ARE THE FRENCH LATINS OR CELTS?

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11686, 22 June 1901, Page 6 (Supplement)

ARE THE FRENCH LATINS OR CELTS?

In- connection with the recent visit of the Italian fleet to Toulon there have been many references in the European press to a renewal of the entente cordiale between two

" Latin nations. It may he of some interest to inquire in what sense the term " Latin" can be correctly applied to the French, whom, almost in the same breath, many people are apt to describe as a "Celtic" people. One thing surely is certain, that in blood the French cannot be at the same time both "Latin" and "Celtic." Yet the inconsistency does not seem to strike people. 1 think that, although outside, Provence the French have little or no Latin—i.e., Italian —blood in their veins, the explanation of their being described as a " Latin" race is to be found in the fact that their language and civilisation are both Latin. It seems no longer permissible to hold that the French arc mainly "Celtic" in blood, the view being now generally accepted that the bulk of the population of France is of a pre-Celtic and probably of Iberian or Ligurian, stock'. And this now seems to hold good also of Ireland and Wales.—Letter in the Spectator.