A

PROPOSAL

FOR

Correcting, Improving, and Afcertaining the ENGLISH TONGUE:

IN A

Letter to the Moft Honourable ROBERT Earl of OXFORD and MORTIMER, Lord High Treasurer of Great Britain.

It is well known, that if the Queen had lived a Year or two longer, the following Propofal would, in all Probability, have taken Effect. For the Lord Treafurer had already nominated feveral Perfons without Distinction of Quality or Party, who were to compofe a Society for the Purposes mentioned by the Author; and refolved to use his Credit with Her Majesty, that a Fund should be applied to fupport the Expence of a large Room, where the Society fhould meet, and for other Incidents. But this Scheme fell to the Ground, partly by the Diffenfions among the great Men at Court; but chiefly by the lamented Death of that glorious Princess.

To the Moft Honourable ROBERT Earl of OXFORD.

My LORD,

W

HAT I had the Honour of mentioning to your Lordship fome Time ago in Converfation, was not a new Thought, just then ftarted by Accident or Occafion, but the Refuit of long Reflexion; and I have been confirmed in my Sentiments

P 3

Sentiments by the Opinion of fome very judicious Perfons, with whom I confulted. They all agreed, That nothing would be of greater Ufe towards the Improvement of Knowledge and Politeness, than fome effectual Method for Correcting, Enlarging, and Afcertaining our Language; and they think it a Work very poffible to be compaffed, under the Protection of a Prince, the Countenance and Encouragement of a Ministry, and the Care of proper Persons, chofen for fuch an Undertaking. I was glad to find your Lordship's Answer in fo different a Style, from what hath been commonly made ufe of on fuch like Occafions, for fome Years paft: That all fuch Thoughts must be deferred to a Time of Peace: A Topick which fome have carried fo far, that they would not have us by any Means think of preferving our Civil or Religious Conftitution, because we are engaged in a War abroad. It will be among the distinguishing Marks of your Ministry, my Lord, that you had a Genius above all fuch Regards; and that no reasonable Proposal for the Honour, the Advantage, or the Ornament of your Country, however foreign to your more immediate Office, was ever neglected by you. I confefs the Merit of this Candour and Condefcenfion is very mach leffened; because your Lordfhip hardly leaveth us Room to offer our good Withes; removing all our Difficulties, and fupplying our Wants, fafter than the moft vifionary Projector can adjuft his Schemes. And therefore, my Lord, the Defign of this Paper is not fo much to offer you Ways and Means, as to complain of a Grievance, the redreffing of which is to be your own Work, as much as that of paying the Nation's Debts, or opening a Trade into the South Sea; and although not of fuch immediate Benefit as either of these, or any other of your glorious Actions, yet perhaps in future Ages not less to your Honour.

My Lord, I do here, in the Name of all the learned and polite Perfons of the Nation, complain to your Lordship, as First Minifter, that our Language is extremely imperfect; that its daily Improvements are by

no

no means in Proportion to its daily Corruptions; that the Pretenders to polish and refine it, have chiefly multiplied Abuses and Abfurdities; and that, in many Inftances, it offendeth against every Part of Grammar. But left your Lordship should think my Cenfure too fevere, I fhall take Leave to be more particular.

I believe your Lordship will agree with me in the Reason, why our Language is lefs refined than those of Italy, Spain, or France. It is plain, that the Latin Tongue in its Purity was never in this Ifland; towards the Conqueft of which, few or no Attempts were made till the Time of Claudius: Neither was that Language ever fo vulgar in Britain, as it is known to have been in Gaul and Spain.. Further, we find that the Roman Legions here, were at length all recalled to help their Country against the Goths, and other barbarous Invaders. Mean time, the Britons left to shift for themselves, and daily haraffed by cruel Inroads from the Picts, were forced to call in the Saxons for their Defence; who confequently reduced the greatest Part of the Island to their own Power, drove the Britons into the most remote and mountainous Parts; and the rest of the Country, in Customs, Religion, and Language, became wholly Saxon. This I take to be the Reason why there are more Latin Words remaining in the British Tongue than in the old Saxon; which, excepting fome few Variations in the Ortho-graphy, is the fame in most original Words with our prefent English, as well as with the German and other Northern Dialects.

EDWARD the Confeffor, having lived long in France, appeareth to be the first, who introduced any Mixture of the French Tongue with the Saxon; the Court affecting what the Prince was fond of, and others taking it up for a Fashion, as it is now with us. William the Conqueror proceeded much further; bringing over with him vaft Numbers of that Nation, feattering them in every Monaftery, giving them great Quantities of Land, directing all Pleadings to be in that Language, and endeavouring to make it univerfal

in

in the Kingdom. This, at least, is the Opinion generally received: But your Lordship hath fully convinced me, that the French Tongue made yet a greater Progrefs here under Harry the Second, who had large Territories on that Continent, both from his Father and his Wife; made frequent Journeys and Expeditions thither, and was always attended with a Number of his Countrymen, Retainers at his Court. For fome Centuries after, there was a conftant Intercourse between France and England, by the Dominions we posfeffed there, and the Conquefts we made: So that our Language, between two and three hundred Years ago, feemeth to have had a greater Mixture with the French than at prefent; many Words having been afterwards rejected, and fome ince the Time of Spencer; although we have still retained not a few, which have been long antiquated in France. I could produce feveral Inftances of both Kinds, if it were of any Use or Entertainment.

To examine into the feveral Circumstances, by which the Language of a Country may be altered, would force me to enter into a wide Field. I fhall only obferve, That the Latin, the French, and the English, feem to have undergone the fame Fortune. The first, from the Days of Romulus to those of Julius Cefar, fuffered perpetual Changes; and by what we meet in those Authors who occafionally speak on that Subject, as well as from certain Fragments of old Laws, it is manifeft, that the Latin, three hundred Years before Tully, was as unintelligible in his Time, as the English and French of the fame Period are now; and these two have changed as much fince William the Conqueror, (which is but little lefs than seven hundred Years) as the Latin appeareth to have done in the like Term. Whether our Language, or the French will decline as faft as the Roman did, is a Question that would perhaps admit more Debate than it is worth. There were many Reasons for the Corruptions of the laft: As the Change of their Government to a Tyranny, which ruined the Study of Eloquence;

there

there being no further Ufe or Encouragement for popular Orators: Their giving not only the Freedom of the City, but Capacity for Employments, to feveral Towns in Gaul, Spain, and Germany, and other diftant Parts, as far as Afia; which brought a great Number of foreign Pretenders into Rome : The flavish Difpofition of the Senate and People; by which the Wit and Eloquence of the Age were wholly turned into Panegyrick, the most barren of all Subjects: The great Corruption of Manners, and Introduction of foreign Luxury, with foreign Terms to exprefs it: With feveral others that might be affigned: Not to mention those Invasions from the Goths and Vandals, which are too obvious to infist on.

THE Roman Language arrived at great Perfection before it began to decay: The French, for these last fifty Years, hath been polishing as much as it will bear; and appeareth to be declining by the natural Inconftancy of that People, as well as the Affectation of fome late Authors, to introduce and multiply Cant Words, which is the most ruinous Corruption in any Language. La Bruyere, a late celebrated Writer among them, maketh use of many new Terms which are not to be found in any of the common Dictionaries before his Time. But the English Tongue is not arrived to fuch a Degree of Perfection, as, upon that account, to make us apprehend any Thoughts of its Decay: And, if it were once refined to a certain Standard, perhaps, there might be Ways to fix it for ever, or at least until we are invaded, and made a Conqueft by fome other State: And even then, our best Writings might probably be preserved with Care, and grow into Efteem, and the Authors have a Chance for Immortality.

BUT without fuch great Revolutions as thefe, (to which we are, I think, lefs fubject than Kingdoms. upon the Continent), I fee no abfolute Neceffity why any Language should be perpetually changing; for we find many Examples to the contrary. From Homer to Plutarch, are above a thousand Years; so long, at leaft, the Purity of the Greek Tongue may be allowed

to