Ancient British History.

neither moats nor ramparts , camps ; and they think if they have plenty of gold they have no need of steel : " and the result of these national errors having been their entire annihilation , in conflict with the Britons , the lesson thus handed clown to us is nofc inapplicable to the exigencies of the present clay . The period of British history of ivhich I have just presented these isolated features is called the Trojan eraaud includes about

, a thousand years before Christ , the event of the conquest of Rome by the British host occupying about the middle of that period . The remarkable fact" connected , with this portion of our history is , that although it ivas the period when the foundations of our present jurisprudence were laid , and when that energy of character which appears to be indigenous to the inhabitants of this island manifested itself in enterprises ivhichfor magnitude of

, conception and splendour of achievement , have scarcely been surpassed even by ourselves—it seems to have been purposely excluded from our scholastic literature .. "When brought to light by those who prefer tracing our national pedigree to such au ancestry , rather than to such barbarians , or even savages , as these our early ancestors are in most school books depicted , it is confronted ancl denied on the authority of that class of monkish and

priestly writers who have systematically clone moro to destroy the vestiges of ancient times than Goths , Vandals , or Saracens . Who can deny , ou the question of jurisprudence , the authority of Lord Coke and Lord Eortcscue ; or , as to warlike prowess ancl achievement , ' what better testimony cau we have than the Roman writers themselves , bearing witness to the chivalrous gallantry of their conquerors ? Andif time permittedI could show bthe

, , you y testimony of the holy scriptures themselves , that as to our commerce , it was then comparatively as predominant throughout the world as at the present time . Read the 26 th and 27 th chapters of the Book of Ezckiel ; you will there find that Tyre , the most famed commercial mart of antiquity , is by the prophet characterised as the " merchant of the isles afar off ; " and wherever you find , in the scriptures or elsewhere , the article of " bronze "

mentioned—a metal which entered greatly into the ornamental ivories of those days—you have evidence of British commerce and mineral productions ; for in no other country in the world has tin , the chief element of bronze , been found or worked—until within -quite a modern date—except in Britain . I must now pass over five hundred years , and iutroducc to you some features of the Roman , invasion ; and , confining myself

chiefly to Julius Ccesar's own account of that event , I have no doubt I shall satisfy you that up to that period at all events the British character had not degenerated . 'The classic authors all concur in stating that prior to Caisar no foreign conqueror had ever ventured to assail the shores of Britain ; ancl he justifies his invasion of Britain by alleging that the Britons were the first aggressors . This is iu fact confirmed by the historic triads of

. Britain , which record the fact that 57 , 000 men ivere sent over to Gaul to aid the jieople on the continent in resisting the torrent of Roman conquest . This was in the year 57 is . o ., and in a little more than a year afterwards Caisar sent forth his mandate for tribute ancl submission ; to which the British king and pendragon , Caswallon , sent the following reply .- — "We have received your letter demanding tribute and

submission on the part of this island of Britain to the senate of Rome . The ambition of the Roman people wc know to be insatiable ; Europe is too little for them ; they covet the riches of the nation whom the ocean itself divides from the rest of the world . But our possessions alone will not content them * . wc must cease to he tree—wc must become their slaves . The Britons and Romans derive their descent from the same Trojan

'Origin : such consanguinity should be the firmest guarantee of peace and equality between them . Our alliance we freely tender to Rome ; but as for subjection , we have never hitherto known the thing even by name . If the gods themselves invaded our liberties , we would to the utmost of our power defend them ; much more arc we prepared to do so against the Romans , who are , like ourselves , but men . "

. Ihe first invasion by Ciesar accordingly ensued and took place in August 55 n . c . ; and on the *? : ! rd September following he reembarked with Lis entire force , having never advanced beyond seven miles from the spot upon which he landed , lost one pitched battle , and , what bad never before occurred in his career of conquest , his own camp was attacked by the victorious Britons . He himselfin his own account of this campai states that he

, gn , saw for the first time iu Britain the chariot system of Troy ; and , as in contrast to those pictorial sketches of our British ancestors which rejoice in . representing them as naked savages besmeared with blue and red paint , I will give you OcKnr ' s opinion of the military force by which lie was opposed .

He states that the force as organized by Caswallon embodied the two essentials which military science seeks to combine in a perfect branch of service—the rapidity of cavalry , and the stability of infantry . The chariots ivere built * of light well seasoned wood , many of ' them richly emblazoned and adorned with precious metals ; they generally hold two , sometimes four , combatants : they were drawn by two horses abreast , so thoroughly broken , in *

to their work thatCaisar states that in descending a hill at full speed they would , ou a motion of the charioteer , wheel round and retrace their course , scarcely slackening their pace . The charioteers themselves frequently leaped from the chariot upon the pole , rearranged the harness , and returned to their place : they drove standing . Erom the axletrees of the chariots keen falchions of great breadth projectedinflicting the most hastl

, g y wounds , ancl rendering it a matter of no small peril to attempt to attack the chariot on the Hank . They drew up in divisions , each under its own commander , ancl all of them under the pendragon , Ouc of the divisions commenced the action by bearing down on some given point of the enemy ' s line . The spectacle of the charge itself , the shouts of the combatants , the rush of the horsesand the roar of so wheelsmingling with the claug

, many , of arms , rarely failed , adds Caisar , before a blow was exchanged , to disorder the ranks of the best disciplined troops opposed to them . In the second invasion , which , took place on the 10 th of May following , Caisar maintained his footing on our island somewhat longer ; but although aided ou this occasion by the treasonable licity of a British chiefnamed Avarwylie again left the

comp , , island with all his forces on 2 < ifch September , B . C . 5-1 , having concluded a treaty with the British general , as to which much controversy has prevailed . The Britons alleged that the second invasion was a more serious failure even than the first ; while C'csar ' s own statement to the contrary receives _ little confirmation from the fact that for ninety-seven years afterwards no

Roman again ventured to plant a hostile foot on our island ; and , to epiote the words of Mr . Morgan , the Cambrian historian , " when the Roman eagle under Claudius once more expanded its wings to the stormy winds of Britain , it was when no other enemy unconquered met its eye from the Euphrates to Gibraltar , and tlie empire it symbolized had leisure to turn the whole of its vast forces against the sole free people of the "West . "

This Clauditm invasion commenced A . D . ' 13 , and after forty-two years of incessant warfare , in which the whole force of the Roman empire—then the undisputed mistress of the world—was continuously , with three short intervals , directed against this island , again terminated by their expulsion from Britain . To enumerate the events of this period , or the heroes or heroines by whom on both sides were performed prodigies of valour and generalship worthy

of British aud of Roman , renown , or to confer , especially upon the Britons and their leaders the laurels clue to their heroic memories , does not fall within the scope of my lecture , which is merely to show that wc Britons ofthe present day have a national pedigree worthy of our national character , and that it is for our national honour ancl advantage that , so far as history will justify us , we should connect ourselves by race ancl pedigree as ivell as by name with these heroic times . Tacitus , the Roman historian , says— "Britain , which was at last considered effectually conquered , ivas lost in an instant . " Feme provincia ( an untamable

province is the term applied by the Latin historian to our island ) ; and Juvenal , the great Roman satirist , suggests as the most extraordinary and gratifying news that could be received at Rome —the fall of the British king . " Has our great enemy , " he says , " Arviragus , the car borne British king , dropped from his battle throne ? " Ancl Tacitus also , speaking of the Silurian portion of Britain states , " that they could neither be coerced by any

measures , however sanguinary , nor bribed by an } ' promises , however . brilliant , to acknowledge the dominion of Rome ; " and when at length , after forty years of undisturbed peace , Marks , king of Britain , A . D ., Ill , concluded a treaty with Trajan , whereby Britain at last consented no longer to stand isolated from the rest of the Roman world , and consented to become part integral of the Roman ireit was upon the

followingemp , conditions : —that the Britons should continue to live under their own laws and native kings ; that the Roman law should be confined to such cities as chose to become nmnicipia or colonics ; that no Briton should he disturbed in his hereditary estates . ; ancl that the three Roman legions to be stationed atCaerleon , Chester , ancl York , should be recruited wholly from British volunteers , and never ordered on foreign service . And from this period to the

final break up of the Roman empire ,-it would not be difficult to prove that British influence exercised as much control over the Roman empire—and thereby again realized , though by a different