188 TRANSACTIONS OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
cared to take, and settled amongst the Celts as a ruling aristocracy 
at first, though time brought a closer union. Celts and English 
merged into one people, the English bringing with them township 
life and government, and the germs of trial by jury and represen- 
tative institutions. Our literary history started absolutely with 
them, and our religious history with them made fresh beginnings. 
By the middle of the seventh century the English people were 
constituted, and since that time they had gathered into themselves 
men of many nations and of many languages. Though their own 
language remained English, the largest proportion of the blood was 
Celtic. Edward III. settled colonies of Flemish weavers in Norfolk, 
Suffolk, and Essex. Large numbers of Huguenots fled to England 
after the massacre of St. Bartholomew; Dutchmen came with 
William of Orange, and Germans with the house of Hanover. 
Jews had always been coming, revolutions had brought refugees, 
the opportunities of commerce tempted many, and the general 
mixing of races which the Celts began went on still. In the 
words of Wordsworth, we English people 
" Who speak the tongue that Shakspere spake, 
In everything are sprung of earth's best blood. " 
It was doubtful whether any persons of pure blood were left 
amongst the English ; any pure Celts, pure Teutons, pure anything 
except what we called English. The English were mongrels, and 
were the better for it. The words in Defoe's vigorous satire, that 
"those nations which are most mixed are the best," well inter- 
preted the splendid part that English people had played in the 
historic drama of world-life. Where the Celts had been isolated, 
they had failed anywhere to establish a flourishing national life of 
the modern type. The Celts of the Highlands and West Britain 
or Wales would offer no serious difficulty to the amalgamation of 
all in one which was bound to happen hereafter. The stream of 
tendency, ever since the English settlement, had flown steadily and 
irresistibly towards unity of government and a common language. 
Unhappily the Irish Celts cherished an antagonistic feeling against 
the English settlers in the island for a longer period than their 
kindred in the larger island of Britain. But patience and firmness, 
justice and generosity, would ultimately lead to a closer union. 
The English nation, composed of many peoples, had grown into 
manhood through the storms and conflicts of a thousand years, and 
their advent was prepared for thousands of years before. 
