rmanent settlements, during the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, both in Thessaly, and in the Morea;
statements which the frequency of Slavonic names for Greek geographical
localities confirms.[10] Neither, however, outweighs the undoubted
Hellenic character of the language, which is still the representative of
the great medium of the fathers of literature and philosophy.

_The Channel Islands._--As Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, and Sark, are no
parts of Great Britain, and are, nevertheless, European, I make a brief
mention of them; although they are neither colonies nor dependencies:
indeed, in strict history, Great Britain is a dependency of theirs.

They are _Norman_ rather than _French_, and the illustration of this
distinction, which will re-appear when we come to the Canadas--concludes
the chapter.

The _earliest_ population of France was twofold--Celtic for the north,
Iberic for the south.

Its _second_ population was Roman.

Its language is Roman--all that remains of the old tongues of the tribes
which Caesar conquered being (1) certain words in the present French,
(2) the Breton of Brittany, which is closely akin to the Welsh Celtic,
and (3) the Basque dialects of Gascony, which is Iberic.

Now whether the old Gallic blood be as fully displaced by that of the
Roman conquerors, as the old Gallic language has been displaced by the
Latin is uncertain. It is only certain that the old and indigenous
elements of the French nation, however indeterminate in amount--were not
of a uniform character, _i.e._, neither wholly Celtic, nor wholly
Iberic; but Celtic for one part of the country, and Iberic for another.

The ancient tribes of Normandy were _Celtic_. Hence, when the third
element of the present Norman population was introduced, all that was
not Italian was Welsh--just as it was in Picardy and Orleans, and just
as it was _not_ in Gascony and Poitou. _There_ the old element was
Iberic.

The _third element_--just alluded to--was Germanic; Germanic of
different kinds, but chiefly Frank or Burgundian.

The _fourth_ great element was the Norse or Scandinavian; introduced by
the so-called _Sea-kings_ of Denmark and Norway in the ninth and tenth
centuries. These, as the empire of Charlemagne declined, insulted and
dismembered it. They converted Neustria in _Normandy_=_the country of
the Northmen_. The exact amount of their influence has not been
ascertained; nor is the investigation easy. The process, however, by