But whatever may be the opinions formed of these ancient tribes,-whether the Irish and the Scots Highlanders are to be denominated Cynesian, Iberian, or ancient Celtic; and the Welsh, Cornish, and Armorican are to be distinguished as Cymri or Cymraic Gauls; and the inhabitants of Bearn and the lower Pyrenees, who speak the Basque, are to be associated with either, or, more anciently, with both, or whether the whole continue to fall under the general denomination of Celtic, describing the difference between them by a more accurate analysis of their several dialects; still there is so much of affinity, that the whole must be regarded as the children of one common parent stock.

A few remarks with regard to the languages spoken by each will conclude this Appendix. Two of these are generally said to be extinct, the Cornish, and a dialect sometimes styled the Waldensian. The living languages are the Basque the Bas Bretagne, the Welsh, the Manks, the Gaelic, and the Irish, which we shall place last, as desirous of leaving it to the reader's consideration, in connexion with the general subject and design of these pages.

Cornish.

This language, which has sometimes been denominated the Lloegrian, is supposed to have been spoken by a people who once dwelt on the banks of the Loire, but who fled to Britain before some of the Teutonic tribes. It had at one period been much more extensively spoken, the people having occupied not only the south-western but the interior parts of England. This dialect is now extinct in this country, having died away in a great degree by enigration to the Continent, after having been driven into the narrow compass of Cornwall. In this

carried their arms along the Danube into Illyricum and Dalmatia; they took possession of the Alps, and colonized the whole north of Italy."-Vol. II. pp. 40, 41. Dr Pritchard, on the other hand, says,-" It is remarkable that it is with the Irish dialect of the Celtic that the barbarous portion of the Latin coincides. The Celtic people, therefore, who inhabited Italy in early times, were akin to the Irish Celts, and not to the Britons or Celtic Gauls."-Vol. II. p. 130. At the same time, it may be observed, that when Dr Murray speaks of the Irish having left the continent, he, as already quoted, says, " a few tribes only excepted."

county, during the reign of Henry VIII., Cornish was the universal language. In 1602, Carew, in his survey, speaks of it as declining. In 1610, Norden, in his History of Cornwall, says it was chiefly used in the western hundreds. About the middle of that century, however, several parishes discovered strong attachment to their native tongue, and in 1640 Mr William Jackson, Vicar of Pheoke, found himself under the necessity of administering divine ordinances in this dialect, as his parishioners understood no other. About the beginning of the eighteenth century, 1701, Cornish is said to have been confined to five or six villages. But, even so late as 1746, Captain Barrington, sailing on a cruise to the French coast, took with him from Mount's Bay a seaman who spoke Cornish, and he was understood on the coast of Bretagne. The last individual who continued to speak no other language than Cornish was a female, who lived till she was about if not above one hundred years old.

Emigration must in a great degree account for the extinction of this language in England, as it still greatly survives in the colloquial dialect of some parts of Brittany; but, at the same time, it was, of all the other Celtic dialects, the most exposed to inroad. A singular confirmation of its extensive use at one period may be mentioned. "Let any one," says Mr Greatheed,"consult the Archæologia Britannica of Dr Lhuyd, and he will find the differences of its sounds from the Welsh minutely described. Now, in all these, the Cornish so remarkably agrees with the English pronunciation, that there is scarcely a sound in our language in which we vary from other European nations that may not be traced to the Cornish or ancient Lloegrian."*

The Waldensian.

In the time of the Protectorate, Sir Samuel Morland was sent by Cromwell to intercede with the Duke of Savoy, at Turin, on behalf of the Waldenses; and to relieve their distress, as far as money could do so. Above L.38,000 sterling was raised (a large sum indeed at that period,) and he resided for some

* Archæologia, vol. XVI. p. 113.

time, chiefly in Geneva, dispensing this bounty. Secretary Thurlow and Archbishop Ussher had suggested to Sir Samuel, that he might employ his leisure time to good purpose, in collecting documents respecting the history and religious principles of this ancient people. Sir S. succeeded in procuring a number of manuscripts and other pieces, the greatest proportion of which were written by the inhabitants of the Valleys, and many of them in their own language. These papers, consisting altogether of twenty-one volumes, numbered A, B, C, &c., were presented by this gentleman to the public library of the University of Cambridge, and lodged there in the month of August, 1658. "In the volume F are collected and written on parchment, in that which is called the Waldensian language, of a very ancient, but fair and distinct character, the gospel of Matthew; the first chapter of Luke; the gospel of John, the Acts, 1st Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, 1st Thessalonians, 2d Timothy, Titus, the eleventh chapter of the Hebrews, with 1st and 2d Peter, the two last imperfect." Whether this manuscript be written in the ancient and genuine Waldensian, I cannot at present affirm with certainty, especially as one or two of those which are said to be in the language of the inhabitants of the Valleys, are written, in fact, in the colloquial dialect of the age, which, of course, underwent considerable changes, according as the French or Italian influence prevailed. Parts of the manuscripts which are quoted by Morland have been considered to be specimens of the Catalonian, or a language nearly allied to it.

"The

The distance of the Waldensian from the other dialects mentioned, in point of local situation, would render the most distant resemblance between it and them a matter of considerable curiosity; but the resemblance between the Waldensian and the Irish or Gaelic seems to be by no means distant. Irish," says Davis, " appears to be, on the whole, better preserved than either the Erse or the Waldensic: it contains abundantly more of written document; but as the difference between them all is trifling, I shall speak of them in general as Irish." Chamberlayn, in his Oratio Dominica, has not informed us from whence he procured his specimen of the Walden

* Morland's History of the Churches of Piedmont, p. 98.

sian; but that the Irish and Gaelic reader may see how nearly that specimen resembles their respective dialects, it is subjoined from this author, who is generally considered not an inferior authority.

The superior figure (2) used below, answers the same purpose with the superior (*) or point used by the Irish when printing in their own character, and it corresponds to the h of the Gaelic orthography.

THE LORD'S PRAYER IN WALDENSIAN.

Our Narme ata air neamb2. Beanich atanim. Gu diga do riogda. Gu denta du hoill, air talm3 in mar ta ar neamb2. Tabhar dim an míigh ar naran limb2 ail. Agus mai duine ar fiach ambail near marhmhid ar fiacha. Na leig si3n amb2 aribh ach soarsa shin on olc. Or sletsa rioghta combta agus gloir gu sibhiri. Amen.

I have had no means of ascertaining the correctness or authenticity of this specimen, but the reader will recollect the assertion of Dr Pritchard already given,—that the Celtic people who inhabited the north of Italy in early times were akin to the Irish Celts, and not to the Britons or Celtic Gauls.

The Basque.

Of this dialect, sometimes called Vasc, Gascon, Biscayan, or Cantabrian, the most opposite opinions have been expressed, probably owing to its peculiar and complicated formation, it being a mixed language, having received large accessions from the Latin. Adelung, indeed, thought that it could not be regarded as a branch of the great Celtic family; but Lhuyd has given a list of derivatives from it, which are still extant in the Irish tongue. One reason why some may have hesitated to associate it with Celtic is perhaps to be ascribed to its having lost one peculiarity common to these dialects,-that of changing the initial consonants of words according to the connexion or relation in which they stand; somewhat in the manner of

the Masoretic Hebrew.

Its radical terms, however, are usually

to be found in one or another of the Celtic or Iberian dialects, and some of them in all of these: and it retains one characteristic feature in the most striking manner, that of conjugating and declining the present and imperfect tenses of verbs active, not by inflections, but by the use of auxiliary verbs. It is, however, only from the radical parts of its words that a judgment of its real origin can be formed; but this criterion, when ascertained, is decisive. At least so says Mr Greatheed, from whom this account is taken; but other authorities are not wanting. “The Vasc,” says Dr Murray, "the Irish and Welsh, are radically the same.' And it is worthy of observation, says Townsend, that " Bowles, an Irishman of strong understanding and extensive information, who for many years resided in Spain, was struck with the marks of resemblance between the customs of the Biscayans and those of his countrymen, and delivered it as his opinion, that they were one people." Within these few years, a history of ancient and modern Spain has been published by Chevalier Bossi at Milan, in which he professedly treats of the early Celtic and Phoenician influence exercised over Spain, confirmed by the traces which it has left in the manners, ceremonies, and language of the country, Perhaps this work throws additional light on the subject.

Of this language there are several dialects, the principal of which are said to be the Biscayan and the Guipuscoan. The natives call the former simply Escuara, i. e. vernacular.

There is a grammar in the Basque and Spanish tongues by Larramendi, adapted to the Guipuscoan,-a Latin and Cantabrian Dictionary in manuscript, which seems to have belonged to the late Bishop of Durham, or was under his care, as well as a version of Genesis and Exodus in Cantabrian. An edition of the New Testament in Basque was printed at Rochelle so early as the year 1571. It was published by JUAN LizzerAGO, a native of the province of Bearn, at the expense and with the authority of Joan d'Albret, Queen of Navarre, to whom it is dedicated in French.* The Gospel of Matthew was lately published at Bayonne, in Basque, entitled-" Jesus Christoren Evangelio Suindua, S. Mathiuren Arabera. Itculia

* Le Long, I. p. 446,