We are very glad to find that the views of
the Spectator on the language question in South Africa are shared by Professor Westlake. In a very able, and to us most convincing, letter in Tuesday's Times he completely demolishes the argument that unity of language secures the moral unity of a population,— pointing, amongst other notable instances, to the loyalty of the French-Canadians, the perfect common patriotism of the Swiss with their three languages, and the dissensions of the practi- cally monoglot Irish. The feeling of separateness, he con- tends, is the outcome of traditions, aims, religion, and indi- vidual character more than of language, and the indispensable condition of its perpetuation is local separateness. Hence the paramount need in the annexed Republics of avoiding compact settlements. "If We can see the new Colonies well penetrated in their principal parts by new blood, the language will soon be English everywhere, even though we may have refrained from forcing that language on the old population." Finally, Professor Westlake points to what is happening in the concentration camps, where the Boers have largely chosen that their children should learn English, and asks,—" Are we in our impatience, to throw that lesson away, and disgust by our arbitrary methods those whose choice, if we allowed it to them, would assist in rapidly giving us what we desire ?" To proscribe the Taal is the one way to lend artificial vitality to a language which has in it none of the intrinsic elements of permanence. But while we would not proscribe the Taal, we would give it no artificial encouragement. We would not kill it, but allow it to die a natural death.
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