1835. 



EXTRACT FKOM MACKINTOSH. 



573 



aspect might be more horrible in war. The use of carriages in 

 war is a singular instance of labour and skill among such a 

 people. Their domestic life was little above promiscuous inter- 

 course. Societies of men, generally composed of the nearest 

 relations, had wives in common. The issue of this intercourse 

 were held to belong to the man (if such there should be) who 

 formed a separate and lasting connexion with their mother. 

 Where that appropriation did not occur, no man is described 

 as answerable for the care of the children."*"* 

 Again, Sir James says — 



" The Britons had a government rather occasional than con- 

 stant, in which various political principles prevailed by turns. 

 The power of eloquence, of valour, of experience, sometimes of 

 beauty, over a multitude, for a time threw them into the 

 appearance of a democracy. When their humour led them to 

 follow the council of their elders, the community seemed to be 

 aristocratic. The necessities of war, and the popularity of a 

 fortunate commander, vested in him in times of peril a sort of 

 monarchical power, limited by his own prudence, and the pa- 

 tience of his followers, rather than by laws, or even customs. 

 Punishment sprung from revenge : it was sometimes inflicted 

 to avenge the wrongs of others. It is an abuse of terms to 

 bestow the name of a free government on such a state of 

 society : men, in such circumstances, lived without restraint ; 

 but they lived without security. Human nature, in that state^ 

 is capable of occasional flashes of the highest virtues. Men 

 not only scorn danger, and disregard privation, but even show 

 rough sketches of ardent kindness, of faithful gratitude, of the 

 most generous self-devotion. But the movements of their feel- 

 ings are too irregular to be foreseen. Ferocious anger may, in 

 a moment, destroy the most tender aflection. Savages have no 

 virtues on which it is possible to rely." 



Speaking of missionaries, the same historian states, that — 

 " Our scanty information relating to the earliest period of 

 Saxon rule, leaves it as dark as it is horrible. But Christianity 

 brought with it some mitigation. A.D. 596. The arrival of 



