CANADA IN THE BODLEIAN. 371 



event and turning it to great account in tlieir panegyrics of the reign 

 just closed; introducing allusions to the same also in their loyal aspira- 

 tions for the glory and fame of the new King. 



While the volume was at hand, I rapidly made selections of passages 

 containing the names that had arrested my attention, as a visitant from 

 Canada, with one or two other passages possessing some interest of a 

 cognate character. These memoranda, though absolutely of little value, 

 I am desirous nevertheless of depositing, where, at all events, they may 

 be consulted, should the exigencies of a Canadian student hereafter 

 require authority for a Latinised or Grecised form of an American local 

 proper name. I do not suppose that the old "learned" tongues are 

 going wholly to die out amongst us. Such a result will be prevented 

 by the select few who, it is not to be doubted, will, in a certain average, 

 here as elsewhere, always emerge from the general community, possessed 

 of a special aptitude for the mastery of languages. For the sake of 

 those, comparatively few though they may be, who shall evince especial 

 talent for linguistics, ancient and modern, our Canadian schools and 

 colleges and universities will never cease to maintain a supply of instruc- 

 tors and guides. Nor, on the score of essential knowledge, in respect 

 to the composition of modern English speech, and in respect to the 

 nomenclature adopted in every department of science, would it be safe 

 wholly to omit means and appliances for^acquiring familiarity with what 

 used preeminently to be called the learned languages. We conceive 

 too that the literature appertaining to those tongues ought not to be 

 left out of any plan of general education, for the further reasons, as 

 well set forth lately by the accomplished Inspector of Schools for the 

 Province of Ontario, in his annual Report (p. 12), that " it gives 

 enlarged views, helps to lift the mind above a hard materialism, and to 

 excite interest and sympathy in the experiences of human life." 



Our extracts may also serve to add a touch or two to the general 

 picture of the times of George the Second. An interest in regard to 

 the era of that King has of late been revived in the public mind — a 

 period of English history that had become misty in the retrospect of 

 the generality. One of Thackeray's lectures on the "^Four Georges " 

 brought back George the Second and his surroundings to the popular 

 imagination for a passing moment. The republication a few years 

 back by Hotten, of Wright's " Caricature History of the Georges," 

 contributed to the same result — a work containing '' Annals of the 

 House of Hanover, compiled from the squibs, broadsides, window- 

 2 



