BEFORE THE RESTORATION.

9

mountains acknowledged a fraternal tie and a common code chap.of public law. Even in war, the cruelty of the conqueror —was not seldom mitigated by the recollection that he andhis vanquished enemies were all members of one greatfederation.

Into this federation our Saxon ancestors were now ad-mitted. A regular communication was opened between ourshores and that part of Europe in which the traces of ancientpower and policy were yet discernible. Many noble monu-ments which have since been destroyed or defaced still re-tained their pristine magnificence; and travellers, to whomLivy and Sallust were unintelligible, might gain from theRoman aqueducts and temples some faint notion of Romanhistory. The dome of Agrippa, still glittering with bronze,the mausoleum of Adrian, not yet deprived of its columns andstatues, the Flavian amphitheatre, not yet degraded into aquarry, told to the Mercian and Northumbrian pilgrims somepart of the story of that great civilised world which had passedaway. The islanders returned, with awe deeply impressedon their half opened minds, and told the wondering inha-bitants of the hovels of London and York that, near the graveof Saint Peter, a mighty race, now extinct, had piled upbuildings which would never be dissolved till the judgmentday. Learning followed in the train of Christianity. Thepoetry and eloquence of the Augustan age was assiduouslystudied in Mercian and Northumbrian monasteries. Thenames of Bede, ofAlcuin, and of John, surnamed Erigena,were justly celebrated throughout Europe. Such was thestate of our country when, in the ninth century, began the lastgreat descent of the northern barbarians.

During several generations Denmark and Scandinavia P^? 11continued to pour forth innumerable pirates, distinguished by sions .strength, by valour, by merciless ferocity, and by hatred ofthe Christian name. No country suffered so much from these