Scarcely had he finished this great work, however, when the northern tribes recommenced hostilities, and Severus, vowing their extermination, again marched northward; but he was taken ill, and died at York (then called Eboracum), in the beginning of the year 211. Caracalla, his son and successor, made peace with the Caledonians, formally ceding to them the debatable ground between the Solway and Tyne, and the Friths of Clyde and Forth; after which he returned to Rome. Few particulars have been preserved in history concerning what passed in Britain for the next seventy years, but from some passages of ancient writers we may infer that it had become valuable as a province of the Roman empire. The produce of the mines it appears was considerable, large sums were sent from it annually as taxes, great numbers of Britons served in the Roman armies, the country was generally tranquil, and the inhabitants were making rapid progress in the arts of civilised life. When Britain re-appears in the annals of history it is as the scene of a new enterprise. In A.D. 228 Scandinavian and Saxon pirates began to ravage her coasts. At this time Diocletian and Maximian swayed the Roman empire, and to repress these marauders the emperors appointed Carausius, a Menapian, to the command of a strong fleet in the British Channel. Carausius defeated the pirates of the Baltic; but he was soon accused of collusion with the enemy, and the emperors sent orders from Rome to put him to death. On discovering this, Carausius took refuge with his fleet in Britain, where the legions rallied round his victorious standard, and bestowed upon him the imperial diadem. The joint Emperors of Rome attempted to reduce him to obedience, but they were defeated, and compelled to purchase peace by conceding to him the government of Britain, Boulogne, and the adjacent coasts of Gaul, together with the title of emperor. Under the reign of Carausius Britain figured as a great naval power. He built ships of war, manned them in part with Scandinavian and Saxon pirates, and remaining absolute master of the Channel; his fleets swept the seas from the mouths of the Rhine to the Straits of Gibraltar. But his reign was brief. He was murdered at Eboracum, or York, in the year 297, by Allectus, a Briton, who succeeded to his insular empire. Allectus reigned about three years, when he was defeated and slain by an officer of Constantius Chlorus, who had succeeded to the Roman empire on the resignation of Diocletian and Maximian. Constantius Chlorus died in A.D. 306, at Eboracum, and his son Constantine, afterwards called the Great, began his reign at that place. Constantine waged a doubtful war north of the wall of Severus, after which he left the island, taking with him a great number of British youths as recruits for his army; and from this time, to the death of Constantine in 337, Britain seems again to have enjoyed tranquillity. The Roman empire was now fast decaying, and the removal of its capital from Rome to Constantinople had its effects on the remote province of Britain. Under the immediate successors of Constantine, while the Frank and Saxon pirates ravaged the southern coasts, the Picts, Scots, and Attacots began to harass the northern provinces and to defy the wall of stone erected by Severus. In the year 367 it is said that the Picts and Seots pillaged Augusta, or the city of London, and carried off its inhabitants as slaves. They were in possession of that city when Theodosius arrived as governor of Britain; but he compelled them to retreat, and to relinquish the prisoners and booty they had captured. Theodosius remained in Britain two years, and did much towards restoring it to a state of prosperity. At this period, indeed, agriculture was so flourishing in Britain, that it supplied the Continent with large quantities of corn; its mines of lead and tin were also worked to a great extent, and even its chalk was exported. In 382, by one of the changes which were now becoming frequent, Maximus, the governor of Britain, assumed the title of emperor. He might have retained the island, but his ambition induced him to seek possession also of Gaul, Spain, and Italy. He withdrew nearly all his troops from Britain, and so many of the Britons followed him to Gaul that the island was left almost defenceless. He became by the defeat and death of Gratian the undisputed master of the Western Empire, and established the seat of his government at Treves; but Theodosius, called the Great, the Emperor of the East, marched against him, and, after being defeated in two great battles, Maximus retired to Aquilea, on the confines of Italy and Illyria, where he was betrayed to the conqueror, who ordered him to be put to death, A.D. 388. During the absence of Maximus the Picts and Scots had renewed their depredations in Britain; but Chrysantus, the lieutenant of Theodosius, repulsed them. In the reign of Honorius they and the Saxons recommenced their ravages, and it was in vain that Stilicho, the guardian of the boy-emperor, sought to restrain them. The Roman power was now indeed almost destroyed, and the Britons knowing this, permitted the soldiery to elect one Marcus Emperor of Britain. But Marcus was soon dethroned and put to death by the same soldiery who had exalted him, as was also a Gratian, whom they had set up in his stead. Their third choice fell on Constantine, who, like Maximus, aspired to the Empire of the West and, like Maximus, fell in the attempt to secure it, A. D. 411. After the death of Constantine Honorius twice sent over troops for the recovery and protection of Britain; but danger at home obliged him to recall them, and about the year 420, nearly five centuries after Cæsar's first invasion, the Roman emperors abandoned the island. A mutual friendship subsisted, however, some time after between the Britons and Romans, and the Emperor Honorius, in a letter addressed to the states of Britain, seemed formally to release them from their allegiance, and to acknowledge the national independence. The domination of the Romans over the Britons lasted for about 400 years, and after the period of transition and conflict was over, their rule was on the whole a happy one for the country. Under it civilisation rapidly gained ground. Order and magnificence, arts and literature, took the place of the imperfect government, the internal wars, the ignorance, the mud hovels, the towns in the woods, and the generally rude accommodations of the Britons. The country assumed a new aspect; cultivation was improved and extended, forests were swept away, roads were formed, and towns arose which exhibited piles of regular, stately, and decorated architecture. The Roman stations and towns exceeded 300; and many of these may yet be traced with some degree of precision. Roman foundations and remains still abound; and coins, pottery, urns with the ashes of the dead, and various instruments, are frequently discovered on the soil being turned up below the common depth of cultivation. The state of Britain under the Romans is forcibly depicted by the orator Eumenius in a panegyric on Constantine the Great. "Oh, fortunate Britannia," he exclaims, "thee hath nature deservedly enriched with the choicest blessings of heaven and earth. Thou neither feelest the excessive colds of winter, nor the scorching heats of summer. Thy harvests reward thy labours with so great an increase, as to supply thy tables with bread and thy cellars with liquor. Thy woods have no savage beasts; and there are no serpents there to harm the traveller. Innumerable are thy herds of cattle, and thy flocks of sheep, which feed thee plentifully and clothe thee richly. As to the comforts of life, the days are long, and no night passes without some glimpses of light." There is reason to believe that, at least throughout the whole of the second and third centuries of the Roman dominion in Britain, it was as flourishing and as happy a province as any other in the empire. It was during the period of the Roman domination that a great change took place in the spiritual condition of Britain by the introduction of Christianity, though to whom our country was indebted for it is a matter of uncertainty. Eusebius asserts that it was some one of the apostles, which is confirmed by Theodoret, who, after having mentioned Spain, declares that St. Paul brought salvation to the isles which lie in the ocean. Clement, who wrote before the end of the first century, and who was a fellow-labourer with the great apostle of the Gentiles, says that, being a preacher both in the east and west, he taught righteousness to the whole world, and went to the utmost bounds of the west. This testimony in favour of St. Paul's visiting Britain is certainly stronger than the traditional testimony concerning St. Peter, St. James, Simon Zelotes, Philip, and Joseph of Arimathea; but whether Christianity was introduced into the island by any of these holy men; or whether, after the persecution and death of Stephen, by some of the Syrian Christians, who were scattered abroad; or by the devout soldiers of the same nation, whom a famine had driven into the armies of Claudius; or by some of the Jewish converts dispersed over the world when Claudius "commanded all Jews to depart from Rome,"-cannot be ascertained. It must suffice to know that the island was early blessed by the dissemination of Christianity, and that before the end of the second century the Britons had generally received the gospel. "The Julian spear A way first opened, and with Roman chains The tidings came of Jesus crucified. They came- they spread; the weak, the suffering hear, WORDSWORTH. So well grounded in the Christian faith were the early Britons, that, in the third century, when "Diocletian's fiery sword worked busy as the lightning," many were found willing to offer up their lives for the sake of the gospel. In that persecution Alban, "England's first martyr," perished at Verulamium, now St. Albans ; and Julian, Aaron, and others shared his fate. This persecution was stopped in the reign of Constantius Chloris; and when his son Constantine the Great assumed the empire the British church was in a flourishing condition. That it was an independent church is proved by the fact that British bishops attended the council of Arles in 314, of Sardica in 347, and of Ariminum in 359; and also by the many ecclesiastical councils held in Britain subsequently to the Roman domination. The particulars concerning the national ecclesiastical councils in England are meagre; but they prove at least that the British church of that period was zealous for the truth, and that it was independent. But another change was coming over the social, moral, and spiritual condition of the people. B. C. REMARKABLE EVENTS OF THE PERIOD. 55. First arrival of the Romans in Britain. A.D. 43. Second expedition of the Romans, under Aulus Plautius. 59. Great massacre of the Romans. 70. Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans under Titus. 121. Britain visited by the Emperor Hadrian and a wall built from the mouth of the Tyne to the Solway Firth. 288. Scandinavian pirates appear on the coast. Christianity supposed to have been first introduced in this period, but the date uncertain, 420. Romans leave Britain. CHAP. III. THE INVASION OF BRITAIN BY THE SAXONS. GREAT uncertainty exists as to the state of Britain for some years after the departure of the Romans. It would appear that the free municipal government of the cities was quickly overthrown by military chiefs, principally of British but partly of Roman origin; that in a few years all traces of popular government were lost; and that a number of petty chiefs reigned absolutely and tyrannically as kings over kingdoms less in extent than a modern county of England. These kinglings, instead of uniting for their general safety against the Picts and Scots, who still harassed the country, made war upon each other, and never thought of forming any great defensive league until it was too late. The Picts and Scots, however, had no intention of occupying the country and settling in it as conquerors. Their expeditions were only forays; they came to plunder and destroy; and the booty they carried off season after season occasioned less serious loss than the slaughter and devastation that marked their advance and retreat. At this crisis the more southern and least-exposed parts of the island were occupied by two factions: the Roman party, which was headed by Aurelius Ambrosius, a descendant of one of the emperors; and the British, who rallied round a chief named Vortigern. Dissension between these parties was inevitable, and it would appear that Aurelius Ambrosius took upon himself to inplore the aid of the Romans. In the year 441 an abject prayer, entitled "The Groans of the Britons," was addressed to the consul Etius, which declared: "The barbarians chase us into the sea; the |