along the shores of that particular part of the Mediterranean, through Catalonia and Valencia, and the islands of Ivica, Majorca, and Minorca. At these places, it differs so essentially from the Castilian, as to assimilate in its principal character rather to the dialect of the south of France than to the surrounding Spanish. The abbreviation of Latin words in Catalan gives it a close resemblance to the Limousin, which, in reality, it is designated as being, by some writers who have made investigations into its origin. It is not our intention to trace this dialect through that brilliant epoch of its history in the thirteenth century, when, better known under the appellation of the Provençal, the Troubadours wrote in its harmonious measures, and found a just tribute paid to their talents in the honourable reception given them by the Aragonian Princes. It must be enough for us to state, that, as a national language, it first was cultivated in the twelfth century, when the Counts Berenger constituted it the language of their Court; that, towards the middle of the next, it had grown the most common of all the southern tongues, and became the great source of Italian after the eleventh. The continual protection found by the Troubadours under this illustrious house, operated most advantageously in raising European poetry: it has been said, indeed, that their noble patronage was the means of placing a tenth Muse upon Parnassus. Their language, now looked upon as a mere patois, was ardently cultivated by the Earls of Provence; it received a tribute equally honourable from Frederick I., who wrote in its metres ; to a certain extent it was naturalized at the court of Naples by Charles of Anjou; encouraged by Pedro of Aragon, and his grandson James the Conqueror. Up to this period, its use was chiefly confined, as their exclusive patrimony, to the Juglars and Trouveres, but it now speedily became employed in all the courts of judicature; and, what is remarkable, the last of the noble persons mentioned, with a view to the better commercial government of his country, caused the cumbrous laws respecting maritime trade, at that time written in Latin, to be properly digested into a smaller form, and published in vulgar Catalan, for the benefit of his people. The Catalans then, equally with the Rhodians, at a time when both were considered barbarians alike, may arrogate to themselves the enviable distinction of being the first islanders who reduced within proper limits, and reformed, their Nautical Code. We may not speak of the numerous works in jurisprudence, theology, history, and fiction, which appeared from Catalan writers up to the middle of the sixteenth century. But at this period the attention is again arrested, by observing a scion of the crown asserting its dignity; for about this time the ill-fated Charles, Infant of Navarre, trans lated the Ethics of Aristotle,' and composed a chronicle of his country a labour imitated in the latter respect by the Infant Ferdinand, Archbishop of Saragossa. And thus, if our space allowed us, it would be pardonable to linger over the plaintive stanzas of his attached friend Ausias March, and gradually bring down this rapid outline of the Catalan language to the moment when the Princes of Aragon mounted the throne of Castilewhen royal favour was withdrawn, and the beautiful valleys of Catalonia became deserted for the barren plains surrounding the new seat of royalty. Several causes of a political nature conspired to weaken its influence; amongst the chief may be enumerated the treaty of the Pyrenees, that put an end to the divisions previously existing betwixt the Courts of France and Spain-a compact by which Catalonia was restored to Charles II.; and the resistance offered by the Valencians to his successor Phillip V., which occasioned him both to abolish their privileges and to suppress the free constitution of Aragon. These causes all contributed to lower the importance of the national tongue, and to supplant its use by the Castilian. Its fall was not less rapid from henceforward in Roussillon. Until the signing of the celebrated treaty just mentioned, which was the fruitful origin of so many subsequent wars, French was nearly unknown to the inhabitants of Perpignan; for Louis XIV., when he first ascended the throne, with a more prudent deference than he afterwards showed towards the feelings of this remote branch of his people, treated their ancient laws and privileges with the utmost respect. In all ordinances, letters, and rescripts, the Catalan language was solely used; so that, when his government was desirous of organizing the Court of Sovereign Council, it was obliged to confide the important functions of Procurator-General to a village notary-simply because he was the only person sufficiently skilful to speak and write French. The powerful houses of De Noailles and De Mailly at last undesignedly accomplished, by the peaceful influence of education, that corruption of the Catalan language, which, at a later period of his reign, the French monarch endeavoured vainly to accelerate by royal injunctions. When, in 1700, he ordered that the public documents, judgments, and proceedings, should appear in French, instead of the vulgar Roussillonais, the mandate had not probably half the influence in hastening the change, as the public instruction given in the schools and colleges founded through the munificence of these two houses. There still existed, however, up to the time of the French Revolution, a marked difference, both in the manners and in the language of the two nations. The presence of an army á monument deserving the gratitude of their countrymen. But if, on the contrary, their scope only aims at retraversing the soil so often trodden by scholars, from the time of Isidore of Seville to that of Isaac Vossius, it may be augured that their classical lucubrations will be appreciated merely by a limited number of academic readers; whilst the world at large will coldly behold researches so trite, and comparatively so devoid of inte rest. What, however, are the materials already amassed for an undertaking of this gigantic description? The exact amount of private collections cannot be fully known; though we have a tolerable idea as to what it may be-being aware of the existence of several compilations for such a purpose. Discarding these, however, from the question, we will institute an enquiry into the number of provincial words that have hitherto been arrested by local Glossaries, and we find them to stand as follows: Admitting that several of the foregoing are synonymous, superfluous, or common to each county, there are nevertheless many of them which, although alike orthographically, are vastly dissimilar in signification. Making these allowances, they amount to a little more than twenty thousand; or, according to the number of English counties hitherto illustrated, at the average ratio of 1478 to a county. Calculating the twenty-six unpublished in the same ratio, they will furnish 38,428 additional provincialisms-forming in the aggregate fifty-nine thousand words in the colloquial tongue of the lower classes, which can, for the chief part, produce proofs of legitimate origin ;-about the same number, in short, of authorized words that are admitted into Todd's edition of 'Johnson's Dictionary.' Besides these, and the private compilations made by individuals in the course of their miscellaneous reading, there are some very copious early English Vocabularies lying in manuscript in the cathedral libraries of Durham, Winchester, and Canterbury; in the British Museum, King's College, and other depositories, deserving collection; as well as rare lexicographical volumes, which issued from the press in the infancy of typography. We more particularly allude to the Promptuarium Parvulorum, the first of the series that was executed, the Ortus Vocabulorum, the Medulla Grammatica, the Gemma Gemmarum, and Horman's Vulgaria. The original intention of these works was to introduce the youthful scholar to a knowledge of Latin; but so completely changed have become the wants and pursuits of later generations, that the same streams of knowledge would only, at the present day, be frequented to allay the thirst of those who, while advanced beyond the rudiments, have partially forgotten their maternal language. America presents the extraordinary anomaly of a vast population descended from an Anglo-Saxon stock, without having retained any portion of the dialects of the mother country. This must undoubtedly be attributed to the frequent removals of the colonists from one place to another; and to the gradual amalgamation of the new.emigrants with the previous settlers. Whilst, however, we assert that the Americans have no dialect, they have formed many new words; and to some old ones still used in England they have affixed new significations; whilst again they have retained others that have long since become obsolete. If the conversation of the Channel Islanders is examined, anomalies of a different character will be observed; for whilst the French of Guernsey, Jersey, Herm, Alderney, and Sark, varies considerably, the English spoken on these islands respectively is strongly tinctured with Hibernianism. They are mutually anxious to rid themselves of the imputation; yet it must be confessed, that though all of them, more or less, partake of it, the language of Jersey lies decidedly the most open to criticism. This leads us to notice a singular fact with respect to the language of the Isle of Man. Even in this contracted spot dialect has become engrafted; since we find the inhabitants of the northern side of the island speaking Manks with much more purity than those of their countrymen living on the opposite shores, whose language is greatly corrupted through their intercourse with England. Welsh is not spoken any where, at the present time, with pu ART. VI.-1. Personal Observations on Sindh: The Manners and Customs of its Inhabitants, and its productive Capabilities. With a Sketch of its History, and a Narrative of Recent Events. By T. POSTANS, Captain, Bombay Army. 8vo. London: 1843. 2. Correspondence relative to Scinde, 1838-1843. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of her Majesty. Folio. 1843. 3. Supplementary Correspondence relative to Scinde. Presented to Parliament, 1844. 4. Speeches of Mr Sullivan and Captain Eastwick at the India House. 8vo. London: 1844. EVE VERY one, we presume, knows by this time where to look for Scinde upon the map of Asia. As we proceed from east to west along the southern part of the continent, through a succession of Mahomedan nations, Scinde is the last country where the faith of the Prophet is the religion of the great majority of the inhabitants; for when we cross the sandy desert which separates Scinde from Hindostan, we have arrived in that other half of the Eastern world where Brahma and Buddha are predominant. The result of this situation upon the borders of India, is a colony of Hindoo merchants and shopkeepers among the Scindians, who are otherwise exclusively Mahomedan. This colony is variously stated at three-tenths and one-tenth of the whole population of the country. It is true the population of Scinde, in common with its government, was once Hindoo; but neither appear to have remained so later than the thirteenth century. The immigration of new inhabitants, and the emigration or conversion of the old, seem about that period to have so completely changed the character of the community, that it owes its present members of the Hindoo persuasion rather to its geographical position than to its early history and origin. On the north of Scinde there is no such barrier as the Great Desert, and its visitors from that quarter have been something more than commercial adventurers. The Scythians and White Huns, in early times-then the Arabs, Patans, and Moguls--and lastly, the Persians of Nadir Shah, and the Affghans of Ahmed Shah Dooraunee, the grandfather of Shah Shoojah, either held Scinde and collected its revenues by garrisons of their own, or exacted a tributary allegiance from the local hereditary government. To what extent a proper Scindian administration existed under |