rst idea suggested by the word
Frenchman or German or any other national name, is that he is a man who
speaks French or German as his mother-tongue. We take for granted, in
the absence of anything to make us think otherwise, that a Frenchman is
a speaker of French, and that a speaker of French is a Frenchman.
Where in any case it is otherwise, we mark that case as an exception,
and we ask the special cause. Again, the rule is none the less the
rule, nor the exceptions the exceptions, because the exceptions may
easily outnumber the instances which conform to the rule. The rule is
still the rule, because we take the instances which conform to it as a
matter of course, while in every case which does not conform to it we
ask for the explanation. All the larger countries of Europe provide us
with exceptions; but we treat them all as exceptions. We do not ask
why a native of France speaks French. But when a native of France
speaks as his mother-tongue some other tongue than French, when French,
or something which popularly passes for French, is spoken as his
mother-tongue by someone who is not a native of France, we at once ask
the reason. And the reason will be found in each case in some, special
historical cause which withdraws that case from the operation of the
general law. A very good reason can be given why French, or something
which popularly passes for French, is spoken in parts of Belgium and
Switzerland, whose inhabitants are certainly not Frenchmen. But the
reason has to be given, and it may fairly be asked.

In the like sort, if we turn to our own country, whenever within the
bounds of Great Britain we find any tongue spoken other than English,
we at once ask the reason, and we learn the special historic cause. In
a part of France and a part of Great Britain we find tongues spoken
which differ alike from English and from French, but which are strongly
akin to one another. We find that these are the survivals of a group
of tongues once common to Gaul and Britain, but which the settlement of
other nations, the introduction and the growth of other tongues, have
brought down to the level of survivals. So again we find islands which
both speech and geographical position seem to mark as French, but which
are dependencies, and loyal dependencies, of the English crown. We
soon learn the cause of the phenomenon which seems so strange. Those
islands are the remains of a State and a people which adopted the
Fre