ORIGIN OF OUR RACE. 257 



it. We learn the same from a method of inquiry 

 which cannot be quite so easily followed. The average 

 shape of our English heads proves that we are more 

 Celtic in blood than we are in laws and language. 

 Unless I mistake, some of the best and some of the 

 worst qualities of the English nation attest the British 

 origin of the race, regarded as a whole. And though 

 the men who have held the foremost place in British 

 history (I am very far from meaning our kings or 

 queens) have for the most part had less British than 

 Norman and Saxon blood in their veins, yet I doubt 

 whether there is one man in a thousand here who 

 does not share, in greater or less degree, the blood of 

 the British tribes which the Romans found in this 

 island nineteen centuries ago. In this sense, it has 

 been correctly said of the English people that, ' while 

 receiving successive admixtures and undergoing de- 

 velopments, it has remained for centuries substantially 

 the same ; and, what is to be well borne in mind, it 

 has had more effect on its conquerors, masters, legis- 

 lators, gentry, and clergy, than they have ever had 

 upon it.' 



in. 



