glish, in
Europe, by 31,000,000
America, by 45,000,000
Australia, etc., by 2,000,000
the Colonies, by 1,050,000
Total: 79,050,000

According to De Candolle, the population doubles in

England, in 56 years
America, among the German races, in 25 years
Italy, in 135 years
Russia, in 100 years
Spain, in 112 years
South America, in 27-1/2 years
Germany, in 100 years
France, in 140 years

Therefore, in 200 years (barring accidents)

Italian will be spoken by 53,370,000
French will be spoken by 72,571,000
German will be spoken by 157,480,000
Spanish will be spoken in
Europe, by 36,938,338
South America, by 468,347,904
Total: 505,286,242
English will be spoken in
Europe, by 178,846,153
United States, and British Dependencies, by 1,658,440,000
Total: 1,837,286,153

But I shall say no more on this, for as it is, I know I shall never hear
the end of it, and shall go down to posterity, if for nothing else, at
least for this the most suicidal folly in a student of languages; a folly
comparable only to that of Leibniz, who actually conceived the possibility
of one universal language.

To return, however, to the problem to the solution of which Mr. Pitman has
devoted the whole of his active life, let me say again that my interest in
it is purely philological; or, if you like, historical. The problem which
has to be solved in England and the United States of America is not a new
one, nor an isolated one. It occurs again and again in the history of
language; in fact, it must occur. When languages are reduced to writing,
they are at first written phonetically, though always in a very
rough-and-ready manner. One dialect, that of the dominant, the literary,
or priestly character, is generally selected; and the spelling, once
adopted, becomes in a very short time traditional and authoritative. What
took place thousands of years ago, we can see taking place, if we like, at
the present moment. A missionary from the island of Mangaia, the Rev. W.
Gill, first introduced the art of writing