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and studied. In this work, and his Encyclopedia Biblica, he 

 endeavours to prove that the foundation and materials of the 

 whole are to be found in the Sacred Scriptures. The first four 

 books contain an exposition of the various subjects to be dis- 

 cussed. Six books are devoted to philology, ten to speculative 

 philosophy, and four to practical. Then follow three on theo- 

 logy, jurisprudence and medicine, three on mechanical arts, 

 and five on history, chronology and miscellanies. This work 

 exhibited a great improvement on those which had before 

 been published under the name of Encyclopedias, during the 

 latter half of the 16th and the first half of the 17th cen- 

 turies. 



The first paper for the evening was entitled, 

 TRACES OF THE SETTLEMENT OE THE SAXONS 



IN ENGLAND, PARTICULARLY IN REFERENCE TO LANCASHIRE, 



By J. A. PiCTON, Esq., E.S.A. 



To an intelligent mind at all conversant with the subject, 

 few employments present greater interest than that of ana- 

 lysing our early sources of history, whether narrative, legen- 

 dary, philological or topographical, separating the scattered 

 particles of truth from the rubbish in which they lie buried, 

 comparing and fitting them together so as to present an 

 harmonious and consistent whole. Such is our object this 

 evening in the illustration of a subject intimately connected 

 with the early history of our country. 



The history of England, properly speaking, begins with 

 the advent of the Saxons. The Britain of the Romans 

 contained, of course, the same great features of nature ; 

 mountain, lake, and river, stamped the country with the 

 same physical characteristics ; but, in all other respects, 

 there was no identity. The race of people, the language, 

 the laws and customs, the tenure and division of the land, 



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