history, we shall arrive at nearly the same conclusion. This will appear from the following considerations.

It must be remembered, that for many years, after the Conquest, the English could not be brought to a quiet acquiescence in William's usurpation; that the number of his troops bore a very small proportion to the whole population of the island; and consequently that they could not have been safely scattered over the country, but were, of necessity, collected into garrisons, so as to form at all times the elements of an army, which it was the object of the feudal system to connect and perpetuate. There were therefore two classes of persons, whose respective languages could not be immediately affected by the Conquest; these were the Norman nobles, and the Saxon peasants. The first, immured in fortified castles with their families, anxiously preserving their original connection with France, where many of them possessed estates; associating only with their own countrymen at the state festivals, when they repaired to the court of their sovereign; and too haughty to converse with their vassals, retained the exclusive use of the French language to a much later period than that with which we are at present occupied. The second, or uplandish men, as they are frequently called,

(the cities being usually situated in plains,) having little intercourse with their foreign masters, continued for ages to preserve the Saxon speech with very little adulteration, and, in many provinces, retain it to the present day.

It is, therefore, in the towns only, that we can expect to find a mixture of speech, resulting from a mixture of inhabitants; and to their history must we look for the evidence of its operation. But in the first instance, the Norman garrisons, and such colonies of their countrymen as may have been settled under their protection, were effectually separated from the native inhabitants, by contempt on one side, by fear on the other, and on both, by opposition of interests. The two nations formed separate and hostile societies: they were in a state of juxta-position, but without intercourse. Even their commercial relations were very trifling, the internal as well as external trade of the country, being principally carried on by Jews.

This mutual hatred was encouraged by the partialities, and still more by the policy, of William and his immediate successors. All the towns in the kingdom were attached as demesnes, either to the crown, or to its tenants in capite; their inhabitants were subjected to all the feudal services, and being arbitrarily governed by a regal or baronial.

officer, were exposed to every exaction of partial and capricious tyranny. Anderson, in his History of Commerce, gives us a curious instance of the general poverty resulting from this system. "In "the letter (says he) from Richard I. to his queen, "dated from Haguenau, A. D. 1193, urging the "levy of his ransome, by borrowing all the money "that could be procured from the church, and "from the barons, no mention is made of the money of merchants or citizens, which-shews the poor state

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of England at this time, in point of money and "commerce." He had, however, previously noticed a most material and beneficial change which took place a few years before, in the political situation of the citizens and burghers; a change, indeed, so important, that Madox, in his History of the Exchequer, (chap. x.) considers it as the adoption of an entirely new system, and as the foundation of all their future prosperity. This was the grant of various immunities by charter, and the formation of corporate bodies in certain towns and cities; the earliest of which is assigned to the 26th year of Henry II. A. D. 1180, when such charters were granted to the city of London, and the town of Southampton.

The object of Henry's policy in this measure was, by encouraging the growth of the towns, to

erect a barrier against the encroachments of the aristocracy; and this policy, in which he persevered during the remainder of his reign, was also adopted by his sons. Several proofs of it are recorded by Anderson, even in the short and busy reign of Richard I. and they are much more numerous in that of his successor. "Notwithstanding all the "faults too justly charged on King John, (says this "historian) we find him, in the first year of his

reign (A. D. 1199), beginning the good purpose "as a king, which he afterwards pursued through "his whole reign, of erecting his demesne towns "into free burghs; which thereby paved the way "for the introduction of commerce into this king"dom." The barons, on the other hand, with no less policy, declared themselves the champions of all the privileges obtained or claimed by the cities, who thus derived a double advantage from the contest for popularity between the king and the aristocracy.

It is not our present business to pursue the gradual effects of these measures in disseminating liberty and prosperity, but it seems probable that their operation on our language must have been immediate and extensive. The Norman and Saxon inhabitants of England were now permanently united by the bonds of common interest; and the

establishment of a popular form of municipal government, under an annually elective magistracy, by encouraging the spirit and furnishing the topics of daily discussion, could not fail of giving currency to new forms of speech, and of forming a language adopted to their new situation.

It is evident that nothing less than the most minute enquiry into all the circumstances of our history under the first Norman kings, would be sufficient for the full investigation of this subject; but the preceding observations will perhaps authorize us to assume, that the formation of the English language took its rise, and was probably far advanced, during the interval of about thirty years which preceded the accession of Henry III.

After quitting Layamon, we shall waste little time on the compositions of his immediate successors. The earliest of these, according to Mr. Tyrwhitt, is a paraphrase of the Gospel histories, called Ormulum, composed by one Orme or Ormin, which seems to have been considered as mere prose by Hickes and Wanley, who have given extracts from it, but is really written in verse of fifteen syllables, without rhyme, in imitation of the most common form of the Latin tetrameter iambick. The next is a moral poem on old age, written in rhyme, and extracted by Hickes, part of which is to be found in the G

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