all political annals, compose the sequel of the history of Britain, while under the dominion of the Romans. The tedious and uninteresting detail of alternate victories and defeats, of revolts and usurpations, of follies and crimes, is incompatible with the plan of this work.

After the reign of Theodosius, a horrid scene of confusion ensued. It would require volumes to particularize the occurrences of this period of carnage and desolation, and to relate the bloody revolutions which incessantly took place in different provinces of the Roman empire, now harassed by the northern barbarians on every part of its extensive frontier, and rapidly hastening to its fall. This general distress of the empire greatly affected Britain, and rendered her own particular calamities more grievous. The northern parts of the country were ravaged by the Picts and Scots, and the inhabitants looked up to the Romans for that protection to which they had always been accustomed; and which, as long as it could be afforded, they never failed to obtain. The last of the Roman generals, in this island, was Gallio Ravennas; who, having vigorously and successfully repulsed the Picts and Scots, and fortified the frontier wall, exhorted the Britons to take proper measures for the defence of their country, and having given them a variety of political and military instructions, he drew off the whole army to the continent. Thus in the reign of Valentinian III. about A. D. 444, the Romans finally evacuated Britain, after having held it in possession nearly 500 years. In this long period, the Romans had greatly improved the island, and civilized its inhabitants. They had introduced letters and science, as well as a great number of mechanical arts, formerly unknown among the natives. The commerce of the island being extended to every part of the empire, had introduced a tolerable share of wealth. Highways were made; woods cut down; and morasses drained. Agriculture was improved, and a variety of vegetable productions introduced; which contributed to the wealth as well as to the comfortable support of the people. The relics of Roman science and

* Before the Romans arrived, nuts, acorns, crabs, and a few wild berries, 6

VOL. VI.

civilization in Britain, although for some time overwhelmed in barbarian desolation, served as the basis of Saxon improvements. The Saxons built their towns on the Roman foundations. The Roman colonies were the ground plots of modern cities.

Britain had severely suffered from the arms of the Romans before she derived any advantage from their arts. Besides the numbers who fell by the sword before the Britons were subdued, multitudes were destroyed in draining the morasses, cutting down the woods, raising highways, and constructing fortifications; at once the instruments, and the badges of their subjection. These evils, however, which, at the first had accompanied the Roman conquest, were in the space of four more centuries forgotten; and its beneficial consequences were present to the eyes and the minds of the Britons; who, in their manners and habits of life, were now become Romans. They felt, indeed, in no small degree, the burthens of taxation for the support of the army as well as for the maintenance of a number of civil officers. But under the auspices of Rome, the commerce and wealth of Britain had increased; and from the expenditure incurred by the support of the legion, the inhabitants derived tranquillity and protection. The British youth were frequently promoted in the legions. Corps of troops, entirely British, were also levied and sent to the continent; while foreign soldiers were, according to the maxims of Roman policy, constantly stationed in Britain. No less than twelve different corps of British infantry and cavalry were dispersed in the distant provinces of the empire, from whence very few ever returned. Great numbers of Britons, also, enrolled themselves, and went abroad under the different commanders who assumed the imperial purple. The consequences of those military emigrations were visibly displayed. The armies successively carried over from Britain to the continent, were sufficient to exhaust the military strength of a populous country. Such also of the Britains as had been train

were originally all the indigenous articles which the woods of Britain pro'duced.

ed to a seafaring life, served on board the fleet; which, being withdrawn at the same time as the legions, the island was completely stripped of its strength, both naval and military, when it was abandoned by the Romans.

The principal error of the Romans, and the grand source of all the misfortunes which afterwards befel the Britons was, that the former had never completed the conquest of the whole island. This evidently appears to have been the design of Agricola. If Domitian had permitted its accomplishment, beneficial consequences must have resulted. In that case there would have been no need of walls to prevent incursions from the north. After the complete conquest and civilization of the whole island, a much less military force would have been necessary; and, when at last the inroads of the northern nations obliged the Romans to withdraw their legions from the island, in order to concentrate the forces for the protection of their continental dominions, the Britons of the north, and of the south, would have been left all in the same manners, social habits, political institutions and interests, and without any hostile power on the island. In such circumstances, after having chosen a form of government for themselves, they would undoubtedly have had sufficient strength to repel any foreign invasion, which, in that age, was likely to have been brought against them. It seems, indeed, that the Romans did not think the northern parts worth the trouble of conquering. By that fatal neglect, they rendered their conquest insecure; imposed on the country the expense of a numerous military establishment; and lost numbers of their soldiers in defending a precarious frontier.

In that helpless state of dereliction, in which the Britons were left when abandoned by the Romans, they could only rely on their own exertions for their defence, and they soon found themselves totally inadequate to the task. All the warlike inhabitants had been carried out of the country; and the greatest part of those left, consisted of the old and infirm, the luxurious and the profligate. In this deplorable situation, without order or discipline, harrassed by the incessant attacks of the Picts and Caledonians from the north, they were impelled,

by despair, to have recourse to the worst of all expedients, that of calling in one barbarous nation to protect them against another.

The Britons being left to themselves, although not destitute of courage in the field, were incapable of political union, and the Scots and Picts, taking advantage of the departure of the Roman legions, attacked the frontier; demolished many parts of the great wall; sacked the cities in its vicinity; destroyed the crops on the adjacent grounds; and, by repeated incursions, spread general desolation on the borders. It was in this emergency, that Vortigern, who had been elected king of the Britons, unable to resist his enemies, and mistrustful of his own subjects, called in to his assistance the Saxons, a warlike nation of Germany. They were composed of various tribes, and were equally noted for their ravages by land, and their piracies by sea. Their neglect of agriculture, as well as the other arts of peace, rendered them unable to provide for an increasing population, and impelled them to frequent migrations, which gradually brought them down to the sea coast, and induced them to undertake maritime expeditions. A view of their manners is given by Tacitus, in his description of the German nations, among whom they were included. Their natural characteristics were, the love of freedom and of arms. Their political system was extremely simple; their chiefs or kings had, in time of peace, a very limited authority; but in time of war, they were invested with ample powers. All public affairs were discussed in their general assemblies. Among the Saxons, when a young man had attained to the proper age for military service, he was introduced into the national assembly, where he received his arms, and was admitted a member. As they seldom resided above a year in the same place, the quantity of land to be cultivated; the division of its produce; the expeditions that were to be undertaken; and the direction of the next removal, were all regulated in this great council of the nation. To this they always came armed; for, among them, the name of citizen and soldier were synonimous.

Such are the outlines of the political constitution of the

Saxons, and the rest of the Germans. To their great national councils may be traced the parliaments, and other essential features of succeeding European systems; some of which are swallowed up in the gulph of despotism; others refined and improved into national liberty; but all of them successively modified, in conformity to the change of circumstances. The religion of the Saxons was a gross system of idolatry. Their princes pretended to be the descendants of their god Wodin, a famous chieftain, deified for his martial exploits. In Germany, as well as in Greece, imaginary gods were made engines of power in the hands of artful men.

The Saxons defeated the Picts and Caledonians; but, observing the weakness and disunion of the Britons, they soon conceived the hope of establishing themselves in a country, which agriculture and civilization had rendered much superior to their own. In this view, they concluded a treaty with the northern invaders, and turned their arms against the Britons. The Saxons being at that time a fierce, cruel, and rapacious people, spread desolation wherever they came; and converted the best cultivated districts into a dreary waste. All the cities and towns from the eastern to the western sea, with all the churches and public edifices, were consumed; and all who made any resistance were indiscriminately put to the sword. The desolation was so general, that the conquerors could not, at last, find provisions for their support.

The Britons having been constrained by necessity to take up arms were often victorious. It is no improbable conjecture, that if they had avoided intestine quarrels, and cordially united in the common cause, they might, eventually, have preserved their country. Experience itself could not teach them this salutary lesson. Whenever they obtained the least respite from foreign aggression, they relapsed into civil wars, which exhausted their strength, and diverted their attention from the means of providing for their future security.

During these times of desolation and distress, some of the Britons retired to Armorica, now Bretagne, a province of France. A large body also took refuge in Cornwall and Devonshire, where they for some time maintained a sort of pre