§66 " LAW. 
laws, of which alfo they were the foie difpenfers. The 
people were totally employed in agricultural purfuits or war. 
“ Crefar arrived about one hundred years before the 
Chriftian era; he conquered the rude and unprotected 
courage of the natives, but left the itland with the cha- 
raXer of having difcovered rather than conquered it. 
Britain was negleXed by Auguftus and Tiberius, Cali¬ 
gula proceeded no further than to threats. Under Clau¬ 
dius and Nero, about fixty years after Chrift, arofe Ca- 
raXacus and Boadicea, the avengers and protestors, for a 
while, of the liberties of their country; but, when they 
were extinguifhed, the doom of Britain was fixed, and, 
after a fucceffion of ineffeXual but defperate druggies, 
the emperors fucceeded, by the fame means as had proved 
fuccefsful in regard to the countries already under their 
yoke, in reducing into the form of a Roman province the 
whole of the ifland fouth of the Grampian mountains. 
“Let us obferve how far the meafures purfued by the 
Romans, for the reducing and preferving in fubjeXion 
the provinces of their empire, afi'eXed the laws and con¬ 
futation of the country fubdued. It was a cuftom among 
the Romans, from the commencement of their conquefts, 
as foon as a nation was fubdued, to allot a part of their 
territory to a number of Roman citizens. Thefe built a 
town, if one were not already conftruXed, to ferve for 
their habitation, and as a refuge in cafe of attack. Thefe 
towns, or colonies, were placed at convenient diftances 
about the frontier; and became, as they were intended to 
be, defences againft the incurfions of enemies on the ter¬ 
ritory of the mother-country. At firft, when every man 
was a foldier, the colonies were fupplied from the bulk of 
the Roman people indifcriminately. Shortly after the de- 
ftruXion of Carthage, when, from the extent of the Ro¬ 
man dominions, handing armies became neceffary, vete¬ 
rans were placed in the colonies, and it became neceffary 
for the Romans to adopt other meafures for preferving 
their conquefts, one of thefe was by quartering their le¬ 
gionaries or regular troops on the inhabitants. A chap¬ 
ter in the code of the emperor Theodofius, which has for 
title “ The Rights of Hofpitality,” direXs, that, wherefo- 
ever a Roman army might be ftationed, one-third of the 
accommodations of every houfeholder fhould be allotted 
to the foldier quartered upon him; a general was entitled 
to enjoy two-thirds. A new fyftem of colonization alfo 
was adopted ; whole legions, with their tribunes, centu¬ 
rions, and fubordinate officers, were placed in colonies, 
and tilled the land committed to them for their fupport: 
the emperors fometimes added flaves and implements of 
hufbandry. The condition of thefe grants was to pre- 
ferve the colony from being invaded by any enemy to the 
empire. A colony thus organized, by a fimilarity of ha¬ 
bits, and by their mutual harmony, formed, as it is re¬ 
marked by Tacitus, a fpecies of republic ; and from them 
the principal cities in modern Europe have to date their 
origin. No fooner was a traX of land conquered, and 
ftrong holds eftabliffied, than the general contrived all 
poffible means to difieminate the Roman language and 
jaws among the inhabitants. Tacitus and Csefar mention 
that Gaul was not fubdued until Roman manners, arts, 
and connexions, had been introduced among the natives. 
In Germany, Germanicus, under Auguftus and Tiberi¬ 
us; in Britain, Suetonius Paullinus, under Claudius and 
Nero; and Agricola, under Vefpalian, Titus, and Domi- 
tian, fucceeded in completely fubduing their refpeXive 
provinces, by accompliffiing what remained to be perfect¬ 
ed, namely, the eftablithing among the natives Roman 
arts, cuftoms, and laws. The Britons, (fays Tacitus,) 
warlike from their fierce and uncivilized mode of life, 
were tamed by the introduction of luxury and eafe. Agri¬ 
cola was feen exhorting them to employ themfelves in 
the conftruXion of halls and temples, and exciting emu¬ 
lation in the work by praife or cenfure. He took care 
that the children of their princes lhould be inftruXed in 
Roman arts and lciences, and urged them to the talk by 
commending the genius of the Britons as fuperior to that 
of the Gauls, their rivals; and fo completely did he luc- 
ceed, that at length the nation, who had detefted the lan¬ 
guage of the Romans, was found vying with their con. 
querors for the palm of eloquence. 
“ At the conquc-ft of Britain, the druids were almoft 
wholly exterminated ; and the Roman general or prefeX 
here, as in the other provinces of the empire, became the 
foie diftributor of juftice. The itriX adminiftration of 
juftice in the provinces was rigidly enforced by the em¬ 
perors ; few but thofe who had filled with honour a judi¬ 
cial capacity in Rome were appointed to a command, and 
the juft complaints of the provincials were feldom difre- 
garded; more frequently they were avenged by the em¬ 
perors in the nioft ferocious manner. 
“ Britain continued, from the departure of Agricola to 
the year 448, when the Romans took their final leave, 
tranquil, and accommodated to the Roman yoke. They 
were defended by the Roman foldiers, who were quartered 
on them as guefts, in the manner before defcribed ; their 
own youth were ferving in the armies of diftant pro¬ 
vinces ; and, more particularly to turn the attention of 
thofe at home from military employments by the appear¬ 
ance of fecurity, the emperors Adrian and Severus built 
for them the two walls or defences acrofs the ifland, the 
remains of which are now to be feen. From the conqueft: 
completed by Agricola, until the departure of the Ro¬ 
mans, Roman lawyers, as prefects and aiTefl’ors, or infe¬ 
rior judges, adminiftered juftice in the principal colonies 
and towns. Among the reft, it is recorded that Papinian, 
who was ftyled the Prince of Roman Lawyers, held his 
forum, as pretorian prefeX under the emperor Severus,. 
at York ; to him we may add, on the authority of our 
diftinguiffied Selden, Ulpian and Paullus, names as fa¬ 
mous with the Romans as Coke or Hale with us. The 
laws of Rome then were uninterruptedly adminijlered in Bri¬ 
tain fora period of three hundred years; and, when we 
call to mind the few traces of judicial polity which ex- 
ifted among the Britons in their original rude and unfet¬ 
tled ftate, the character of the Roman laws, and the length 
of time that they were here adminiftered, we can hardly 
hefitate in pronouncing, that the Roman laws muft have 
been, at the period of Saxon conqueft, the common or 
general law of the ifland. 
“ The ftate of the inhabitants of Britain, on the depar¬ 
ture of the Roman troops from among them, furnifhes an 
inftruXive leffon as to the miferable ltate of national de¬ 
gradation, which follows on the extinXion of thofe tur¬ 
bulent but manly virtues, which are called forth by times 
of danger and war. The PiXs and Scots, without difci- 
pline, and fcarcely armed but with their ferocity, rnaffa- 
cred, at their will, the poliffied and effeminate inhabit¬ 
ants, whom I no longer call Britons, becaufe of the in¬ 
termixture of Romans which a period of three hundred 
years’ fubjeXion muft have introduced among them, par¬ 
ticularly in times when no man, who was at all diltin- 
guifhed by his property, his virtues, or his vices, was fafe 
in the Roman capital. Content to be flaves, but terrified 
at the continual profpeX of torture and death, the inha¬ 
bitants, about the year 660, following the example of 
fome of their continental neighbours, called to their affift- 
ance the Saxons, and other northern hordes, dwelling on 
the coafts of the Baltic. Thefe delivered Britain from 
its ravagers, and ultimately feized on the fovereignty as 
the reward of their fervices; giving to the nation the 
name of England. Not that the Saxons at firft difpoffeffed 
the natives of all their land or property. Their original 
claim was the fame that was made by the Goths and Bur¬ 
gundians, their former neighbours, in the conqueft of the 
continent of Europe ; they had executed the office the Ro¬ 
man foldiers had ufed to perform; they claimed therefore 
a fimilar recompence, namely, to be received as guefts in 
the houfes of the landed proprietors ; however, they do 
not appear to have been content with one-third only of the 
accommodations; the Burgundians, Oftrogoths, and Vifi- 
goths, univerfally claimed two-tkirds. In the abfence of 
teftimony as to the precife amount, we may conclude 
that the Angles and Saxons took nearly the lame. When 
