MODERN HISTORIANS AND THE ANGLO-SAXONS

273

themselves, be subject to great tidal waves of progress? And why did the receding wave bring them back and leave them stranded on the shore?

There is a tendency among some English historians to represent the Englishman as of almost pure AngloSaxon blood, and to trace his progress to an AngloSaxon influence.* If this were so, we might expect that steady and gradual advance in civilization the absence of which is so marked a feature of English history. Just the reverse appears to be the truth, and here is the key to many perplexing problems.

The people, to be sure, are mostly of Anglo-Saxon origin, and this has given them their sturdy character; but they have received foreign accessions from time to

*The great impetus in this direction has been given by German writers, who have devoted more attention to the study of early English history than the English themselves. See Gneist's "Hist. of the English Constitution," passim, for an account of German books on English institutions. These writers, in addition to the fact that they sometimes use the microscope too much, are naturally inclined to magnify the Germanic influence, and have perhaps unduly affected their English disciples. In regard to Gneist's history, in particular, to which I shall refer frequently hereafter, another fact must be kept in mind. As he states in his preface, he is deeply interested in political matters, and for years has been writing history for political purposes. Opposed to republics, he sees his ideal of a state in the former strong monarchy of England, holding it up to his countrymen as a model of a government developed on Germanic lines. With such objects in view, the conclusions of a writer may well be questioned, however valuable his facts. Since these pages were written, an able Frenchman has published a little book on the "English Constitution," the preface to which contains some very judicious remarks on the modern tendency to exaggerate the AngloSaxon element in the development of English institutions. "The English Constitution," by Emile Boutmy (translation, Macmillan & Co., 1891).

time, and to these accessions we can trace their waves of progress. Following back the institutions which are England's boast, such as her parliament, trial by jury, and her judicial system, we find them derived, not from the Anglo-Saxons, but from the Normans, who were French by domicile, and cosmopolitan by education. Looking carefully at the lives of the great men who stand out like beacon lights on her early historic page, we find them to have been moulded by a foreign influence and taught by foreign masters. The most brilliant epoch in her early history, that which witnessed the erection of her cathedrals and the founding of her universities, was the one in which she was under a foreign domination. When, finally, the Normans had been absorbed and the intimate connection with the Continent broken off, the foreign influence died out. Then, as the old rude Anglo-Saxon element regained the mastery the people very rapidly went down. About the time of Elizabeth they had reached their lowest depth, from which they emerged only when brought again into touch with the elder civilization of the Continent, especially that developed in the Netherland Republic. Let us now for our proof take a hasty review of this early history— a review which will perhaps prepare the way for a clearer appreciation of the mode in which these foreign influences were exerted at a later day.*

When we first hear of Britain, it was occupied by a people who had probably crossed the Channel from Gaul. They belonged to the great Celtic race, which, pouring out from Scythia in Asia, had swept over the whole of

In the following summary I shall refer mainly to modern English or German writers, who will hardly be suspected of want of partiality for their ancestors or Germanic kindred.

ROMAN CIVILIZATION IN BRITAIN

275

Northern and Western Europe. Those who crossed to Britain were closely connected with the Belgæ, whom Cæsar found in the lower Netherlands. The early settlers were probably pressed north by new-comers, and so passed into Wales and Scotland, and thence across the narrow sea to Ireland.*

First attacked by Cæsar and his legions, the Britons were a century later conquered by the Romans, and the whole lower portion of the island was held by the conquerors for about three centuries and a half. Macaulay, in his history, states that Britain "received only a faint tincture of Roman arts and letters," but the results of investigations carried on since his time tell a very dif ferent story. The island was studded with peopled cities, and the open country dotted over with the luxurious mansions of the great land-owners, built of stone, and heated with furnaces. The ruins of some of these mansions have been discovered, which show what progress had been made in art. "Every colonnade and passage had its tessellated pavement; marble statues stood

"The Pedigree of the English People," Thomas Nicholas (second edition, 1868), p. 48.

"The Roman civilization had been completely introduced, military roads had been constructed from one end of the country to the other, and vast works of public utility and ornament had been completed. The bridges, gardens, baths, and villas of Rome had been reproduced in Britain, and all the pomp and luxury of the imperial court made familiar to our forefathers."-Nicholas, "Pedigree of the English People," p. 104. Says Palgrave: "The country was replete with the monuments of Roman magnificence; Malmesbury appeals to those stately ruins which still remained in his time, the twelfth century, as testimonies of the favor which Britain had enjoyed; the towns, the temples, the theatres, and the baths . . . excited the wonder and the admiration of the chronicler and the traveller.”—Palgrave, i. 323.

out from their gayly painted walls; while pictures of Orpheus and Pan gleamed from amid the fanciful scrollwork and fretwork of its mosaic floors." * Commerce, too, had arisen. The harvests became so abundant that Britain at times supplied the necessities of Gaul. Potteries were established, which turned out work of great artistic beauty.† Tin-mines were worked in Cornwall, lead-mines in Somerset and Northumberland, and ironmines in the Forest of Dean. In addition to all this, Rome became Christianized, and conferred upon Britain her religion, as well as her arts, her military system, and her laws. British churches arose all over the land to take the place of the pagan temples; or, as in other parts of Europe, the buildings erected to the divinities. of ancient Rome were dedicated to the rites of the new national religion.

Such, in faint outline, was the condition of Britain before the irruption of the barbarians whom we call Anglo-Saxons, and who transformed it into England. To the antiquarian, it must be a fascinating work to explore the old ruins, and unearth the unquestionable evidence of this former glory. But to the historian of England who seeks to trace the progress of her people, the growth of her institutions, and the development of the national character, all this story is unimportant, for every vestige of the former civilization was wiped out by the pagan conquerors. To the student of Continental

* Green's "Making of England," chap. iii. etc.

The Roman pottery found in the New Forest, where its manufacture was extensively carried on, surpasses, artistically, anything since produced in England. "The New Forest," p. 225 (London, 1880, John R. Wise).

Green, Introduction and chap. v.

ROMAN CIVILIZATION EXTINGUISHED BY THE ANGLO-SAXONS 277

history, and for our purposes, however, it is of great importance. Britain was a very distant province. There was nothing in its situation, resources, or inhabitants which would entitle it to the special favor of Rome. If, therefore, it profited for a time so largely from the Roman domination, one can conceive what must have been the effect of this same influence upon the provinces nearer home, where, as we have seen in a former chapter, the Roman civilization was not extinguished.*

Having climbed a mountain-top, we are now to descend into a valley as deep and dark as can be well imagined. In 411 the Roman legions are recalled from Britain, in consequence of the irruption of the Goths under Alaric. Returning temporarily, they finally abandon the country in 427, and the people are left to fight alone against their own enemies, the Picts and Scots. Powerless against such foes, they call to their aid the corsairs who had threatened their coast for generations. Hengist and Horsa, with their allies-Saxons, Angles, Jutes, and Frisians, all Low-Dutch tribes-repel the enemy from the North, but conquer the island for themselves, and give it the modern name of England. The process of conquest was a slow one, and this explains its character, for the Britons made a stout resistance, retreating only step by step. Thus, a century and a half were needed for the work, but it was done with Anglo

* Speaking of Italy, Freeman says: “No vulgar error is more utterly groundless than that which looks on the Goths and other Teutonic settlers as wilful destroyers of Roman buildings or of other works of Roman skill. Far from so doing, they admired, they preserved, and, so far as the decaying art of the time allowed, they imitated them."—" Origin of the English Nation," lecture of Jan. 5th, 1870, at Kingston-on-Hull, published in Macmillan's Magazine.