ngs. It may have
remained unaltered; or, it may have undergone change. Now in either case
it would be different from both the Gaelic and the British. In the
former alternative it would have been stereotyped as it were, and so
have preserved its original characters, whilst the Gaelic and British
had adopted new ones. In the latter it would have altered itself after
its own peculiar fashion; and those very peculiarities would have made
it other than British as well as other than Gaelic. Yet what is the
fact? The ancient language of Gaul, though as unlike the Gaelic as a
separate and independent development was likely to make it, was _not_
unlike the British. On the contrary, it was sufficiently like it to be
intelligible to a Briton. Now I hold this similarity to be conclusive
against the doctrine that the British and Gaelic languages were
developed out of some common mother-tongue _within the British Islands_.
Had they been so the dialects of Gaul would have been far more unlike
the British than they were.

The _British_ then, at least, did not acquire its British character in
Britain, but on the continent; and it was introduced into England as a
language previously formed in Gaul.

For the Gaelic there is no such necessity for a continental origin;
indeed at the first view, the probabilities are in favour of its having
originated in Britain. It cannot be found on the continent; and, such
being the case, its continental origin is hypothetical. One thing,
however, is certain, viz., that if the Gaelic were once the only
language of the British Isles, the conquests and encroachments of the
Britons who displaced it, must have been enormous. In the whole of South
Britain it must certainly have been superseded, and in half Scotland as
well: whilst, if, before its introduction into Great Britain, it were
spoken on any part of the continent, the displacement must have been
greater still.

Now, the hypothesis as to the origin of the Gaels may take numerous
forms. I indicate the following three.--

1. The first may be called _Lhuyd's_ doctrine, since Humphrey Lhuyd, one
of the best of our earlier archaeologists, suggested it. Mr. Garnett has
spoken of it with respect; but he evidently hesitates to admit it. And
it is only with respect that it should be mentioned; for, it is highly
probable. It makes the original population of all the British
Isles--England as well as Scotland and Ireland--to have been Gaelic,
Gaelic to the ex