Ancient British History.

process , their former triumphs—than Roman influence exercised over Britain . Scarcely a trace remained of Roman laws or institutions when fhey finally left us ; nothing remained but the weakness and emasculation resulting from the fact , that the Britons had been relieved by a standing army of the ancient custom of performing , each man for himselfmilitary duty and hereagainwe have

, ; , , a lesson for guidance in present affairs . I shall conclude this part of my subject , by again quoting , in confirmation ofthe views I have suggested , and the facts I have mentioned , the following observations of Lord Chief Justice Eortescuc , in reference to the treaty by which Britain remained united with the Roman empire for nearly three hundred years . " In the time of all the different nations and kings , Britain has always been governed

by the same customs as form the base of its laws at present . If these ancient British customs had not been most excellent , reason , justice , ancl the love of their country , would have induced some of the kings to change or alter them , especially the Romans , who ruled all the rest of the world by the Roman laws . " And Sir "Winstone Churchill , in his Bici Brilannici , says , "The Britonswhether bcompactcompromiseor other meansstood

, y , , , , it is evident , in the matter of the enjoyment of their own laws ancl liberties , in a different position towards the Roman government to any other province in the empire . They certainly made such conditions as to keep their own kings and their own laws . " I now cuter upon a gloomy period of our national historyaccepting the general account . Unused to arms , the Britons called in the services of the Saxons and all know

mercenary ; you . that for about five hundred years preceding the Norman conquest , the Saxons , Danes , or other foreigners ; arc supposed to have belli dominion in England , and this race arc not only supposed to be the progenitors of by far the greater portion of the English as a race , but also the authors of all that wc venerate under the name of laws , customs , constitution , and liberty—that , in a

word , the Anglo-Saxon character and race is our passport to posterity . ^ One great name will at once occur to your minds in confirmation of this almost organic caste ivhich has been . given to English history—Alfred the Great ; though you ivill hardly call to mind one other . And , it is not to be questioned that the stern , unyielding , matter-of-fact element , ivhich has ever enabled Englishmen to rise superior to every vicissitude of fortune , to hold their the world

own against , ancl to regain in modern times , more by their Individual energy than by any accidental efforts of their governors , that preeminence among the nations of the world which was their most ancient prerogative , is due , under Providence , to the admixture with the ancient British race of the fresh vigour of the Saxons . Beyond this fact—and also that by slow degrees in the lowlands

of our island foreign influences occasioned the disuse of the ancient British language , and thus led to the formation of that new language , which , as reduced to grammatical order by Shakspeare and other men of that class , bids fair , if such be the destiny of any language , to be the universal medium of communication for the human race—I feci it a duty to say , and it is in some respect a painful onethat the less wc dwell the charactcr

, upon ancl achievements of our early Saxon progenitors the better it will be for the credit of our national history . To justify so unpopular , and perhaps so unexpected an opinion , I must quote irom the pages of two as thorough Englishmen as have ever written on the

BUUJCCD . Mr . Kemble , in his book on the Anglo-Saxons , states , page 290 : — "England had gone entirely out of cultivation ; the land had become covered with forests ; tho Saxons had found the ancient cities entire ; their grandeur attracted the attention of observant historians , their remains yet testify to the astonishing skill and foresi ght of their builders ; but the Saxons neither took possession of the townsnor themselves the trouble of des

, gave - troying them : the boards and woodwork they most likely removed ; the nnperceived action of the elements did * the rest . Among the mountains of the Kymri , a race as little subjugated by the Romans as by ourselves , were the traces of the old nationality alone to be found . " And Dr . Whittaker , whose reputation as an accurate English historian has never heen impeached , writes as follows : — "The Saxon laws were contemptible for imbecility ; their habits odious for

intemperance ; and if we can for a moment persuade ourselves that their language has any charms , ifc is because it forms the rugged basis , of our own tongue . For the rest , independently of general history , we have no remaining evidence but that of language that such a race of men as the Saxons ever existed among us . " And to these extracts I reluctantly add , iu reference to one . feature in their character , the testimony of a thorough Saxon , by

name " Wulfston , iu his day Bishop of AVorcester . "It is , " he writes , " a most moving sight to sec , in the public markets , rows of young people of both sexes tied together with ropes . Execrable fact—wretched disgrace ! Men , unmindful even of the affection of the brute creation , delivering into slavery their relations , and even their own offspring !" Without detaining yon with the story of Hengist ancl Horsa

, the leaders of our first Saxon allies , or wearying you with any attempt to compress into the compass of this lecture the dismal narrative of the five hundred years of battles , slaughters , and massacres , —words ivhich do most truly indicate the efforts by which not Saxons only , but numerous races , such as Jutes , Angles , and Danes , strove chiefly with each other fco obtain possession of various districts of the island—I shall proceed at once to establish

, for our common country of Britain—in which all these races , with many others who have subsequently eagerly joined the glorious British union , have been for great purposes usefully absorbedthe preeminent claim of having been the first as a nation to recognize ( and the most consistently of all the nations of the earth to have held firm to ) Christianity as transmitted to mankind by the immediate disciples and apostles of our Saviour himself .

I do not doubt that many of my hearers are under the impression that Christianity in this island dates . from about the end ofthe sixth century , and that it is to a monk named Augustin , sent from Rome for that purpose , that our ancestors are indebted mainly , if not entirely , for the light of the Gospel ; for such is also a part of the lessons taught by our scholastic history . I can assure you that it is from no desire to utter startling novelties , or to raise controversial questions , but simply to discharge a duty to truth and to tact , that I now state , without

the slightest fear ot contradiction , that neither this Augustin , nor the Pope who sent him , cither intended or accomplished the introduction of Christianity amongst the ancient Britons , in any further or other sense than our talented contemporary , Cardinal " Wiseman , cither intends or has accomplished such conversion in the present day . Cardinal "Wiseman came here , as we all know , a few years since , with a portfolio of bishops and other dignitaries ,

and forthwith declared that England was in a lair way of returning—so the phrase goes—to the bosom of the Catholic church . His predecessor , Augustin , in a like manner , came over with a retinue of forty monks , and being graciously received by the pagan Regains , or king of Kent , and hy the influence of Bertha his wife having obtained possession of the old British church at Canterbury , he proceeded to execute the real object of his mission ,

—to induce the British church , then known and recognized as the first and oldest in the world , to recognize the Bishop of Rome in his character , then quite recently assumed , of Bishop of Bishops , or Pope ; in other words , the mother and mistress of all churches ; and , accordingly , a grave conference was held between Augustin and his monks and the bishops of the British church . 'Two conferences took place under the protection of Brockwell , Prince of

Powys , at Austcliffc , on the Severn ; and , as Leland states , the discussions were carried on , especially on -the part ofthe British bishops , with great learning and gravity . The names of the bishops who had been deputed by the Archbishop of St . David to conduct this controversy on the part of the British church were , Dunawcl Abbot of Bangor , and the Bishops of Hereford , "Worcester , Baugor , St . Asaph , Llandaff , Llanbadarn , and Margain , and the conference closed by the British bishops delivering , on behalf of their church and people , the following dignified rejection ofthe papal claims : —

, ; Be it known and declared to you that wo all , individually and collectively , are in all humility , prepared to defer to tbe church of God and to the Pope of Home , and to every nincerc and godly Christian , no far as to love every one according to his degree in perfect charity anil to assist them all hy word aud deed in becoming the children of God . But as for further obedience , we know of none that he , ivboin you term the Pope or Bishop of Bishops , can claim or demand . The deference which ire have mentioned we are ever ready to pay to him as to every other Christian , but in all other respects onr obedience is clue to the Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Caerleon , who is alone under ( "foci our ruler , to keep us right in tho way of salvation . "

From the day that saw the close of that conference on the banks of the Severn , Augustin and his successors have used to the uttermost , even to the present day , every weapon in the Romish armoury , first to uproot and destroy this church during the six hundred years that it still continued to exist , and from 1203 , when for a time it was absorbed into the Roman Catholic system , to efface and ignore the vestiges of its existence . The Roman church has had many enemies to contend with in its efforts to subjugate the human mind , and for its own pious purposes it has not scrupled to employ such means as have tried severely the very fabric of