GOVERNMENTS AND LAWS EXHIBITING THE GOVERNMENTAL STRUCTURES BY STEPHEN HALEY ALLEN "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? VOL. II. PRINCETON PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS Sales Agent for the Author CHAPTER XXIV THE BRITISH EMPIRE The earliest inhabitants of the British Isles of whom we have any accounts are styled Britons and are not classed as Aryans. The first settlers of the latter stock are said to have been Celts. Caesar says that in his time the inhabitants of the interior were accounted descendants of the natives of the island, while the maritime portions of the island were peopled by invaders from Belgium, who had settled down and commenced to cultivate the soil. He says the country was very populous and the buildings similar to those of Gaul, that they had many cattle, that they used brass or iron bars for money, that the inhabitants of Kent (Cantium), did not differ much in customs from the Gauls, that many of the inhabitants of the interior did not sow grain but lived on milk and meat and wore skins for clothing, that they painted themselves dark blue, wore their hair long, and shaved all but the upper lip, that ten or twelve brothers or even father and sons had wives in common. They used not only horses but also a kind of chariot in battle and were brave and strong. It is impossible to tell what race of men first inhabited the island. In the earliest accounts we read of Britons, Picts and Scots as antedating the advent of the Romans. Sometimes all are classed as Celts, and again the Britons are spoken of as allied to the Basques of the Pyrenees. Ireland was peopled by Celts and, while authentic history of it in the time of Caesar is wanting, popular traditions, handed down apparently with more than ordinary trustworthiness, indicate that the people of Ireland were at that time better organized and more prosperous than those on the larger island. In religion the people of both islands were Druids, with rites corresponding with those of the Celts of France. The organization of society was essentially tribal, with the authority of chiefs enlarged or con I tracted according to individual capacity and the exigencies of their wars. The Druid priests exercised much influence and authority, of which, however, we have no very accurate account. The subjugation of England and of that part of Scotland south of the Clyde and Forth was completed by Agricola about A.D. 84. He even extended his operations into Sterling and Perth and constructed a line of forts from the Clyde to the Forth. In his conquests he employed five legions, which with auxiliaries and cavalry are estimated to have made an army of 50,000, indicating much resistance to the Roman advance. The period of Roman occupation was barren of any events of interest in the line of our investigation. Christianity was introduced into the island, and the people seem to have accepted the religion of their conquerors much as they did their system of government. No peculiarities of administration. and no modifications of Roman law to conform to the peculiar circumstances or genius of the natives are mentioned, nor was literature worthy of mention produced. Britain was merely a Roman province, deemed of minor importance. About A.D. 400 the Roman legions were withdrawn from the island and the natives were left free. The Roman occupation of Great Britain was unproductive of beneficial influence on the native population. It did not come till the republic had departed and the military despotism had taken its place. The principal end sought by the Romans was the collection of taxes. Landowners were required to pay a state rent on their estates of one-tenth, afterward increased to one-seventh and even one-fifth the annual produce. In addition to this corn for the soldiers and entertainment for officials on their journeys were required, and the burden of maintaining the roads and bridges fell on the landowners. Traders were taxed on their goods and craftsmen and laborers paid poll taxes. Customs were collected on imports and exports and one per cent on produce sold in market. Percentages were often greatly increased by the officials who gathered the taxes, the excess going to their private use. Rome merely gave the people such protection and order as a military despotism affords. It did nothing to educate or elevate, save as the Christian religion followed the legions toward the close of the period of Roman rule. The quality of this Christianity may have been somewhat higher than the religion of the Druids, but it was closely associated with the slavery and grinding oppression of imperial Rome. In military organization they do not appear to have profited from contact with the Romans. The Dutch tribes from the low countries soon commenced the conquest of the island, the Jutes being the first and gaining a permanent foothold in Kent under the leadership of Hengest and Horsa. The date of their landing is given as about 449. The Saxons then came and settled around them in Sussex, Essex and Wessex. Later came the Angles and made way farther north in East Anglia, Mercia and Northumberland. Historians speak of the establishment of kingdoms, but the territory occupied by and the number of people included within the so-called kingdoms hardly warrant the use of such a term. The system of organization appears to have been a modification of that which had prevailed among the Germanic tribes, adapted to the enterprise of gaining a foothold in a new country. Each band of invaders came with wives, children and chattels and had its leader and chief men, but the power of the state resided in the whole body of freemen. They did not seek the subjugation of the native tribes and the establishment of a government over them, such as the Romans had maintained, but lands for themselves. They therefore killed or drove out the natives who opposed them. The settlements they established were mainly devoid of admixture with the native people, except from captive women and a few British slaves. The movement was a transplanting of Germanic tribes on English soil and crowding the native population out, in much the same manner that their descendants came to America and took land for occupation from the Indians. The process of settlement in each case was gradual and accompanied by exterminating wars. New territory was conquered as the numbers of Saxons and Angles increased. They came as heathens worshipping Woden and the other |