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24 an unmistakeable affinity with the Gael, so that the application of the name to them is strictly appropriate, while the reflex of it on the Euscaldunac themselves can only be considered a striking example of the perversity with which national appellations are sometimes conferred.

William Humboldt has further attempted to show that this people had formerly been spread very extensively over Spain, from the names of places that may be explained by means of their language. In this, however, he appears to me overstraining his facts for the sake of his theory, as in reality there are but few such names that can be allowed to be so derived, and those principally on the sea- coasts. In fact the original location of the Basques can scarcely be traced beyond their present limits, the provinces of Biscay, Guipuzcoa, and Alava in Spain, and the sea-coast of France from the Pyrenees to Bayonne. If they ever extended further, it appears to me that it was not in the interior but along the sea-coasts; as further on in Spain there is another Bayona, which is one of the most certain of their appellations, from ibaya river, and ona good.

There is no nation in the world more remarkable for industry and enterprise than the Basque, combined with such a pure love for their country and their free institutions, while crime seems almost unknown in their provinces. A celebrated modern Spanish writer, Lista, has recorded of them that he resided upwards of three years among them, and never heard of any offence committed there during that time beyond an assault from motives of jealousy. Thus a brave, frugal, sober and industrious people, spreading themselves over Spain and Spanish colonies, we may decidedly pronounce them to be an increasing rather than a decreasing people. Yet in the present day they are in their native provinces only very few in number, — under half a million of souls altogether. From these considerations, and from their whole history, they appear to me to have increased to that number from some small colony rather than to have decreased from a larger nation. Their history, and language, which is quite distinct from any other in the neighbourhood, deserve a much more careful investigation than has yet been given them, and perhaps the former can now only be elucidated by means of the latter. This investigation, however, would require a lengthened inquiry, and is entitled to form the subject of an entirely distinct notice. At present, I content myself with saying that I agree with those of the Spanish writers, Florez and others, who consider them to have been a different people from the Cantabri. These were