LEC. x.]

barbarous as has been supposed; but were rather descended from some of the more civilized portions of the Asiatic population.

"Yet from such ancestors a nation has, in the course of twelve centuries, been formed, which, inferior to none in every moral and intellectual merit, is superior to every other in the love and possession of useful liberty: a nation which cultivates with equal success the elegancies of art, the ingenious labours of industry, the energies of war, the researches of science, and the richest productions of genius. This improved state has been slowly attained under the discipline of very diversified

events.

"The barbaric establishments were a new order of things in Europe, but cannot have been so prolific of misery to mankind as we have hitherto, too gratuitously, assumed :---when, notwithstanding the discouragement of new languages and institutions, and ruder habits, they were preferred by many of the Romans to the country which was their birth-place, which had been so long consecrated by deserved fame, and whose feelings, mind, and social manners, were congenial to their own.

"The invasions of the German nations destroyed the ancient governments, and political and legal systems of the Roman Empire, in the provinces in which they established themselves; and dispossessed the former proprietors of then- territorial property. A new set of landowners was

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diffused over every country, with new forms of government, new principles.and new laws, new religious discipline and hierarchies, with many new tenets and practices. A new literature and manners, all productive of great improvements, in every part superseded the old, and gave to Europe a new face, and to every class of society a new life and spirit. In the Anglo-Saxon settlements in Britain, all these effects were displayed, with the most beneficial consequences."

Limited monarchy, constitutional law, and representative government, and efficient civil police, and trial by jury, are among the most important legacies left the English nation by their Anglo-Saxon forefathers ; and these may all be easily traced to an Israelitish origin. And to this origin they have been traced, as we have seen, even by those who were obliged, in rather an uuphilosophical way, to account for the connection. It is, indeed, rather remarkable, that so many of these institutions should have been allowed to remain as incontestable evidence that this people had been Moses' disciples. Equally does their social condition witness to this, as, in our last lecture, we saw that their personal appearance and character give evidence, full and explicit, to their being the children of Abraham.

H

Thanksgiving,

LEC. XI.]

ons, is thus given at the commencement of his third book:—

"The revolution caused by the conquest of the Anglo-Saxons, introduced a new face of things in Great Britain. The country, formerly inhabited by the Britons,

was now possessed by strangers. The very names of the towns and provinces were changed; and the country was divided in a very different manner from what it was by the Romans.

"The Saxons, Angles, and Jutes, who are all to be considered as one people, and comprehended under the naine of English, had conquered all the southern part of the island, from the Channel to the wall of Severas, and a little beyond, towards the east. This part of Great Britain, possessed by these three nations, was divided into seven kingdoms, whereof the Saxons and Jutes had four, namely, Kent, Essex, Sussex, and Wessex; the Angles alone had two, Mercia and East-Anglia; but in Northumberland were mixed with the descendants of the Saxons that first took possession of the country beyond the Humber, under Octa and Ebusa."

"By the Heptarchy is meant the government of the seven kingdoms of the AngloSaxons, considered as making but one body and one state. The Anglo-Saxons, as I said before, established in England a form of government not unlike what they had lived under in Germany; that is, considering themselves as brethren and countrymen, and being equally concerned to support themselves in their conquests, they conceived it necessary to assist one another, and act in common for the good of all. To that end, they judged it proper to appoint a General-in-chief, or, if you please, a Monarch, invested with certain prerogatives, the nature and number of which we are not fully informed of. Upon the death of the general or monarch, another was chosen by the unanimous consent of the seven kingdoms; but there were sometimes pretty long interregnums caused by the wars or divisions between the sovereigns who could not meet or agree upon a choice.

"Besides this monarch they had also, as the centre of the heptarchal government, an assembly-general, consisting of the principal members of the seven kingdoms, or their deputies. This is what is called the Wittenagemot, or general parliament, where the concerns of the whole nation only were considered. But each kingdom

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had a particular parliament, much after the manner practised in the United Provinces of the Low Countries. Each kingdom was sovereign, and yet they consulted in common upon the affairs that concerned the Heptarchy; and the acts and resolutions of the assembly-general were to be punctually observed, since every king and kingdom had assented thereto."

It is worthy of observation, that of the nations from the north of Europe that came into Britain, the Angles alone, who ultimately gave their name to this country, left no known portion of their people on the continent. They seem to have merely passed through the country of the Saxons and Jutes; and to have almost entirely transported themselves into this island; after whom the whole southern portion of it came ultimately to he termed England. It would, however, be an error to suppose that only the south part of England was peopled by them. Partly by direct emigration, and partly by the scattering occasioned by the incursions of the Danes, and the Norman conquest, the same race that peopled, first, the central parts of the island, called, in the tunes of the Heptarchy, East Anglia, and Mercia, and Northumberland: the same race was spread out southward into the Saxon quarters, and even westward into Wales, as well as northward into Scotland. And thus the whole body of the people that remained, after their first settlement here, had the advantage of being leavened by a race, which, with all its faults, is superior both as to intellectual capacity, and moral power

This is shown by the eminence to which those parts of England have attained, that were the first, and the most entirely, peopled by the Angles. In their quarters are found the principal seats of learning, Oxford and Cambridge. The chief manufacturing districts are theirs, whether it be as to clothes, or metals, or earthenware, or chemical preparations. The greatest marts for the import of the fulness of the earth by sea, and for sending forth into all quarters of the globe the pro

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ductions of English ingenuity and industry, if we except the capital, are all to be found within those portions of the island that were peopled by the Angles. They all anciently were within the bounds of the Anglian, even as distinguished from the Saxon, kingdoms of the Heptarchy. Nor is it to be overlooked that the capital itself is from these quarters still supplied with some main portions of its population that have carried literature, science, and art, to such perfection: and even mercantile and missionary enterprise to the bounds of the habitable globe.

With regard to the settlement of the Angles in Britain, Rapin thus writes, in his first book, page 38:—

"About this time (A. D. 527) multitudes of Angles, under the conduct of twelve chiefs, all of equal authority, but whose names, except Uffa (of whom I shall have occasion to speak hereafter), are unknown, landed at some port on the eastern coast of Britain, where, without much difficulty they possessed themselves of some post, those parts being ill guarded by the Britons. In time, as they were continually enlarging their conquests towards the west, they compelled the Britons at length to abandon the country along the eastern shore. The Angles, thus situated, had an opportunity of sending from time to time for fresh colonies from Germany, with which they founded a fifth kingdom, by the name of the kingdom of East Anglia, or of the East Angles. But as their first chiefs assumed not the title of king, the beginning of this kingdom is generally brought down to the year 571."

As to the kingdoms of the Heptarchy founded by them, he gives the following testimony in his third book, page 55:—

"The kingdom of the East Angles was bounded on the north by the Humber and the German Ocean: on the east by the same ocean, which surrounded it almost on two sides: on the south, by the kingdom of Essex and on the west, by Mercia, Its greatest length was eighty, and its greatest breadth fifty-five miles. It contained the two counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, with part of Cambridgeshire. The chief towns were Norwich, Thetford, Ely,

and Cambridge. I have already related how this kingdom was founded by the Angles that landed on the eastern coasts of Britain, under twelve chiefs, the survivor of whom, Uffa, assumed the title of king of the East Angles."

And in page 53:—" The kingdom of Mercia was bounded on the north by the Humber, by which it was separated from Northumberland; on the west, by the Severn, beyond which were the Britons or Welsh; on the south, by the Thames, by which it was parted from the kingdoms of Kent, Sussex, and Wessex; on the east, by the kingdoms of Essex and East Anglia. Thus Mercia was guarded on three sides by three large rivers that ran into the sea, and served for boundary to all the other kingdoms. Hence the name Mercia, from the Saxon word, Merc, signifying a hound, and not, as some fancy, from an imaginary river called Mercia. The inhabitants of this kingdom are sometimes termed by historians Mediterranei Angli, or the Mid-land English, and sometimes South Humbrians, as being south of the Humber; but the most common name is that of Mercians. The principal cities of Mercia were Lincoln, Nottingham, Warwick, Leicester, Coventry, Lichfield, Northampton, Worcester, Gloucester, Derby, Chester, Shrewsbury, Stafford, Oxford, Bristol.

Of all the kingdoms of the Heptarchy, this was the finest and most considerable. Its greatest length was a hundred and sixty miles, and its greatest breadth about one hundred."

And in page 47:—" The kingdom of Northumberland was situated on the north of the Humber. as its name imports. It was bounded on the south, and parted from Mercia by that river; on the west, bу the Irish sea; on the north, by the country of the Picts and Scots; and on the east, by the German Ocean. It contained the present counties of Lancashire, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Northumberland, York, and Durham. The principal cities were York, Dunelm (since called Durham), Carlisle (named by the Romans Luguballia), Hexham, or Hugulstadt, Lancaster, and some others of less note. This country was divided into two parts, Deira and Bernicia, each, for some time, a distinct kingdom of itself. Bernicia was partly situated on the north of Severus's Wall, and ended in a point at the mouth of the Tweed. Deira contained the southern part of Northumberland, as far as the Humber. The greatest length of the whole kingdom, including both parts, was a hundred and

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sixty miles, and its greatest breadth one hundred."

These three kingdoms were those that were most made a prey of by the Danes: by the incursions of whom the Angles appear to have been much driven out into other portions of the Heptarchy, and as well into Scotland and Wales. Thus, in the reign of Ethelred it is said of the Danes,

"They began with attacking Northumberland, of which they at length became masters. They proceeded next to East Anglia, which they also subdued; and, after extorting money from the Mercians, they entered Wessex."

And thus, in speaking of the language of the Anglo-Saxons, Rapin writes, page 162:—

"To say in general, the Anglo-Saxons spoke English or Saxon, would not be showing with sufficient exactness what their language was. To give a fuller idea of it, it will be necessary to distinguish the several tongues used in England after the arrival of the first Saxons. The English tongue originally differed but little from the Danish, since the ancient writers call them indifferently Cimbric, Scandinavian, Gothic; but this language was not the same with the Saxon. In the parts lying north of the Thames was spoken pure English or Danish, and south of the Thames pure Saxon. Though these two languages were different, they so far agreed, however, as to be understood by both nations. In process of time, and especially after the union of the seven kingdoms, Saxon prevailed in all England, because the kings were of that nation.

Thus pure English (or the language of the Angles), was by degrees disused, or at least banished from common conversation. Afterwards the Danes, settling in England, brought their language, which was not the ancient Danish or English above mentioned, but a modern Danish mist with the language of several neighbouring nations of Denmark. This modern Danish was chiefly used in Northumberland, Mercia, and East Anglia, where the Danes were masters. Though out of compliance to the English, Canute the Great published his laws in Saxon, yet the Danish tongue was still retained in the north, where the people were mostly Danes. As it was also

the court language during the reigns of Canute the Great and his two sons, it became necessary for the West Saxons, who adopted several words and idioms of it into their own language. But upon Edward the Confessor's accession to the throne, Saxon prevailed again at court. Hence the inhabitants of the north were under some necessity of learning it, just as the Gascons in France are obliged to learn French."

As to the origin of the Anglo-Saxon institutions, Rapin writes thus, pages 147, 148:—

"Great Britain was so overrun with Saxons, Angles, and Jutes, that hardly could any remains of the ancient Britons be discovered. It was very natural for these conquerors to establish in their new erected kingdoms their own country customs.

And therefore it may be advanced for certain, that the laws now in force, throughout the greatest part of Europe, are derived from the laws these ancient conquerors brought with them from the north. This might be easily proved with respect to all the countries concerned in this great revolution. But at present I shall confine myself to England alone. By what I am going to say, whoever has any knowledge of the English constitution, will easily be convinced that the customs now practised in that kingdom, are, for the most part, the same the Anglo-Saxons brought with them from the northern countries, and lastly from Germany.

"An English historian, by comparing the laws and customs of the Germans with those of the English, has plainly shown, the English introduced into Great Britain the same laws that were in use in their own country. Nay, he affirms, that till the Norman conquest there was not so much as one law in England but what, in the main, the Germans had the same. 'Tis true, as the Anglo-Saxons consisted of three several nations, who had also their separate quarters in England, there might be some difference upon that account between the seven kingdoms of the Heptarchy. But this difference could not be very great, since the three nations were united in Germany before their coming into England, and made but one and the same people under the general name of Saxons. All that can be inferred from hence is, that the laws established by the Anglo-Saxons in England were composed