ests and mountains of Caledonia; he drove onward all those fierce and intractable spirits who preferred famine to slavery, and who, rather than submit, chose to remain in perpetual hostility. Nor was it without opposition that he thus made his way into a country rude and impervious by nature. He was opposed by Galgacus at the head of a numerous army, whom he defeated in a decisive action, in which considerable numbers were slain. Being thus A. D. successful, he did not think proper to pursue the enemy 84. into their retreats; but embarking a body of troops on board

his fleet, he ordered the commander to surround the whole coast of Britain, which had not been discovered to be an island till the preceding year. This armament, pursuant to his orders, steered to the northward, and there subdued the Orkneys; then making the tour of the whole island, it arrived in the port of Sandwich, without having met with the least disaster.

During these military enterprises, Agricola was ever attentive to the arts of peace. He attempted to humanize the fierceness of those who acknowledged his power, by introducing the Roman laws, habits, manners, and learning. He taught them to desire and raise all the conveniences of life, instructed them in the arts of agriculture, and, in order to protect them in their peaceable possessions, he drew a rampart, and fixed a train of garrisons between them and their northern neighbours; thus cutting off the rude and more barren parts of the island, and securing the Roman province from the invasion of a fierce and necessitous enemy. In this manner the Britons, being almost totally subdued, now began to throw off all hopes of recovering their former liberty; and, having often experienced the superiority of the Romans, consented to submit, and were content with safety. From that time the Romans seemed more desirous of securing what they possessed than of making new conquests; and were employed rather in repressing than punishing their restless northern invaders.

ors.

For several years after the time of Agricola, a profound peace seems to have prevailed in Britain; and little mention is made of the affairs of the island by any historian. The only incidents which occur, are some seditions among the Roman legions quartered there, and some usurpations of the imperial dignity by the Roman governThe natives remained totally subdued and dispirited: the arts of luxury had been introduced among them, and seemed to afford a wretched compensation for their former independence. All the men who had a passion for liberty were long since destroyed; the flower of their youth were draughted out of the island to serve in foreign wars; and those who remained, were bred up in servitude and submission. Such, therefore, were very unlikely to give any disturbance to their governors; and, in fact, instead of considering their yoke as a burden, they were taught to regard it as their ornament and protection. Indeed, nothing was likely to shake the power of Rome in the island, but the dissensions and distresses of the Romans themselves; and that dreadful period at last arrived.

Rome, that had for many ages given laws to nations, and diffused slavery and oppression over the known world, at length began to sink under her own magnificence. Mankind, as if by a general consent, rose up to vindicate their natural freedom; almost every nation asserting that independence of which they had been long so unjustly deprived. It was in these turbulent times that the emperors found themselves obliged to recruit their legions from the troops that were placed to defend the frontier provinces. When the heart of the empire was contended for, it was not much considered in what manner the extremities were to be defended. In this manner the more distant parts of the empire were frequently left without a guard; and the weakness of the government there frequently excited fresh insurrections among the natives. These, with a thousand other calamities, daily grew greater; and, as the enemies of the Roman people increased, their own dissensions among each other seemed to increase in the same proportion.

During these struggles the British youth were frequently drawn away into Gaul, to give ineffectual succour to the various contenders for the empire, who, failing in every attempt, only left the name of tyrants behind them. In the mean time, as the Roman forces decreased in Britain, the Picts and Scots continued still more boldly to infest the northern parts; and crossing the friths, which the Romans could not guard, in little wicker boats covered with leathers filled the country, wherever they came, with slaughter and conster nation. When repulsed by superior numbers, as was at first always the case, they retired with the spoil, and watched for the next opportunity of invasion, when the Romans were drawn into the remoter parts of the island.

These enterprises were often repeated, and as often repressed, but still with diminishing vigour on the side of the defendants. The southern natives being accustomed to have recourse to Rome, as well for protection as for laws, made supplications to the emperors, and had one legion sent over for their defence. This relief was in the beginning, attended with the desired effect; the barbarous invaders were driven back to their native deserts and mountains. They returned, however, when the Roman forces were withdrawn ; and although they were again repulsed by the assistance of a legion once more sent from Rome, yet they too well perceived the weakness of the enemy, and their own superior force.

At length, in the reign of Valentinian the Younger, the empire of Rome began to tremble for its capital; and its rulers, being fatigued with distant expeditions, informed the wretched Britons, whom their own arts had enfeebled, that they were now no longer to expect foreign protection. They accordingly drew away from the island all the Romans, and many of the Britons who were fit for military services. Thus, taking their last leave of the island, they left the natives to the choice of their own government and kings. They gave them the best instructions the calamitous times would permit, for exercising their arms, and repairing their ram

parts. They helped the natives to erect anew a wall of stone, built by the emperor Severus across the island, which they had not at that time artisans skilful enough among themselves to repair. Having thus prepared for their departure in a friendly manner, the Romans left the island, never more to return, after having been masters of it during the course of nearly four centuries.

It may be doubted whether the arts which the Romans planted among the islanders were not rather prejudicial than serviceable to them, as they only contributed to invite the invader, without furnishing the means of defence. If we consider the many public ways and villas of pleasure that were then among them, the many schools instituted for the instruction of youth, the numberless coins, statues, tessellated pavements, and other curiosities, that were common at that time, we have no doubt that the Britons made a very considerable progress in the arts of peace, although they declined in those of war. But, perhaps, an attempt at once to introduce these advantages will ever be ineffectual. The arts of peace and refinement must rise by slow degrees in every country; and can never be propagated with the same rapidity by which new governments may be introduced. It will take, perhaps, a course of some centuries before a barbarous people can entirely adopt the manners of their conquerors; so that all the pains bestowed by the Romans in educating the Britons, only served to render them a more desirable object of invasion, and dressed them up as victims for succeeding slaughter.

CHAPTER III.

430.

THE BRITONS AND SAXONS.

THE Britons, being now left to themselves, considered their CIRC. new liberties as their greatest calamity. They had been long taught to lean upon others for support; and, that being now taken away, they found themselves too feeble to make any opposition. Far from practising the lessons they had received from the Romans, they aggravated their misfortunes with unavailing complaints, which only served to render them still more contemptible. Unaccustomed both to the perils of war and to the cares of civil government, they found themselves incapable of forming or executing any measures for resisting the incursions of their barbarous invaders. Though the Roman soldiers were drawn away, their families and descendants were still spread over the face of the country, and left without a single person of conduct or courage to defend them. To complete the measure of their wretchedness, the few men of any note who remained among them were infected with the ambition of being foremost in command; and, disregarding the common enemy, were engaged in dissensions among each other.

In the mean time the Picts and Scots, uniting together, began to look upon Britain as their own, and attacked the northern wall with redoubled forces. This rampart, though formerly built of stone, had been some time before repaired with sods; and consequently, it was ill fitted to repress the attacks of a persevering enemy. The assailants therefore were not at the trouble of procuring military engines or battering-rams to overthrow it, but with iron hooks pulled down the inactive defenders from the top, and then undermined the fortification at their leisure. Having thus opened to themselves a passage, they ravaged the whole country with impunity, while the Britons sought precarious shelter in their woods and mountains.

In this exigence the unhappy Britons had a third time recourse to Rome, hoping to extort by importunity that assistance which was denied upon prudential motives. Aëtius, the renowned general of Valentinian, had, about that time, gained considerable advantages over the Goths, and seemed to give fresh hopes of restoring the Roman empire. It was to him they applied for succour, in a strain of the most abject solicitation. "The barbarians," said they, “on the one hand, drive us into the sea; the sea, on the other, drives us back upon the barbarians. We have only the hard choice left us, of perishing by the sword, or being drowned in the deep." Such, however, were the calamities of the Romans themselves, surrounded as they were by myriads of savage nations, that they could yield no assistance to such remote and unserviceable allies.

A. D.

446.

The Britons, thus neglected, were reduced to despair; while, having left their fields uncultivated, they began to find the miseries of famine added to the horrors of war. It happened, however, that the barbarians themselves began to feel the same inconveniences in a country which they had ravaged; and, being harassed by the irruptions of the Britons, as well as by the want of necessaries, they were obliged to retreat from the southern parts of the kingdom laden with spoil.

The enemy having thus left the country open, the Britons joyfully issued from their mountains and forests, and pursued once more their usual arts of husbandry, which were attended with such abundance in the succeeding season, that they soon forgot all their past miseries. But it had been happy for them if plenty had not removed one evil to plant another. They began, from a state of famine, to indulge themselves in such riot and luxury, that their bodies were totally enervated, and their minds debauched.

Thus, entirely occupied in the enjoyment of the present interval of peace, they made no provision for resisting the enemy, who were only taking breath to renew their former invasions. Christianity, indeed, had been introduced among them some time before, though at what period is not certainly known: however, to the other calamities of the state were added also their disputes in theology. The disciples of Pelagius, who was a native of Britain, had increased

in a great degree; and the clergy, who considered his opinions as heretical, were more solicitously employed in resisting them than in opposing the common enemy. Besides all these calamities, a terrible pestilence visited the southern parts of the island, which thinned its inhabitants, and totally deprived them of all power of resist

ance.

It was in this deplorable and enfeebled state that the Britons were informed of fresh preparations for an invasion from their merciless northern neighbours. To oppose their progress, they pitched upon Vortigern as their general and sovereign; a prince who is said to have raised himself to the supreme command by the murder of his predecessor. This step was only productive of fresh calamities. Vortigern, instead of exerting what strength yet remained in the kingdom, only set himself to look about for foreign assistance; and the Saxons appeared to him at once the most martial, and the most likely to espouse his interests.

The Saxons were one branch of those Gothic nations which, swarming from the northern hive, came down to give laws, manners, and liberty, to the rest of Europe. A part of this people under the name of Suevi, had, some time before Cæsar's invasion of Gaul, subdued and possessed an extensive empire in Germany. These, for their strength and valour, were formidable to all the German tribes. They were afterwards divided into several nations, and each became famous for subduing that country which was the object of its invasion. France, Germany, and England, were among the number of their conquests.

There is a period between savage rudeness and excessive refinement, which seems peculiarly adapted for the purpose of war, and which fits mankind for great achievements. In this state of halfrefinement, when compared to the Britons, were the Saxons at the time their assistance was thought necessary. They dressed with some degree of elegance, which the generality of the Britons, even though so long under the instructions of the Romans, had not yet learned to practise. Their women used linen garments trimmed and striped with purple. Their hair was bound in wreaths, or fell in curls upon their shoulders; their arms were bare, and their bosoms uncovered;-fashions which, in some measure, seem peculiar to the ladies of England to this day. Their government was generally an elective monarchy, and sometimes a republic. Their commanders were chosen for their merit, and dismissed from duty when their authority was no longer needful. The salaries they were supplied with, seldom exceeded a bare subsistence; and the honours they received were the only reward of their superior dangers and fatigues. The custom of trying by twelve men is of Saxon original slavery was unknown among them, and they were taught to prefer death to a shameful existence. We are told by Marcellinus, that a body of them, being taken prisoners, were kept for exhibition on the amphitheatre at Rome, as gladiators, for the entertainment of the people. The morning however on which they