THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume VI, Issue 5, 15 March 1859, Page 3

THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND.

CHAPTER 2. The Romans in Britain. At the end of the last paper, in which you heard of the state of England ago, you were told that the next picture of that country would bo drawn from what it was 800 years later, an 1 so pass over the time in which a great people called the Romans ruled in it. The reason for noi noticing them was that although they occupied the country for 400 years they then deserted it entirely, leaving neither sons or daughters behind them. But, as they left marks on the face of the country, which can be seen at ibis day, it may be better that you should hear how they fulfilled their mission while they sojourned in the land. The Romans were the most powerful people the world has ever known. By their determination and strength they had conquered every pari of the Globe which was known i:i their time, and to their own magnificent city of Rome had carried all that was most valuable and beautiful in ihe countries they had overcome. Their laws were framed with the greatest care by their wisest men, and are even now spoken of with admiration, —many of them have been adopted j by the English and are in force at the present tame. But the possession of all these good tilings did not satisfy the Romans,- but seemed- only to make them wish for more, and when they heard of a distant country i where the land was good, although the in- 1 habitants were savage, they determined to add it to their possessions." But it was not easy lo find soldiers willing to go so far from home to so wild and savage a land as Britain

then was, and it was long before an army was ready to start. At last 00,000 men were collected, and with a General named Aulus Plautius, landed on the sea beach of Britain. Here the Britains met ihem and defended themselves bravely ; but it was of no avail: the Romans knew how to fight and'were well armed, while the Britains had only clubs and spears to defend themselves with. Their King, Garactacus, was soon taken prisoner and with his wife and daughters sent to Home where they were made to walk through the streets loaded with chains while the people stared at them. Caractacus, however, made so moving a speech to the Roman Emperorthat he was released, and ever after treated wilh kindness.. But the Romans had not- yet established themselves securely in the land, and while they marched against a distant enemy in the west, Boadicea,. the great Queen of the Britons, assembled all her forces, and on the return of the Roman General, he four.d them armed and ready for the combat. A great battle followed, and although the Romans were only 10,000 strong, yet, having been better taught the art of war, they defeated the and killied 80,000. The poor Queen, broken hearted and dispirited, poisoned herself, and the Romans were entire Blasters of her country. But now comes the glfeam of sunshine on the picture. Agricola, one of the Roman I Generals, was a good as well as a brave man; j he persuaded the Natives to learn many use- i ful arts, to build houses,, and to make them- J selves worthy of being the companions of the •wiser people who had come to live among them. Many years of peace followed during which the soldiers of the Roman army were I employed in making roads of which many j are still to be seen; and in building castles j which,, although built without mortar, are likely to out-last most of the houses of the i present day* !

The Romans also marched into Scotland, a country joined to England, whose inhabitants were* always at war with the Britons, and there Agricola buill a long line of forts to prevent the Scots leaving their own country or again disturbing the Britons. All these friendly deeds so bound the Britons to their conquerors that when, 500 years later, Rome required her armies nearer home, the Britons mourned for their departure as they would have mourned the loss of protectors and friends; and when shortly after the Scots again attacked them they wrote to Rome imploring the help of the brave men who, although once their enemies, had since become guides and examples in all that was worth knowing. "When the Romans left Britain they quitted it as a body, leaving no families behind them, because though the Ron/an soldiers had land given them to live on, yet when they died, they could not leave it to their children for their lands were then given to be held by other soldiers, and so the Britons at one stroke lost the armies who protected them, and the friends who while they lived among them had raised them by their greater knowledge from the state of ignorance an.l darkness in which they found them, and into which they again fell when, attacked by the Scots and cutoff from the world beyond their seas, they left their fields uncultivated, and lived the lives of the unthinking beasts who eat and sleep and die, forgetting that while man is on earth he must not rest, but go on and on until he arrives at his fullest stature.