xxi "NATIONALITIES" & POLITICS 253 



25. Lord Salisbury. 33. W. E. H. Lecky. 



26. Sir Th. Martin. 34. G. A. Sala. 



27. H. Irving. 35. R. L. Stevenson. 



28. George Meredith. 36. Sir F. Leighton. 



29. Wilkie Collins. 37. A. Lang. 



30. Canon Liddon. 38. Bishop Stubbs. 



31. Duke of Argyll. 39. Cardinal Manning. 



32. R. D. Blackmore. 40. Prof. J. R. Seeley. 1 



On March 19 an interesting letter from Sir 

 John appeared in the Times on the so-called 

 " Nationalities of the British Islands." It elicited 

 also some interesting correspondence. 



March 18, 1887. 



To the Editor of the Times. 



Sir — I observe that the supporters of Home Rule 

 place in the forefront of their argument the assertion 

 that " we have within the compass of the United King- 

 dom no less than four real nationalities." By this do 

 not suppose that allusion is meant to the modern and, 

 so to say, accidental divisions between England and 

 Scotland in the first place, England and Wales in the 

 second, or to the silver streak between England and 

 Ireland, for we are hardly so degenerate as to reverse 

 our old boast and allow the waves to rule Britannia. 

 In fact the addition of the adjective " real " is of course 

 intended to give emphasis to the declaration, which no 

 doubt means that there are in the United Kingdom four 

 distinct races, and that the existence of four distinct 

 races is reason why we should permit one of them to 

 have a separate legislature and a separate Executive. 

 It is, therefore, worth while to enquire what the facts 

 really are. As regards South Britain, it will be generally 

 admitted that, omitting the question of pre-Celtic races, 

 Wales and Cornwall are predominantly Celtic, with a 

 considerable Norman intermixture ; that certain dis- 

 tricts are mainly Scandinavian ; that our population is 

 built up of three principal elements — Celtic, Saxon and 

 Scandinavian. 



In Ireland the population of the East and North is 



i Pall Mall Gazette, Feb. 24, 1887. 



