LAWS OF THE DRUIDs.

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wicked. All persons leave their company, avoid their presence and speech, lest they should be involved in some of the ill-consequences of their situation. They can get no redress for injury, and they are ineligible to any post of honour. The Druids have a president, who exercises supreme authority among them. On his death the next highest to him in rank succeeds. If there are several who are equal, one is chosen by a general vote. Sometimes there is a conflict about the succession. . . . The system of the Druids is supposed to have been invented in Britain, and to have been introduced from that country into Gaul. To this day those who are anxious to make themselves more completely acquainted with it frequently visit the island for the purpose of study. The Druids do not serve in a campaign, and do not pay taxes along with their fellow-countrymen. They are exempted from all civil duties as well as from military service. Privileges so great induce many to submit themselves voluntarily to this education; many others are sent by their parents and kinsfolk. These pupils are said to learn by heart a vast number of verses. Some, in consequence, remain under teaching for as many as twenty years. The Druids think it unlawful to commit this knowledge of theirs to writing (in secular matters and in public and private business they use Greek characters). This is a practice which they have, I think, adopted for two reasons. They do not wish. that their system should become commonly known, or that their pupils, trusting in written documents, should less carefully cultivate their memory; and, indeed, it does generally happen that those who rely

on written documents are less industrious in learning by heart, and have a weaker memory. The Druids' chief doctrine is that the soul of man does not perish, but passes after death from one person to another. They hold that this is the best of all incitements to courage as banishing the fear of death. They have much also to say about the stars and their motions, about the magnitude of the heavens and the earth, about the constitution of nature, about the power and authority of the immortal gods. And this they communicate to their pupils."

It does not seem likely that the Druidical system really came from Britain into Gaul, if it is the fact that the Celtic inhabitants of the island came from the mainland. It has been suggested 1 that in Cæsar's time the Druid power had become weakened in Gaul, where the system of civil government was superseding that of the priests, but that in Britain, as being a less civilized country, it still retained its old predominance. The stone circles, of which Stonehenge is the most famous and perfect example, but which are found scattered over Great Britain and North-western France, are commonly supposed to have been seats of Druid worship. The word Druid is generally referred to the Greek word for an oak (Spús)

By Mr. C. Long in his edition of Cæsar, "De Bello Gallico."

II.

CÆSAR IN BRITAIN.

IN the year 55 B.C. Caius Julius Cæsar, who had been appointed four years before to a five years' command. in Gaul, had conquered the whole of that country. The conquest, indeed, was not as complete as he seems to have imagined. Again and again the people rose against him, and five years more of fighting were required before the work could be said to have been thoroughly done. Still towards the end of the campaigning season in 55 he had carried his arms as far as the Ocean on the west, the Channel on the north, and the Rhine on the east. He had even crossed the Rhine, and ravaged the territory of certain German tribes beyond it. Then, after the manner of conquerors, he looked about for fresh enterprises in which to employ his troops, and it occurred to him to invade the neighbouring island of Britain. One of

This command was voted, as the result of a political compact, in 59. In the following year Cæsar left Rome for his province, which included Illyricum and the two divisions of Gaul (south and north of the Alps). Illyricum and Cisalpine Gaul were already Roman provinces, as was also, in Transalpine Gaul, the region known as the Provincia, South-eastern France, reaching northwards as far as the Cevennes, and westward to the Upper Garonne.

CESAR PREPARES TO CROSS.

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his reasons, as he states it himself in his Commentaries (ie., Notes on his Campaigns), was that he had found that the natives of Britain were in the habit of assisting the Gaul in their resistance to his armies. It may, however, be doubted whether this consideration weighed much with him. With the Channel commanded, as it was, by Roman fleets, the Britons could have given but very little help to their neighbours across the sea. The summer was nearly over, but he thought that there would be time for what may be called a reconnaissance in force. Information about the island, its population, harbours, &c., which he had hitherto tried in vain to get, might thus be acquired, and would be useful in case he should see fit to make afterwards a more regular expedition. His first step was to send one Volusenus to reconnoitre the country. While he was awaiting his return, envoys arrived from several of the British tribes offering submission. He received them courteously, encouraged them to persevere in their good resolutions, and sent them back, in company with one Commius, a friendly Gaul, with the message that he should soon come in person to receive the submission of their countrymen. In four days' time Volusenus came back, having learnt, as Cæsar sarcastically remarks, as much as was possible for one who had never ventured to leave his ship. Meanwhile Cæsar had been busy preparing the means of transport. Eighty merchant ships were collected. These, with such ships of war as he had at command, would, he judged, be sufficient to carry across his army. But he had also eighteen other vessels, which were set apart for the transport of the