The Anglo-Saxon race.
The
Enquirer attributes the first use of this term to
Sharon Turner.
The first time we ever saw it was in one of Barke's speeches in the House of Commons, on a bill to settle the
Government of
Canada.
This was delivered about the year 1790.
Fox, in commenting upon the bill, had said that the Canadians were entitled to more liberty, in the article of self-government, than it gave them.
That they were in fact capable of self-government.
He pointed to the neighboring country — the
United States--as affording an example of the capacity of man to govern himself.
Burke in reply said that the example was not to the point — that the
United States were peopled by the "Anglo-
Saxon race," whom he esteemed peculiarly capable of self-government, whereas the Canadians were a mongrel race, principally
French, who, he said, were every day proving themselves more and more unworthy to be entrusted with that power.
He then launched into a tirade against the
French revolution, which was then in full progress, and denounced
Fox and his friends for their opinions on that subject.
It was on this occasion that he and
Fox came to an open rupture, and the speech is memorable on that account, as well as for its extreme vehemence and acrimony.
It is many years since we read it, and we do not know that we have stated the circumstances connected with it with accuracy.
But it was somewhat in that way. We are confident, however, that he called the
English, and their descendants, "Anglo-Saxons," and that we first saw the term in that speech.
Daniel Defœ says that the
English is the most composite of all nations.
An English man has the blood of nearly every nation in
Europe in his veins.
The old
Romans, we suppose, left some of their stock grafted on the natives, who were Celts.
Then come the Saxons, then the Danes, then the Normans all grafting on the same stock.
Besides there has been intermarrying, to a vast extent, with
Scotchmen, Irishmen, Welshmen, Frenchmen, Dutchmen, Italians, Spaniards, &c. Undoubtedly, however, the blood of the ancient Briton (Celt) prevails most largely.
The Saxons could not have exterminated them, though they slow enough of them, in all conscience.
They must still have continued to be the vast majority.
