G.  I have not seen this.  The grammatical principles of the Hebrew [90] are widely different (from the Indian).  There is, in this respect, no resemblance.  I think the Indian language has principles akin to the Greek.  The middle moods, or voices, in the Greek and Indian dialects are alike; they make the imperfect past, or aorist, in a similar manner.

[Footnote 90:  Mr. G. did not understand the Hebrew, and was not aware that the person he addressed had made a study of it in particular reference to the Indian.]

PATOIS.—­G.  The great impediment to popular instruction in France, is the multiplicity of patois, and the tenacity of the peasantry for them.  The same objection exists to the use of so many Indian dialects by such numbers of petty tribes.  Pity these were not all abolished.  They can never prosper without coming on to general grounds in this respect.

CHINESE.—­Mr. Duponceau had published Col.  Galindo’s account of the Ottomic of Mexico, and likened it to the Chinese.  It was the very reverse.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE.—­S.  The English language of Chaucer’s day, is based on the Frisic, Belgic, and Low Dutch; and not on the Saxon. (Examples were given.  He fully assented to this, and used his familiarity with European history to demonstrate it.)

G.  There was, in fact, no Anglo-Saxon but that of Alfred, which was the old English.  The early migrations were from Belgium.  Doubtless the Teutons had made the conquest ascribed to them, but I think they did not revolutionize the language.  They conquered the people, but not the language.

WASHINGTON IRVING.—­G.  Washington Irving is the most popular writer.  Anything from his pen would sell.

JOHN JACOB ASTOR.—­Several years ago, J. J. A. put into my hands the journal of his traders on the Columbia, desiring me to use it.  I put it into the hands of Malte Brun, at Paris, who employed the geographical facts in his work, but paid but little respect to Mr. Astor, whom he regarded merely as a merchant seeking his own profit, and not a discoverer.  He had not even sent a man to observe the facts in the natural history.  Astor did not like it.  He was restive several years, and then gave Washington Irving $5,000 to take up the MSS.  This is the History of “Astoria.”

RAFINESQUE.—­This erratic naturalist being referred to, he said—­

“Who is Rafinesque, and what is his character?”

NAPOLEON AND NERO.—­Bonaparte was a mathematician; but, whatever he did, he did not appreciate other branches of science and research.  On taking Rome, he carried to Paris all the Pope’s archives, containing, in fact, the materials for the secret history of Europe.  The papers occupied seventy large boxes, which were carefully corded and sealed, and put away in a garret of the Louvre at Paris, and never opened.  On the restoration of the Bourbons, Louis XVIII. gave them back to the Pope’s nuncio.  The seals had never been broken.