268 



PROF. T. MCKENNY HUGHES, E.II.S., ON 



simple question, as, for instance, Were tliey a happy people ? 

 Sometimes we may notice among- the hnndreds lun-rying by 

 to business a carcAVorn look often but little relievL-d l)y hope. 

 In another place we are struek by tlie same anxious, dis- 

 appointed look upon the faces of those who make a regular 

 business of their pleasure. In another place we observe a 

 general alertness and self-possession, the outcome of pro- 

 ductive work within the compass and possibilities of the 

 individual. 



Sometimes I ask the question, Of what nationality are 

 they ? using- the Avord nationality in its common sense, so that 

 the question means only to what race, whether more or less 

 pure or mixed, can we refer any individual or family or larger 

 group by reference only to external and obvious characters. 



That is the question I venture to propose for discussion 

 to-night, and the people to whom I \vish to apply it are 

 selected for convenience, either because I am more familiar 

 with them myself, or because they are of more general 

 interest, or more accessible to observation. Of course we 

 must turn aside now and then to consider the value of the 

 evidence on which Ave rely or to enquire Avhat support 

 historical records give to the conclusions at Avhich Ave have 

 arri\^ed. 



Nationality. 



It Avill be couA-enient to draAv attention at once to the 

 distinction betAveen a Nation and a Race. A nation is a 

 gi-oup of people or peoples held together by a common 

 goA^ernment, but not limited by blood, country, language, or 

 religion, and generally exclusive of peoples merely held in 

 subjection ; a race is a people haA-mg a common origin ;. 

 a nation is a politicid unit, a race a physical unit. But. 

 curiously enough, Avhen Ave use the Avord nationuHty aa'-c 

 generally liaA'e in our minds racial characters. In that sense 

 1 use it in the title of this paper. A nation is an agglomera- 

 tion of various elements held together by diplomacj' or 

 conquest. A race, too, may be built up in A'arious Avays but 

 by processes which may be called natural. 



Origin of Races and Nations. 



The great migrations of Avhole tribes or peoples are 

 continental phciioincna. When the people become too 

 numerou.s there foUoAVS, directly or indircctlv, pestilence or 

 famine or the sAvord. Pestilence is essentially the scourge 



