Page:Essays ethnological and linguistic.djvu/18

6 times given by any ancient writer, we can only have recourse to the names of places, of rivers, and such like, as then designated, and from these we can positively conclude them to originate from the same language to which their affinities refer at present. The names of towns are the least satisfactory of any, as there may be a doubt of the site of any one in the country. But the names of the rivers recorded by the Roman writers prove them to have then borne substantially the same names as those now in vernacular use. Thus the Rhenus or Rhein, the Scaldis or Scheldt, the Vahalis or Waal, the Mosa or Maese, the Visurgis or Weser, the Amisia or Ems, the Isela or Yssel, the Luppia or Lippe, the Albis or Elbe, the Granna or Gran, are, with scarcely an exception, names which the present inhabitants recognize as proceeding from or connected with their own language, while they present no indications of a Cymric or Gaelic origin. In the same manner we notice the names of some places connecting the former inhabitants with the present, distinct from the supposition of any Celtic origin. The Batavi seem to have left an indubitable trace of their name in Batawe, the Grudii in the Land Von Groede, the Bructeri in Broekmorland, and above all the Frisii, whose name as Freize is yet borne and recognized as their own by so considerable a portion of the people in the country.

Influenced no doubt by some such considerations, the continental writers, as already mentioned, have not hesitated in at once acknowledging the ancient Belgic language and nation to be represented by the people who now occupy their country. Malte Brun says (vol. i. p. 344), "The language of the Friesians never felt the shock caused by migrations. From the time of Cæsar to this very day, among the endless revolutions of nations, they have never changed their name or the place of their residence." In conformity with this also, Dr. Bosworth informs us that the most learned Dutch authors, as Erasmus, Junius, Dousa, Grotius, Scriverius, and others unite in the opinion of their nation being descended from the Batavi. Grotius asserts "that the ever-succeeding invaders of Insula Batavorum were swallowed up in the bulk of the Batavian population, and thus that the present Dutch are the genuine offspring of the Batavi." Dr. Bosworth adds, that "the Friesic, Dutch, and Flemish dialects were originally the same language. The Flemish is so allied to the Dutch, that it may, especially in its earliest forms, be considered the same." (Bosworth's Dictionary, p. xcvi.)

In opposition however to the opinions he had cited, Dr.