were likewise used by the natives of Britain.
(Comment. de Bell. Civil. i. 51, and Guichardt, Nouveaux Memoires
Militaires, tom. ii. p. 41, 42.) The British vessels would now astonish
the genius of Caesar.]

[Footnote 105: The best original account of the Saxon pirates may
be found in Sidonius Apollinaris, (l. viii. epist. 6, p. 223, edit.
Sirmond,) and the best commentary in the Abbe du Bos, (Hist. Critique
de la Monarchie Francoise, &c. tom. i. l. i. c. 16, p. 148-155. See
likewise p. 77, 78.)]

[Footnote 106: Ammian. (xxviii. 5) justifies this breach of faith to
pirates and robbers; and Orosius (l. vii. c. 32) more clearly expresses
their real guilt; virtute atque agilitate terribeles.]

[Footnote 107: Symmachus (l. ii. epist. 46) still presumes to mention
the sacred name of Socrates and philosophy. Sidonius, bishop of
Clermont, might condemn, (l. viii. epist. 6,) with less inconsistency,
the human sacrifices of the Saxons.]

II. The fabulous colonies of Egyptians and Trojans, of Scandinavians and
Spaniards, which flattered the pride, and amused the credulity, of our
rude ancestors, have insensibly vanished in the light of science and
philosophy. [108] The present age is satisfied with the simple and
rational opinion, that the islands of Great Britain and Ireland were
gradually peopled from the adjacent continent of Gaul. From the coast of
Kent, to the extremity of Caithness and Ulster, the memory of a Celtic
origin was distinctly preserved, in the perpetual resemblance of
language, of religion, and of manners; and the peculiar characters
of the British tribes might be naturally ascribed to the influence of
accidental and local circumstances. [109] The Roman Province was reduced
to the state of civilized and peaceful servitude; the rights of
savage freedom were contracted to the narrow limits of Caledonia. The
inhabitants of that northern region were divided, as early as the reign
of Constantine, between the two great tribes of the Scots and of the
Picts, [110] who have since experienced a very different fortune. The
power, and almost the memory, of the Picts have been extinguished by
their successful rivals; and the Scots, after maintaining for ages the
dignity of an independent kingdom, have multiplied, by an equal and
voluntary union, the honors of the English name. The hand of nature had
contributed to mark the ancient distinctions of the Scots and Picts. The
former were the men of the hills, and the latter t