ongue of all, and to scorn all
examination which did not commence with this confession. Even the late
learned Dr. Owen Pugh has, in his _Dictionary_, by arbitrarily
selecting certain syllables as the roots of all Cumrian words, done
much to foster this overweening conceit. The system was carried to its
extreme point of absurdity by the Rev. Edward Davies, who by the help
of such syllables expected to unravel the mysteries of all languages.
This failure has I hope paved the way for the more sober consideration
of the question, which, if worked out fairly, will in my opinion
establish the claim of the Cumrian tongue, if not to be the mother of
all tongues, at least to be a valuable branch of the Caucasian tree of
languages. Now, had the two races, the Roman and Cumrian, remained
always separate, a comparative etymology would have been an easy task;
for no more would be necessary than to put the similar roots, having
the same meaning, side by side. But, unfortunately for the scholar who
undertakes to prove the question, the Romans were in this island four
hundred years, colonised it partly, and partly gave it their own form
of civilisation. As before mentioned, the inhabitants adopted with
avidity the Roman dress, language, and literature. That language must
therefore be supposed to have entered deeply into the composition of
the present Cumrian tongue. The sceptical examiner may therefore
reasonably object, that any similarity between the two languages might
have originated in the adoption of that of Rome by the British
provincials. In answer to this I refer in the first place to Lloyd's
reasoning, quoted in the note," viz. that the same similarity exists
between the Latin and the Erse [see Newman, in the _Classical Museum_,
vol. vi.]. "In the second place to the fact, that Wales and Cornwall do
not appear to have been occupied, like the rest of England, by the
Romans."... "Still, however, the long residence of the Romans in the
island, with the known influence always produced by such a state of
things, renders every statement grounded on the similarity alone of the
languages of the two races, the conquered and the conquerors, liable to
suspicion. I have therefore been compelled to enter upon an exceedingly
difficult investigation, which, if successful, must prove the radical
identity of the