I.] ANTECEDENTS. 17
classed are of extremely mixed origin. One is in about equal degrees English, Irish, French, and German ; another is English, Scotch-Creole, and Dutch ; another English, Dutch, Creole, and Swedish ; and so on. (I trust the reader knows what " creoles " are-namely, the descendants of white families long settled in a tropical colony ; and that he does not confound the term with " mulattoes.") I give this information without being able to make much present use of it. It is chiefly intended to serve as a standard with which other natural groups may hereafter be compared, such as groups of artists or of literary men.
One would desire to know whether persons in England generally show so great a diversity of origin ; but it is somewhat difficult to answer the question owing to a want of precision in the word " generally." If we were to go to rural districts, or small stagnant towns, we should find much less variety of origin ; but I think there would be quite as much in the. more energetic classes of the metropolis, who have immigrated from all
