more accurately, and then he would have discovered that the principal families of that country took especial care in verifying and preserving their pedigrees, for in fact they were their title deeds by which they enjoyed their lands, and the records by which the scales of judicial rewards and punishments were regulated, and juries selected in the courts of law. When genealogies were thus matters of public and social importance, is it likely that they should suffer to the extent intimated by our author?

66 Conjectures and fictions then take the place of recorded facts, and supply the links which have been lost, or which never existed. One law of humanity is of itself enough to prove that, however carefully cultivated, (and, indeed, so much the more, the more industriously it is cultivated,) the heraldic faculty is essentially uncritical and credulous, and that is, the continual falling off and extinction of effete families, and the rise of entirely new ones, upon which, in great things and in small, the progression of the race depends. The pedigrees of the decayed and the departed are useless, for there are none to glory in them, the men who have taken their places have no pedigrees, and so upon the old trunks, the new branches, with their thick foliage and flowers and fruits, are grafted; and every trace of recent junction is in time effaced by the corrugations and the mosses of age. Age itself, without any other influence, will often effect in heraldry as much as study can in changing the meaning and the value of facts."—p. 588.

All this language is very fine, but at the same time it is merely a piece of illogical assertion unsupported by a single fact. A knowledge of the Welsh Laws ought to have convinced Mr. W. that the possessions of an "effete family" were not to be inherited on such easy terms as these in days gone by.

We trust that our author does not think that the Jews failed in preserving their pedigrees, and maintaining the distinct character of their several tribes; we sincerely trust it, though Mr. W. can scoff at the mysteries of religion in terms too shocking to be transcribed to our pages. We would remind him, moreover, that the science of genealogy, which he so much disdains, is recommended to us under the holy sanction of Christianity. The earthly lineage of our blessed Lord Himself is twice recorded in the New Testament, and, even in this respect, He is made to appear great on account of his royal extraction, as one of noble and princely birth. It has been beautifully observed," Men are allowed with a sort of innocent pride to rejoice in their ancestors, and such feeling is after a faint image or resemblance of God's love for them being continued to their posterity."

We had always thought that the acquirement of a language was regarded as a constituent portion of polite accomplishment. What else could we infer from the numerous advertisements for governesses who are able to teach French, German and Italian, that meet us daily in the Times? It seems, however, that there is one exception to this rule-the Welsh language, though confessed by Mr. W. to be "ancient and copious, harmonious, and exact," is an insuperable barrier to the advancement of the people in the scale of civilization! No one should learn it-let it be extinguished that the people may emerge from "their state of social degradation, and their mental darkness and narrowness," to which they are otherwise "condemned for ever." Yea, let it be extinguished, were it only to enable Thomas

Carlyle to understand the "poor bodies" of the vale of Glamorgan on his condescending visit amongst them.

The cry of degradation, darkness, and narrowness raised against that tongue which astonished and persuaded the Roman Emperor, and roused the martial energies of former heroes in defence of their homes, liberty, and privileges, is surely a mere sham, a pretext to cover some envious feeling which rankles in the mind. Why, where is the artizan or tradesman whose language condemns him to eternal degradation? Do not the Welsh people arise in the world equally with their English brethren, and do they not succeed in acquiring the utilitarian speech without being obliged to forget their native tongue? They are not reluctant or unwilling to learn an additional dialect, but they certainly will not purchase it at the expense of that in which they were born.

Mr. Woodward predicts the "certainty of the eventual disuse" of the Welsh language. We look upon that old Welsh gentleman as the truer prophet, who, being asked by Henry II. what he thought of the strength of the Welsh and of his royal expedition against them, answered in these words:"This nation may suffer much, and may be in a great measure ruined, or at least very much weakened, O king, by your present and other future attempts, as well as formerly it hath often been; but we assure ourselves, that it will never be wholly ruined by the anger or power of any mortal man, unless the anger of heaven concur to its destruction. Nor (whatever changes may happen as to the other parts of the world) can I believe, that any other nation or language besides the Welsh, shall answer at the great day before the supreme JUDGE, for the greater part of this corner of the world."

We had intended to notice the work more in detail, but as we opened page after page, the ignorance, pedantry, spleen and unfairness of the compiler stared us in the face so glaringly, that we despaired of ever being able to compress our corrections of each misrepresentation within the limits at our disposal. We therefore quit the subject with one word of parting advice to Mr. Woodward,-Never again undertake any subject of which you are not master, or which your mind is not morally fit to treat. The young republic of America seems to suit your powers and predisposition much better than the aristocratic associations of old Cymru.

BRITANNIC RESEARCHES; OR, NEW FACTS AND RECTIFICATIONS OF ANCIENT BRITISH HISTORY. BY BEAL POSTE. London: John Russel Smith. 1853.

Most refreshing is it to turn from the foregoing to the Britannic Researches of Mr. Poste, a work which evinces so much learning, judgment and research, that we hesitate not to pronounce it as one of the most valuable and scholarlike productions that has for a long time appeared on subjects connected with ancient Britain. Truly, when we find men like Mr. Poste applying their powerful genius and vast acquirements to the elucidation of the past history of our country, we

are not without hope that the national picture will ere long stand forth in colours very different from those in which it has hitherto been viewed by prejudiced minds, and thus also tend greatly to vindicate the genuineness of our own traditionary annals.

The volume under consideration is divided into five books. In the first is shown the political position of the chief British powers, before the Roman conquest, under the Roman domination, and as struggling ineffectually afterwards with the Anglo-Saxons. The second is on the geography of ancient Britain, and is intended, as our author relates, to show in detail the territorial platform on which the events of British story took place, as also to make the reader more authentically acquainted with the ancient British States which possessed the island. Book the third treats of the histories of Gildas, Nennius and the ancient British chronicles; also of the old stone monuments, and kindred subjects of much interest. The first two chapters of book the fourth, in conjunction with such part of book the first as are relative to the same topic, show how the island passed into the hands of the Romans. The fifth or last book is restricted to some details, which throw additional light on the subject of the early spread of Christianity in these parts.

No one will deny that these are subjects of peculiar interest to the British antiquary; it is then most gratifying to us to be able to say that they have been treated with consummate skill and fairness, and that the learned author has succeeded in throwing new light upon several of them. Besides the usual authorities, Mr. Poste has, on the present occasion, enlisted into his service various passages from the classics, which had been hitherto omitted or misapplied, the work of Nennius, as elucidated by modern commentators, and especially the Irish edition; passages from Gildas, as interpreted by the last named work; various Welsh documents, which, as our author observes, "frequently afford a species of conviction to the mind, impossible to be set aside, that they refer to real facts;" the unexceptionable evidence of British coins; the Angora inscription, part of which relates to Britain; and various other inscriptions relating also to Britain, with some other miscellaneous sources of information.

Mr. Poste avers that the ancient Britons had by their mutual wars and contests so broken down the independence of the smaller states, and so far produced a balance of power in the island, that as early as a hundred years before Christ, Britain, south of Caledonia, had become divided into three principal kingdoms, the Trinobantes, Iceni, and Brigantes. The first in importance, he considers to have been the Trinobantes, ruled over by Cunobeline. This state, it is said, comprised the southern parts of the kingdom, bounded to the north by the somewhat irregular line of Suffolk, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Montgomeryshire, &c. Our space will not allow us to follow the author through all the proofs which he adduces to show that the different states in this part of the island were subject to the sovereign of the Trinobantes, but we must give a specimen :

"Beginning from the eastern part of the tract, the names of the capitals of the

ご

Trinobantes and the Cassii, Camulodunum and Verulamium, occur very frequently on the coins of Cunobeline, as also does Segontium, the capital of the state of the Segontiaci. Ruding's Annals of the Coinage of Great Britain and other authorities may be cited for these assertions. As to the state of the Dobuni, next to the westward, Dion Cassius, in his sixtieth book, acquaints us that they were in subjection to the Catieuchlani, who, it appears by Ptolemy, were the same nation as the Cassii. Further to the west, the Silures or the South Welsh appear, from Tacitus (Annals xii. 33), to have had Caractacus for their ruler, who, we are informed by Dion Cassius, was son of Cunobeline, deceased at that time.".

-p. 2.

Mr. Poste has paid much attention to the study of coins, and has written a work on the Coins of Cunobeline and of the Ancient Britons. Here we have an instance of the value of this species of evidence, and how it may be applied to the elucidation of national history. We may further remark how these coins tend to confirm the credibility of our native records. For example, we are told in the latter that the following constituted the alphabet in the time of Beli the Great :—a, p, c, e, t, i, l, r, o, s, m, n, b, ff, g, d, u. The letters y and v or f were not then invented, consequently the word Cynvelyn could not be formed, it must have been written Cunbelun or Cunbelin, the y and v being later modifications of u or i and b respectively, and thus Cynvelyn by being resolved into its primitive elements, according to the process pointed out in our own orthographical traditions, becomes almost identical with the very name on

the coins.

It is to be regretted that Mr. Poste has, in connexion with the above passage, taken no notice of the discrepancy which apparently exists between the concurrent testimony of the Welsh Triads and genealogies and the statement of Dion Cassius, relative to the parentage of Caractacus, with a view to their mutual reconciliation; for it is possible, after all, that Siluria was independent of the Trinobantian state, if not possessed of paramount authority in the island. The Welsh documents represent Caractacus as the son of a Silurian king, and it is not difficult to infer, from the 79th Triad, how Dion Cassius, who wrote two centuries after the event, might fall into error on the subject.

"The three loyal legions of the island of Britain; the legion of Belyn the son of Cynvelyn, in the wars of Caradog, the son of Bran," &c.

The Triad thus acknowledges the co-operation of a son of Cynvelyn, and states also that he acted under Caractacus, the son of Bran, from which circumstance a Roman historian might easily, at a distant period, fall into a mistake, and conclude that Caractacus was another son of Cynvelyn.

Moreover, do not those words of Dion Cassius, nσav de ovк autóνομοι αλλ ̓ ἀλλοῖς βασιλεῦσι προστεταγμενοι, which he has written concerning the Britons attacked by Plautius, refer indirectly to the separate nationality of Caractacus, and so far confirm the testimony of the native records? "They were not independent, but were under the government of other kings." Mr. Poste explains them to mean they were not then under the government of one sole leader and monarch, as they might and should have been, and had been in

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former instances, but were under other kings," referring to the division of Cunobeline's territories among his sons, and thinks that αὐτόνομοι was originally ομόνομοι.—p. 306.

We are not, however going to controvert Mr. Poste's position, but we throw out this hint as not altogether unworthy of further consideration.

On another subject, however, we are disposed to be at issue with Mr. Poste, and that is the meaning of some parts of Caractacus' speech. We submit that the words "moderatio rerum prosperarum” should be construed rather the measure of my success than my prudent conduct in prosperity. Such an interpretation as the one proposed would render the harangue perfectly intelligible, and obviate the necessity of supposing the loss of records in order to account for the allusion. "Had the measure of my success [i.e. in war] been answerable to the greatness of my birth and fortune, I might have come to this city rather as a friend than a captive, nor wouldest thou have disdained to receive into terms of peace one descended from illustrious ancestors and ruling many nations. My present destiny as it is ill-favoured to me, so is it to thee magnificent. I possessed horses, men, arms, wealth; what wonder is it if I was unwilling to lose them? Does it follow, that if ye wish to govern all, all should submit to servitude? If I had surrendered and given myself up immediately, neither my condition nor thy glory would have been remarkable. Oblivion will follow my punishment, but if thou wilt spare my life I shall be a lasting instance of clemency."

We do not think with Mr. P. that Caractacus refers to any particular time when he speaks of a surrender; his language is merely the spontaneous consequence of the reflection arising in his mind that he had held out against the Romans for nine long years. We cannot accept Mr. P.'s translation of "clementiæ" as indicative of submission or tractableness on the part of the conquered. That was certainly not Tacitus' meaning, when speaking of, as we think, Caractacus' countrymen, he says, 66 Silurum gens non atrocitati, non clementiâ mutabatur."

Our author presents us with a copy of the curious and important inscription which Augustus directed by his will to be set up, in which the fact, new no doubt to many of our readers, is mentioned, that three British princes had submitted to him, Dumno, Bellaunus and Timan. The Barberini inscription, likewise, receives at his hands very ingenious and impartial treatment, with the view of reconciling the apparently contradictory statements of Suetonius and Dion Cassius relative to the expedition of Claudius. So does the Chichester inscription on the subject of Pudens and Claudia, which had been so satisfactorily worked out previously by the Venerable the Archdeacon of Cardigan, whose pamphlet, however, does not appear to have fallen under the notice of Mr. Poste.

It is very satisfactory to us to see that our author gives proper weight to the evidence of Welsh documents, even when they apparently clash with extrinsic authorities, instead, as the fashion is, of rejecting them altogether under such circumstances. Thus, after weighing the arguments for and against the alleged British origin of Constantine the Great, and not finding the foreign evidence sufficiently strong to establish the fact, he leaves it an open question, declaring at