IV. number, only two originally, was increased to four; by CHAP which their power was balanced and broken. Their authority was not lessened; but its nature was totally A. D changed: for it became from that time a dignity and of- 306 fice merely civil. The whole empire was divided into four departments under these four officers. The subor dinate district were governed by their vicarii; and Britain accordingly was under a vicar, subject to the præfectus prætorio of Gaul. The military was divided nearly in the same manner; and it was placed under offi cers also of a new creation, the magistri militia. Immediately under these were the duces, and under those the comites, dukes and counts, titles unknown in the time of the republic, or in the higher empire; but afterwards they extended beyond the Roman territory, and having been conferred by the northern nations upon their leaders, they subsist to this day, and contribute to the dignity of the modern courts of Europe. But Constantine made a much greater change with regard to religion, by the establishment of christianity. At what time the gospel was first preached in this island, I believe it impossible to ascertain; as it came in gradually, and without, or rather contrary to public authority. It was most probably first introduced among the legionary soldiers; for we find St. Alban, the first British mar tyr, to have been of that body. As it was introduced privately, so its growth was for a long time insensible; but it shot up at length with great vigour, and spread itself widely at first under the favour of Constantius, and the protection of Helena, and at length under the establishment of Constantine. From this time it is to be considered as the ruling religion; though heathenism subsisted long after, and at last expired imperceptibly, and with as little noise as christianity had been at first introduced. In this state, with regard to the civil, military, and religious establishment, Britain remained without any change, and at intervals in a tolerable state of repose, until the reign of Valentinian. Then it was attacked all at once with incredible fury and success, and as it were in concert, by a number of barbarous nations. The prin- 364 cipal of these were the Scots, a people of ancient settlement in Ireland, and who had thence been transplated into the northern part of Britain, which afterwards derived its name from that colony. The Scots of both A. D. BOOK nations united with the Picts to fall upon the Roman proI. vince. To these were added the piratical Saxons, who issued from the mouths of the Rhine. For some years 364 they met but slight resistance, and made a most miserable havoc, until the famous Count Theodosius was sent to the relief of Britain; who by an admirable conduct in war, and as vigorous application to the cure of domestic disorders, for a time freed the country from its enemies and oppressors, and having driven the Picts and Scots into the barren extremity of the island, he shut and barred them in with a new wall, advanced as far as the remotest of the former; and, what had hitherto been im368 prudently neglected, he erected the intermediate space into a Roman province, and a regular government under the name of Valentia. But this was only a momentary relief. The empire was perishing by the vices of its constitution. Each province was then possessed by the inconsiderate ambition of appointing a head to the whole; although, when the end was obtained, the victorious province always returned to its ancient insignificance, and was lost in the common slavery. A great army of Britains followed the fortune of Maximus, whom they had raised to the impe388 rial titles, into Gaul. They were there defeated; and from their defeat, as it is said, arose a new people. They are supposed to have settled in Armorica, which was then, like many other parts of the sickly empire, become a mere desert; and that country from this accident has been since called Bretagne. 411 The Roman province, thus weakened, afforded opportunity and encouragement to the barbarians again to invade and ravage it. Stilico, indeed, during the minority of Honorius, obtained some advantages over them, which procured a short intermission of their hostilities. But as the empire on the continent was now attacked on all sides, and staggered under the innumerable shocks which it received, that minister ventured to recall the Roman forces from Britain, in order to sustain those parts which he judged of more importance, and in greater danger. On the intelligence of this desertion, their barbarous enemies break in upon the Britains, and are no longer resisted. Their ancient protection withdrawn, the people became stupified with terror and despair. They petition the emperor for succour in the most moving terms. The emperor, protesting his weakness, commits IV. A. D. them to their own defence, absolves them from their al- CHAP legiance, and confers on them a freedom, which they have no longer the sense to value, nor the virtue to defend. The princes, whom after this desertion, they 411 raised and deposed with a stupid inconstancy, were stiled emperors. So hard it is to change ideas, to which men have been long accustomed, especially in government, that the Britains had no notion of a sovereign, who was not to be emperor, nor of an emperor, who was not to be master of the western world. This single idea ruined Britain. Constantine, a native of this island, one of those shadows of imperial majesty, no sooner found himself established at home, than fatally for himself and his country, he turned his eyes towards the continent. Thither he carried the flower of the British youth; all who were any ways eminent for birth, for courage, for their skill in the military or mechanic arts: but his success was not equal to his hopes or his forces. The remains of his routed army joined their countrymen in Armorica, and a baffled attempt upon the empire a second time recruited Gaul and exhausted Britain. The The Scots and Picts, attentive to every advantage, rushed with redoubled violence into this vacuity. Britains, who could find no protection but in slavery, again implore the assistance of their former masters. At that time Aetius commanded the imperial forces in Gaul, and with the virtue and military skill of the ancient Romans supported the empire tottering with age and weakness. Though he was then pressed hard by the vast armies of Attila, which, like a deluge, had overspread Gaul, he afforded them a small and temporary succour. This detachment of Romans repelled the Scots; they repaired the walls; and animating the Britains by their example and instructions, to maintain their freedom, they departed. But the Scots easily perceived and took advantage of their departure. Whilst they ravaged the country, the Britains renewed their supplications to Aetius. They once more obtained a reinforcement, which again re-established their affairs. They were, however, given to understand, that this was to be their last relief. The Roman auxiliaries were recalled, and the Britains abandoned to their own fortune for ever. When the Romans deserted this island, they left a 432 country, with regard to the arts of war or government, in a manner barbarous, but destitute of that spirit, or VOL. V. [ 51 ] 1. 432 BOOK those advantages, with which sometimes a state of barbarism is attended. They carried out of each province its proper and natural strength, and supplied it by that A. D. of some other, which had no connexion with the country. The troops raised in Britain often served in Egypt; and those which were employed for the protection of this island, were sometimes from Batavia or Germany; sometimes from provinces far to the east. Whenever the strangers were withdrawn, as they were very easily, the province was left in the hands of men wholly unpractised in war. After a peaceable possession of more than three hundred years, the Britains derived but very few benefits from their subjection to the conquerors and civilizers of mankind. Neither does it appear, that the Roman people were at any time extremely numerous in this island, or had spread themselves, their manners, or their language, as extensively in Britain, as they had done in the other parts of their empire. The Welch and the Anglo-Saxon languages retain much less of Latin, than the French, the Spanish, or the Italian. The Romans subdued Britain at a later period; at a time when Italy herself was not sufficiently populous to supply so remote a province; she was rather supplied from her provinces. The military colonies, though in some respects they were admirably fitted for their purposes, had however one essential defect. The lands granted to the soldiers did not pass to their posterity; so that the Roman people must have multiplied poorly in this island, when their increase principally depended on a succession of superannuated soldiers. From this defect the colonies were continually falling to decay. They had also in many respects degenerated from their primitive institution.* We must add that in the decline of the empire a great part of the troops in Britain were barbarians, Batavians, or Germans. Thus at the close of this period, this unhappy country, desolated of its inhabitants, abandoned by its masters, stripped of its artizans, and deprived of all its spirit, was in a condition the most wretched and forlorn. * Neque conjugiis suscipiendis, neque alendis liberis sueti, orbas sine posteri domos relinquebant. Non enim, ut olim universæ legiones, cum tribunis et centurionibus, et suis cujusque ordinis militibus, ut consensu et caritate rempublicam efficerent, sed ignoti inter se, diversis manipulis, sine rectore, sine affectibus mutuis, quasi ex alio geners mortalium, repente in unum collecti, ramorus magis quam colonia. Tacit. anual. xiv. 27. AN ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. BOOK II. CHAP. I. The Entry and Settlement of the Saxons, and their I AFTER having been so long subject to a foreign domi- CHAP nion, there was among the Britains no royal family, no respected order in the state, none of those titles to go- A. D. vernment confirmed by opinion and long use, more effi- 447 cacious than the wisest schemes for the settlement of the nation. Mere personal merit was then the only pretence to power. But this circumstance only added to the misfortunes of a people who had no orderly method of election, and little experience of merit in any of the candidates. During this anarchy, whilst they suffered the most dreadful calamities from the fury of barbarous nations, which invaded them, they fell into that disregard of religion, and those loose disorderly manners, which are sometimes the consequence of desperate and hardened wretchedness, as well as the common distempers of ease and prosperity. At length, after frequent elections and deposings, rather wearied out by their own inconstancy, than fixed by the merit of their choice, they suffered Vortigern to reign over them. This leader had made some figure in the conduct of their wars and factions. But he was no sooner settled on the throne, than he showed himself rather like a prince born of an exhausted stock of roy |