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ral parts of the island. But they met with a noble and determined foe in Caractatus, the son of King Cunobelinus. Caractatus was finally defeated, and carried captive, together with his wife and children, to Rome. His calm and dignified demeanour before the Emperor Claudius conquered his haughty conqueror. Claudius, we are told, received him graciously, and restored him to liberty.

For some time after this the Roman power was almost stationary in Britain, until Suetonius Paulinus became governor of the island. He saw that the great bond of union among the Britons was the Druidical religion, and determined, without delay, to extirpate it utterly. He proceeded at once to the stronghold of Druidism, the island of Mona, now called Anglesea. The following is the account which Tacitus has given of this expedition :-"On the opposite shore there stood a wildly-diversified host; there were armed men in dense array, and women running among them, who, in dismal dresses and with dishevelled hair, like furies carried flaming torches. Around were Druids, pouring forth curses, lifting up their hands to heaven, and striking terror, by the novelty of their appearance, into the hearts of the Roman soldiers, who, as if their limbs were paralysed, exposed themselves motionless to the blows of the enemy. At last, aroused by the exhortations of their leader, and stimulating one another to despise a frantic band of women and priests, they make their onset, overthrow their foes, and burn them in the fires which they themselves had kindled for others. A garrison was afterwards placed there among the conquered, and the groves sacred to their cruel superstition were cut down."

This is a picture in words after the manner of Rembrandt. It is a midnight view of Druidism, under a strong glare of light. There is not, we think, a more impressive scene than this invasion of the island of Mona to be met with in the entire account of the Roman transactions in Britain. Even the resistance, defeat, and suicide of the high-spirited and sensitive Boadicea, which took place soon after the foregoing event, do not excite so powerfully the emotions of pity, wonder, and horror. Sir Walter Scott surely had the

above description in his mind's eye when he wrote that magnificent passage in the "Lady of the Lake,' " where the retreat in the island is discovered by the enemy :—

"Viewing the mountain's ridge askance,
The Saxons stood in sullen trance,
Till Moray pointed with his lance,

And cried-Behold yon isle !-
See! none are left to guard its strand,
But women weak that wring the hand :
'Tis there of yore the robber band

Their booty wont to pile ;-
My purse, with bonnet pieces store,
To him will swim a bow-shot o'er,
And loose a shallop from the shore.
Lords of his mate, and brood, and den.'
Lightly we'll tame the war-wolf then,
Forth from the ranks a spearman sprung,
On earth his casque and corslet rung,

He plunged him in the wave :—
All saw the deed-the purpose knew,
And to their clamours Benvenue
A mingled echo gave;

The Saxons shout, their mate to cheer,
The helpless females scream for fear,

And yells for rage the mountaineer," &c.

The Romans made very little further progress in Britain, notwithstanding the victories of Suetonius, until the time of Agricola.

Here then ends our second view of the Britons. It is evident that, under the circumstances, very little change could possibly have taken place in the condition of the people, from the landing of Cæsar up to the period at which we have arrived, except a change for the worse; for war and national prosperity are totally incompatible.— The terms on which the conquerors stood to the conquered completely prevented the introduction of Roman civilization, except in the most indirect way. So we may safely conjecture that as yet the Britons were far from being benefited by their acquaintance with the Romans.

3. We now come to say a few words on the state of Britain, from the time of Agricola till the abandonment of the island by the Romans.

About the year A.D. 78, Cneius Julius Agricola undertook the government of Britain. Under this distinguished man the Britons were made in reality subjects of Rome, not by force of arms, but by the mild and humanizing influence of civilization. The true and effectual subjection of a people is accomplished only by the latter method; and Agricola seems to have been fully aware of

this. By rapidity, decision, and valour, when war was unavoidable, and by mildness, justice, and benevolence in time of peace, he spread the actual dominion of Rome in Britain to its utmost extent. According to Dr. Lingard :— "Sensible of the errors of his predecessors, he reformed the civil administration in all its branches, established a more equitable system of taxation; listened with kindness to the complaints of the natives, and severely punished the tyranny of inferior officers.

At his instigation the chieftains left their habitations in the forests, and repaired to the vicinity of the Roman stations. There they learned to admire the refinements of civilization, and acquired a taste for improvement. The use of the Roman toga began to supersede that of the British mantle; houses, baths, and temples were built in the Roman fashion; children were instructed in the Roman language; and with the manners were adopted the vices of the Romans. In these new pursuits the spirit of independence speedily evaporated; and those hardy warriors, who had so long braved the power of the emperors, insensibly dwindled into soft and effeminate provincials." Here, for the first time, we see the country elevated into a position which entitled it to the name Roman Britain. Henceforward Britain rapidly passed into the condition of a Roman province. About this time, also, history is silent concerning Britain for the space of thirty years. What a vast change must have taken place during this period of comparative tranquillity, in the condition of Southern Britain especially. A knowledge of the Roman modes of agriculture, of mining, of conducting mercantile transactions, and of the useful arts generally, doubtless spread steadily and surely among the people. The refined cadence of Roman song, and the stately march of Roman history, gradually softened the iron souls of these uneducated islanders, and rendered them capable of feeling those numerous and delicate emotions peculiar to civilization. The Roman laws, the admiration of all ages, must have exerted a powerful influence over the social state of Britain. The introduction of the fine arts, and all that we understand by Roman luxury, awakened their imaginations, but enervated their frames.

One is here tempted to ask, what would have been the results to Britain and to the world, if matters had gone on in this manner for two or three centuries; and if Britain, thus Romanized, had becone an independent state? A vain, but, nevertheless, a very curious question; curious, because we see involved in the answer to it more or less of change in the condition of every known country in the world. Thus we see it is with nations as well as with the minutest particle of matter; no change can be made on either without, at the same time, causing vast relative changes on everything around. We know in part the laws of matter; but imagination fears to ask what are the great and mysterious laws of nations?

It seems unnecessary to go into the detail of the government of Britain as an integral portion of the vast Roman empire. We may just mention those gigantic structures of defence against the inroads of the savage inhabitants who roamed at large through the wilds of Caledonia. They were successively raised by Agricola, Lollius Urbicus, and Severus; and the remains of some of them to this day astonish the modern beholder. Such examples as these were of what energy, skill, and perseverance are able to accomplish, ought to have taught the conquered Britons a valuable national as well as moral les

son.

Notwithstanding the many acts of injustice and cruelty which were perpetrated on the Britons by successive Roman governors, after the time of Agricola, they were becoming more Roman every day. Roman roads, towns, and other forerunners of civilization, were rapidly extending everywhere. But in course of time it was the lot of the proud conquerors themselves to submit to the yoke. Mighty Rome, enfeebled in consequence of its own vastness, was no longer able to repel the attacks of the fierce barbarians of Northern Europe. To save herself from destruction, she recalled her legions from the extremities of the empire. Britain, no longer protected by Roman discipline and valour, became a prey to her old enemies, the Picts and Scots, who poured down in vast numbers into the cultivated plains of Southern Britain, plunder and havoc accompanying them wherever they came.

By-and-bye, on these helpless Britons and marauding Scots came the great Saxon wave of invasion. The result is well known. The hardy Saxon freebooters became the masters of Britain, and, with the exception of the change effected by the Norman Conquest, laid the foundation of the present English nation.

It does not come within the scope of this article to pursue the subject farther. We conclude our remarks by saying not in the spirit of a partial patriotism -not under the influence of a superstitious veneration for past or present glory-but from the strong conviction

which is produced by a calm consideration of the facts of the case, that Britain is emphatically the greatest nation in the world. In Britain, there is the greatest amount of personal security-the greatest amount of social, intellectual, and moral liberty-the highest standard of civilization. In Britain, the mind of man is free to follow its highest aspirations after excellence, to push its inquiries after truth to the farthest extent, and to communicate freely whatever it conceives to be instrumental in advancing the great principles of Truth, Justice, Peace, and the Progress of Man.

THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA.

FREELY TRANSLATED FROM SCHILLER.

THEY Come-they come-the foemen's haughty ships,
With clang of fetters and a faith abhorred,
And thunder on the cannon's brazen lips-
They come to waste thy shores with fire and sword.

A floating host of fearful citadels,

Onward they sail with slow, majestic motion:
INVINCIBLE their name; while scarcely swells

Beneath their mighty bulk, the awe-struck ocean.

Each tempest holds his breath a breeze unfolds
Their flags, half imaged in the water's breast:
Death, slavery, and destruction in their holds,
They calmly glide, and sky and ocean rest.

And still that navy nears! a tempest-cloud,
Threatening to burst on thy devoted shore.
England, thou must not fall! the free, aloud

Shall wail thy doom when thou art free no more.

What saved thee then? Was it thy warriors, sprung
From mighty Norman chiefs, that fought of old?
Was it thy Magna Charta, bravely wrung

From kings, by men that knew their rights to hold?

No! but thy God did not abandon thee

To be the prey of tyrants; thee He cherished

To be the chosen guardian of the free;

God, the All-powerful, breathed upon the sea,
And-the Armada perished!

D

OUR AMERICAN EMPIRE.

PART II.

[We resume our consideration of this subject from page 37.]

IN our former article on this subject we called the attention of our readers to the projected lines of railway that are to connect the Eastern and Western extremities of the settled parts of British America, and to the probable effect of this increased facility of communication in producing a closer political union between our American Colonies.

There is another question of territorial politics of great, though not immediate, importance. We allude to the Hudson's Bay Company's monopoly. This company enjoys the exclusive right of commerce, and a certain territorial jurisdiction, throughout those vast regions which are watered by the streams that discharge themselves into Hudson's Bay and the Arctic Ocean, together with so much of that part of the Continent that lies between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean as belongs to the British Crown. This company is the last survivor of the many exclusive trading corporations which were constituted in former generations, for the purpose of trading with remote and barbarous countries. These did good service in their time: for, though no monopoly can be defended when the choice is between monopoly and free trade, yet it is probable that cases existed where the choice was between monopoly and no trade at all. They pushed a trade when the enterprise of private merchants would have been unable to do so, and, being armed with somewhat of the powers of government, they were able to protect their dependents from the violence of barbarians. Had the East India Company never obtained a charter of exclusive trade, the British would never have become dominant in India. But such a monopoly, like every other exclusive privilege, becomes an odious oppression the moment it ceases to be necessary. The monopoly of the East India Company was put down by the common sense of the British nation that of the Hudson's Bay Company has been permitted, mainly through its comparative insignificance, to remain until now.

This company has for its object the

trade in fur: consequently, it cannot be expected to promote colonization, for efficient cultivation is incompatible with the preservation of wild animals. Yet, at some future time the Hudson's Bay country will be wanted for colonization. We conceive, therefore, that it will be the duty of the British and Canadian parliaments, jointly, to purchase the rights of the Company, and to annex the country to Canada. The Hudson's Bay country is contiguous to Canada, and separated from it by no natural barrier; from Canada it will be colonized, and through Canada its commerce will pass. A canal of two miles in length, which a rapid renders necessary, will soon unite, if it does not already, the navigable waters of Lakes Huron and Superior; from Lake Superior to Lake Winipeg there is a water communication by means of various rivers and lakes, which is broken in many places by "portages," where the light canoes of the country are carried from one stream to another, or past a rapid; and the river Saskatchewan, which flows into Lake Winipeg, affords a farther navigation westward of several hundred miles, broken by but a single rapid, and with a seam of coal on its banks, placed as if expressly for the supply of steamers. When the country is sufficiently settled to call for such facilities, a few miles of canal will suffice to avoid the "portages;" and then there will be a continuous inland navigation across more than half the breadth of North America, from the Atlantic almost to the foot of the Rocky Mountains.

The British territory lying between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific, which is now occupied by the Hudson's Bay Company, ought not, however, to be annexed to Canada, because its colonization and commerce will not flow through Canada, but from Britain direct. It has no more to do with Canada than with Australia, and will, no doubt, be a separate British Colony. It is a country of much milder climate that to the East of the Rocky Mountains, between the same parallels: it produces timber of large size in some places, and in others it is open and grassy, and well adapted for the rear

ing of cattle it is capable of producing whatever will grow in the British Islands. Vancouver's Island, which forms a part of the region that we are speaking of, contains valuable seams of easily-worked coal; and a vein of gold has been recently discovered in Queen Charlotte's Island, which is to the North of Vancouver's Island, and inhabited only by Indians. A few years ago it appeared that the country beyond the Rocky Mountains, and north of California, would be one of the last places in the world to become of any value, but the discovery of the Californian gold mines, and the consequent establishment of a line of communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, by the Isthmus of Panama, have changed its prospects; and it is probable that, at no distant period, Vancouver's and Queen Charlotte's Islands, and the neighbouring Continent, will be peopled by a race of industrious and thriving British settlers, exporting wheat, timber, and coals, to California and the Sandwich Islands, and hides, tallow, and perhaps gold, to Britain.

We may here mention an extraordinary and gigantic, yet, in our opinion, a practicable project. A line of railway is to unite New York with the Upper Mississippi, and an American, Mr. Whitney, proposes to continue this to San Francisco. "But how is this to pay, for some generations to come?" In the same way that the Halifax and Quebec Railway will pay-by the increased value given to the land through which the railway passes. Mr. Whitney proposes that Congress should grant to him, for ever, the land for a certain distance-thirty miles, if we recollect rightly-on each side of the railway, on condition of his making the railway, which, when made, is to be for ever the property of the United States; the funds for the construction of the line, and the profits on the undertaking, to be supplied by the sale of the land so granted; and no part of the land to become the property of Mr. Whitney, or his representatives, until the railway is actually made through

such land.

The project of making a railway, not to accommodate the population already in the country, but in hopes of attracting settlers, sounds strangely enough in Europe, but we have already

spoken of its feasibility in America. It is our belief that there would be no difficulty in making the railway in the manner proposed, if the country from the Mississippi to San Francisco were practicable and fertile all the way. But this is not the case. Between the wide prairies of Louisiana and Texas, on the one side, and the fertile valleys of California on the other, there lies a vast and scarcely habitable desert, like those of Asia and Africa. A desert, unlike a forest or a prairie, cannot be increased in value by a railway running through it; so that this part of the line cannot be made with the funds arising from the sale of the adjacent lands. Mr. Whitney proposes to reserve some lots of land in the more fertile districts for the purpose of defraying, by means of their sale, the expense of making the railway through the desert. This seems feasible enough; but, suppose the line made, the desert will yield no local traffic, and can a railway be worked in a country where water is only to be found at distant intervals?

There is no such difficulty in the way of making a railway from the Atlantic to the Pacific through British territory, for the desert does not extend so far northward. We have seen that a railway will be made from Halifax to Quebec, and thence towards the south-west, passing Montreal. Should the construction of the Atlantic and Pacific Junction Railway, through British territory, be ever determined on, it will probably run from Montreal up the fertile valley of the Ottawa, which is at present the chief timber-producing region of Canada, thence along the northern shores of Lakes Huron and Superior, through a rich mineral district : thence through a vast region, mostly fertile, and chiefly consisting of prairies, to the Rocky Mountains; and through the most practicable pass of those mountains to some convenient port on the Pacific Ocean.

The Rocky Mountains would not be an insurmountable obstacle. It is nothing but the expense that prevents the Piedmontese Government from making a railway over, or rather under the Alps, at the pass of the Mont Cenis; and the Rocky Mountains are not so high nor so difficult to make a road through as the Alps. The expense of this part of the line may be defrayed,

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