to return, after having been masters of it dur- A. D. 458. ing the course of near four centuries. It may be doubted, whether the arts which the Romans planted among the islanders were not rather prejudicial than ferviceable to them, as they only contributed to invite the invader, without furnishing the means of defence. If we confider the many public ways, and villas of pleasure that were then among them, the many fchools inftituted for the inftruction of youth, the numberlefs coins, ftatues, teffelated pavements, and other curiofities that were common at that time, we can have no doubt but that the Britons made a very considerable progress in the arts of peace, although they declined in thofe of war. But, perhaps, an attempt at once to introduce these advantages will ever be ineffectual. The arts of peace and refinement muft rife by flow degrees in every country, and can never be propagated with the fame 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; fo that all the pains bestowed by the Romans in educating the Britons, only ferved to render them a more defirable object of invasion, and dreffed them up as victims for fucceeding flaughter. CHAP. CHA P. III. The BRITONS and SAXONS. THE Britons being now left to them felves, confidered their new liberties as their greatest calamity. They had been long taught to lean upon others for fupport; and that now taken away, they found themselves too feeble to make any oppofition. Far from practifing the leffons they had received from the Romans, they aggravated their misfortunes with unavailing complaints, which only ferved to render them ftill 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 refifting the incurfions of their barbarous invaders. Though the Roman foldiers were drawn away, their families and defcendants were ftill fpread over the face of the country, and left without a single perfon 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 be ing foremost in command; and difregarding the common enemy, were engaged in diffenfions 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 fome time before repaired with fods; and confequently, was but ill fitted to reprefs the attacks of a perfevering enemy. The affailants, 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 leifure. Having thus opened to themselves a paffage, they ravaged the whole country with impunity, while the Britons fought precarious fhelter in their woods and mountains. In this exigence, the unhappy Britons had a third time recourfe to Rome, hoping to extort by importunity, that affiftance which was denied upon prudential motives. Ætius, the renowned general of Valentinian, had about that time gained confiderable advantages over the Goths, and feemed to give fresh hopes of reftoring the Roman empire. It was to him. they A. D. 448. they applied for fuccour, in a ftrain of the most abject follicitation. The Barbarians, said they, on the one hand, drive us into the fea; the fea, on the other, drives us back upon the Barbarians. We bave only the bard choice left us, of perishing by the fword, or being drowned in the deep. Such, however, were the calamities of the Romans themselves, furrounded as they were by myriads of favage nations, that they could yield no affiftance to fuch remote and unferviceable allies. The Britons, thus neglected, were reduced to defpair; 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 themfelves began to feel the fame inconveniencies in a country which they had ravaged; and being harraffed by the irruptions of the Britons, as well as the want of neceffaries, they were obliged to retreat from the fouthern parts of the kingdom laden with fpoil. The enemy having thus left the country open, the Britons joyfully iffued from their mountains and forefts, and pursued once more their ufual arts of hufbandry, which were attended with fuch abundance the fucceeding season, feafon, that they foon forgot all their past miferies. But it had been happy for them, if plenty had not removed one evil to plant another. They began, from a ftate of famine, to indulge themselves in fuch 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 invafions. Christianity, indeed, had been introduced among them fome time before; though, at what period, is not certainly known however, to the other calamities of the ftate were added also their disputes in theology. The difciples of Pelagius, who was a native of Britain, had encreased in a great degree; and the clergy, who confidered his opinions as heretical, were more follicitoufly employed in refifting them, than in oppofing the common enemy. Befides all these calamities, a terrible peftilence vifited the fouthern parts of the island, which thinned its inhabitants, and totally deprived them of all power of refiftance. It was in this deplorable and enfeebled ftate, that the Britons were informed of fresh preparations for an invafion from their merciless VOL. I. D northern |