to the Ethnological Society of London. 71 



ticians come down into the ground of the ethnologist, they 

 might condescend to receive a lesson from the science which he 

 cultivates ; and this would teach them that the mixture of races 

 is often much more advantageous than their separation. No- 

 thing is better established than that tribes and races of or- 

 ganised beings improve by the intermixture of varieties. A 

 third stock, descended from any two races thus blended, is 

 often superior in physical and psychical qualities to either 

 of the two parent stems. The fierce indomitable spirit of one, 

 mitigated by the more docile and tamer disposition of the 

 other parent stock, produces a more generous and noble off- 

 spring. Facts which seem to establish this principle are well 

 know in different provinces of the organised world ; and cor- 

 responding observations have been made in the history of man- 

 kind. Without resorting to distant regions, we may observe 

 that the English and French are mixed races. Who can say 

 that our Saxon stock has not been improved by the mixture 

 of other races engrafted upon it, or that the French, though 

 partaking much of their old Celtic character, are not a great 

 improvement on the original Celts. In mentioning the Celts, 

 I am reminded of the allusions so frequently made in late 

 times to the divided popul«,tion of Ireland, said to be partly 

 Saxon, and in a greater proportion Celtic ; and I cannot with- 

 hold a remark, that a great mistake is connected with the 

 prevalent notion on this subject. It is only by extending the 

 meaning of the term beyond its proper and ancient accepta- 

 tion, that we can call the Irish a Celtic people. I think it 

 has been proved by evidence of the same kind, but perhaps 

 much more abundant, and more easily collected, than that by 

 which Baron William Von Humboldt elucidated the history 

 of Spain, and marked out the extension of the Euskarians 

 and of the Celtic inhabitants of that country, that the lan- 

 guage prevalent through all Celtic Gaul, and all the Celtic 

 countries on the Continent of Europe, was nearly related to 

 the modern Welsh and Armorican, and but very remotely to 

 the Erse. These two languages are often termed dialects of 

 the Celtic speech ; but they are not dialects of one language, 

 though they may be termed sister languages. The analogy be- 

 tween them is rather comparable to that of the Latin to the 



