LECTURE V.

ENGLAND.

I HAVE hitherto said nothing of England. Yet has England a dearer claim on our curiosity and attention, and its history, and more particularly its constitutional history, must be considered with more diligence and patience, than can possibly be directed to those of any other country.

The first authentic notice which we have of the inhabitants of this island, is honorable to their memory: they were attacked by the first man of the first nation then in the world; they resisted, and were not subdued. The account is given by Cæsar himself, and what Cæsar delivers to posterity, however short, cannot but be deserving of our observation.

Further information with respect to the Britons may be afterwards collected from Suetonius; and the gradual successes of the Roman commanders will be found in Tacitus. In his life of Agricola the subject is closed; all further contest is at an end. But the speech, which is there attributed to Galgacus, when once read, can never be forgotten the great historian has here displayed the rare merit of a mind elevated in the cause of justice above every domestic partiality and national prejudice. When he exhibits the cause which called the Caledonians to the field, he is no longer the son-in-law of the Roman general, nor the countryman of the Roman people; he is the assertor of all the generous principles of our nature; he is the protector of humanity, and he discharges with fidelity and spirit the noble office, the great duty of the historian, by exhibiting to our sympathy the wrongs of unoffending freedom.

The Romans were indeed successful, and the independence of Britain was no more. But the sentiments which must have animated these last defenders of their country still

breathe in the immortal pages of this celebrated writer; and the virtues of the Caledonians are now for ever united to the taste and feelings of mankind.

Another melancholy scene succeeds. The Romans retire from the island, and the Britons, deprived of their protection, are insulted and overpowered by every invader. The Romans had long inured them to a sense of inferiority. The country had been partly civilized and improved, but the mind of the country had been destroyed. The Britons had lost the rude virtues of barbarians, but had not acquired that sense of honor and consciousness of political happiness, which do more than supply their place in the character of civilized man. They had not felt the influence of a government which themselves could share. They were unable to make head against their enemies ; and they exhibited to the world that lesson, which has been so often repeated, that a country can never be defended by a population that has been, on whatever account, degraded; that they who are to resist an invader must first be moulded, by equal laws and the benefits of a free government, into a due sense of national pride and individual importance; and that men cannot be formed into heroes on the principles of suspicion and injustice.

It is true, that the Britons made a better resistance to their invaders than could have been expected. There may be much exaggeration and vague lamentation, as Mr. Turner supposes, in the representations of Gildas, on which Bede, and after him our historian Hume, relied; but the independence of the island must at last have been lost, from the destructive effect of such general principles as I have stated.

The next era in our history exhibits the total subjugation of Britain by the Angles, Jutes, and Saxons. These were northern nations; and we are thus brought, with respect to England, exactly to the same point from whence we set out in examining the history of Europe, the conquest of the northern nations.

Again. We must observe the particular circumstances of the Norman Conquest which followed. This conquest gave occasion to the establishment of the feudal system in all its rigors. The pope had also extended his empire to this remote island. So that in England, as in the rest of Europe,

we have the feudal system and the papal power; and these were, in the instance of our own country, as in the rest of Europe, (without stopping to notice some fortunate peculiarities in our case, or some advantages concomitant with these evils,) the great impediments to the improvement of human happiness.

The subject of English history now lies before us, from the expulsion of the Romans to the time of Henry the Eighth.

I cannot occupy you in listening here to such information as I might collect for you from books. You must read the books. I will observe upon them, and upon the subject before us, but I can do no more. The whole subject may be evidently distinguished into two great divisions.

The fate and fortunes of the different monarchs, barons, and remarkable men that appear in our annals.

And the fate and fortunes of the constitution of England. The latter is the great subject for you to study. The first, indeed, you ought to know, and may readily know; but the second not so readily; the first is chiefly of importance, as connected with the latter. In a word, there are before you the facts of the history, and the philosophy of the history. You will soon learn the one, but you must endeavour to understand the other.

Having thus given you my general notion of what you are to attempt to do, I will describe to you the best and shortest means you can use for the purpose. You must read, then, and compare Hume and Rapin, and study Millar on the English Constitution. Bear away, then, this general impression from this lecture, that it is the constitutional history of your country which is the great subject before you, and that Hume, Rapin, and Millar are to be your authors.

That the subject cannot be contracted for you into any shorter compass than this; but to these, which I originally mentioned, I must now add the invaluable History of Mr. Hallam, and that no one who has been admitted to the benefits of a regular education, can be pardoned if he do not exert himself at least to this extent.

But when England is the subject, most of you may be disposed to take any pains, that can be thought necessary, to inform yourselves of its constitutional history; and it is to

those, therefore, that I shall now, for some time, address myself; to those who are ready to study the constitutional history of their country more thoroughly.

In the first place, then, Priestley's Lectures, and Nicholson's Historical Library, will give you an account of all books and sources of information belonging to English history.

Of the Saxon law, what now can be known has been collected by different antiquaries, and edited more particularly by Wilkins.

You may also estimate this part of the subject from the first appendix of Hume. This appendix will be sufficient for the general reader.

Mr. Turner has published some volumes containing many particulars which the student will not readily find elsewhere, and he will, from the text and from the notes, sufficiently comprehend what is the knowledge, which the study of the Saxon language and Saxon antiquities would furnish him with.

Mr. Turner is often capable of affording his reader valuable topics of reflection; but, though apparently a most patient antiquary, his imagination is so active, that his style is unexpectedly loaded with metaphors, to a degree that is not only inconsistent with historic composition, but with all composition. Very extensive reading is displayed; and, on the whole, the work may be consulted with advantage. There is nothing said of the laws of Edward the Confessor, a strange omission; nor of the rise of the English House of Commons, though Mr. Turner evidently conceives that the commons formed no part of the Wittena Gemote.

Mr. Turner has, since I wrote this paragraph, published three quarto volumes on the English history, from William the First to Henry the Eighth. He is an antiquary, as I have mentioned, and whatever a man, who looks into original records, publishes, must be more or less of importance. Mr. Turner often gives his reader the impression of an amiable man, rather than one of a very superior understanding; yet many curious particulars may be collected, and much instruction may be derived from his learned and often amusing work.

This lecture was drawn up many years ago, in the years

1807 and 1808. I have now, therefore, to mention to you also the eighth chapter of Mr. Hallam's work on the Middle Ages. This chapter refers entirely to the English constitution, into the history of which it enters with great learning and ability.

You must come to no decision on any point connected with this subject, without first turning to this chapter of Mr. Hallam. He thinks for himself; and he is a critic and examiner of the labors of those, who have gone before. Since this lecture was written, his Constitutional History has also appeared; a work, as I have already said, quite invaluable.

Dr. Lingard has lately published a History of England; and we have now, therefore, the views and reasonings of those, who are members of the Roman Catholic communion, presented to us by a writer of great controversial ability. Dr. Lingard also consults records, and judges for himself, and his book must therefore be always referred to on every occasion of importance. He tells the story of England in too cold a manner, and it is truly the Roman Catholic History of England; but his work is interesting, because the reader knows that the writer is not only an able writer, but a man of research and of antiquarian learning, and it therefore never can be conjectured beforehand, what may be the information. which he will produce, nor the sentiments that he will adopt. He sometimes differs with his predecessors, even on general subjects, and not always with good reason.

I must now, however, mention to you the three octavo volumes on English History that were drawn up by Sir James Mackintosh, for Dr. Lardner. There is little pretension in the appearance of these volumes; do not be deceived by this circumstance; they are full of weighty matter, and are everywhere marked by paragraphs of comprehensive thought and sound philosophy, political and moral; they are well worthy their distinguished author. The sentences are now and then overcharged with reflection, so as to become obscure, particularly in the first volume. But do not be deterred by a fault, that too naturally resulted from the richly stored and highly metaphysical mind of this valuable writer.

You may easily consult the monkish writers; you will find