conversation have only succeeded in rendering ridiculous those who made them.

There remains the German-and this is, indeed, the only language that can have the slightest pretension to rival the English. The amount of German emigration to America has of late been excessive. The German settlers in the city of New York must now approach in numbers to one-seventh of the entire population. Whole districts of the city are peopled by them; in street after street you see only German signs outside of the shops, and hear only Teutonic accents inside of the houses. Several German newspapers have been established, and some of these can boast a very large circulation, even according to the high standard of American newspaper circulation. But is it probable that the Teutonic element will continue to develop itself at this rate, or even that the present state of things will continue without a contrary modification? We think not. We have seen that where the German language was originally established-in Pennsylvania-it was so far from making any encroachments on the English, that the English sensibly encroached on it. True, the language has remained, after a fashion, but the descendants of the original settlers have preserved it at the expense of much loss both of power and progress. They are notoriously behind their AngloSaxon neighbours, and the readiness with which they are duped in all public and political matters, has become a standing joke. The present race of emigrants are more energetic and more ambitious. But any further attempts on their part, or that of their descendants, to preserve their peculiar language and customs in the midst of a different population, would infallibly end by intensifying and exasperating that not altogether unfounded jealousy of foreigners which has already given rise to grave political agitations, and will probably lead to grave political results. If the German citizens of America wish to take that part in the affairs of the country to which their numbers, their abilities, and their education entitle them, the first condition will be their adoption of the general speech of the country.

We conclude, then, that the supremacy of the English language in the United States is menaced by no serious danger. With such comparatively trifling modifications as we have been discussing, it will continue to be the language of the greatest power on the great Western Continent. And surely this ought to be a source of no small satisfaction to Englishmen. Among the many glories that England has to boast of, it is not, and will not be, one of the least, that she, more successful in this

respect than the other nations of Europe, has transmitted and permanently established beyond the broad ocean, liberal institutions, evangelical religion, and a language which, whatever harshness of sound or clumsiness of inflection may disfigure it, however inferior it may be in harmony or musical capability to the more liquid dialects of the sunny south, has been the vehicle of many of the greatest productions of human reason and human genius, the language of Milton and Shakspeare, of Macaulay and Tennyson-one and the same with the language of Irving, Bryant, and Longfellow.

NOTES ON MODERN GEOGRAPHY.

IT

T must be a surprise to those persons who have not watched the recent developments of geography, but draw their opinions of its scope and character from the meagre treatises of bygone days, to observe how advanced is its present position among the liberal sciences, and how steadily on the increase is the recognition of its value in the eyes of the world at large.

If, indeed, we consider in turn the whole round of those scientific pursuits with which persons of thoughtful minds are glad to associate themselves in a more or less intimate connexion, we shall scarcely be able to point out any one of them that meets with a more general sympathy, or that rests on a sounder basis of popular support than that of geography. Thus, on applying the test that lies readiest at hand, of taking up the Transactions' of the several learned societies, and analysing the lists of their associates, we find none that can compare with the Geographical in the weight, eminence, and varied attainments of the persons whose names they contain. Nay, more, the following quotation may be received as evidence that Geographical Societies of other countries enjoy a reputation equal to that which they have earned in England. It is taken from an address delivered by the President of the French Society, shortly after its establishment in 1822, where he recounts with a natural satisfaction the progress it had already made, and expresses himself in the following terms: Our society contains men learned in every science, persons of intelligence from every country whose tastes and labours tend to the increase of geographical knowledge. There are astronomers, well-informed tourists who have travelled through distant lands, experienced navigators who have faced all the dangers of the sea, generals who have conducted. war, highly-informed engineers, skilful geographers, naturalists, men learned in languages, statesmen, economists, and merchants.'

And it is reasonable to expect that such should be the case, since geography has every claim to be ranked as a thoroughly popular science. I mean, that the subjects on which it treats are of so remarkable a variety, that some of them, at least, must appeal to the tastes of every person; and, again, that its territory is not fenced off from the casual inquirer by too thorny a barrier of hard names and puzzling classifications, which compel him to follow a tedious path of dull study before it be possible to reach any free eminence or open spot, whence the nature of its beauties may be fairly seen and justly understood.

Few persons are willing to slave at the elements of a strange science for which they feel no natural taste, as even those whose minds are thoughtful and cultivated find little inducement to do so in the mere hope of their interest becoming so far engaged in their new studies as to tempt them on to a steadier course of inquiry. Creation is thronged with matters which solicit the attention of every earnest mind, and it is not to be expected that a science whose beauties are hidden and hard to get at, should enlist so great a show of popular sympathy as another whose objects are of no less interest, but whose stores are patent and accessible.

It is owing to these causes that geographers have enlisted a class of recruits, and most useful ones, too, from men who find themselves aliens to other sciences because, when circumstances might have permitted their doing so, they had never initiated themselves into their elements by preparatory studies. Of these are missionaries, emigrants, and officers on foreign service, who, feeling a vacancy and a want of intellectual occupation, which the duties and the society of their secluded homes are insufficient to relieve, are too ready to give up their moments of leisure in furthering any pursuit, if assured that their labours would be appreciated by the world as having a practical or a scientific value. Now, geography is always a field open to such persons, especially in the wilder countries; they have only to observe, and inquire, and record, and in proportion as they have attained to an accurate and common-sense knowledge of the place they live in,-its climate, its statistics, and its capabilities,-in that same degree will they be qualified to add a useful item to the great store of sound geographical literature, on the basis of which the wide generalizations of professed geographers can alone be built. And again, to men who have been urged abroad by a mere love of sport and adventure, when the keenness of desire is somewhat cloyed, and the long hours of travel become monotonous and wearying, geography is a legitimate and most absorbing source of occu

pation. One question leads on to another, inquiries open out new matters of interest, and so great a variety of objects rise up on all sides which invite investigation and further progress, that a spirit and a life is infused into the undertaking able to carry it across many difficulties, where apathy would have succumbed to disaster.

The study of geography, from that high point of view from which alone it should be undertaken, is a peculiarly liberalising pursuit. It professes to reward those who follow it with the same expanded ideas that the best of travellers have gained for themselves by years of toil and slow accumulations. It links the scattered sciences together, and gives to each of them a meaning and a significance of which they are barren when they stand alone, and supplies a certain coherence to the scantiest fragments of information.

To the student of any science it affords means whereby he may learn to sketch in his imagination a truthful foreground and background to the special objects of his study; for it is the province of geography to supply those links which unite every object in Creation to the forms of nature which surround it-which are essential to its being understood aright, and in the keen appreciation of which, the great charm of natural science chiefly resides.

Can the reader, whether he be versed in zoology, botany, or geology, not call up to his mind many subjects of his favourite science to which geographical sketches, such as the following, would give both life and support? They are among the pictures that Tennyson hangs in his Palace of Art.

One showed an iron coast and angry waves:
You seemed to hear them climb and fall,
And roar, rock-thwarted, under bellowing caves
Beneath the windy wall.

And one, a full-fed river, winding slow

By herds upon an endless plain,

The ragged rims of thunder brooding low,

With shadow-streaks of rain.

And one a foreground, black with stones and slags,

Beyond, a line of heights, and higher,

All barred with long white cloud, the scornful crags,
And highest, snow and fire.

But what is geography? To this we will reply as plainly as we can. In the first place, it treats of much more than latitudes, longitudes, territorial divisions, heights of mountains, and so forth. Its subject matter is more than a collection of

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