THE " DELEGATION." 17 



a congress at which Volapiik should be spoken. Although 

 a few Volapiikists succeeded in speaking the language, it 

 was only too painfully evident that such a goal could not be 

 reached with this system. Almost simultaneously with 

 Volapiik another artificial language had been invented. The 

 Russian medical man Dr. Zamenhof published his system 

 in 1887 under the pseudonym of " Doktoro Esperanto." 

 But as Esperanto arrived while Volapiik was at its zenith, 

 it failed at first to attract general attention. It found, 

 however, in France, an enthusiastic supporter in the 

 Marquis de Beaufront, who had himself worked out an 

 international language called " Adjuvanto." He gave this up 

 as soon as he came to know about Esperanto, and founded 

 the Societe Frangaise pour la Propagation de VEsperanto 

 and the journal L'Esperantiste (now in its tenth year). 

 France soon became the centre of the new movement, and 

 indeed almost the whole existence and magnitude of the 

 Esperanto movement was due to the influence of this man. 

 Since then Esperanto has extended to all countries. The 

 Esperanto journals appear mostly in a bilingual form, the 

 number of them being, as in the Volapiik movement, about 

 forty-five, whilst there exist a few journals and periodicals 

 published exclusively in Esperanto. A special significance 

 attaches to the international congresses organised by the 

 Esperantists, at which only Esperanto is spoken. In 1905, 

 at Boulogne-sur-Mer, there assembled 600 members, belong- 

 ing to about fifteen different nationalities. The differences 

 of pronunciation which, on account of certain peculiarities 

 of construction in Esperanto, must necessarily appear 

 amongst the Romance nationalities and the English, were 

 not, we are told, sufficiently marked to prevent mutual 

 comprehension. The second congress took place at Geneva 

 in 1906. At the third congress, in Cambridge, in 1907, there 

 were present about 1,400 members, whilst at the fourth 

 congress, in Dresden, in 1908, there assembled also 1,400 



I.L. C 



