466 
of the negro who measured a man’s age by his inches. It should be borne in 
mind that in the youth of a . language, as well as in the youth of a people, 
developments are always more rapid in every respect ; and that after a due 
amount of “ shaking down,” if I may use such a vulgarism, changes become 
slower. In early ages, when there was no writing, or when writing was 
carried on upon stones or tablets, or by means of other modes of a difficult 
kind compared with the facilities now afforded to us by printing, a tribe dis- 
severed from its original stock would degenerate very fast, and the changes 
in its language would become most marked in a very short time. The 
people would soon forget their original speech in its purity ; and even a 
peculiarity of tongue or lip in an individual might be reproduced in a whole 
family, just as in Roxburghshire you have a whole class of people with a par- 
ticular “ burr.” Then, with reference to the customs of a people, all those ex- 
traordinary customs of savage races, when they were scattered and dispersed 
over the world, would doubtless tend to give unity to particular tribes 
among themselves, but would create a great diversity between them and 
other peoples. With regard to the paper itself, Mr. Wain wright has so ably 
brought before you the principles we have always maintained, that I find I 
have less to say than I otherwise should have had. I am of opinion that we 
should either let the Scriptures alone, or if we bring them forward, we should 
do so without forcing new interpretations upon them ; and I must say that I 
am in favour of the first course. What we have got to do here is to inves- 
tigate various theories of science, and to give especial attention to such as 
are said to be contrary to Scripture ; and we are bound to examine them not 
in a way which would satisfy us merely, as believers in Scripture (for that 
would only do good to ourselves), but upon scientific principles, with reasons 
and counter- proofs, so as to satisfy those persons who may have been per- 
suaded that what we confute was a true science that contradicts the truth of 
Scripture. We have already met the arguments of some persons on this 
particular subject ; we have discussed the unity of the human race before ; 
and I find no answer in this paper of Dr. McCausland’s to any of those 
hitches in the argument on the other side which I myself brought before the 
Institute during our first brief session in 1866. It is of no use for any one 
to bring forward a detached theory and leave out of consideration all the 
strong points of his opponent’s case ; and I think Dr. McCausland’s paper is 
weak in the extreme, if for no other reason, upon that ground. A great part 
of the arguments that have been brought forward with reference to these 
inferior races is always based on the assumption that the particular savage 
you deal with has always been a savage in a low and degraded state, and has 
not fallen from a higher state ; and a great deal of the argument about language 
proceeds on a similar assumption, as if language began in a very low and 
imperfect condition, and marched upwards as it marched onwards. When 
Mr. Row explains how that is 
Mr. Row. — I am not going to. (Laughter.) 
Mr. Reddib.— W ell, I deny that there is any proof that we could have 
risen if we had sprung from a low origin ; and in the same way I think Mr. 
