call savages. And yet so it was. Two thousand years ago, this island had on it no trees or plants which were not the natural growth of the island, and no buildings, perhaps, but a few miserable huts. Large portions of the island were covered with vast forests of oak, beech, and elm, with tangled underwood of briar and hawthorn, maple and hazel, in which wild boars, wolves, and foxes took refuge. In other parts were large swamps and morasses, full of reeds and rushes, where many varieties of waterfowl harboured, as well as otters, weasels, and water-rats.

2. Herds of wild cattle roamed over the hills, and the halfnaked inhabitants, instead of tilling the ground and sowing grain, were content to live by the chase, or on the wild fruits and berries

they found in the woods. They painted their skins with the juices of plants, and their only clothing was the skins of the beasts which they hunted down. Rude spears and arrows were their only weapons, and they lived for the most part in caves hollowed out of rocks, or huts made of the branches of trees, woven together and plastered over with mud.

3. The most ingenious arts which they had among them were perhaps the making of small vessels of clay to hold their food, and little boats of wicker-work covered with skins, in which they paddled themselves across the streams. They were rough in their manners and ignorant, worshipping the sun and moon, and rude

idols of wood and stone. Their priests taught them no lessons of love or humanity, but rather encouraged them in the most cruel practices, such as offering up in sacrifice the prisoners whom they took in war, under the idea that it would be pleasing to their idols. These priests, called Druids, dwelt in gloomy groves, and practised strange and mysterious rites, so that they frightened the people into obedience to their will. Their temples were constructed with enormous blocks of stone, generally standing in circles, and within these their cruel sacrifices were offered up by the priests. Such were the ancient Britons. But these people, savages as they were, must have had some good qualities in them, which only wanted the example and teaching of others in order to render them civilized and rational. England was intended, by a wise and over-ruling Providence, to be in the course of time the great nation that it is now, and the events by which this purpose was accomplished are among the most interesting in history.

4. Perhaps the first notions which they ever acquired of there being other people in the world cleverer and more skilled than themselves, may have arisen from occasional visits paid to the island by the Phoenicians, who came from the great city of Tyre, in Syria, which we read of in the Bible, and who landed on the coast of Cornwall, to procure tin, a metal which abounds in that part of the island. They traded with the Britons for the tin, and as their money could be of no use to the islanders, we may imagine that they gave in exchange some of the articles of clothing, utensils, and ornaments, in the manufacture of which they were so skilled. Many of these things they would give in exchange for lumps of tin; each time that they came, perhaps, leaving behind them some newly-fashioned garment, weapon, or vessel which served as a pattern for the poor islanders, and made the cleverest among them set to work to try and imitate it.

5. The Britons did not, however, make any very decided advance towards civilization until about fifty-five years before the birth of our Saviour, when what was then thought by them to be a terrible calamity, proved afterwards to have been an advantage, and helped them greatly onwards. The Romans, then the greatest and most powerful, as well as the most highly-civilized people in the world, having conquered Gaul or France, heard there of the fertile island called Britain, which lay on the other side of the sea, to the northwest. They made several attempts to land upon the island, but were always beaten off by the natives, who crowded down to the shore to repel them. At last, however, the Romans came in such

formidable numbers, that a landing was effected and the Britons finally overcome. After this the Romans remained in the island for nearly five hundred years, adding to their conquests from time to time, until the whole people were under their dominion. Different governors were sent from Rome to rule over them, and some of these being wise and good, they did much to improve the condition of the country and people. They not only built towns and fortresses, but they made good roads from one end of the land to the other, and taught the Britons many useful arts. Even to this day remains of these roads and fortresses are to be found, and here and there even the remains of dwelling-houses, which must have been constructed with both convenience and beauty. It was difficult, however, for the Romans to govern an island so far from Rome as Britain, and when that empire began to lose some of its power, it was obliged to withdraw its forces and leave the islanders to themselves. Now the Britons might have managed to govern themselves, but they were quite unable at that time to prevent the invasion of some rude tribes of barbarians called the Picts and Scots, who dwelt in the mountain regions of Scotland, and were constantly coming down in hordes to disturb the more peaceful inhabitants of the south. After many unsuccessful efforts to get rid of these troublesome neighbours, they were obliged to apply for assistance to the Saxons, a warlike people in the north of Germany, the fame of whose skill in war had reached them.

6. The Saxons came, headed by two valiant chiefs called Hengist and Horsa; but after conquering the Picts and Scots and driving them back to their mountains, they were not so ready to return home again. Seeing how fair and fertile was the land, and how helpless the inhabitants, they determined to make a settlement in it, and inviting over more and more of their fellow-countrymen to join them, they took such complete possession of the island that its original inhabitants could never again recover their authority. Many of the Britons retired to Wales and Cornwall, and continued a distinct people almost to this day, but the greater number of the inhabitants of Britain became so mixed up with the Saxon settlers that they were in future but one people. For a long time the southern part of the island was called West Saxony, but another tribe from Germany, called the Angles, almost as powerful as the Saxons, came and settled in the eastern part, and called it East Anglia. This led to the whole people being called Anglo-Saxons, and lastly it came to pass that in time the whole island was named

the "Land of the Angles," or England. The Saxons and Angles were a clever, hardy, and industrious race of people, and did more for the land than ever the Romans had done, for they paid more attention to its cultivation, and their habits and ways of life suited the climate of the country better than those of the luxurious Romans; while their many good qualities make us English people of the present day feel proud of being descended from the Anglo-Saxon races of men.

7. We have thus seen that the islanders received assistance in

their progress, first from the Phoenicians, then from the Romans, and lastly, from the Angles and Saxons; but it was after the settlement of the latter people in the island, that a yet greater good came to the people in the introduction of Christianity, which tended, we believe, more than anything to make them less rude and barbarous. An interesting story is told of the manner in which this first came about. It would seem that even after the Saxons and Angles had settled in Britain, it was a custom to send

children to Rome to be sold as slaves. It might be that they were orphans, or the children of prisoners taken in battle, or it may have been that some parents were inhuman enough to sell their own children at all events, it so happened that some beautiful fair-haired and rosy-cheeked children were exposed for sale in the market-place of Rome, and that their looks attracted the notice of Gregory, who was then chief bishop of Rome, so that he inquired from what part of the world they had been brought.

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They are Angles," said the bystanders, in answer to his

question.

"Angels, you must mean, not Angles!" exclaimed he; and then turning his attention to the state of the native country of the little children, he grieved to think that its inhabitants had never heard the name of God, nor of His Son Jesus Christ, and he would fain have gone to Britain to teach the people the "good tidings which had been brought by Christ. The duties of his office, however, prevented Bishop Gregory from doing this himself, so he deputed a monk of the name of Augustine to travel through France and cross the sea to the land of the Angles, in order to make the people Christians, and induce them to destroy their idols and heathen temples; and in their stead build churches for the worship of the one true God, and monasteries or holy houses, where those who devoted themselves to the services of religion could live in safety, and spend their time in instructing the young and taking care of the sick and infirm.

9. And this was done; and though for many centuries afterwards, the islanders, whether called Britons, Saxons, Angles, or English, were still too fond of war, and even in the name of their religion committed many crimes, yet still there was much good influence always at work over the minds and habits of the people, according as they understood and followed the precepts of the Saviour whom Augustine taught them to know and love.