A man of his word. Duty of Englishmen to their lan. guage. "English lands." mon end, to find some centre towards which all lines of thought converge. That is what we mean when we speak of Universities as Institutions for the Nation. In like manner the greatest lesson which we want in the business of life is to be according to the good old expression, men of our word." He who is that as Merchant, Lawyer, Divine, fulfils his function; he may often prize silence much more than speech; but his speech will be worth listening to, his country will be the better for it. Let us not think that we can ever make our English more dainty by mixing with it foreign phrases or slang phrases. They do not merely separate us from the great writers of other days, from Swift and Addison, from Taylor and Milton, from Hooker and Shakespeare. They also introduce an element of untruth into the feelings and habits of our own time. Language is vital and growing, capable of continually sending out new shoots; but the grafting from other stocks is always perilous; we shall generally adopt what least deserves to be adopted; we shall derive our borrowed phrases from the worst sources. The vulgar tongue is never vulgar in the bad sense. The peculiar tongue which coxcombs exchange for it is essentially vulgar if by that adjective we mean coarse, ill-conditioned, incoherent. You will not suppose from anything I have said speaking that I am exalting English speech above other speech; or am dreaming that it is ever to become a universal speech. It makes me tremble when any one speaks of that possibility. When I come to the last division of my subject I may shew you that there was a justification of the attempt to make Latin a universal Lan French both more fit to be languages universal than ours. guage, greatly as I rejoice that the different dialects of Latin and modern Europe rose up to confound it. The diffusion of French through all the courts and countries of Europe led I think to the death of the continental nations; the revival of a native Literature among Germans was the beginning of renovation: still I dare not say that French does not possess some qualities for general use which none of our northern tongues can claim. Instead of wishing that English should contest the honour with it I can think of no fate that would be worse for our country. The lust of Imperialism is far too strong in us already. Nothing will counteract it more than the recollection that our Language is a national possession; that only as such does it bind us to the past, that only as such does it help to maintain the veracity of which we boast, and of which our boasting is too likely to deprive us. We have indications in the presence of Celtic tongues close to us, in Wales, in Scotland, in Ireland, that what- and the ever powers the English speech may be endued with, its power of exterminating the rivals of which it is most suspicious is limited by laws which we cannot alter. What the limits are we cannot know. Those sentimental persons who wish that the Welsh should talk Welsh because it is a beautiful old language when they are minded to talk English, are doing it seems to me a very vain thing. It may be, as experienced people tell us, that the coexistence of the two forms of speech leads to prevarication and falsehood; that witnesses in a Court of Justice have time to consider and invent evidence while the interpreter is translating. If so, to make the language stand on its feet when it is falling Est propter vitam vivendi perdere causas ; the final and highest aim of language being truth, you The Saxon Celtic tongues. A lan guage can not be kept alive by artificial props. The oriental tongues. Speech may be silver if not gold. are losing that end that you may gratify your fancy of preserving one. If it can live it will live; if not, a greater than you has sentenced it. In India we have had lessons quite as remarkable which may either minister to our vanity or check it as we receive them. English has undoubtedly made mighty way through our arms, our administration and our schools. But Englishmen have been taught that they are face to face with languages of which their own has been a younger sister if not the offspring. A literature has been discovered to them which had existed for generations among the darker races when their fathers knew scarcely the use of the commonest tools. These are surely reasons for something better than selfexaltation; reasons for hoping that we have been permitted to educate nations which are to have a great future of their own, a future far better than their past but which will not be unmindful of that. May we prize that high calling and despise all miserable ambition for the spread of our speech or our power which stands in its way. And we have a calling at home, that which I must once and again tell you is the most difficult of all, the call to speak the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. We have been made. trustees of a glorious Language because we are citizens of a glorious Nation. That I may end where I began, a Parliament may easily become a mere place for talking, if we whom it represents are merely talkers. If the speech of each of us is sincere and manly the collective speech will not be frivolous and false. 14 July 1895. LECTURE X. GOVERNMENT. tions. A LAW, I have said, appeals to the individual man, Law and makes him aware that he is an individual. It is only bility twin Responsianother way of expressing the same fact to say that concepLaw makes each man aware of his responsibility. To feel myself an individual—a distinct living person—is to feel myself responsible for my acts. They are mine; I can shift them on no one else. But to whom am I responsible? Since the sense of having neighbours is awakened at the same time with the sense of being an individual, I might say generally I am responsible to my neighbours; to each of them, to all of them. The particular neighbour whom I injure may make me understand that he holds me responsible to him. Then he is said to take the law into his own hands. Or Or my neighbours may meet together and call me to account before them. Then they are said to pronounce or execute the law upon me. So that I am driven back upon this word Law. Unless I assume a Law I cannot recognise a meaning either in the personal vengeance or the general sentence. Law lies beneath each. It is to a belief of the authority of Law in me that both appeal. Law mocks mock it. We must keep this thought steadily in our minds. those who It will be often slipping away from us. We say to ourselves 'Law, what is Law? Why do you talk to me of its might? It only means this.' 'It only means that.' When we examine what it only means we find the answer is 'Law.' The three letters may be exchanged for a ponderous polysyllable, or a troop of polysyllables. But we cheat ourselves in the process. We shew that we are very learned, that we cannot speak the common language. But the power of Law, the terror of Law, remains for us; just as if we were not wiser than other men, and were not armed with any polysyllables. Loyalty. The Law demands adminis. tration. Forms of Government. Is Law then a mere dark Abstraction? Surely not. If it makes me feel my own personality, if it reminds me that my neighbours are persons, I cannot be content with abstractions. I ask who administers or executes the Law? I ask whom does the Law command me to obey? Here begins that manner or habit which the name of Loyalty so happily describes. That denotes the sentiment which I cherish-which a nation cherishes-for certain persons whom it associates with Law, who represent the Law to it. They save it from becoming a hard letter. They connect it with living acts. It must be connected with these if it is to have any living force, although the connection is always a perilous one, is always threatening to make Law the servant of those whom it should rule. I propose to consider this question in reference to the different forms of Government which we are wont to describe by the names Monarchy, Aristocracy, Democracy, as well as to that blending of these forms which is implied in the Order of many countries, but which |