IV. A. D. 432. languages retain much less of Latin than the French, CHAP. the Spanish, or the Italian. The Romans subdued Britain at a later period; at a time, when Italy herself was not sufficiently populous to supply so remote a province; she was rather supplied from her provinces. The military colonies, though in some respects they were admirably fitted for their purposes, had however one essential defect: the lands granted to the soldiers did not pass to their posterity; so that the Roman people must have multiplied poorly in this island, when their increase principally depended on a succession of superannuated soldiers. From this defect the colonies were continually falling to decay. They had also in many respects degenerated from their primitive institution*. We must add, that in the decline of the empire a great part of the troops in Britain were Barbarians, Batavians, or Germans. Thus, at the close of this period, this unhappy country, desolated of its inhabitants, abandoned by its masters, stripped of its artisans, and deprived of all its spirit, was in a condition the most wretched and ་ • Neque conjugiis suscipiendis neque alendis liberis sueti, orbas sine posteris domos relinquebant. Non enim, ut olim universæ legiones, cum tribunis & centurionibus, et suis cujusque ordinis militibus, ut consensu & caritate rempublicam efficerent, sed ignoti inter se, diversis manipulis, sine rectore, sine affectibus mutuis, quasi ex alio genere mortalium, repente in unum collecti, numerus magis quam colonia. Tacit. annal. xiv. 27. ̄` AN ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. BOOK II. BOOK A. D. 447. CHAP. I. The Entry and Settlement of the Saxons, and their Conversion to Christianity. AFTER having been so long subject to a foreign dominion, there was among the Britains no royal family, no respected order in the state, none of those titles to government confirmed by opinion and long use, more efficacious than the wisest schemes for the settlement of the nation. Mere personal merit was then the only pretence to power. But this circumstance only added to the misfortunes of a people, who had no orderly method of election, and little experience of merit in any of the candidates. During this anarchy, whilst they suffered the most dreadful calamities from the fury of barbarous nations, which invaded them, they fell into that disregard of religion, and those loose I. loose disorderly manners, which are sometimes the CHAP. consequence of desperate and hardened wretchedness, as well as the common distempers of ease and prosperity. At length, after frequent elections and deposings, rather wearied out by their own inconstancy, than fixed by the merit of their choice, they suffered Vortigern to reign over them. This leader had made some figure in the conduct of their wars and factions. But he was no sooner settled on the throne than he showed himself rather like a prince born of an exhausted stock of royalty in the decline of empire, than one of those bold and active spirits, whose manly talents obtain them the first place in their country, and stamp upon it that character of vigour essential to the prosperity of a new commonwealth. However, the mere settlement, in spite of the ill administration of government, procured the Britains some internal repose, and some temporary advantages over their enemies the Picts. But having been long habituated to defeats, neither relying on their king nor on themselves, and fatigued with the obstinate attacks of an enemy, whom they sometimes checked, but could never remove, in one of their national assemblies it was resolved to call in the mercenary aid of the Saxons, a powerful nation of Germany, which had been long by their piratical incursions terrible not only to them but to all the adjacent countries. This resolution A. D. 447. II. A. D. BOOK resolution has been generally condemned. It has been said, that they seem to have through mere cowardice distrusted a strength not yet worn 447. down, and a fortune sufficiently prosperous. But as it was taken by general counsel and consent, we must believe, that the necessity of such a step was felt, though the event was dubious. The event indeed might be dubious; in a state radically weak, every measure vigorous enough for its protection must endanger its existence.. There is an unquestioned tradition among the Northern nations of Europe, importing, that all that part of the world had suffered a great and general revolution by a migration from Asiatick Tartary of a people, whom they call Asers. These every where expelled or subdued the ancient inhabitants of the Celtick and Cimbrick original. The leader of this Asiatick army was called Odin, or Wodin; first their general, afterwards their tutelar deity. The time of this great change is lost in the imperfection of traditionary history, and the attempts to supply it by fable. It is however certain, that the Saxon nation believed themselves the descendants of those conquerors; and they had as good a title to that descent as any other of the Northern tribes for they used the same language, which then was, and is still, spoken with small variation of the dialects, in all the countries, which extend from the polar circle to the Danube. This people most probably I. A. D. probably derived their name, as well as their origin, CHAP. from the Sacæ, a nation of the Asiatick Scythia. At the time, of which we write, they had seated themselves in the Cimbrick Chersonesus, or Jut- 447. land, in the countries of Holstein and Sleswick, and thence extended along the Elbe and Weser to the coast of the German Ocean, as far as the mouths of the Rhine. In that tract they lived in a sort of loose military commonwealth of the ordinary German model under several leaders, the most eminent of whom was Hengist, descended from Odin, the great conductor of the Asiatick colonies. It was to this chief that the Britains applied themselves. They invited him by a promise of ample pay for his troops, a large share of their common plunder, and the isle of Thanet for a settlement. The army, which came over under Hengist, did not exceed fifteen hundred men. The opinion, which the Britains had entertained of the Saxon prowess, was well founded; for they had the principal share in a decisive victory, which was obtained over the Picts soon after their arrival, a victory, which for ever freed the Britains from all terrour of the Picts and Scots, but in the same moment exposed them to an enemy no less dangerous. Hengist and his Saxons, who had obtained by the free vote of the Britains that introduction into this island they had so long in vain attempted by arms, saw, that by being necessary they were superiour |