ultimately secured to him the possession of imperial sway in Britain, he conducted them into Gaul, where he contended for the pernicious trophy of unbounded dominion. His efforts were, for a short time, attended with success; but the delusive commencement of his enterprise was followed by quick and fatal reverses. He was opposed by his own General, Gerontius; and his army was broken, and himself captured and put to death, in the year 411.

We are now arrived at a period of the British annals which has afforded a subject for some historical scepticism, and critical discussion. The narration of events connected with the Roman sway in Britain has chiefly depended, through several of the preceding sections, on the testimony of Zosimus. But we are now forsaken by that guide; and the remaining particulars, relating to the history of this island, until the era of the Saxon invasion, rely on authorities which are far from conveying entire satisfaction, as they are not of a contemporary date. The most ancient historiographer of this period is Gildas, who wrote in the sixth century. The venerable Bede gives extracts of his work; and labours, but without success, to illustrate it by chronological reduction. Nennius, who wrote in the seventh century, affords little that is acceptable; and the production of Geoffrey has been styled by some a British romance, and was considered as such, even by the critics of an age much less disposed to scepticism in history than the present.

The authority of such writers is, certainly, of so doubtful a nature as to demand great severity of inquisition; but it has been deemed acceptable by many modern historiaus, and I, therefore, present a succinct narration, founded on the testimony of Gildas and Bede; but shall afterwards notice the critical remarks of a recent very intelligent author.

According to the statement of the former annalists, the British province, weakened at every point, now returned to the obedience of the Emperor Honorius. Some troops were sent from Rome, in the succeeding year, for a reinstatement of good order; but they were speedily recalled, to assist in defending

the

the interior of the empire against its barbarous assailants; and the Scots and Picts, who foresaw the fall of South Britain, and waited with eagerness to seize on the riches of its cultivated lands and numerous buildings, then rushed forwards, under the hope of meeting with an easy prey. But Romanized Britain was not yet weakened to extremity. Although deprived of a regular army, the Roman veterans who were connected with the islanders by intermarriage, by the possession of estate, and by habits of long residence, were so numerous, and so well disposed to fight in defence of their homes and property, that a formidable stand was made against the invaders; and they were ultimately repulsed, with loss.

These Roman settlers appear to have derived much assistance from the South Britons, in the opposition thus successfully inade to the advance of the northern tribes. But it had been the uniform policy of the Romans to remove, as recruits of their armies in distant provinces, such of the tributaries as they trained to the use of arms; aud it must be recollected that Britain had lately been drained of extraordinary numbers of its youth, by the foreign expeditions of the usurpers, Maximus and Constantine, The native population was, therefore, incapable of vigorous and lasting resistance. The northern enemies, on the contrary, were in possession of a youthful military power, bred to war as a trade, and which had never passed beneath the yoke of a conqueror. The irruptions of these hardy and necessitous warriors were repeated through several successive years; and the Roman government was so far from being able to render assistance, that the Emperor Honorius resigned all claim to the allegiance of the provincials, and left them to defend their own cause. The greater part of the British-Romans, convinced of their want of strength to preserve their possessions in tranquillity, now relinquished their lands; and, carrying with them their money and most valuable moveables, repaired to the continent.

Thus abandoned even by the domiciliated portion of their conquerors, and left without either civil or military government,

the Britons are described as constituting, at this juncture, a timid, disorderly multitude, ready to become an easy prey to the first bold invader. The Scots and Picts, as might be expected, took advantage of their helpless situation; and, passing the Firths of Forth and Clyde, plundered the contiguons districts. In this melancholy condition, the Britons supplicated assistance of Rome; and the Emperor Honorius, now more at leisure, in consequence of some successes over the Goths, and probably calculating on the benefits to be derived from future levies of recruits, if the islanders remained tributary, acceded to their petition, and sent a legion to their aid. The Roman arms were again victorious on the theatre of former exploit. The Scots and Picts were compelled to retire with precipitation and great loss. The triumphant legion having thus honourably performed its allotted task, returned to the continent before the expiration of the year in which it entered Britain;-the year 416.

The departure of the veterans was the signal for fresh commotions. Eager for spoil, the tribes to the north of Antoninus's wall again passed the boundary, penetrated the province, and spread the miseries of sword and fire in their progress. Incapable of self defence, the Britons, as before, looked for succour to the head of the empire. The embassadors who now approached the Emperor are said to have appeared before him with rent garments, and other voluntary tokens of humiliation and distress. Their intreaties met with attention, and a legion was sent to the aid of South Britain, under the command of Gallio of Ravenna.

It was again proved that the tribes of the north, so formidable to the South Britons in these ages, were unable to cope with the Roman veterans. Their straggling, predatory bands were defeated with great slaughter; and the survivors fled to their woods and mountainous fastnesses, in dismay. After clearing the south from these ferocious invaders, the legion remained nearly two years in Britain, for the purpose of contributing, by instruction

and

and active assistance, all practicable aid to the future security of the inhabitants.

In pursuit of this object, Gallio, convinced that the wall of Antoninus was an insufficient barrier, and that a diminution of territory must be desirable to a weak people, directed that the whole of Valentia (or the space between the walls) should be resigned to the northern nations. The wall of Severus he ordered to be thoroughly repaired, with stone; and this work was performed by the united labours of the legion and the Britons of the south. Having completed the defensible state of the frontier in this direction, he built many forts, and towers of observation, on the coasts towards the south; as that part of the island was often infested by the piratical visits of the Franks and Saxons. He then impressed on the Britons, so long the tributaries of Rome, and still her willing adherents, a knowledge of the military tactics which had enabled a single legion to render them efficient assistance; and, having performed these friendly offices, he exhorted them to exert the courage of free men, and to rely, as such, on their own efforts, since no further assistance could be expected from the distracted government of their former masters.

In the leading particulars of the above narration, Gildas and Bede are followed by Camden, and by several modern writers, amongst whom may be noticed Dr. Henry; but Mr. Turner, in the history of the Anglo-Saxons, dissents from the propriety of an appeal to the "querulous" Gildas, and takes a very different view of the affairs of this important era. According to Mr. Turner, the Britons were so far from renewing a timid allegiance to Honorius, after the death of Constantine, that," in this ex tremity, they displayed a magnanimous character; they remembered the ancient independence of the island, and their brave ancestors, who still lived ennobled in the verses of their bards; they armed themselves, threw off the foreign yoke, deposed the imperial magistrates, proclaimed their insular independence, and, with the successful valour of youthful liberty and endangered existence, they drove the fierce invaders" (barbarians, stimu

lated

lated to the invasion of Gaul and Britain by the traitorous Gerontius,) "from their cities.

"Thus," continues Mr. Turner, "the authentic history from 407, is, that the barbarians, excited by Gerontius, burst in terror upon Gaul and Britain; that Constantine could give no help, because his troops were in Spain; that Honorius could send none, because Alaric was overpowering Italy; that the Britons, thus abandoned, armed themselves, declared their country independent, and drove the barbaric invaders from their cities; that Honorius sent letters to the British states, exhorting them to protect themselves; and that the Romans never again recovered the possession of the island.”*

It is justly noticed by the above historian, that the narrative of Gildas consists chiefly of declamation, and that the declaimer is less entitled to notice as he has stated nothing concerning the Emperors, or regular succession of transactions, after Maximus; but, as the operating point of his own remarks is founded on individual opinion, ideas of a contrary tendency may, perhaps, arise in the mind of some readers.

Mr. Turner appears to consider it as granted that the Britons were desirous of severing their country from a connexion with Rome, although he admits that they had, in times very briefly precedent, supplicated succour from the empire; and had, indeed, been accustomed to rely for defence on its soldiers. Such a reliance was, in truth, almost unavoidable, when we remember that the policy of the Romans denied military exercise to all provincials, except such as they wished to attach to the legions of the empire on foreign service.

It is very probable that the taxes exacted by the Romans were oppressively heavy; and it is certainly natural for a people possessed of energetic habits, and conscious of sufficient resources, to aspire after, and to seek, independence on foreign control. But it does not distinctly appear that the South Britons were actuated

* Turner's Hist. of the Anglo-Saxons, Vol. I. p. 77.