1102 
repulse, and ’twas 200 yeares be- 
fore the land could be reduced into 
a Roman province,which att length 
was done, and such of the nation, 
then called Picts, as scorned servi- 
tude, were driven into the barren 
country of Scotland, where they 
have ever since remained a perpetu- 
all trouble to the successive inhabi- 
tants ofthis place. The Brittaines 
that thought it better to worke for 
their conquerors in a good land, 
then to ‘have the freedom to sterve 
ina cold and barren quarter, were 
by degrees fetcht away, and wast- 
ed in the civil broyles of these Ro. 
man lords, till the land, allmost de. 
populated, lay open to the incur. 
sions of every borderer, and were 
fore’d to call a stout warlike peo- 
ple, the Saxons, out of Germany, 
to their assistance. These willingly 
came at their call, but were not so 
easily sent out againe, nor perswad- 
ed to lett their hosts inhabite with 
them, for they drove the Brittaines 
into the mountaines of Wales, and 
seated themselves in those pleasant 
countries which from the new mas- 
_ ters received a new name, and ever 
since retained it, being called En- 
gland ; on which the warlike Dane 
made many attempts, with various 
successe, but after about 2 or 300 
yeares vaine contest, they were for 
ever driven out, with shame and 
losse, and the Saxon Heptarchie 
melted into a monarchie, which 
continued till the superstitious 
prince, who was sainted for his un- 
godly chastitie, left an emptie 
throne to him that could seize it. 
He who first set up his standard in 
it, could not hold it, but with 
his life left it againe for the Norman 
usurper, who partly by violence, 
partly by falshood, layd here the 
foundation of his monarchie, in the 
people’s blood, in which it hath 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1806. 
swom about 500 yeares, till the 
flood that bore it was plow’d into 
such deepe furrows as had allmost 
sunke the proud vessell. Of those 
Saxons that remained subjects to 
the Norman conqueror, my father’s 
famely descended ; of those Nor- 
mans that came in with him, my 
mother’s was derived’; both of 
them, as aj] the rest in England, 
contracting such affinity, by mutu- 
all marriages, that the distinction re- 
mained but a short space; Nor- 
mans and Saxons becoming one peo- 
ple, who by their vallour grewe 
terrible to all the neighbouring 
princes, and have not only bravely 
quitted themselves in their owne 
defence, but have shewed abroad, 
how easily they could subdue the 
world, if they did not preferre the 
quiett enioyment of their owne part 
above the conquest of the whole. 
‘¢ Better lawes and a happier 
constitution of governement no na- 
tion ever enioy’d, it being a mix- 
ture of monarchy, aristocratie, and 
democracy, with sufficient fences © 
‘against the pest of every one of 
those formes, tiranny, faction, and 
confusion; yett is it not possible 
for man to devize such iust and ex- 
cellent bounds, as will keepe in 
wild ambition, when prince’s flat- 
terers encourage that beast to 
breake his fence, which it hath of- 
ten done with miserable conse- 
‘quences both to the prince and 
people: but could never in any 
age so tread downe popular liberty, 
but that it rose againe with renew- 
ed vigor, till at length it trod on 
those that trampled it before. And 
in the iust bounds wherein our 
kings were so well hedg’d in, the 
surrounding princes have with ter- 
rorsene the reproofe of their usur- 
pations over their free brethren, 
whom they rule rather as slaves 
then 
