The truth is, that among all those who have achieved great prominence in the English-speaking world, the Anglo-Saxon type is conspicuous by its absence. Nine times in ten, when a man boasts of “Anglo-Saxon” pluck, enterprise, ability, and progress, he himself is not of that type of man, and nine-tenths of the incidents he cites were brought about through the pluck, enterprise, ability and progress which came from mixed blood.
I can only liken this misrepresentation of the truth of history to the rattling of peas in a bladder, shaken by one of Shakespeare’s clowns. Puncture the bladder, my friends, whenever and wherever it is shaken. Tell the clown who calls himself an “Anglo-Saxon” that he is an ass! and prove to him by the color of his hair, the color of his eyes, and the shape of his skull that he is a Celt, a Milesian, a Latin, or anything but an “Anglo-Saxon,” and that if it was ever true that the English people were Anglo-Saxon, and that the Anglo-Saxons were ever, at any time, the greatest people on earth—superior to all other races—that time has so long since passed away that no one now remembers it, and no true history chronicles when and where they flourished.
But I have already trespassed too far on this line. Permit me to wish you all, if not too late, a very happy and prosperous New Year, and also to say to you that, as I have been twice honored by election to the presidency of the Society—and that is, I think, sufficient honor for any member—I beg to invoke the national rule against a third term. Therefore, if any friend of mine should be so indiscreet as to nominate me for that office, I request and urge you to ask him to immediately withdraw the nomination.
Fraternally yours,
Edward A. Moseley,
President-General.
Washington, D. C., Jan. 17, 1899.
IRISH EMIGRATION DURING THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES.
BY THOMAS ADDIS EMMET, M. D., NEW YORK CITY.