i.] ANTECEDENTS. 17 



classed are of extremely mixed origin. One is 

 in about equal degrees English, Irish, French, and 

 German ; another is English, Scotch -Creole, and 

 Dutch ; another English, Dutch, Creole, and 

 Swedish ; and so on. (I trust the reader knows 

 what " Creoles " are namely, the descendants of 

 white families long settled in a tropical colony ; 

 and that he does not confound the term with 

 " mulattoes.") I give this information without 

 being able to make much present use of it. It 

 is chiefly intended to serve as a standard with 

 which other natural groups may hereafter be 

 compared, such as groups of artists or of literary 

 men. 



One would desire to know whether persons 

 in England generally show so great a diver- 

 sity of origin ; but it is somewhat difficult 

 to answer the question owing to a want of 

 precision in the word " generally." If we 

 were to go to rural districts, or small stag- 

 nant towns, we should find much less variety 

 of origin; but I think there would be quite 

 as much in the more energetic classes of 

 the metropolis, who have immigrated from all 



c 



