The Educational Science Section made an entertaining excursion into Utopia
on Tuesday under the personal conduct of Sir Frederick Bramwell. Setting aside the manufacture of an artificial universal language as impracticable, Sir Frederick suggests that a living language should be taken, and that "all the important nations of the earth, the United States, Germany, France, and England, should agree among themselves that no person in these States over whom the Government had con- trol, direct or indirect, should after the expiration of, say, twenty years be eligible for any appointment, from the Prime Minister to the policeman, unless in addition to his own language he should be able to read, write, and converse in some other language besides his own." That language, Sir Frederick proposes, should be Italian. Its adoption should not create any international jealousies ; it was closely based on Latin, and highly melodious. If, however, a living language is to be singled out on the score of euphonyplus its non-liability to provoke jealousy, we believe that Spanish has quite as good a claim as Italian, besides being far more widely diffused.
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