AT THE CONQUEST. 109 



ancient system had been considerably departed 

 from, but they shew some of the later effects of 

 that system, which in spite of numerous ob- 

 stacles, kept up the race of the ancient Britons. 



In the Highlands of Scotland too, we find 

 similar causes producing similar effects. The 

 Romans found it necessary to build strong bar- 

 riers to secure their conquests on the northern 

 frontier. Was not this of itself an acknow- 

 ledgment, that the people beyond this frontier 

 were powerful ? And when, at the end of more 

 than three centuries, the Romans abandoned the 

 island, forth issue the northern warriors in 

 swarms of the most formidable description, 

 shewing that the same causes that had formerly 

 made Britain populous, had fully peopled the 

 cold and barren hills of the north. And from 

 that time until the year 1745, when the system 

 of economy which, with some modifications, 

 had existed so long, was finally destroyed, the 

 highlanders, with their Celtic manners and cusr 

 toms, were always numerous and often proved 

 themselves to be powerful. 



Every view, then, that we take of the subject, 

 shews that the ancient Britons, at the time of 

 the Roman invasion, were not a few savages or 

 barbarians, but a great people, divided into 



