<lMi STATE OF BRITAIN 



population survive, a future age might be led to 

 doubt the existence of its present state. The 

 land in China is much divided, and a moderate 

 portion of its produce is paid to the sovereign. 

 A similar system prevailed in Britain, and a 

 great population seems to be the natural con- 

 sequence. China, hov^ever, is large and united, 

 and her canals and her great wall may remind a 

 distant age of what China once was. But, 

 although Britain was divided into so many small 

 states, there are some remains yet in being, 

 which shew that a considerable population must 

 have existed, at the time they were formed. Of 

 these, the great Druidical temples have the most 

 frequently been described. But the Wansdyke 

 is not so well known. This great work com- 

 mences at Portishead, near Bristol, and passing 

 by Bath is carried across Marlborough downs to 

 Andover, in Hampshire, a distance of eighty 

 miles. Near to Marlborough downs, the Vallum 

 has been thrown in to construct a Roman road, 

 which shews it to have been formed, prior to the 

 invasion by the Romans. It probably was a 

 frontier defence, and it indicates a considerable 

 population in a small state. 



The Welsh, and the Scotch Highlanders, as 

 the descendants of the ancient possessors of the 

 island, may be presumed to have retained, in 



