fupplying our wants, fafter than the most visionary projector can adjuft his fchemes. And therefore, my Lord, the defign of this paper is not fo much to offer you ways and means, as to complain of a grievance, the redreffing of which is to be your own work as much as that of paying the nation's debts, or opening a trade into the fouthfea; and tho' not of fuch immediate benefit as either of thefe, or any other of your glorious actions, yet perhaps in future ages not lefs to your honour.

My Lord, I do here in the name of all the learned and polite perfons of the nation complain to your Lordfhip as firft minifter, that our language is extremely imperfect; that its daily improvements are by no means in proportion to its daily corruptions; that the pretenders to polish and refine it have chiefly multiplied abuses and abfurdities; and that in many inftances it offends against every part of grammar. But left your Lordship fhould think my cenfure too fevere, I shall take leave to be more particular.

I believe your Lordship will agree with me in the reafon, why our language is more refined than those of Italy, Spain or France. It is plain, that the Latin tongue in its purity was never in this island, towards the conquest of which few or no attempts were made till the time of Claudius; neither was that language ever fo vulgar in Britain, as it is known to have been in Gaul and Spain. Further, we find that the Roman legions here were at length all recalled to help their country against the Goths and other barbarous invaders. Mean time the Britains left to fhift for themselves, and daily harraffed by cruel inroads from the Picts, were forced to call in the Saxons for their defence; who confequently reduced the greatest part of the island to their own power, drove the Britains into the most remote and mountainous parts, and the reft of the country, in cuftoms, religion, and language, became wholly Saxon. This I take to be the reason why there are more Latin words remaining in the British tongue than in the old Saxon, which, excepting fome few variations in the orthography, is the fame in moft original words with our prefent English, as well as with the German and other northern dialects.

EDWARD

EDWARD the confeffor, having lived long in France, appears to be the first who introduced any mixture of the French tongue with the Saxon; the court affecting what the prince was fond of, and others taking it up for a fashion, as it is now with us. William the conqueror proceeded much farther; bringing over with him vaft numbers of that nation, fcattering them in every monaftery, giving them great quantities of land, directing all pleadings to be in that language, and endeavouring to make it universal in the kingdom. This at leaft is the opinion generally received: but your Lordship hath fully convinced me, that the French tongue made yet a greater progrefs here under Harry the fecond, who had large territories on that continent, both from his father and his wife, made frequent journeys and expeditions thither, and was always attended with a number of his countrymen, retainers at his court. For fome centuries after there was a conftant intercourse between France and England, by the domi nions we poffeffed there, and the conquefts we made; fo that our language between two and three hundred years ago feems to have had a greater mixture with French, than at prefent; many words having been-afterwards rejected, and fome fince the time of Spencer; altho' we have still retained not a few, which have been long antiquated in France. I could produce several instances of both kinds, if it were of any use or entertainment.

:

To examine into the feveral circumstances by which the language of a country may be altered, would force me to enter into a wide field. I fhall only obferve, that the Latin, the French, and the English, feem to have undergone the fame fortune. The first, from the days of Romulus to thofe of Julius Cæfar, fuffered perpetual changes and by what we meet in thofe authors who occafionally fpeak on that fubject, as well as from certain fragments of old laws, it is manifeft that the Latin three hundred years before Tully was as unintelligible in his time, as the English and French of the fame period are now; and these two have changed as much fince William the conqueror (which is but little lefs than feven hundred years) as the Latin appears to have done in the like Whether our language or the French will decline

term.

as

as fast as the Roman did, is a question, that would perhaps admit more debate than it is worth. There were many reasons for the corruptions of the laft: as the change of their government to a tyranny, which ruined the ftudy of eloquence, there being no further ufe or encou ragement for popular orators: their giving not only the freedom of the city, but capacity for employments, to feveral towns in Gaul, Spain, and Germany, and other distant parts, as far as Afia; which brought a great number of foreign pretenders into Rome: the flavish dispofition of the fenate and people, by which the wit and eloquence of the age were wholly turned into panegyric, the most barren of all fubjects: the great corruption of manners, and introduction of foreign luxury, with foreign terms to exprefs it, with feveral others that might be affigned; not to mention those invafions from the Goths and Vandals, which are too obvious to infist on.

THE Roman language arrived at great perfection, before it began to decay: and the French for these last fifty years hath been polishing as much as it will bear, and appears to be declining by the natural inconftancy of that people, and the affectation of fome late authors to introduce and multiply cant words, which is the most ruinous corruption in any language. La Bruyere, a late celebrated writer among them, makes use of many new terms, which are not to be found in any of the common dictionaries before his time. But the English tongue is not arrived to fuch a degree of perfection, as to make us apprehend any thoughts of its decay; and if it were once refined to a certain standard, perhaps there might be ways found out to fix it for ever, or at least till we are invaded and made a conqueft by fome other state; and even then our beft writings might probably be preserved with care, and grow into esteem, and the authors have a chance for immortality.

BUT without fuch great revolutions as these (to which we are, I think, lefs fubject than kingdoms upon the continent) I fee no abfolute neceffity why any language fhould be perpetually changing; for we find many examples to the contrary. From Homer to Plutarch are above a thousand years; fo long at least the purity of the Greek tongue may be allowed to last, and we know not

how

how far before. The Grecians spread their colonies round all the coasts of Asia Minor, even to the northern parts lying towards the Euxine, in every island of the Ægean fea, and several others in the Mediterranean; where the language was preferved entire for many ages, after they themselves became colonies to Rome, and till they were over-run by the barbarous nations upon the fall of that empire. The Chinese have books in their language above two thoufand years old, neither have the frequent conquefts of the Tartars been able to alter it. The German, Spanish, and Italian, have admitted few or no changes for fome ages paft. The other languages of Europe I know nothing of; neither is there any occafion to confider them.

HAVING taken this compafs, I return to those confiderations upon our own language, which I would humbly offer your Lordship. The period, wherein the English tongue received most improvement, I take to commence with the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, and to conclude with the great rebellion in forty two. 'Tis true, there was a very ill tafte both of ftyle and wit, which prevailed under King James I.; but that seems to have been corrected in the first years of his fucceffor, who, among many other qualifications of an excellent prince, was a great patron of learning. From the civil war to this present time, I am apt to doubt whether the corruptions in our language have not at least equalled the refinements of it; and thefe corruptions very few of the best authors in our age have wholly efcaped. During the ufurpation, fuch an infufion of enthufiaftic jargon prevailed in every writing, as was not fhaken off in many years after. To this fucceeded that licentiousness which entered with the restoration, and from infecting our religion and morals fell to corrupt our language; which last was not like to be much improved by thofe, who at that time made up the court of King Charles II. ; either fuch who had followed him in his banishment, or who had been altogether converfant in the dialect of thofe fanatic times; or young men, who had been educated in the fame country; fo that the court, which used to be the ftandard of propriety and correctness of speech, was then, and, I think, hath ever fince continued the worft

school

fchool in England for that accomplishment; and fo will remain, till better care be taken in the education of our young nobility, that they may fet out into the world with fome foundation of literature, in order to qualify them for patterns of politenefs. The confequence of this defect upon our language may appear from the plays, and other compofitions written for entertainment within fifty years paft; filled with a fucceffion of affected phrases, and new conceited words, either borrowed from the current ftyle of the court, or from thofe, who under the cha racter of men of wit and pleasure pretended to give the law. Many of these refmements have already been long antiquated, and are now hardly intelligible; which is no wonder, when they were the product only of ignorance and caprice.

I have never known this great town without one or more dunces of figure, who had credit enough to give rife to fome new word, and propagate it in moft conversations, tho' it had neither humour nor fignificancy. If it ftruck the prefent taste, it was foon transferred into the plays and current fcribbles of the week, and became an addition to our language; while the men of wit and learning, inftead of early obviating fuch corruptions, were too often feduced to imitate and comply with them.

THERE is another fet of men, who have contributed very much to the spoiling of the English tongue; I mean the poets from the time of the restoration. These gentlemen, altho' they could not be infenfible how much our language was already overstocked with monofyllables, yet, to fave time and pains, introduced that barbarous custom of abbreviating words, to fit them to the measure of their verses; and this they have frequently done fo very injudicioufly, as to form fuch harsh unharmonious founds, that none but a northern ear could endure they have joined the moft obdurate confonants without one interveening vowel, only to fhorten a fyllable: and their taste in time became fo depraved, that what was at first a poetical licence not to be juftified, they made their choice, alledging, that the words pronounced at length founded faint and languid. This was a pretence to take up the fame custom in profe: fo that most of the books we fee now-a-days, are full of those manglings and abVOL. II. breviations.

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