1 5 4 POXWELL CIRCLE. 



colonies in Britain. As Mr. Cunnington has stated in "The 

 Influence of Phoenician Colonization," in last year's transactions 

 of the Field Club> the probabilities on that side, I will state some 

 of the probabilities which occur to me on the other side, so that 

 both may be weighed. And if I have to express myself rather 

 forcibly occasionally, I hope Mr. Cunnington will not feel that 

 forcible language springs from an unfriendly feeling, but rather 

 from a fear lest the argument should lose anything through the 

 restraints of friendship. 



First, had the Phoenicians colonies in Britain ? Civilized 

 nations like the Phoenicians, who wished to plant colonies 

 amongst barbarians were in face of a difficulty which modern 

 nations have not. A battle in those days meant a series of single 

 combats in which the man with the longest sword and the 

 greatest skill and strength in using it was the victor ; something 

 was due to tactics and strategy, but the strong arm and practised 

 skill went for more. Consequently, the two sides had to be more 

 evenly balanced than in these days, when a few men armed with 

 Mausers, Creusot guns, and Pom-poms, are a match for thou- 

 sands of savages. 



What force had the Phoenicians to bring to England besides 

 their colonists, to make good their possession ? Caesar, on his 

 first expedition to Britain, brought two legions with him. But, 

 presumably, finding two legions insufficient, in the following year 

 (B.C. 55), he brought five legions with him. He reduced the 

 Britons to subjection, but as he left no garrison the Britons 

 revolted on his departure. Boadicea utterly destroyed one legion, 

 and was very nearly defeating a much larger force. Suppose, we 

 say, that the Phoenician force was only equivalent to one legion, 

 10,000 men, and that these men were also the colonists, how 

 were they brought here ? Caesar fought his way up through 

 Europe, and had only to camp on the other side of the Channel 

 long enough to build vessels sufficiently strong and numerous 

 to transport his army across the Channel in settled weather. The 

 Phoenicians would have had to convey their whole army by sea 

 from Tyre, Cyprus, Carthage, or other Mediterranean ports, and 



