probable, that Malcolm and Edgar Atheling should have introduced into Scotland the language of their bitterest enemies. Mr. Pinkerton, indeed, contends that the Norman was the universal speech of the English nobles, during the reign of Edward the Confessor: and it is certain that there existed at his court a strong Norman party; and that he employed a foreign language in preference to his own, and delighted in the conversation of Norman favourites. Yet it is rather improbable that the whole body of Saxon nobles,-that the great council of the nation, who in 1052 decreed the banishment of all those foreigners,-and who, for the purpose of securing their country against the dominion of a Norman, raised to the throne a Saxon nobleman, distinguished by his hatred to that nation, should have imitated the phraseology of Edward, a sovereign whom they generally and justly despised. -- But, be this as it may, the Saxon party in England having been annihilated, even before the death of Malcolm, his successors had no motive for continuing an unsuccessful struggle against a power now firmly established. His three sons, Edgar, Alexander, and David, who after the short reign of their uncle," Donald Baan, successively mounted the throne of Scotland, united themselves as closely as possible with the Norman kings of England. Their sister Matilda was married to Henry I. Alexander to Sybilla, a natural daughter of the same Henry; David to the heiress of Nor thumberland: and, during these three reigns, including a period of 56 years, from 1097 to 1153, the intercourse between the two kingdoms appears to have been as uninterrupted as if they had been governed by a common sovereign. David, indeed, who passed many years at the court of his brotherin-law, acquired such an affection for Norman customs, that he was considered by his subjects as a Frenchman. He seems to have adopted the whole system of Norman jurisprudence: he promoted the marriage of his female wards with Norman barons: he encouraged, by numerous privileges, the settlement of English and Norman artisans and merchants in the Scotish towns;* and so far increased the commerce of his kingdom, The army of William the Lion in 1173 is said to have contained a considerable number of English; and William of Newborough observes that, at this time, they formed the bulk of the inhabitants in all the towns of Scotland. By English the historian probably meant people who talked a language composed of Saxon and French; for it is not cre dible that the towns of Scotland were peopled with natives of England. that in the reign of his grandson, William the Lion, the burghs were enabled to furnish three-eighths of the whole national contribution. * I should therefore be tempted to ascribe to this reign, and to the concurrence of the above-mentioned causes, that change of language, which is generally attri-. buted to the policy of Malcolm III. If it were proved that the Norman-French was, at any time, the usual language of the court of Scotland, I should think it must have been so at this period. But it is to be considered that, in these early times, the courts of princes were, during great part of the year, composed solely of their own families and immediate attendants; their plenar courts, that is to say, the general councils or assemblies of their nobles, were only periodical; and I should much doubt whether in such assemblies of Scotish barons the French language was éver universal or even general. It is not easy to assign any motive which could have induced these independent chieftains to undergo the drudgery of learning a new phraseology. Besides, in estimating the relative efficacy of the causes which may be supposed to corrupt or change the speech of nations, I should attribute much less to the influence of kings and nobles, who must be comparatively • See Stowe's Annals, A. D. 1205. few, than to the active intercourse produced among the more numerous classes of mankind by the relations of commerce. It is well known, that in Cornwall the Celtic dialect has been, almost within our own memory, completely obliterated: in Wales it has been evidently diminished: and the distinctions of dialect in our English provinces are daily becoming less conspicuous. The reason seems to be that in poor countries the price of mere manual labour is usually lower, and that of ingenuity often much higher, than among their richer neighbours. The Cornish and Welsh labourers, therefore, have a constant inducement to emigrate, in search of a more plentiful subsistence; while English miners and-mechanics are tempted, by the hope of higher wages, to settle in Wales and Cornwall. A similar transfer and circulation of inhabitants has taken place in our English provinces by the natural reration of the towns; whose constantly decreasing population is supplied from the country, while a certain number of small traders and artisans are villages, where the profits of their driven into they are free from the danger of trade or competition. py such a process all peculiarities of dialect mus be ultimately, though slowly and mperceptibly, extinguished. Now, it is evident that the unreserved communication between the Scots and English, during the twelfth century, could not fail of greatly increasing among the former the catalogue of their artificial wants; and that this must augment their vocabulary by a large importation of foreign words. And if, to all the articles of luxury, parade, and magnificence, multiplied as they were by the variations of fashion, we add the terms of chicane, and war, and hunting, for all of which our islanders were indebted to Norman ingenuity, we may perhaps find sufficient grounds to believe that a language very nearly, if not perfectly identical with the English was likely to be formed in the southern provinces of Scotland before the termination of the twelfth century. THE END. |