THE NEW RECORD SERVICE. THIRD LETTER.
TO THE EDITOR OF TUE SPECTATOR.
Loudon, 9th December 1840.
Sra—It would be premature to enumerate the various uses for which the English Records might be rendered available, if once united in a single collection, of easy access to the public. From the points as yet least adverted to, I will select one—the history or formation of the Eng- lish language. There is, for instance, one peculiarity which the Eng- lish shares with no other European language—that the gender of your nouns is determined by their sense. This principle was taken from the Record Latin ; where it is an invariable rule, never evaded, as is the case often in Latin authors, to construe an adjective referring to two or more nouns denoting inanimate objects and of different genders, in the neuter. It is equally evident, that the corruption of many words which passed into the vulgar language, had its ground in the received abreviations of the clerks and copyists ; and words, for instance, like record and recorder, indubitable abreviations of recordatum and recordator, probably owe their present form to the same reason, from which originated the current ex- pression of trim. con. Many Latin words which occur in the rolls, I should not hesitate to believe to be real Latin words, though you do not find them in classic authors : thus, the English "rescue," is rendered rescutere, rescussi, rescussum, in the records ; which again seems to be derived from the Latin quatere. The original form I suppose to have been re-excutere. In a passage of OVID, Met. I. 155, excutere has the sense of tearing away with violence- - Tem pater excussit subjecto Pelts Omura"; and the word taken in this sense and combined with " re " would make re-excutere, a fair definition of the English "rescue."
An explanation of these different cases cannot be given without entering into speculations of a problematical nature, before a sufficient number of facts have been collected. But still it can be proved that the subject is worthy of investigation. It is a fact, that the Germans, at the time of CHARLEMAGNE, were still the same barbarians as TACITUS described them. At that period, the Anglo-Saxons were the most civilized nation of Europe ; from which CHARLEMAGNE himself re- ceived his teachers and professors. The Saxons who remained in Ger- many were barbarians at the end of the eighth century, when their brethren who had immigrated to England were already highly civilized. Civilization, then, was always the fruit of a close contact between the Teutonic invaders and Roman populations. The Anglo-Saxons, by settling amongst a completely Romanized nation, adopted their manners as quickly as the Goths did in Italy, Southern France, and the North of Spain. England was a Roman province; and all we know of the early history of England corroborates the supposition that England was as much Romanized as Southern France. Their law was always the first thing which the Romans introduced in their conquests ; and the popular dissatisfaction which enabled ARMINIU8 to free Germany from the Roman yoke, was, as we know from contemporaneous his- torians, principally, if not exclusively, caused by their lawyers. In the fifth century, the South of France was in possession of several flourish- ing schools where the Roman law was taught. The use of Latin was so common amongst the people, that one of their principal amusements was formed by theatrical representations in Latin. Even if these facts were not sufficiently known, we might surmise from the present form of the Spanish and French languages that Latin completely superseded the original idioms. In England the same took place; and the Anglo- Saxons came into contact with a completely Romanized nation. All those German conquerors left the inhabitants in the full enjoyment of the administration of their law, which was the Roman law. The Nor- mans were the first under whom the royal authority made systematical encroachments upon the municipal jurisdiction ; and in the same pro- portion the latter began to be recorded. The fact of such and such transaction being first recorded in such and such a year, would only prove when it was first recorded, though the thing itself may have ex- isted as a popular custom or right for centuries before. This rude sketch contains the impression which the Records gave me almost at first sight. I surmised, that after the Roman soldier had been driven away, the Roman judge remained in this country ; and this ren- ders me very circumspect in considering all such words in records as do not occur in classic authors, as new-coined. This first impression was strengthened so far, that I soon began to perceive that new-coined words from the Anglo-Saxon were conjugated in are, and more rarely in ire, whilst all the verbs in ere betrayed a real Latin character. With reference to nouns, all the new-coined words are declined after the first and second declension, with the terminations of a and us and um, whilst I do not remember to have met with a noun of the genitive of is, that was not real Latin. My experience, however, was very slight; and a solid investigation would have required four years at least. Still I have seen enough to believe, that many real Latin words, which are not found in the Latin authors, were preserved by oral tradition, and thus found at last their way into the records. However that may be, it is evi- dent to me now, that the beginnings of the German history must be written after a new plan. All our authors, after a combination of the scanty passages in the Latin writers on the Germans, hasten to the period of CHARLEMAGNE ; with whom certainly begins the history of the German empire; but the period before must be filled up by a history of the Anglo-Saxons, who became the leading tribe of the Germans, and from whom the latter received Christianity and their schools (the Irish or Scotch missionaries.) A correct investigation of this point will, I am sure, affix to England a much earlier and higher civihzattort than the historians of the Continent have hitherto done. The very language of the records is invaluable for those who have directed their studies to examining the influence which Latin exercised on the formation of the modern languages of Europe. I myself went to Paris for the purpose of investigating the history of the language of the Troubadours, which constitutes the intermediate link between Latin and the so-called Romanic languages, (French, Italian. ; but I did not gain more knowledge there than I had already derived from the works of RAYNOUARD and ROCHEGUDE. The German prose was formed on the model of Latin ; which, until the middle of last century, continued to be our written language for scientific subjects : only our poetry kept at all periods closer to the properties of the German idiom. The same may be said of English, with this difference, that Latin exercised a still greater influence on the English prose. If you consider the contents of the Records, they form again a col- lection which has not its equal in this world ; containing a complete, and what is still more, an authenticated official history of England, its ad- ministration and legislation, since the Conquest. Such materials can scarcely be supposed to require much historical criticism ; and the writing, or rather compiling and extracting from them a complete English history since the Conquest, appears only to demand the in- dustry and judgment which are necessary for the condensation of a sta- tistical work from complete and correct materials. Let him who will dispute the immense value, as a collection of materials for history, which I assign to your records, point out to me any other collection which he will mpare to them. I at least must confess that I do not know in which—library of Europe it is to be sought for. Sixteen men, at least, might find occupation for a whole life in the Record service ; and if Government had given to such a limited number of men, well fitted for the purpose, employment in it, they would have rendered an immense service to the historical learning of Europe.
I do not hesitate to believe my own country to be greatly your supe- rior in point of erudition, but I can also well explain the difference. We have in Germany and Switzerland twenty-one universities, which at least furnish to 630 first-rate men in all branches of learning the means of devoting all their energies to science and erudition. ' They having nothing else to do but to study ; that is the business of their life, for which they are paid by Government. You may, moreover, count that every year at least 100 students complete their scientific education at each of those universities ; which makes a total of 2,100 individuals every year to be added to the learned public. The persons thus formed at our universities, after having proved their qualification by repeated and severe examinations, enter into the service of the state. It is not too much, therefore, to say that all the different states of the Germanic Confederation, with the single exception of Austria, are governed by learned men, who have leisure enough, if they chose, to pursue, after the discharge of their official duties, some favourite study of their own. From the mere mention of this circumstance, not to speak of the host of professors that are employed at our gymnasiums and lyceums, or the introductory schools to the universities, you will perceive how it hap- pens that publications in Sanscrit and similar branches of learning, which have no bearing upon the practical concerns of life, can prosper with ns by the encouragement of the public alone. Learning can only be attained by being made the exclusive occupation of a whole life ; and in order to render this possible, you must pay a man for such an occu- pation exclusively. Your Universities are rich ; but I do not think that learning derives much profit from this circumstance. In an efficient organization of the Record service, Government would have encountered no opposition from the Church : why did they not place there at least a dozen of men that really deserve to be called learned?
If a sufficient number of able men had been placed in the Record service, it would have been easy to find an appropriate public for them in the students of the Inns, who, by following lectures at the Record repository, might have found a better employment of their time than by eating each term their requisite number of dinners. To build, under such circumstances, a common repository for all your records, exactly resembles the proposition of Sir ROBERT INGLIS to build churches for the sake of encouraging religion : for if only two or three officers in the service are able to make the proper use of the records, who else shall profit of them ? Other persons ?—Not unless they are rich enough to dispense with more lucrative concerns. Rich people ?- Not unless they have a taste for such studies ; and in the present state of your Universities where should they get that taste ?
Still, the office contains many clever persons, though deficient in learning. But what they do not know they might be taught ; and for that end, it would be quite sufficient to place at the head of the office one single efficient man capable to give them tae necessary drilling. There is one man fit, above every other in Europe, for such a position— JACOB GRIME, the victim of the Whig charter abolished by King ERNEST. The King of Prussia has recently given him a temporary employment and 2,000 dollars a year, which makes exactly 300/. in English money. For such a paltry sum you might get the person best fitted in all Europe to superintend your Records, and to show the use to which they may be put.
JACOB GRIMM stands unrivalled in Germany as well as Europe, as a linguist He is the best Anglo-Saxon scholar of the day : he has wntten the best work on the origins of the legal customs of the Teu- tonic tribes in the middle ages : he had for many years placed under him the management of an extensive library ; and be is a practised university professor of long standing. If such a man were in the place of Sir FRANCIS PALGRAVE, you would see in a few years what he would be able to do, with the assistance of men like Sir HARRIS NICOLAS and Mr. DUFFUS HARDY, and even of Sir FRANCIS PALGRAVE; whose prin- cipal fault is, that he is not fit for occupying a first place, because he requires somebody to look after him. The present state of the Record service, however, inspires no hope for the future. In its present condition it will have the means of teach- ing a dozen of working men bow to brush and mend the Records, and the officers will acquire a great experience in making indexes from them. But if the indexes are completed ?—Then, according to the plan followed by Sir FRANCIS PALGRAVE, the same work must be done a second time, and after this perhaps a third time ; so that the experi- ence acquired by the officers may serve for a long series of years.
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