514 Rev. Mr Wixu1aMs on one Source o the 
It is difficult to account for such a general and complete 
amalgamation, without suspecting that the two races, the Roman 
and Venetian, were originally the same, especially when we call 
to mind, that the invading Gauls of the Vale of the Po, had ab- 
solutely to be exterminated by their conquerors. 
The Aidui* were the first of their countrymen to embrace 
the friendship and alliance of Rome, and continued to a late pe- 
riod to partake of the advantages therefrom resulting. Puiiny 
calls them in his day “ Foederati,” and their neighbours the Ar- 
verni, “ Liberi.’ Even as late as the age of Srpon1us APpouuti- 
warts,t the latter nation still prided themselves on their Roman 
blood, and supposed descent from Italy. 
Est mihi que Latio se sanguine tollit alumnam, 
Tellus clara viris. 
It is well known that the Cumri of our island claim a Trojan 
origin, and that this tradition was held by them long before the 
impudent fabrication of Grorrroy of Monmouth, and that even 
Newniws gave a historical aspect to the belief. We read in the 
Life of Acricoua, that the Britons embraced with avidity the 
prominent arts of Roman civilization, a circumstance which an 
examination of history should induce us to regard as almost im- 
possible, except in cases where the cognation of the victors and 
the vanquished is very close. 
On the whole, it may therefore be regarded as proved, that 
there were at the earliest period, when the history of western 
Europe commences, fragments of a great nation to be found in 
the fastnesses and natural fortresses of Italy, Gaul and Great 
Britain,{ who all agreed in claiming a common origin, and in 
* STRAxO. Tigaslos roy ravln meonAboy meoS THY DiAioy Kor UMMwOLrIOLy. 
+ Srvon. Arortinar. Poem. 62. 
+ Tacrrus, 21. Jam vero principum filios liberalibus artibus erudire et in- 
