Hirell Author:John Saunders Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. " ABE THE ENGLISH ANGLO-SAXONS ?" — A SKETCH, WHICH IMPATIENT READERS MAY PASS BY, UNREAD. The cry of Anglo-Saxon as a distinctive mark of nat... more »ionality, and Teutonic origin, is one that I verily believe no other people' under the sun would raise under similar circumstances. Suppose it for a moment strictly true, as applied to the greater part of England, what then ? Is it true as applied to Devon, and to Cornwall; to the Manx islands, to the Channel islands, or to the Highlands of Scotland ? Is it true as applied to Wales ? Above all is it true as applied to Ireland, which alone has had a Celtic population of more than six millions ? Reflect then, by the aid of these plain facts on the good taste, the good sense, the patriotism, the chivalry, the honest regard for truth of the predominant race in ignoring such immense numbers of their fellow citizens whenever the grandeur of the empire is in question, by the summing up all in the self- glorifying phrase, " Anglo-Saxon." It is quite impossible to acquit English writers and politicians of a disregard for truth in their treatment of this subject. Facts in every direction stare them in the face, if they will but take note of them, and point to exactly opposite conclusions to those which they eternally parade, as if in full faith, before the world. For example : If the European character of England as a military power, were to be traced back to the influences that most powerfully tended to its formation, we should all, I think, revert to that wonderful series of battles fought in France—that is to say, to Cre"cy, Poitiers and Agincourt, as the events that impressed indelibly upon the imaginations alike of the English and of continental nations, the idea of a prowess towhich thenceforward everything was hum...« less