one another and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ has forgiven us." ESSAY IV. On the Affairs of Britain, from the Administration of AGRICOLA, to its final Abandonment by the Romans. A. D. 85—A. D. 411. THOUGH the present essay includes a long series of years, few incidents are recorded relative to that period which possess any degree of interest. From the recall of Agricola by Domitian to the splendid reign of Adrian, nothing is known to have transpired in Britain, tending to disturb the general harmony; except that the northern tribes, (which are sometimes denominated Picts and Scots, and sometimes Caledonians,) frequently ravaged the frontiers of the Roman provinces. Adrian was not satisfied with charging his generals to protect his British subjects from these incursions, but resolved to visit the island in person, that he might decide with greater certainty on the requisite means of defence. On his arrival in Britain, he first proposed to attempt the complete subjugation of the mountaineers in Wales and Scotland, who still struggled for independence; but, on more mature consideration, finally resolved to contract the Roman provinces within narrower limits, and to throw up a rampart of earth, which stretched from sea to sea, and which he imagined, might prove an effectual barrier. But scarcely had the emperor quitted Britain, when a multitude of these northern invaders poured like a desolating torrent from their native mountains, and broke down the rampart in many places, though defended with the utmost skill and valour of the Roman legions. In the reign of Antoninus Pius, the Brigantes revolted, and were reduced to their former state of subjection by Lollius Urbicus, who also drew a second boundary line beyond that of Adrian. The administration of the succeeding emperors affords but a perpetual repetition of the same facts. The British subjects of the Roman empire were continually harassed by the predatory incursious of the Cambrians on the west and the Caledonians on the north and these were as constantly repulsed by the more disciplined valour of the Roman soldiers. During a part, at least, of the period to which this essay refers, though the executive government was exclusively administered by Roman officers, the Britons were allowed to retain a shadow of independence, by having nominal princes of their own nation appointed over them. Thus Arviragus is alluded to by Juvenal, as a native British king, in the reign of Domitian; and Lucius, the first British prince who openly professed Christianity, flourished in the reign of Commodus. About the same period new disturbances broke out in Britain, which were of so formidable a nature as to require the talents of Marcellus, who was a commander of distinguished reputation in a degenerate age. By his moderation, no less than by his valour, the authority of Rome was re-established, and continued undisturbed till the days of Severus. The reign of Severus forms an era in the early history of Britain, on account of the personal attention paid by that monarch to the improvement and security of Britain. His latent strength was expended in efforts to restore and perpetuate the tranquillity of the British provinces. For this purpose, he built, at a prodigious expense, a stone wall on the site of Adrian's entrenchments, which was fortified by towers placed at the distance of one mile from each other; each of which contained a small garrison, acting in concert with the rest. Yet even these measures proved ineffectual. The barbarians, as the Romans affected to consider them, scaled this wall without difficulty, and renewed their former depredations. Wearied with these ceaseless but unavailing struggles, and heart-broken by the detection of his son's conspiracy against his life, Severus died at Eboracum, or York, which was then the principal seat of the Roman government in Britain. In the contentions for the imperial crown which followed, the Britons had their full share; for not unfrequently did they invest their favourite generals with the imperial purple. Of the thirty tyrants (as they were called) who contended at the same time for the government of Rome, five are supposed to have been military commanders in Britain. The vigorous reign of Dioclesian gave fresh energy to the Roman government through all its provinces, but it is remarkable for a temporary suspension of the Roman authority in Britain. Carausius, a native of Gaul, who had long carried on a system of piracy along the Gallic and British coasts, at length contrived to obtain possession of the island, and to ingratiate himself with its inhabitants, so as to defy the utmost efforts of imperial Rome. Dioclesian was under the necessity of acknowledging him as an independent sovereign, and surrendering to him the government of Britain. After having reigned several years, Carausius was assassinated by Alectus, who, in his turn, assumed the title of Emperor of Britain, but was soon vanquished by Constantius, who succeeded to the command of the British provinces. Constantius ruled with great moderation, and thus secured to himself the affections of his British subjects. He endeavoured to soften the rigours of the Dioclesian persecution, though he was unable wholly to protect the Christians from the fury of the oppressor. It has been imagined by some that he was rendered still more favourable to this persecuted sect, by having married Helena, the daughter of Coel, a chief magistrate of Colchester, who had embraced Christianity; and that Constantine was born at York of this British princess. But these statements are not confirmed by sufficient evidence, though by no means improbable. After this period new distresses awaited the British provinces, in which the Roman colonists and the subjugated natives had become blended into one people. In addition to the incursions of the Caledonians, the coasts were now infested by Saxon adventurers, who landed, whenever it was practicable, carried off the flocks and herds of the unprotected islanders, and returned to their fleets to divide the spoil. The troops which had formerly been stationed on the island, were now gradually withdrawn for the defence of other and more important provinces of the Roman empire, which had been overrun by Goths, Huns, Vandals, and Ostrogoths. Nor were the Roman legions alone withdrawn from Britain, but the flower of the British youth had been induced by promise of large rewards, and the expectation of military honours, to enrol themselves amongst the legionary troops of the empire; though their own distracted country needed all the wisdom of their counsels, and the vigour of their arms. Some feeble attempts were indeed made at distant periods to protect the British provinces from invaders, but they were both temporary and ineffectual. Theodosius, who flourished in the reign of Valentinian, made a last expiring effort. After him no foreign aid was afforded to the unhappy Britons, who had become enervated and defenceless by the policy of their conquerors. In vain did they pour forth their complaints from year to year, and earnestly solicit but one protecting legion. Rome herself was exposed to the most imminent dangers, and could only echo back the groans of her desolated provinces. At length, in the same year in which the capital was taken and sacked by Alaric*, Honorius, who then occupied the tottering throne, formally released the Britons from the Roman jurisdiction, and exhorted them to concert measures for their own defence. Thus terminated the government of the Romans in Britain, after a period of four hundred and sixty years, if we reckon from the first invasion of Julius Cæsar to the final abandonment of the island in the reign of Honorius. However unjust was the commencement, arbitrary the progress, and disastrous the issue, of that domination, it was upon the whole productive of important benefits to the vanquished natives; inasmuch as it raised them gradually to a degree of civilization and refinement, to which otherwise they could not have attained; and especially inasmuch as it proved the means of communicating * Rom. Hist. Book III. Essay 10. to them the greatest and best of blessings, the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Spartian. in vit. Adrian, Sever. &c. Aurel. Vict. Ammian. Zosim. Euseb. in Constant. &c. REFLECTIONS. More than three centuries of the history of Britain have passed rapidly before our view in the preceding narrative, and what a melancholy picture do they exhibit! A perpetual series of internal commotions and foreign depredations fill up the calamitous scene, by which a nation once brave and free were gradually reduced to the most abject state of dependance and wretchedness! Alas! this is but too faithful a representation of the degraded condition of our apostate race. Assailed by temptations from every quarter, and held in moral thraldom by those sinful passions which have acquired a fatal ascendency within our own breasts, we have fallen from that state of purity and freedom in which we were first created, into the extreme of helpless misery. The tyrants, to whom we have submitted, promise us, it is true, peace and safety-they give us assurances of honour and happiness, of protection and succour, in the time of need-but they, like the treacherous Romans, desert us in the hour of danger, and leave us the wretched victims of despair and death. Imperial Rome discovered, when it was too late, that those remote conquests in which she gloried, and those distant provinces which were expected to pour into her lap the treasures of the universe, in reality impoverished, weakened and destroyed her. This page of her history not only furnishes a most instructive political lesson to the princes and conquerors of the earth, teaching them to moderate their desires and curb their insatiable ambition; but it admonishes, in impressive VOL. I. C |