374 The Fut&c of the English Langua "J ul y.« 



We mav estimate on this basis that in the year 2000 the 

 most important languages will be spoken by the number of 

 persons as under : — 



Italian 53-37 ' 000 



French 72,571,000 



Russian 130,479.800 



German 157,480,000 



Spanish — 



Europe 3 6 >938>33S 



S. America 468,347,904 



505.2S6.242 



English — 



Europe 178,846,153 



United States and non-i 



European British de- • 1,658,440,000 

 pendencies 



1,837.286.153 



From this it is tolerably clear that English is the language 

 of the future. No other European tongue can compete with 

 it, for no other race has the same wide field for extension. 

 The emigrants who crowd to the West, be they Latin, 

 Teutonic, or Scandinavian, become most surely and cer- 

 tainly Americanised. For a time they may endeavour to 

 retain the language of their fatherland, but the attempt is 

 hopeless. " In America," says Sir Charles Dilke, " the 

 peoples of the world are being fused together, but they are 

 run into an English mould ; Alfred's laws and Chaucer's 

 tongue are theirs, whether they would or no." In South 



;h preceded the year 1S66 are worse in the census of 1872. For the six 

 n [ receding 1S72, the population has again decreased by 366.935 inhabi- 

 tants — i.e., 16 individuals upon every- 10,000 (the : f- :- • : : :s lost 

 with Alsace and Lorraine being deducted). In order to see the extent of the 

 lecxease, it should be remembered that the former census gave an annual 

 increase of 38 per 10.000, so that the achial decrease is 54 per 10,000. 

 St, Lagneau shows that this thinning of the population is owing to the com- 

 parative small number of births, military service and the anxiety of parents to 

 prevent a great division of property being at the root of the evil. The author 

 points out that, if this system continues, France in half a century could 

 an armv only one-fourth superior in number to the present, as the population 

 would have increased only one-fourth; whilst in the same half-centirr 

 number of inhabitants having doubled in England. Russia, and Gar: 

 these countries could raise armies double the number of the present. He 

 hopes, however, that a change will come over France, and that sufficient work 

 and occupation will be found for the more numerous children of each fan 

 He cites where the mortality is the same as in France, viz., 22S per 10.000, 

 bat where the births are 354, being one-third higher than in France; the 

 annual increase, 126 per 10,000, three times higher than French increase, and 

 where the population is doubled in ^y years, which doubling would in France 

 take 183 years to enV 



