war into the country of
their enemy, under several able generals, and at last under Caius Caesar,
they reduced all the Gauls from the Mediterranean Sea to the Rhine and
the Ocean. During the progress of this decisive war, some of the
maritime nations of Gaul had recourse for assistance to the neighboring
island of Britain. Prom thence they received considerable succors; by
which means this island first came to be known with any exactness by the
Romans, and first drew upon it the attention of that victorious people.

Though Caesar had reduced Gaul, he perceived clearly that a great deal
was still wanting to make his conquest secure and lasting. That
extensive country, inhabited by a multitude of populous and fierce
nations, had been rather overrun than conquered. The Gauls were not yet
broken to the yoke, which they bore with murmuring and discontent. The
ruins of their own strength were still considerable; and they had hopes
that the Germans, famous for their invincible courage and their ardent
love of liberty, would be at hand powerfully to second any endeavors for
the recovery of their freedom; they trusted that the Britons, of their
own blood, allied in manners and religion, and whose help they had
lately experienced, would not then be wanting to the same cause. Caesar
was not ignorant of these dispositions. He therefore judged, that, if he
could confine the attention of the Germans and Britons to their own
defence, so that the Gauls, on which side soever they turned, should
meet nothing but the Roman arms, they must soon be deprived of all hope,
and compelled to seek their safety in an entire submission.

These were the public reasons which made the invasion of Britain and
Germany an undertaking, at that particular time, not unworthy a wise and
able general. But these enterprises, though reasonable in themselves,
were only subservient to purposes of more importance, and which he had
more at heart. Whatever measures he thought proper to pursue on the side
of Germany, or on that of Britain, it was towards Rome that he always
looked, and to the furtherance of his interest there that all his
motions were really directed. That republic had receded from many of
those maxims by which her freedom had been hitherto preserved under the
weight of so vast an empire. Rome now contained many citizens of immense
wealth, eloquence, and ability. Particular men were more considered than
the republic; and the fortune and genius of th