garrison distant countries, and brought to Britain Gauls, Germans, Spaniards, Thracians and others as auxiliaries to the two (sometimes three) legions, that were deemed necessary to hold it. The ordinary amount of their military force is estimated at 30,000 foot and 6,000 horse, and they had a reserve in the veterans on whom they bestowed lands instead of pensions, and who with their families formed the bulk of the population in the towns that were styled colonies.

Independently of a rather doubtful passage in Gildas, there seems sufficient ground for the belief that the light of Christianity was diffused in our island as early as the apostolic age. Clement of Rome says that St. Paul carried the Gospel to the extreme bounds of the West, a phrase used by other writers where Britain is unquestionably intended; St. Peter, St. Joseph of Arimathea o, Aristobulus, and others, are also named, but with less probability, as agents in the conversion of Britain. The British Church is often spoken of by writers of the third and succeeding centuries; although, from the destruction of documents, no list of sees can be given on anything more than conjecture, and no names of British prelates have come down to us preceding those of the signers of the decrees of the council of Arles (A.D. 314). The Christian population of Britain, evidently numerous at the time of the Diocletian persecution, appears to have steadily increased, and when the Romans withdrew from the island they left behind them a people professing the truths of the Gospel, but corrupting them by the rash and dangerous speculations of the Pelagian and other heresies, and soon to be driven into the more remote quarters of the country, where their faith, purified by affliction,

This was fully believed in the middle ages; and we find that Edward III. granted a licence dated June 10, 1345, allowing John Blome, of London, to search for the body of St. Joseph in the abbey of Glastonbury, about which, it says, he had received a divine revelation. The result is not recorded.

shone more brightly than it had done in the days of their prosperity. They were visited by many holy persons from Ireland, (which had early received the Gospel, and had as yet escaped the ravages of the northern nations,) such as St. Piran, St. Ia, St. Gwythian, and others, who, inflamed by missionary zeal, in the fifth and sixth centuries, proceeded to the coast of Cornwall, and have left numerous memorials of their labours, not only in the names of villages, but in the sculptured crosses and humble oratories still found there P. To this period, prior to the coming of Augustine, also belongs the origin of the Welsh sees, which, as they gathered the scattered sheep to the fold, may be regarded as the living representatives of the Churches planted among us in the very earliest age of Christianity.

P One of the most interesting of these is the church of St. Piran, near St. Ives, which, after being for ages buried in the sand, (hence the name of the hamlet, Perran-zabuloe,) was brought to light by its removal in 1835. It is of very small size (about 30 feet by 16) and simple architecture.

9 Caerleon is by some writers said to have been founded in the Roman period, and Llandaff to have been established by King Lucius; but these are mere traditions, and the succession of bishops cannot be traced higher than to Dubritius, who apparently held both sees, and is said to have died A.D. 522. Kentigern of St. Asaph and Daniel of Bangor, the first bishops there, lived somewhat later.

B.C. 57. DIVITIACUS, king of the Suessones (in northeastern Gaul), has the supremacy in Britain.

B.C. 56. The Veneti obtain assistance from the Britons against the Romans.

B.C. 55. CAIUS JULIUS CÆSAR prepares for an expedition into Britain.

The Britons, hearing of his preparations, dispatch ambassadors to Cæsar, who sends them back accompanied by Commius, king of the Atrebates".

Commius, counselling submission, is imprisoned by the Britons.

Caius Volusenus is sent to the coast of Britain to announce the coming of Cæsar and procure information, but returns on the fifth day without having ventured to land.

Cæsar sails from Gessoriacum (now Boulogne), at midnight of August 26, and effects a landing after a severe contest near the South Foreland, August 27. His

• The Veneti inhabited the southern coast of Gallia Celtica, in the modern department of Morbihan.

6 The Atrebates inhabited northern Gaul, in Artois, and the modern department Pas de Calais; on their subjection by the Romans, Commius was appointed their King. There was also a tribe of Atrebates in the south of Britain.

withdrawal of Cesar and only recommences with the prepanations of Augustus for a fresh invasion about 20 years after but the want is partially supped by the information afforest by coins that have been a.scovered. From these we learn the names of severa Brost princes in the interval of whom the one wita appears to have been Tascrovanus central and the eastern districts; and that his son was Cinebelin, witose site on which was afterwards planted e of Cammiodunum (Colchesterk

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prepares to invade the island, but proceeds no further than the coast of Gaul.

"Caius, arriving at the ocean," says Dio Cassius, 66 'as though intending to war in Britain, and drawing up all his troops along the beach, went on board a trireme, and having launched out a little distance from the land, returned again. And shortly after this, sitting on a lofty throne, and giving a signal to the soldiers as if for battle, and exciting them by his trumpeters, he then suddenly ordered them to gather up sea shells. And having taken such booty, for it would seem that he wanted spoils for the pomp of triumphal honours, he was as highly elated as though he had subdued the very ocean, gave considerable largesses to his soldiers, and carried these shells to Rome that he might exhibit his spoils to the citizens." A.D. 41. Caligula is assassinated, January 24. CLAUDIUS succeeds.

A.D. 43. Bericus, a fugitive whose surrender had been demanded, persuades Claudius to undertake the conquest of Britain.

Aulus Plautius invades the island, and defeats the Britons.

Vespasian (afterwards emperor) sent to Britain.

Claudius visits the island, captures the principal town of Cunobelin, (afterwards Camulodunum, now Colchester, in Essex,) and after sixteen days' residence in Britain returns to Rome.

A.D. 44. Claudius celebrates the "conquest of Britain" by a triumph at Rome, and, with his son, assumes the surname of Britannicus.

A.D. 47. Aulus Plautius and Vespasian reduce the southern part of Britain, and obtain tribute from the more distant tribes "

8 The Orcades were among the number, according to Eutropius (a comparatively late writer), but Tacitus asserts on the contrary that they were, first discovered and subjugated by Agricola. See A.D. 84.