. The earth and its inhabitants ... Total . . 2,185,900 Of the above about 457,000 cannot speak English. (E. G. Eavenstein, Journal of the Statistical Society,1879.) % Histoire de France, ii. INHABITANTS. 33 considerable burden to penetrate the estuaries of her rivers, almost to the heart ofthe country. As long as the British Isles were thinly peopled, and producedsufficient to supply the wants of the inhabitants, foreign commerce, as might havebeen expected, did not attain considerable proportions. Yet London, even beforethe arrival of the Romans, engaged in maritime commerce, and during the
. The earth and its inhabitants ... Total . . 2,185,900 Of the above about 457,000 cannot speak English. (E. G. Eavenstein, Journal of the Statistical Society,1879.) % Histoire de France, ii. INHABITANTS. 33 considerable burden to penetrate the estuaries of her rivers, almost to the heart ofthe country. As long as the British Isles were thinly peopled, and producedsufficient to supply the wants of the inhabitants, foreign commerce, as might havebeen expected, did not attain considerable proportions. Yet London, even beforethe arrival of the Romans, engaged in maritime commerce, and during the MiddleAges, whenever its citizens had a respite from civil commotions and foreign wars,they resumed their commercial activity. The ancestors of many of the inhabitantsof the coast were hardy Northmen, and from them they inherited a love of maritimeadventure, and an eager longing to struggle with waves and tempests. Yet itwas not they who took the lead in those memorable discoveries which brought the iig. 17.—Gaels and Cymri. bO. orgy eKatLf-a/ in ^.k Ver 0? countries of the world nearer to each other, and converted a space without limitsinto a simple globe, easily encompassed by man. The glory of having discoveredthe ocean routes to the Indies and the Pacific was fated to be won by themariners of the more civilised nations of Southern Europe. But the seamen ofEngland quickly learnt to find out new ocean routes for themselves, and soon theiraudacity and endurance placed them at the head of all their rivals. The expeditionswhich they sent forth to the arctic regions to discover a north-west passage toChina, and which they still continue to equip, no longer for the sake of commerce,but out of a pure love for science, are amongst the most heroic enterprises recordedby history. But where one English vessel ventured into unknown seas, hundreds 34 THE BEITISH ISLES. followed the routes already discovered, establishing commercial relations withdistant countries, destroying the factor
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectgeography, bookyear18
