514 Rev. Mr Williams on one Source oj 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 iEdui* 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. Pliny 

 calls them in his day " Foederati," and their neighbours the Ar- 

 verni, " Liberi." Even as late as the age of Sidonius Apolli- 

 NARis,f the latter nation still prided themselves on their Roman 

 blood, and supposed descent from Italy. 



Est mihi quae 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 Geoffroy of Monmouth, and that even 

 Nennius gave a historical aspect to the belief. We read in the 

 Life of Agricola, 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 



•f- Sidon. Apollinar. Poem. 62. 



% Tacitus, 21. Jam vero principum filios liberalibus artibus erudire et in- 



