THE ROMANS OF BRITAIN.*
A SPRIGHTLY little book called ScepCcism in Geology has recently shown that " orthodox " geologists may possibly have misinter- preted some of the most important texts from which they preach their sermons in stones. There is not much need of a similar brochure in the cognate seience of archmology. Pope and Council are alike ignored in that realm of perfect free- dom, and an " orthodox " antiquarian is an unintelligible term. To say nothing about the Sphinx, or the Pyramids, or the bones of contention that have been exhumed at Mycenm, where are we to look for the doctrine of the true Church about the Devil's Dyke, or Cmsar's Camp, or Stone- henge? But this absence of authority has its drawbacks. The latitudinarian river of thought and speech which wanders at its own sweet will amidst the relics of the past has its dangers, and the right of private judgment is a two-edged sword in archzeology, no less than in theology. " Ah ! it may be so in your little gilt- edged Bibles," said John Selden to the Puritan Mar-texts, "but it is not so in the original." "Praetorian here, Prmthtian there," said Edie Ochiltree to Mr. Jonathan Oldbuck, "I mind the bigging o't." Reply was difficult in either case, but sooth to say, the mind of an enthusiastic antiquary enjoys not unfrequently a logic that is all its own. Mr. Coote complains, but he must not be surprised that the "lay mind," as he calls it, when confronted with this logic, fails often to see when the onus probandi has been shifted. A. due conviction of our own de- ficiency in the special knowledge required for speaking confidently about such a question as that which he raises in his Romans of Britain would, apart from other considerations, counsel wariness and circumspection ; but to tell the truth, we feel ourselves in such a fog as we read Mr. Coote's book, that we are afraid to manceuvre boldly, lest we should expose an undefended side to our dimly-seen antagonist. We venture, however, to think, under correction, of course, and repeating with unfeigned sincerity our confession of ignorance, that the haze in which we find ourselves is not entirely subjective. Inferentially, we shall be able to give a reason or two for declining to accept some of Mr. Coote's statements, and he must forgive us if, finding him weak to the touch where we are able to test him, we are shy'of trusting him where we are not so able. Roughly speaking, Mr. Coote's book is written to prove that Mr. Freeman's view of the origines of the English race is wrong. Quite as roughly speaking, we believe that Mr. Freeman's view is right. And this we say, not because we are prepared to give an intelligent assent to Mr. Freeman's arguments, but because in studying Mr. Freeman we have never been able to put our finger upon such obviously erroneous statements as we have found in Mr. Coote. We shrewdly suspect indeed that Mr. Freeman has occasionally over-stated his case, but we should shrink from challenging his conclusions upon any given point, without devoting much more time and attention to the subject-matter of his investigations than we have ever felt inclined to do. We feel no such timidity in crossing swords with Mr. Coote.
The Romans of Britain, then, is written to support the theory that the large Belgic population, the infinita hominum multitudo, which Cwsar found in Britain, remained with practically un- diminished numbers after the Roman conquest of this island, that they thoroughly received the stamp and impress of Roman civilisation, that their largely increased numbers were, again, practically undiminished by the barbarian con- quests, that the barbarians adopted many of the customs which they found in the land ; in short, that Roman civilisation under- lies Anglo-Saxon institutions, if we may use such loose and mac- * Pa Romans of Britain. By H. C. Coote, F.S.A. London: Frederic Norgate. curate language, and that Romanised Britain reacted upon its conquerors in a very marked and important way. The opposite theory, that the barbarians made a clean sweep and tabula rasa of the land, is given in a passage from Mr. Kemble, in the pre- face, which we may refer to, but cannot quote, and is, we sup- pose, the one which is now generally accepted. It is only just to Mr. Coote to say that he has quoted a passage from Massman's preface to Ulphilas, which may be taken as telling strongly in favour of his opinion ; and speaking purely from the " lay " point of view, it must be admitted that there is much to be said in favour of it. Dismissing the chauvinisn which would assert that John Bull is a better animal all round than Hans Sauerkraut, it may at least be conceded that he is a different animal ; and that one of the causes of that difference may be the Roman civilisation which once prevailed in Britain, and which never prevailed in Germany, seems a reasonable and moderate contention. It is only when we come to particulars that we find ourselves at sea. By that awkward process of intuition which Lamb feared would supersede reading in another state, and which teaches the Solicitor-General that capital punishment is the best possible deterrent from murder, we discern, or think that we discern, that there is a considerable element of truth in Mr. Coote's main proposition. But as we have already said, the particulars upon which he seeks to establish it are by no means so cogent, to our understanding. As the net upshot of the multifarious facts and inferences that he has laid before us with remarkable diligence, and we may add, with remarkable spirit, in this volume, we can only say that we know, concerning the subject which he discusses, exactly what Candide, under Pangloss's teaching, knew about metaphysics, namely, fort pen de chose. Personally, indeed, we care little about the meagreness of this result. We do not attach that importance to the continuity of history which some men do. The convulsions which tease him in his cradle are, no doubt, joined by linked sweetness long drawn out to the fit of indiges- tion which gives a man his quietus at threescore years and ten, but it requires a very minute philosopher indeed to explain how. The English nation of to-day differs almost as much from the Beige of Ctesar's Britain as the eights that rowed last month at Putney differed from the barges which strove for victory forty years ago at Henley, and we care no more for the battles of kites and crows, as Milton irreverently called the wars which were the convulsions of our nation's infancy, than we do for the lines and timber of those antiquated and ponderous galiots. Like the bard who lectured Lady Clara Vere de Vere so solemnly, we are too proud to care from whence we came. And heartily glad are we to be able to say so. A modern Greek, poor fellow ! may be excused for fighting tooth and nail to prove that he is really and truly descended from the men who fought at Marathon, but a modern Englishman can look with unmoved eye upon the theory which would associate him with the glories of old Rome, and upon the theory which would endow him with the primeval virtues of Hercynia. But we must return to Mr. Coote, and as some excuse for our levity, we may remark, and we do so with pleasure, that he is not one of the " unco' serious" himself. He bluntly describes the war campaigning of that illustrious nation the Suevi, of whom even Cmsar speaks respectfully, as "a pursuit which combined poaching with murder ;" and referring to the stern law which inflicted upon the widow who married before the Romulian year of ten months had passed a punishment as severe as that which the Puritans infficted on a street-walker, he slily says that "the amorous pair who could not temper down their passion into waiting those ten moons had something else to fear, besides even the hard blows of the law and the rebuffs of society." That something was the husband's dear departed shade, in the part of an avenging ghost, and it is needless to add that Mr. Coote treats the voice-of-nature superstition with merry banter. With equal gaiety he quotes from Tacittvs " (Germani] gaudent muneribus, sed nec data impntant, nee acceptis obligantur," and adds triumphantly, "here were shown the greediness and ingratitude of the savage." Now, without sharing the feelings of an eichter deutscher Mann about the compatriots of Arminius, we may surely say that here were shown the generosity and delicacy of the true gentleman. It is only too clear that Mr. Coote cannot translate the words nec data imputant, or at all events, does not translate them, as Church and Brodribb quite correctly do, "they expect no return for what they give." When we find, too, that he prints, at page 289, a Latin hexameter thus,— “Innupsit tepid° Felton
Cornelia busto;
• Pioneering in South Brazil. By Thomas P. Blgg-Wither, F.B.G.B. 2 and worst of all, quotes some technical words reported by the vols. London : John Murray.
centurion, or whatever he was, who wrote the journal, or whatever it is, De Bello African°, as coming from the pen of "that prince of prosateurs, Cmsar," we are bound to say that our suspicions are excited with respect to the thousand and one Latin references to be found in this volume, and upon the correctness and true interpretation of which so much of its value must of necessity depend. If Mr. Coote slips and stumbles in Tacitus and Cesar, what pranks may his evil genius not play him in the thorny brakes of Frontinus, and Vitruvius, and Siculus Flaccus ? If such should prove to be unfortunately the case, we may leave Mr. Coote to the tender mercies of the lion whom he has once more bearded in his den. Mr. Freeman is not likely to spare the lash, if Mr. Coote deserves it ; and although we potently believe that he is in for a very bad quarter of an hour, we shall not be sorry to find ourselves mistaken. We quite believe, however, that he has made out a case for having the question which he puts re- argued; and we are sure that his book will be read with pleasure, if not with approval, by all whose tastes and studies lead them to take an interest in his subject. He writes with a vivacity which for an antiquary almost deserves to be called skittish, and although in reading straight on end through his book we have sometimes wished that he had arranged his materials alphabetically, we have often been amused with vigorously playful passages like the following
The Romans so impressed upon the vernacular of the Belgic coloni and proletariate the rich broad ring of the digamma, that it has never since left our island. Neither Anglo-Saxon nor Dane, Norman nor Genoa could weaken or efface its masculine echo. The Beige continued true to this Roman teaching, and pronounced his own Vents and Vectia
Went,' and 'Wight.' This commutation of sound continued to fight for a position throughout the middle-ages. Ladies and gentlemen pronounced and wrote ' velvet ' as if it were wolvet.' The habit was inveterate in London; perhaps it is not quite discontinued there. For centuries the respectable Londoner spoke after this manner, in spite of the satirist and the playwright, who never tired of reminding the polite that a citizen called ' veal' weal,' and victuals' wictuals.' But the same satirists and playwrights did not know that the Londoner committed only the venial fault of pronouncing foreign words accord- ing to the law of his own 1 mg-descended phonetics."
We are sorely afraid that a snake or two is lurking in the grass here which an Ellis, or a Sweet, or a Munro would not fail to scotch, but we are gratified to find that the racy philologist
who, as amicus curiae, in "Barden v. Pickwick," advised the
judge to "put it down a we" was guided by the law of his own long-descended phonetics. Whether Mr. Weller, Senior, would
have endorsed Mr. Coote's statement (p.39 and note) that wailer- wente and valorem aequantes are equivalent terms may be con-
sidered doubtful. He might not have understood the quotation from " Vergil " (rest his name!) which Mr. Coote adduces ; neither do we.
"E quinci sien le nostre visto sazio."
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