The weakness and degeneracy of the Anglo-Saxon national character contained the seeds of its decay. It has long since been agreed that, in an historical view, we ought not to complain that the degenerate, though highly-civilized, Romans in Britain were compelled to make way for the rude Anglo-Saxons, since the latter brought with them the germ of a new and higher development. In like manner we can hardly regret that the degenerate, but to a certain degree civilized, Anglo-Saxons, were in turn expelled by the more powerful, but ruder Danes; since these also were to prepare, and lay the foundation of a new and more flourishing state of society. Under the reign of Ethelred the Second, the supremacy of the Anglo-Saxons had already passed away. As a people, they sank entirely, and left only a part of their civilization and of their institutions to their successors in dominion, the Danes and Normans. The transition took place amidst the same shocks and the same bloodshed which still mark every important and radical revolution in the history of nations. The Danish-Norman, or perhaps more properly, the Scandinavian national character, usurped the place of the Anglo-Saxon. It was certainly built upon the foundation laid by the Anglo-Saxons, but it must be observed that it has made greater progress in all respects. To it especially is owing the development in England of a maritime skill before unknown, of a bold and manly spirit of enterprise, and of a political liberty, which, by preserving a balance between the freedom of the nobles and of the rest of the people, has long ensured to England a powerful and comparatively peaceful and fortunate existence. The Englishman is justly proud of his native land, of its internal freedom, and external greatness. But when he extols his country in respect only of its being “Anglo-Saxon,” or praises the merits of the Anglo-Saxons and Norman-French, whilst he unconditionally condemns the Danish expeditions and settlements, as having been merely devastating and destructive, he commits both an historical error and an evident injustice. The Anglo-Saxons performed their share in the civilization of England, and the Norman-French did still more; but it ought not to be forgotten—and least of all by Englishmen, who are so nearly related to the Danes—that the latter also very essentially contributed to win freedom and greatness for England, and that this freedom, and this greatness, are in no slight degree sealed with Danish blood. From at least the Danish-Normanic conquest (about the year 1000), the Danish-Normanic, or Scandinavian, national character has been the prevailing and leading one in England’s history, and so it certainly continues to be at the present day.