ne, Anjou, Poitiers, the Isle of
France, and the Orleannois, was Keltic, has never been doubted. The
evidence of Caesar is express; and there is neither objection nor cavil
to set against it. There it is, where, at the present moment, the Keltic
Breton of Brittany continues to be the language of the common people.

The central and south-eastern parts of France--the Nivernois, Burgundy,
the Bourbonnois, the Lionnois, Auvergne, Dauphiny, Languedoc, Savoy, and
Provence--were _chiefly_ Keltic. Perhaps they were wholly so; but as the
Ligurians of Italy, and Iberians of Spain are expressly stated to have
met on the lower Rhone, it is best to qualify this assertion. At the
same time, good reasons can be given for considering that the Ligurians
were but little different from the other Gauls.

South of the Garonne the ancient population was _Iberic_.

Switzerland, or the ancient Helvetia, was Keltic, and beyond
Switzerland, along the banks of the Danube, and in the fertile plains of
Northern Italy, intrusive and conquering Kelts were extended as far east
as Styria, and as far south as Etruria; but these were offsets from the
main body of the stock, whose true area was Gaul and the British isles.

The parts between the Seine and Rhine, the valleys of the Marne, the
Oise, the Somme, the Sambre, the Meuse, and the Moselle were _Belgic_.
Treves was Belgian; Luxembourg, Belgian; the Netherlands, Belgian. Above
all, French Flanders, Artois, and Picardy--the parts nearest
Britain--the parts within sight of Kent--the parts from whence Britain
was most likely to be peopled--were Belgian.

Now, as Britain was originally Keltic, unless Belgium be Keltic also, we
shall meet with a difficulty.

In my own mind Belgium _was_ originally Keltic; and, perhaps, nine
ethnologists out of ten hold the same opinion. At the same time, fair
reasons can be given for an opposite doctrine, fair reasons for
believing the _Belgae_ to have been German--as German as the Angles of
old, as German as the present Germans of Germany, as German as the Dutch
of Holland, and, what is more to the purpose, as German as the present
Flemings of Flanders, possibly occupants of the ancient, and certainly
occupants of the modern, Belgium.

Upon the latter fact we must lay considerable weight. Modern Belgium is
as truly the country of two languages and of a double population as
Wales, Ireland, or Scotland. There is the French, which has extended
itself from the south,