Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/665

 CONCLUSION.] FRANCE 629 still held the balance, and could give the majority to either side, was timid and moderate, and averse to heroic measures. Their refusal to prolong the crisis by consenting to a second dissolution of the chamber of deputies gave time for the moderate republic to consolidate its powers. The elections of 5th January 1879, in which, according to the present constitution of France, one-third of the senate lias undergone re-election, have happily brought that body into harmony with the chamber of deputies and the country. Fresh rumours of trouble had been industriously circulated; the temper of France is, however, so thoroughly tranquil, and so decided iu favour of a constitutional republic, that the hopes of the reactionary parties have all been frustrated. It is always absurd to indulge in historical prophecy ; and forecasts as to the future of France, thanks to the quick movement of opinion, the general ignorance of the country people, the vehemence in the towns, the long suc cession of changes in government and constitution, must be specially precarious. Still, it is clear that, for a time at least, the reaction, however strong elsewhere, has been defeated in France ; above all it is clear that imperialism has received a heavy if not a fatal blow. This is no little matter. We live in days in which the growth of a modern imperialism, based on huge armaments and destructive of small states, had become a standing menace to the well- being of the world; it is a ground for hope and thankful ness that France, the central state of Europe, has definitely and calmly abandoned her imperialist traditions, and set her- 1ST9 self to live the temperate life of a constitutional republic. Each race has its own special function in the general polity of nations ; France seems called to lead in the pro pagation of wholesome political ideas. Even in her most violent moods, her principles have been right, her theories humane and noble. It is true that she is deficient in many practical gifts ; religion with her has ever held a very secondary place; her ideas on economical questions are narrow, and in many points her sympathies are not enlisted on behalf of what seems to us to be best. Still, her present position is an incalculable gain to Europe, and a promise of good for the future. With France as a prudent republic, the resistance of the peoples of Europe to arbitrary power and crushing armies will gradually be strengthened ; and constitutional life, already developing itself throughout the Latin races, will find its best guarantee of stability. The movements of Europe have often taken their rise from France; the union of a strong government with a vigorous national life may also come to date from her ; if England has striven to impress the practical rendering of her consti tutional principles and her tongue on half the world, France can also boast that she has provided her part by enunciating, with the most admirable clearness of speech and thought, those general ideas as to the relations between man and man which lie at the basis of any wholesome system of government. (G. w. K.) PART III. FRENCH LANGUAGE. I. Geography. French is the general name of the north- north-westerii group of Romanic dialects, the modern Latin of northern Gaul (carried by emigration to some places as Lower Canada out of France). In a restricted sense it is thit variety of the Parisian dialect which is spoken by the educated, and is the general literary language of France. The region in which the native language is termed French consists of the northern half of France (including Lorraine) and parts of Belgium and Switzerland ; its boundaries on the west are the Atlantic Ocean and the Celtic dialects of Brittany; on the north-west and north, the English Channel ; on the north-east and east the Teutonic dialects of Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland. In the south-east and south the boundary is to a great extent conventional and ill-de fined, there being originally no linguistic break between the southern French dialects and the northern Provengal dia lects of southern France, north-western Italy, and south western Switzerland. It is formed partly by spaces of in termediate dialects (some of whose features are French, others Prove^al), partly by spaces of mixed dialects result ing from the invasion of the space by more northern and more southern settlers, partly by lines where the inter mediate dialects have been suppressed by more northern (French) and more southern (Proveugal) dialects without these having mixed. Starting in the west at the mouth of the Gironde, the boundary runs nearly north soon after passing Bordeaux ; a little north of Angouleme it turns to the east, and runs in this direction into Switzerland to the north of Geneva. II. External History. (a) Political By the Roman conquests the language of Rome was spread over the greater part of southern and western Europe, and gradually supplanted the native tongues. The language introduced was at first nearly uniform over the whole empire, Latin provincialisms and many more or less general features of the older vulgar language being suppressed by the pre ponderating influence of the educated speech of the capital. As legions became- stationary, as colonies were formed, and JW the natives adopted the language of their conquerors, this language split up into local dialects, the distinguishing features of which are due, as far as can be ascertained (ex cept, to some extent, as to the vocabulary), not to speakers of different nationalities misspeaking Latin, each with the peculiarities of his native language, but to the fact that linguistic changes, which are ever occurring, are not per fectly uniform over a large area, however homogeneous the speakers. As Gaul was not conquered by Caesar till the middle of the first century before our era, its Latin cannot have begun to differ from that of Rome till after that date ; but the artificial retention of classical Latin as the literary and official language after the popular spoken language had diverged from it, often renders the chronology of the earlier periods of the Romanic languages obscure. It is, however, certain that the popular Latin of Gaul had become differen tiated from that of central Italy before the Teutonic con quest of Gaul, which was not completed till the latter half of the 5th century; the invaders gradually adopted the language of their i.iore civilized subjects, which remained unaffected, except in its vocabulary. Probably by this time it had diverged so widely from the artificially preserved literary language that it could no longer be regarded merely as mispronounced Latin ; the Latin documents of the next following centuries contain many clearly popular words and forms, and the literary and popular languages are distin guished as latino, and romana. The term aalllca, at first denoting the native Celtic language of Gaul, is found ap plied to its supplanter before the end of the 9th century, and survives in the Breton yalh lc, the regular term for &quot; French.&quot; After the Franks in Gaul had abandoned their native Teutonic language, the termfrancisca, by which this was denoted, came to be applied to the Romanic one they adopted, and, under the form fran^aise, remains its native name to this day; but this name was confined to the Romanic of northern Gaul, which makes it probable that this, at the time of the adoption of the narnGfrancisca, had become dis tinct from the Romanic of southern Gaul. Francisco, is the Teutonic adjective fraiikisk, which occurs in Old English in the form frencisc ; this word, with its umlauted e from