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shed will be indemnified in their actions by the Romans, who will remember the ingratitude they have received for the many favours they have at different periods conferred on our nation. Do you reflect upon the consequences a revolt will inflict upon your wives and families? perhaps not! yet I implore you to pity the mother of cities, this sacred temple, and preserve the holy utensils sanctified within it; for the Romans will not any longer refrain their hands from them, since they have reaped no advantage from having hitherto spared them. For my part, I take all your solemn things to witness, and call upon the holy angels of God and my country, that I have passed by nothing that anyways concerns your welfare and safety; as for you, if you are resolved to act in concert in those things which are absolutely necessary to be done, you will live peaceably with me; but if you are bent to pursue the dictates of your inveteracy and furious passion, you will then expose yourselves to numberless calamities, which I shall have no hand in, and have done all in my power to prevent."

This speech of Agrippa's is as applicable to the present times, as it is to the subject under discussion. It shows how the Romans kept their immense territory under obedience, and it points out the consequence of a country without resources, rising in revolt against the powerful state to which it had been subjected.

It illustrates examples of subsistence received, tributes exacted, taxes levied, without military force, merely by the prestige of power; and it proves that a comparatively small interval of tranquillity will enable a land to recover its prosperity.

Rome maintained order in the civilised countries that were under her sway, and collected the revenues without garrisoning a single fortress; aud Judæa, although ravaged by Antiochus, and involved in a merciless contention under the Maccabees, furnished the Asmonean and Herodian princes with weapons, forts and treasure.

But ancient Rome presents the still more astonishing instance of a powerful state advancing in grandeur and strength, after its aristocracy had become corrupt, its institutions vicious, and its people effeminate; which could only arise from its effective military organisation.

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Vice is a many-headed monster, folly her imitative child;" and the vices and follies of Caligula and Claudius, were made subservient to the designs of Providence, in subjecting Britain to the sway of the Romans, before the numerical preponderance of mercenary soldiers in the ranks of the legions allowed them to feel themselves masters of the destinies of Rome.

The earliest inhabitants of Britain came from Gaul, their language was the Celtic, their form of government the same as that of wandering tribes, taking possession of an unoccupied country, who follow patriarchal rule, until, their numbers increasing, gradually bring them nearer to each other, when disputes bring on wars; contending parties then form alliances with one or more neighbouring clans, which become consolidated into one kingdom, under a monarch to whom the heads of the respective clans profess obedience, whilst their own chiefs retain authority. within their respective circles. Such was the origin of the thirty-eight kingdoms into which England was divided, when first invaded by the Romans.

Previous to the visit of Claudius, the Britons had no towns; a few thatched houses, scattered over a tract of woody country, and surrounded by a mound or ditch, for the security of themselves and their cattle, was the abode of those among them who had formed societies for the protection of their property; and this property had been accumulated by trade.

Many centuries before Cæsar led his legions across the straits of Dover, the Phenicians had an extensive commerce with Britain; but they required neither tribute nor hostages, their object was commerce, not conquest; they had goods to offer much coveted by the natives, which they would barter for the tin and pearls of the island; and they contented themselves with the possession of the rocky islets of Sicily, the famed Casseterides, which afforded them harbours for their barks, and depôts for their merchandise; which they could easily fortify against pirates, or attacks from the rude natives of the opposite coast.

These islets were called Casseterides by the Greeks; just as from the Latin word stannum we have formed stanneries, to signify tin-works. It is asserted that, after the route to Britain became known, Greek traders from Massalia (Marseilles) opened a commerce with its inhabitants, and secured a share of the profits the Phenicians had so long monopolised. Strabo gives, as an instance of the jealous spirit which the mariners of Tyre and Sidon had imbibed as to this traffic;—a ship, laden with tin, being chased by a Roman vessel of greater force, the captain and owner ran her on shore, that he might have a chance of drawing his eager enemy into the same misfortune, or at least prevent his rich cargo from falling into the hands of his enemies; his conduct was not

only applauded by his countrymen, but ample compensation made him for the loss of his ship and

cargo.

Solinus, writing on Britain, says, the inhabitants of the coast near the Casseterides would not part with their valuable commodities for money, but insisted upon having goods for goods; and that this did not arise from ignorance-for that the value of money was known to them-but from a spirit of traffic. By the time of Tacitus, the people of Cornwall, from their constant intercourse with traders, had become more courteous and civil than the rest of their countrymen, which is affirmed by Diodorus Siculus.

The most valuable articles of British exports were tin, lead, iron, gold and silver, corn, dogs, horses, cattle, hides and skins, and particularly pearls, which, according to Pliny, were esteemed by the Romans as the most precious and excellent of all things, and bore the highest price. Besides all these articles, great numbers of slaves, probably prisoners taken in war, or criminals condemned to slavery for their crimes, were exported from Britain, and sold like cattle in the Roman market.

The goods imported were brass, ivory, drinking glasses, cups of amber, vases of various kinds, trinkets and gold chains, bridles and ornamental materials for chariot-harness.

When the Romans had established themselves in towns, the Britons began to imitate their luxurious mode of living; the imports exceeded the exports, and brought the balance of trade against them; but, as they improved in the knowledge of agriculture and the arts, they raised and prepared more articles for consumption as well as for exportation, and by

this means brought and kept the balance of trade in their favour, which enabled them to pay more regularly the heavy taxes imposed on them. The most productive of these was a land-tax, raised from the levy of a fifth to a twentieth of the produce of all arable lands, according to their fertility, and on pasture-grounds, or rather on the cattle that grazed on them. The proprietors of mines of all kinds of metals were also obliged to pay a certain proportion of their profits to the state; and there was besides a poll-tax or capitation (which the Romans laid on all nations they had conquered), a great variety of taxes on particular things, as on houses, pillars, hearths, &c., &c.; independent of all these, a twentieth was exacted from all estates and legacies that were left by will to such persons as would not have been otherwise entitled to them by right of blood. If the calculations of Lipsius may be depended on concerning the amount of the Roman revenue in Britain, it was not less than two millions sterling annually.

But the power of Rome was on the decline; unmindful of the cause which constantly threatened the overthrow of Carthage, the armies were filled with mercenaries, and the empire rapidly approached its dismemberment; the Romans gradually withdrew the legions from Britain, and, when they took their farewell, the dissolution of all order, law and government attended their departure, and the wretched country was plunged into the most deplorable darkness, ignorance and confusion; though adorned with noble monuments of arts and industry, crowded with cities, towns and villages, communicating with one another by the most substantial roads. But the families of the ancient British princes had been either extin

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