88 STATE OF BRITAIN 



inhabitants were, at the time of the invasion of 

 Julius Caesar, in the same state with the savages 

 of North America !' See * Wealth of Nations/ 

 Book 2nd. Chap. 3rd. page 25. 



Of the actual state of the Britons at the time 

 of the Roman invasion we have no direct ac- 

 counts, except those furnished to us by their 

 conquerors, the evidence is therefore neither of 

 the best nor the fullest kind. The Romans, 

 however, appear to have been too well satisfied 

 with their own superiority to permit themselves 

 to descend to the making of false statements 

 respecting their enemies. Falsehood and mis- 

 representation are the expedients of weakness, 

 and the Romans felt themselves to be strong. 

 We find, therefore, in the writings of Caesar 

 and Tacitus, facts stated which, if exhibited in 

 just connexion, will furnish us with a body of 

 direct evidence respecting the state of Britain at 

 the period of the Roman conquest, from which 

 we may draw such inferences as the facts will 

 warrant. 



Julius Caesar, when speaking of what he could 

 himself ascertain, and not from the reports of 

 others, as he must often have done, says, in 

 book 6th of his Commentaries, that * the island 

 is well peopled, full of houses, built after the 



