28 MAY 1898, Page 14

THE LANGUAGE OF ROMAN BRITAIN.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE “ SPECTATOR:] Sin,—Your correspondent "n," in his letter on "The Stupider Race" in the Spectator of May 21st, asserts obiter that Latin prevailed in Gaul, but never in Britain. Can he in any way prove this ? There is a singular absence of direct evidence on the point, but is not the presumption strong that between 200 and 450 A.D.—to roughly mark off a period— Britain stood on the same footing with Gaul and the other provinces of the Roman Empire in respect of the prevalent tongue? It is not easy to see why the British Celts should have accepted the whole of the Roman civilisation except it language, while the Gallic Celts accepted it, language and all.