliance existed for the purpose of habitation. Thus arose the different names with which the map of

England, to-day is so thickly studded. East-chester, West-chester, Win-chester, &c.

But the existence of these few Latin words in the English do not give yet its origin, and we must seek elsewhere.

THE COLLEGE FRIENDS.

A REMINISCENCE OF THE REBELLION.

A STORY IN TWO PARTS.-PART I.

No doubt the usual heart-throbbings were experienced by all parties concerned, on the occasion of the Annual Commencement of Columbian College, Washington, D. C., in the summer of . - We remember the occasion well, and the pleasure with which we accepted an invitation to accompany a family of esteemed friends whose eldest boy was a graduate of the college.

The evening when the contestants for the gold medals were to display their elocutionary powers was an occasion of special interest; and our party was among the first to seek seats in a building that was soon filled to excess with an expectant and appreciative audience-scattered over which the eye was regaled with groups of flowers arranged in every style of artistic display, held by proud and loving friends, to be presented to such fortunate students as they might deign to honor.

We had been some time seated when the hum of voices and the light flutter of raiment were drowned by the swelling strains of the band, while a number of bright lads-with blue or pink and white scarfs and rosettes-flitted around distributing programmes.

The important hour had arrived. The music ceased, and every eye turned to the door, through which walked the collegians in procession down the aisle the President and his associates ascending to the platform, and the juniors ranging themselves on seats contiguous.

And now a hush fell upon the house, as the reverend President arose and advanced to the front of the platform, uttering that truly Protestant exordium, "Let us pray." Every head bowed, and hearts beat "Amen," as the Great and Supreme Teacher was implored to shed His light and bestow His divine instructions on the young souls now presented to Him; and to give them that wisdom from above, by which they should walk circumspectly through life, and finally gain the knowledge of heaven.

To the first oration we could not well attend, as the rosy maiden at