A Neglected Fact in English History. By Henry Charles Coote,
F.S.A - (Bell and Daddy.)—The theory of this essay is that too much effect has been attributed to the Anglo-Saxon invasion. The common idea is that the provincial Britons were exterminated tuad a tabula rasa made of Roman Britain. On the contrary, says Mr. Coote, the Anglo-Saxons. were a mere conquering clam of barbarians who adopted the Roman civilization which they found. Society after their invasion was divided into two classes, the privileged and unprivileged, and its institutions and observances are all Roman. But the Anglo-Saxon came from pri- mitive un-Romanized Germany, and it is absurd to suppose that he developed the identical civilization of tho race he exterminated. This proposition Mr. Coote supports with a groat fund of learning, and argu- ments which seem to us quite unanswerable; on the other hand, though his side of the case required to be stated and stated strongly, we think he overstates it. The Saxon immigration was, we think, much more numerous than he allows, and the extermination theory is not so widely held or at least not to so extravagant an extent as he imagines. The essay is thoroughly worth reading, and is clearly written, but the style wants ease and is disfigured by an excessive and most unnecessary use of long words derived from the Latin. It is scarcely suited for the reader who seeks amusement from books, but appeals to the historical student, who will hardly be persuaded that the Anglo-Saxon deserted the alliance of the Picts for the military service of the Briton. If so, how is it that the Briton is the churl and the Saxon everywhere the privileged class ?
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