they were admired by the Romans; and their half-naked, woadstained bodies, moustache, and flowing hair gave them a fierceness of aspect which accorded with their martial bravery. Their cultivation was far beyond the savage.

The Romans invaded Britain under Julius Cæsar B. C. 55, and continued until A. D. 412, when the last remnant of the army was withdrawn. The conquest of the native tribes was no easy work for even the disciplined army of Rome. Chiefs of great ability and skill appeared among the Britons, and under their leadership they held at bay the armies of the mistress of the world. Legions, however, were poured in; famous generalssome of whom rose to the imperial purple-were sent to command them; and by degrees the whole island from the English Channel to the Grampians acknowledged Roman supremacy. Cæsar, Claudius, Suetonius, Vespasian, Julius Agricola, Hadrian, Severus, Constantius, and Constantine the Great, derived a considerable portion of their fame from their deeds of valour in this island.

While here, none of them was idle. Cæsar purchased at considerable expense the small victory which was magnified by distance into a triumph in Rome. The tribute which he imposed was rarely paid by the people whom he had subdued. Claudius met with great resistance; but his success was more worthy of his triumph, and of the surname of Britannicus which the senate decreed to him. Caractacus was a chief of the Silures, who for a long time checked the progress of the Romans. The want of armour, and not the lack of valour, brought his defeat. If he graced a procession at Rome, the vanquished chieftain was an object of as much admiration as his conqueror. The battle of Caer-madoc,' in which he was defeated, says Dr. Vaughan, was to the Britons what the battle of Hastings was to the Anglo-Saxons. If there was a difference, it consisted mainly in the fact that the struggle of the Britons in defence of their freedom before that day, and their efforts to recover it when really lost, were greater than will be found in the corresponding period of Anglo-Saxon history.' Suetonius perceived in the Druids-the priests of Britain-the great source of the pertinacity of resistance which characterized the native warriors, and he determined to destroy them. In the Isle of Anglesey, the chief resort of the Druids, he made his great attack. It was with much difficulty that he could effect a landing

waters. The word Inver in Gaelic or Irish has the same meaning. The word Aber is so used, as a prefix to names of places, along a line extending from South Wales to the North of Scotland, marking off a territory to the right of that line as pervaded by the British tongue and race. The word Inver is commonly used for the same purpose through the Highlands to the left of that line, bespeaking the prevalence there of a tongue and race which are rather Irish than British. Thus, while the British tongue sounds along from Aberystwith to Aberdeen, the Gaelic makes itself heard from Inverary to Inverness.'

at

Influence of the Romans on Government and Religion. 267

at the Menai Strait. The people, priests, and women were assembled to resist, and fought with such fury and determination as struck the Roman soldiers with dismay; but the legions at length prevailed, and Druidism was quenched in the seat of its power. The work of conquest was not ended by this slaughter. While the Roman commander was in the north, a massacre of the Romans was taking place in the south. Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, wronged and outraged by the insolence, oppression, and cruelty of Romans, aroused her countrymen, gathered an army, and attempted to destroy the invaders. Thousands fell by her bands; London and other garrisons were razed to the ground; but in a pitched battle, after the arrival of Suetonius, the Britons were defeated with great slaughter. Agricola completed the Roman conquest, and planted his eagles at the foot of the Grampian mountains-beyond which the legions never ventured. Succeeding commanders had enough to do to keep their power; and when the empire was distracted and weakened at its centre, Britain was left to itself.

The Romans exercised a vast influence on Britain during the revolution by the sword, which spread over nearly five hundred years. Dr. Vaughan estimates this in its effects upon Government, Religion, and Social Life.

In Government, the Romans displaced the civil authority of the Druids, and substituted written for unwritten laws. Colonization in towns presented municipal laws in their mildness, and afforded means of common improvement. Taxation was heavy on account of the great army, but there was an appeal against injustice.

6

In Religion, the Romans had little to offer in place of Druidism. They had a special repugnance to that system of worship, and suppressed it by the sword. But the gods of Rome were not worshipped by the Britons. This might have happened,' says Dr. Vaughan, if scepticism in regard to the claims of these gods had been less prevalent among their professed worshippers, and if the Roman ascendancy in Britain had been more genial. The event shows, that the power which annihilated Druidism was to give Britain Christianity, and not another paganism. Not that anything of that nature was intended. But it was inevitable that the Roman roads should become lines of communication, facilitating the travel of all sorts of people, and of all sorts of news, from the most distant parts of the empire. So the way was opened for the entrance of the Christian faith.'

The Druids taught the immortality of the soul, which Roman religion lacked. They did not connect their polytheism with idolatry as the Romans did. Their oral teaching was comparatively pure a well-known want in that of Roman priests. Their human sacrifices were their awful blot, for which their ruin was a retribution.

retribution. Rome had nothing to offer that was more pure, or impressive, or more hopeful, than the religion of the Druids. But by Roman means Christianity came to Britain. There is no authentic account of its introduction; but Dr. Vaughan suggests that it was brought by soldiers and traders. It spread among the people; so that in the Diocletian persecution there were Christian martyrs at Verulam and Caerleon. The British Church was not founded by Rome papal, but by Christians from Rome pagan. It came without show, and grew up in simplicity and purity. In the fourth century, its representatives at the Council of Arles showed themselves zealous for orthodoxy, clerical consistency, and public morality; for the separation of clergymen to their sacred office, and of the members of the Church from the ungodly world. From that time Britons are no more known in history as pagans. Those of them who are found in the fastnesses of Wales after the departure of the Romans, and after the invasion of the Saxons, are Christian Britons, with a Christian hierarchy, a Christian literature, and a Christian civilization sufficiently strong to eradicate whatever remains of their old faith or usage may still have been left with them. All these acquisitions they must have carried with them into their mountain homes. There was no channel of communication through which they could have received them afterwards.'

In Social Life, the Revolution wrought by the influence of the Romans was very great. The Britons had a certain civilization. They could make clothing, war-chariots armed with scythes, and ornaments of gold. They could construct earth-works or stockades in war. They could work mines. But the Romans brought higher culture, which developed native ingenuity, and added to social comfort. They patronized artisans, and encouraged useful arts. Winchester became famous for its cloths, Kent for pottery, the Tyne for coals, and the Forest of Dean for iron. Roman roads connected British towns, and education elevated the Britons. Schools were established for teaching the sons of chiefs, and towns for the cultivation of polite intercourse and trade, where municipal laws gave a certain freedom. But when the Romans left the island, the Britons outlived their conquerors, and adopted into their national character the improving changes of their subjugation.

In his second book, Dr. Vaughan conducts us to the SAXONS and DANES. This portion of his history is prefaced by a clear digest of the sources of his information. There are three- British works,'The heathen poetry and traditions of the north of Europe,' and The Christian literature of the Saxons in Britain after they were converted.'

After the departure of the Romans, the Britons were exposed

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to the incursions of the Caledonians, who prevailed considerably over their southern neighbours, destroyed their lands, and broke their spirit. Under the terror of the Scots, King Vortigern, in the fifth century, invited the Saxons who were inhabitants of the coasts of the German Ocean on the continent to assist him. They were a warlike and predatory people, whose prowess by sea and land had made them a terror even to Rome. These, at first invited to assist the Britons, soon became masters of the land. Hengist and Horsa landed in the year 447 or 449. They speedily gained power. In 473, Hengist was the sovereign of Kent. Other Saxons gained monarchies. In one hundred and fifty years the Octarchy rose. The first was under Hengist.

'Sussex, the kingdom of the South Saxons, was the second state established. It was founded by Ella in 496. This was the smallest state of the Octarchy. The state of the West Saxons, which dates from the year 519, was of much greater extent, embracing Surrey, Berks, Dorset, Somerset, and Devon, with parts of Hampshire and Cornwall. The founder of the sovereignty was Cerdic. East Anglia included Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, and the Isle of Ely, and part of Bedfordshire, and was established by Uffa in the year 540. Erkenwen laid the foundation of the state of the East Saxons, which comprehended Essex, Middlesex, and a southern district of Hertfordshire. This kingdom commences with the year 542. The kingdom of Bernicia was established by Ida in 548, under whom the Angles possessed themselves of Northumberland, and of the northern parts of Westmoreland and Cumberland, with the part of Scotland between Newcastle and Edinburgh. The kingdom of Deira embraced Lancashire and Yorkshire, with the southern divisions of Westmoreland and Cumberland. While this kingdom continued separate, the Saxon states in Britain were an Octarchy; its union with Northumbria, which was the case for the most part, reduced them to a Heptarchy. We have seen that the kingdom of the South Saxons was founded by a chief named Ella; and it was a chief of that name who founded the kingdom of Deira about sixty years later. Mercia, the last of the Saxon kingdoms, does not make its appearance before the year 586; but it was, in regard to territory, the most considerable state in the Octarchy, comprehending all the midland counties, and forming for centuries the great barrier kingdom between the Saxons and the Welsh.'

During the first century of the Saxon Heptarchy, one of its princes held the office of Bretwalda, a dignity that contained the embryo of a future kingship of all England. Frequent contests took place for this precedence, in course of which the Saxon states. lessened in number by uniting with some central power. In the year 823, Egbert was acknowledged sovereign over the East Saxons, Kent, and East Anglia. Northumbria joined in 828. He thus became the first king of all England. The monarchy had, however, to contend with many difficulties, most of them arising from a new people who sought a home and authority in What the Saxons had been in the sixth century, the Danes had become, in nearly all respects, in the ninth centurypirates; but pirates capable of prosecuting their schemes of war and plunder upon a large scale, on the land or on the deep." They were Northmen from Norway, Denmark, and the shores of the Baltic. Their incursions told with powerful effect on Flanders,

Holland,

In

Holland, France, and Ireland, and most of all on Britain. The Danes landed in the Isle of Sheppey, in 832, in the year following entered the Dart, and two years after landed in Cornwall. Their efforts were evidently to settle, not to spoil, hence they at once took up a position of hostility to the Saxons. In 839, great battles were fought at Canterbury, Rochester, and near London. 851, three hundred and fifty ships came to the mouth of the Thames, with hordes of men, which were increased from year to year. Many battles were fought, terrible ravages were perpetrated by the Northmen, by which the Saxons were depressed, and their king Alfred obliged to become a fugitive among the woods of Somerset. But Alfred was equal to the emergency. He was a man of rare piety, strong faith, undaunted courage, and wise counsel. He determined to prepare for the struggle, and on the White Horse Hill in Wiltshire completely routed the Danes. But he did not use his victory to extirpate the intruders. He encouraged them to settle, and wisely strengthened his throne by these accessions. The troubles were not over when he died; but he left to his successor a better-organized and educated Saxon people than had yet been known. The Danes continued to make descents upon the coast of England, with more or less success, until Canute established a Danish dynasty on the throne.

These changes by the sword exercised considerable effect on the distribution of race. The British gradually withdrew to the west, and have left traces of their blood and language' from Dumbarton to Mount St. Michael. But they were removed by Saxons and Danes, until their chief homes were in Wales and Cornwall, where they have remained. The Saxons were themselves a mongrel race composed of Jutes, Angles, and Saxons. They were located throughout the territory of the Heptarchy. But the Danes became the most prevalent in East Anglia, along the east coast from the Humber to the Forth, and in the midland counties. The Saxons were westward of them. In the tenth century a Norwegian migration came by the Irish Sea to Cumberland, and have left their names and influence on the Cambrian localities. From the sea-kings of the north came the maritime greatness of England. Proving a great hindrance to Saxon progress at the time of their descent, they strengthened the nation ultimately. Their influence on the language was inconsiderablemuch less so than the Norman. But from Saxons and Danes great revolutions in Religion, Government, and Social Life occurred.

The Saxons and Danes were pagans when they landed in England. Like their ancestors, they worshipped Odin and Thor and Frea, and trembled before Loki-the evil one. They offered human sacrifices in their temples. Bravery was the highest form

of