XL] THE RACES OF THE DANUBE. 211 



seems politically a Bedlam, as it is linguistically a 

 Babel. But as was hinted at the beginning of this 

 paper the complication of disorder on the lower 

 Danube is perhaps no greater than has existed, at 

 one time or another, in those parts of Europe that 

 are now most thoroughly civilised. All over Spain, 

 Gaul, and Britain, and even Italy, the conflicts of 

 races have been fierce and their intermixtures ex- 

 tremely intricate. But under the organising impulse 

 of Rome, directed alike by Empire and Church, 

 the populations of these countries long ago became 

 so far consolidated in general interests and assimi- 

 lated in manners and speech that in each country 

 the old racial differences are but occasionally trace- 

 able in rural customs and patois, and even when 

 plainly traceable have little or no political import- 

 ance. It is a long time since the Iberian, the 

 Gaul, the Roman, the Visigoth, the Burgundian, 

 the Frank, the Walloon, and the Norman dis- 

 appeared politically in the Frenchman ; and the 

 Scot, whose slogan for ages was " Death to the 

 Sassenach ! " is to-day the most loyal of Britons. 

 Over three-fourths of Western Europe the adoption 

 of Roman speech has obliterated old lines of de- 

 marcation until it has even become possible to 

 talk about a " Latin race." In like manner the 



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