attention; no less than to induce the belief that their plan, if persevered
in, may lend most efficient aid in classifying the races of men. They
have at least shown, conclusively, that very opposite types have dwelt
together in Europe for more than two thousand years; that time and
identical physical causes have not yet obliterated or blended them;
and that, while nations may become expunged, there is every reason
to believe that primitive diversities are rarely, if ever, wholly effaced.
Inasmuch as the labors of these gentlemen stand unparalleled, and
possess very important hearings upon certain opinions long held by
ourselves, and which we are about to develop, no apology need be
offered for the following extended resume, of their combined labors.
C aesar begins his commentaries with—
“ All Gaul is divided into three parts, of which one is inhabited by the Belgians, another
by the Aquitanians, and the third by those who, in their own language, call themselves
Celts, and who in our tongue are called Galls (Galli). These people differ among themselves
by their language, their manners and their laws.” 31
To these three divisions, taken in mass, he applies the collective
denomination of Galli, corresponding to the Erench term Gaulois.
S trabo confirms this account, and adds that the Aquitanians differ
from the Celts, or Galli, and from the Belgians, not only in language
and institutions, but also in conformatioii of body; and that they
resemble much more the Iberians; while he regards the Celts and the
Belgians as of the same national type, although speaking different
dialects. There are, however, valid reasons for doubting the latter
opinion.
From their physical character and language, S trabo considers the
Aquitanians, as well as the Ligurians, who occupied a part of the
coast of France, to be a branch of the Iberians,82 the ancient people
of Spain; These Iberes, or “ people beyond," seem to have been transplanted,
from time immemorial, on the soil of France, and are still
beheld, distinct from all other men, in the modern Basques. |
In consequence of their position on the coast of the Mediterranean,
the Ligurians became known to ancient navigators before the other
populations of Gaul. Greek historians and geographers speak of
them in very early times. They figure among the barbarous allies
of the Carthaginians, as far back as 480 b . c. Thierry adopts,
enforcing by many proofs, the opinion that the Aquitanians and
Ligurians were both of the Iberian stock, and also that they were
alien to the Gallic family, properly speaking.33
These races disposed of, Thierry says that the Celts, or Galli, and the
Belgians remain to be examined; and he views them as two branches
of the same ethnic tru n k : —
“ Two fractions of the same family, isolated during many ages, developed separately,
and become, by means of their long separation, distinct races. The Galls, or Celts, were
the most ancient inhabitants of the country, and it is from them that it derives its name:
and an idea of their antiquity may be obtained from the statement that ‘ the Celts subjugated
Spain in the sixteenth century n. 0. The Galls made a descent on Italy, under the
name of Ombres, about two centuries after; and the Roman antiquaries designate these
ancestors of the Ombrians by the name of Old Galls.’ . . . In short, we should consume
much time, were we to cite all the authorities at command, to prove that the Galls were
the most ancient population. On the contrary, the word Belgians is comparatively modern:
it is found, for the first time, in C je sa e ; and they are recognized under the name of Cim-
brians, in 113 b. c .” ' ■. . j
It seems tolerably well established, that the Belgians invaded Gaul
on their first advent from the Forth, and that the Celts were driven
before them. The Belgians settled in the north of Gaul and in Italy,*
where they were not only located by ancient historians, but where,
according to Thierry and Edwards, they are still resident. The Celts,
routed, and impelled to the South and East, took refuge in mountains,
peninsulas, and islands — historical facts also elucidated by D e
B rotonne.34
M. Thierry has shown that the Armoricans and the Belgians are
an| identical people, and that , the Welsh of Great Britain are also
derived from the same stock. Prichard, it is true, does not concur
in this opinion; but Thierry, so far as we can perceive, is thoroughly
sustained in his views by French, German, and other continental
writers. He places the entrance into Gaul of the conquering Belgians
between the years 349 and 290 b . c. The Armoricans appertained
to the same stock, hut their establishment in Gaul was still
more ancient.
The Celts, or Galls proper, according to M. Thierry as well as to
ancient historians, were already inhabitants of Gaul about 1500 b . c.,
or previously to the time of Moses. They then existed as a nation,
warring with other races around them; nor can a conjecture be formed
as to the number of centuries, anterior to this date, during which they
had occupied that territory.
The Pre-Celtic researches of W i l s o n , 35 among the peat-bogs of
the British Isles, have carried the existence of man in England and
Scotland back to ages immensely remote; at the same time that those
of B o u c h e r d e P e r t h e s , amid the alluvial stratifications of the river
Soame,38 indicate a still more ancient epoch for the cinerary urns,
boneff and instruments, of a primordial people in France; who, if
geological observations be correct, are yet posterior to the silex-
evidences of human entity on the same spots before the “ diluvial
drift.” These facts correspond with the exhumations of R e t z iu s , in
Scandinavia,37 and the human vestiges discovered in European caves.38
But, leaving such points to another section (ably handled by our
colleague, D r . U sh e r ,) it remains now for us to ask, who were the
Belgians ? M. Thierry shows, from an elaborate historical investiga