32 JOHN READE ON LANGUAGE AND CONQUEST. 
_ There is one point, however, which may be examined without even the temptation to 
invidious preference. I mean the purely statistical task of ascertaining the extent and 
nature of the domain over which each of the leading European languages extends. If we 
compare with each other the dominions of the great Teutonic and Neo-Latin groups, we 
have a difficulty in disposing of English which belongs in part to both of them. Dr. 
John Weisse, of New York, has published a work on “ The Origin, Progress and Destiny of 
the English Language and Literature,” in which, by a system of comparative tables, com- 
piled with great labour and care, he endeavors to show the exact constituents of our English 
speech. The result at which he arrives is that the average of the best English writers (from 
the days of the Anglo-Naxons to the present) comprises about 70 per cent. of Græco-Latin 
and about 30 per cent. of Teutonic words. Taking in all the branches of the Teutonic family 
(about 65,000,000 persons) and adding the quota of the English language due by Dr. 
Weisse’s computation, we should have to set the actual numerical strength of the Teutonic 
element at from 90,000,000 to 95,000,000, while that of the Neo-Latin would be about 
190,000,000. Archbishop Trench gives quite a different distribution of the words in the 
English language. “Suppose,” he says, “ the English language to be divided into a hun- 
dred parts; of these, to make a rough distribution, sixty would be Saxon, thirty would be 
Latin, including of course the Latin which has come to us through the French; five 
would be Greek; we should then have assigned ninety-five parts, leaving the other five, 
perhaps, too large a residue, to be divided among all the other languages, from which we 
have adopted isolated words.” * If we adopt this view, we shall have an estimate of from 
116,000,000 to 120,000,000 for the Teutonic family and for the Neo-Latin, about 150,000,000. 
Removing the English Language from the comparison, we still find the Neo-Latin 
in the majority, its sum being 125,000,000, while that of the Teutonic does not exceed 
70,000,000. Turning now to the Slavonic group, we find it to give a total about equal to 
that of the Teutonic. It would, of course, be unfair to estimate the moral conquest of these 
several branches of the Aryan race by a mere arithmetical standard. At the same time, it 
cannot be denied that these figures have their value in enabling us to estimate the vitality 
and possible destinies of different elements of speech. 
It is certainly significant to know that English is now the mother-tongue of 95,000,000 

sense—the conquest of mere force—and that moral conquest which includes the imposition of language and ideas, 
than what we have before us in our own Dominion. Is there a more independent people in the wide world than 
the French Canadians? More than a hundred years ago two great civilizations struggled for the mastery on this 
soil. For years a calm observer, if asked his opinion as to the issue, would have said : “ Why, of course, the English 
must prevail; the French must go to the wall.” And certainly, it seemed at one time as if that view of the matter 
must prove the correct one, as if the French language and French institutions and customs must yield to superior 
might, the might of those whoruled. But, after all, the result was a drawn battle. The French language lives to- 
day side by side with the English, and French-Canadian literature holds a prouder rank than its English sister. 
France, long neglectful, has been forced to bethink her of a daughter so loyal, of sons so creditable to their ancient 
name and tongue. And England, and British Canada, above all, are proud to share the honours of which the strong 
and beautiful language which they both failed to conquer has been the happy medium. And I, for my part, am 
glad to say with all my heart: Long may its accents, so well fitted for poetry, for eloquence, for science and divine 
philosophy, be heard, in melodious concert with our own dear tongue, in this new land of the Northmen! 
* The late Hon. George P. Marsh found a still larger percentage of Teutonic words in a number of selections 
from some of the best English writers. The proportion ranged from seventy to ninety-six per cent. The best plan to 
arrive at certainty would be to count the words in Skeat’s “ Distribution of words” in the English language, 
according to their sources, which is in the Appendix to his “ Etymological Dictionary.” 
