History of Britain From The Flood To A.D. 700 | Part Two

History of Britain From The Flood To A.D. 700 | Part Two

THE SECOND, OR TROJAN ERA.

THE descent of the British People from Troy and the Trojans was never disputed for fifteen hundred years. The “Island of Brutus” was the common name of the Island in old times. The word tan is the old British or Japhetic term for land,—Brutannia (pronounced Britannia, the British u being sounded as ë) is Brut’s or Brutus’ Land. The term is also of very ancient use in Asia, as Laristan, Feristan, Affghanistan. The only two national names acknowledged by the Ancient Britons are Kymry, and Y Lin Troia, the race of Troy. The Trojan descent solves all the peculiari­ties in the British Laws and Usages which would otherwise be wholly inexplicable.

The Trojan War is the Cardinal Point in Ancient History, from which we can trace events upwards for about four centuries, and downwards for about one hundred and forty years—in Greece, to Codrus and Neleus ; but in Britain—for one thousand years, down to the era of Caswallon, and the Roman invasion under Julius Cesar. The Genealogies of all the British Kings and Princes trace up through Beli the Great, to OEneas, Dar­danus, and Gomer.

The Trojan Colonization of Britain took place as follows:-

After the Deluge 68o years, and B.C. 1637, Iau and Dardan reigned over the Umbrian Empire in Italy. Dardanus having in rencontre slain his brother Iau or jasius, emigrated first to Crete, then to Samo—Thrace —- lastly to Phrygia, where at the foot of the mountain which, after the mountain in Crete, he called Ida, he built Dardania. The King of Phrygia then reigning was Athus. He had two sons, Lud and Tyrrhi (Lydus and Tyrrhenus). Dardanus having exchanged his rights in Italy with Athus, for a part of Phrygia, Tyrrhi sailed with a large body of his father’s subjects and took posses­sion of that portion of Umbria in Italy which belonged to Dardanus. From Tyrrhi, it was from that time called Tyrrhenia. Dardanus married Batea, daughter of Teucer King of Llydaw (Lydia), and was succeeded by Eric, the wealthiest Monarch of the East—Eric by Tros, who removed the Capital of the Empire from Dardania to Troy. Tros had three sons, Ili, Assarac, and Gwyn the Beautiful (Ganymedi). Gwyn was waylaid by Tantallon, King of Lydia, and sent for safeguard to Jove King of Crete. Tros made war on Tantallon and his son Pelops, expelled them from Asia, and added Lydia to his Empire. Pelops settled in that part of Greece called after him Peloponesus—from him descended the royal families at Argos and Sparta, represented when the Trojan War broke out by Memnon and Maen (Agamemnon and Menelaus). Tros was succeeded by Ili, Ili by Laomedon. Tros reigned sixty years. To commemorate the splendor of his career, the Kymri of Italy, who had followed Dar­danus, took the name of Trojans. His second son, Assarac begat Anchises, who wedded Gwen (Venus) the daughter of Jove, King of Crete. Their son was OEneas or Aedd,—the head of the royal Tribe of the Dardanida, and patriarch of the Trojan lines of Rome and Britain. In the reign of Laomedon the citadel and walls of Troy were re-built by Belin and Nêv, architects of Crete, after the model of the Cretan Labyrinth, which was also an exact representation of the Stella Universe. Laome­don was succeeded by his eldest son, Tithon, who, marrying Ida, or Aurora, abdicated in favour of his youngest brother, Priam. The son of Tithon and Ida was Memnon, King, of India. In the reign of Priam the Trojan was’ broke out: the cause of it was this, ——

Jason, nephew of Pelias, King of Thessaly, organized an expedition against Colchos in Asia, which was part of the Mother Country of the Kymri. The principal Chiefs under him were Hercwlf (Hercules) and Telamon. These anchored, on their way to join Jason, off Troy, but were peremptorily forbidden to set foot on Trojan ground by Laomedon. On their return from the Conquest of Colchos, Hercwlf, Telamon, and the other Greek Chiefs surprized and slew Laomedon and five of his sons, by a sudden attack on the City, carrying off also Hesione his daughter, who was afterwards wedded to Telamon, to whom she bore Ajax the Great. Priam on his accession to the throne im­mediately despatched an embassy to Greece, demanding the restoration of Hesione, and satis­faction for the outrage perpetrated by Hercwlf. The two most powerful Monarchs of Greece at the time were Memnon and Maen, the descendants of the Pelops who was expelled from Asia by the Kymry under Tros. Instigated by them, the States of Greece unanimously refused redress; upon which Priam appointed his son Paris to the com­mand of a fleet, ordering him at all hazards to effect the liberation of Hesione ; instead of which, he bore down at once towards Sparta, the capital of the territories of Menelaus, and seizing his wife, Helen —the loveliest woman of the age, carried her off, first to Egypt and then home to Troy—Menelaus being at the time absent in Crete. All Greece, on hearing of this act of just retribution, flew to arms. A confederate Armada of 1,394 ships, under forty-eight Princes, was collected under Memnon, or Agamemnon, King of Argos, as Commander-in-Chief. The history of the war which ensued, the most celebrated of any in ancient or modern times, is given in its poetic form by Homer and Virgil, and in its historic, by Dares of Phrygia, and Dictys of Crete, contemporary authors who served throughout it, and afterwards accompanied Brutus into Britain. It lasted for ten years, during which time eighteen pitched battles were fought, and the flower of the Trojan and Greek chivalry perished for the most part in single combats. The heroes who distinguished themselves most on the Greek side were Achilles, Uliex (Ulysses), Ajax, Pedrocles, Meirion, Nestor, and Agamemnon—on the Trojan or Kymric, Hector, Troil, Paris, Memnon, AEneas, and Sarph (Sarpedon). On the night of 21st June, 1184, B.C., in the tenth year of the siege, the Faction of Antenor and Helenus, which had always been averse to the war, threw open the Scoean gate, surmounted by a statue of the white horse of the sun, to the Confederate Army. For forty-eight hours a battle of the most desperate description raged within the walls. The brave old King with most of his sons fell, fighting round the altar in his palace; the command then fell on OEneas, who, giving orders to fire the City in every quarter, to prevent its capture by the enemy, cut his way at the head of the Dardanidæ, through sword and flame, to the Forest of Mount Ida. There, being joined by other Trojans to the number of 88,000, he prepared to return to his ancestors, the Kymry of Italy. Accordingly, after various adventures, he landed at the mouth of the Albula or Tiber, was cordially received by the reigning sovereign, Latinus, and presented with Llawen (Joy), or Lavinia, his daughter, in marriage.

Antenor, sailing with six thousand Trojans up the Adriatic, founded Padua and the Kingdom of Gwynedd, or Venetia, in Italy.

Helenus, with a large body, settled in Albyn, or Albania, in Greece, where he was afterwards joined by Brutus.

OEneas, by his first wife Creusa, a daughter of Priam, had Julius Ascanius. From the second son of Ascanius Julius, descended the family of Julius Cesar, and the Emperors of Rome. The eldest son of Ascanius was Sylvius Ascanius. He married Edra, niece of Lavinia, who bore him Brutus, the founder of the Trojan Dynasty of Britain.

The issue of the second marriage of OEneas, and Lavinia was Silvius OEneas, from whom des­cended Romulus, the founder of Rome.

In his fifteenth year, Brutus accidentally slew his Father, in the chase. He was ordered by his Grand-father, in consequence of this deplorable event, to quit Italy. Assembling three thousand of the bravest youths of Umbria, he put himself at their head, and sailed to his countrymen in Albania, afterwards called Epirus.

There in conjunction with Assaracus, another Trojan Prince, he raised the standard of Indepen­dence against Pandrasus, who had succeeded Agamemnon in the Sovereignty of Greece. A series of victories on the Trojan side resulted in a peace; Pandrasus giving his daughter, Imogene, in marriage to Brutus. The coasts of the Mediter­ranean were at this time studded by settlements founded by the Greek leaders at the siege of Troy; for Greece had been completely exhausted and disorganized by her enormous efforts during the ten years’ war, and for more than two centuries a state of anarchy succeeded that of the old heroic civiliza­tion. Brutus aware that a Trojan Kingdom could not be established in Albania, except at the cost of incessant hostilities, resolved on emigrating with all his people to the Northern seat of the main stock of his race—the White Island. The resolution was unanimously approved of. A Navy of three hundred and thirty-two vessels was constructed—arms and provisions supplied—the Pedestal of the Trojan Palladium consigned to the care of Geryon the Augur, and the whole population embarked on board. The Crimean colonization took place by land, across the Continent of Europe—the Trojan was conducted by sea.

Coasting the Southern shore of the Mediter­ranean, Brutus arrived the third day at Melita, then called Legetta. Finding on it a Temple of Diana, or Karidwen, he consulted her Oracle on the future destinies of his family and nation. The verses were afterwards engraved in Archaic Greek on the altar of Diana in New Troy, or London, and translated into Latin in the third century by Nennius a British Prince attached to the court of Claudius Gothicus, the Emperor, Uncle of Con­stantius. They have thus been rendered by Pope. With the exception of the predictions of Balaam, recorded by Moses in the Book of Numbers, the Prophecy is the oldest in the Gentile world, and is still in course of fulfilment.

BRUTUS

Goddess of Woods! tremendous in the chase

To mountain boars and all the savage race;

Wide o’er the ethereal walks extends thy sway

And o’er the infernal regions void of day—

Look upon us on earth! unfold our fate,

And say what region is our destined spat?

When shall we next thy lasting temples raise,

And choirs of Virgins celebrate thy praise?

DIANA

Brutus! there lies beyond the Gallic bounds

An Island, which the Western Sea surrounds,

By Ancient Giants held—now few remain

To bar thy entrance or obstruct thy reign;

To reach that happy shore thy sails employ,

There fate decrees to raise a second Troy,

And found an Empire in thy royal line

Which time shall ne’er destroy nor bounds confine.

The bounds of the Empire founded by Brutus are now measured only by the circumference of the world, and his lineal descendants still sway its sceptre and occupy its throne.

On the ninth day they passed the Philistoean Altars, and thence sailed on to Mount Azara. They gave the Coast the name of Moritania (the land along the sea), which it yet retains. They then steered through the Straits of the Libyan Hercules, now those of Gibraltar, into the Atlantic, then called the Tyrrhenian Ocean. On the South coast of Spain they came upon four other Trojan Colonies, under Troenius. These were readily persuaded to join them. The combined emigrations sailing Northward were again joined by a body of Greeks, part of a Cretan Colony, that under Teucer had settled in Calabria. They then anchored off the mouth of the Loire. The Great Plain between the Alps and the Atlantic had by this time been thickly peopled by the descendants of the Alpine and Auvernian Kymry; these called themselves Kelts or Gael, and the country Gaul, or Gallia. The meaning of Gael is “a Woodlander,—a man of a forest land.” The lowlands being then everywhere covered with dense timber, the highlands alone were cleared and dry. The King of the Gael was Goffar. His Ambassador being killed in a rencontre with Troenius, Goffar made war on Brutus. In the first battle Goffar was defeated, and Subard his General slain. Brutus advancing through Gascony threw up his camp in the centre of Goffar’s own domains. A second engagement was fought, in which Brutus lost his nephew Tyrrhi. In honor of him, he built an immense tumulus, where now stands the city called after Tyrrhi, Tours. Goffar, being a third time routed, submitted to the terms imposed upon him by the conquerors. The fleet, repaired and revictualled, sailed next year round the Horn of Armorica, and finally anchored off Talnus, in Tor-bay. The disembarcation occupied three weeks; the first to place foot on the “Isle of the Mighty Ones,” being the Trojan Hero himself, on the rock still pointed out at Totness, as “the Stone of Brutus.” The three Pacific Tribes received their countrymen from the East as brethren. Brutus introduced the Constitution and Laws of Troy. Before his time the Primitive Tribes regulated their lives and intercourse by a few simple patriarchal usages, the law of natural kindness being their chief guide. Brutus, at a National Convention of the whole Island, with its dependencies, was elected Sovereign Paramount. The throne and crown of Hu Gadarn thus devolved upon him, both by descent and suffrage. His three sons, born after his arrival in Britain, he named after the three Pacific Tribes, Locrinus, Camber, and Alban. Brutus is also celebrated in the Triads as one of the three King Revolutionists of Britain; the Trojan system under him being incorporated with the Patriarchal. The most memorable of his laws is that of the Royal Primogeniture, by which the succession to the Throne of Britain was vested in the eldest son of the King. This was known as pre-eminently “the Trojan law,” and has in all ages regulated the succession to the British Crown among the British Dynasties. It was eventually adopted by the Normans, and became the Law of England. It is the only safe basis on which Monarchy can rest. Elective Monarchies have always fallen by internal disunion or foreign partition. Another fundamental ordinance estab­lished by Brutus was, that the Sovereigns of Cambria and Alban should be so far subordinate to the Sovereign of Lloegria, that they should pay him annually forty pounds weight of gold, for the military and naval defence of the Island. The whole Island was never to be regarded otherwise than one Kingdom and one Crown. This Crown was called “the Crown of Britain,” and the Sovereignty over the whole Island vested in it,—the Crownship of Britain, Un Bennaeth Brydain. The Military Leadership remained in the Eldest Tribe, the Kvmry, and from it the Pendragon or Military Dictator, with absolute power for the time being, was in the case of foreign invasion or national danger, to be elected. This Leadership was the same as Sparta exercised in Greece and Rome in Italy. Every subject was as free as the King. There were no other Laws in force than those which were known as Cyfreithiau, or “Common Rights.” There were no slaves; the first slaves in aftertimes were the Caethion, or captives taken in war.

The Usages of Britain could not be altered by any act or edict of the Crown or National Con­vention. They were considered the inalienable rights to which every Briton was born and of which no human legislation could deprive him. Many of these usages are remarkable for their humane and lofty spirit: for instance, “There are three things belonging to a man, from which no law can separate him—his wife, his children, and the instruments of his calling; for no law can unman a man, or uncall a calling.”

The most learned Jurists refer the original Institutes of our Island to the Trojan Law brought by Brutus. Lord Chief Justice Coke (Preface to Vol. iii. of Reports), affirms, “the Original Laws of this land were composed of such elements as Brutus first selected from the Ancient Greek and Trojan Institutions.”

It is to these native Laws, and not as has been absurdly alleged, to any foreign or Continental source—German, Saxon, or Norman, Britons have in all ages been indebted for the superior liberties they have enjoyed as contrasted with other nations. Lord Chancellor Fortescue, in his work “on the Laws of England,” justly observes, —” concerning the different powers which Kings claim over their subjects, I am firmly of opinion that it arises solely from the different nature of the original institutions. So the Kingdom of Britain had its original from Brutus and the Trojans who attended him from Italy and Greece, and were a mixed Government compounded of the regal and democratic.”

Another British or Trojan Law remains in full force,—that the Sceptre of the Island might be swayed by a Queen as well as a King. In the Pict Kingdom the succession went wholly by the female side. Amongst the continental nations no woman was permitted to reign. The Saxon considered it a disgrace for a King to be seen seated on a throne with a Queen.

The names of the Leading Greek and Trojan families remained among their Cymric descendants till a very recent period. Some are still in use. All ought, as a matter of national honor, to be revived.

Homer is one of the mutative forms of the word Gomer—the g being under certain laws dropped. The Epic Poem of the Iliad, or Fall of Troy, assigned to Homer, is a collection of the Heroic Ballads of the Bards of the Gomeridæ or Kymry, on the great catastrophe of their race in the East. It was originally composed in the Kymric or Bardic characters. These were afterwards changed by the Greeks into the Phenician, and in so doing, they were compelled to drop the Cymric radical “Gw.” Hence the metrical mutilation in the present Greek form of the Iliad. The “gw” is the letter attempted to be restored by modern scholars under the name of the OEolic Digamma.

The OEneid is similarly the Epic of the British Kymry of Italy on the same subject—Virgil being a descendant of the Kymric conquerors of Italy under Brennus, and, as his writings everywhere evince, an initiated Bard. Neither of these im­mortal poems have any connection, strictly speak­ing, with the historic races of Greece and Rome. They are the Epics of the heroic race, or race of Gomer.

The chariot-system of warfare, and the system of military castrametation, were introduced into Britain by Brutus. Cesar describes both as having attained in his time the highest perfection. The British castrametation was in some important respects superior to the Roman.

In the third year of his reign, Brutus founded Caer Troiau, afterwards called Caer Lludd, now London (Lud-din, Lud’s city), on a spot known as Bryn gwyn, or the White Mount, on the North side of the æstuary of the Thames. The White Mount is now occupied by the Tower. In the court of the Temple of Diana he placed the sacred stone which had formed the pedestal of the Palladium of the mother city of Troy. On it the British Kings were sworn to observe the Usages of Britain. It is now known as ‘London Stone,’ and is imbedded in another on the South side of St. Saviour’s Church, Cannon Street. The belief in old times was, that as long as it remained, New Troy, or London, would continue to increase in wealth and power; with its disappearance, they would decrease and finally disappear. Faiths of this description were moral forces on the minds of our ancestors, impelling them sometimes to the wildest, sometimes to the sublimest achievements. The faith that the British Troy, or London, was destined to sway a wider Empire than either the Asiatic or Italian Troy (Rome), had swayed, is one of the most ancient Traditions of the Kymry.

Brutus died after a memorable reign of twenty-four years, and was interred by the side of Imogene, at the White Mount. His career was one of gigantic event of the Founder of a mighty Empire in the West, which after various mutations of fortune and absorptions of races, still reposes on his name and institutions.

The portion of Britain assigned to Troenius was the Western Keryn or promontory, extending from Torbay to the Land’s End, part of which is now known as Cornwall. From the Keryn, Troenius changed his name into Keryn or Corineus. The Dukedom of Cornwall, thus founded, was a Dukedom Royal; that is, the Duke within it exercised the same prerogatives as the Kings of Lloegria, Cambria, and Albyn, did within their territories. Next to these crowns, it is the oldest title in Britain. Cornwall and Bretagne were in old times regarded as appanages of the same race and dynasty. Both have given Lines of Kings to each other and to Britain.

Brutus was succeeded in Lloegria by his eldest son, Locrinus; in Albyn, by his second son, Alban ; in Cambria, by his youngest son, Camber, or Cumbyr. Before the demise of Brutus, Gwendo­lene, sole daughter and heiress of Corineus, had been betrothed to Locrinus. In the second year of the reign of Locrinus occurred the first invasion of Britain on record by the Northren nations. The vast countries extending from the Lake Districts of Upper Russia across Scandinavia and the Lower Baltic to Germany may, from B.C. I000 to A.D. 1000, be regarded as the Piratic Lands of the Præ-Roman, Roman, and Dark Ages. Periodically they produced a surplus population, which unable to procure the means of subsistence in these dreary and frost-bound regions, threw themselves some-times by land, sometimes by sea, on the cultivated countries of the West and South. The names they assumed or were known by, varied in different eras, Scythians, Scots, Goths, Vandali, Sace, Saxons, Llychlinians, Norsemen. Their physical character­istics were—large but soft limbs, red or flaxen hair, blonde complexions, grey or blue eyes, broad and flat feet. Natives of Arctic climates, they carried everywhere with them strong animal appetites, and a passion for indulgence in intoxicating liquors. Their religion was for the most part either Material-ism of the grossest kind, or consisted in the practice of the most cruel superstition ; it must however be remembered, that our accounts on these points, being derived from their bitterest enemies, are to be received with extreme caution. The invasion which landed in the North of Britain consisted of a confederacy headed by Humber, King of the Scythians. Marching Southward, Humber encountered Alban, at the present site of Nottingham castle. Alban, disdaining to wait for the arrival of his brothers, was defeated and slain in the battle which ensued. Humber then fell back, before the advance of Locrinus and Camber, on the banks of the great Eastern aestuary. The British fleet enter­ing the mouth, prevented the escape of the Scythian armada. Humber, compelled to an engagement, was totally defeated, and plunging in his flight into the waters of the estuary, was therein drowned; since which event, it has borne his name, the Humber. Locrinus after the victory divided the spoils amongst his army, reserving for himself such gold and silver as was contained in the King’s own ship, together with three virgins of surpassing beauty, found on board, whom Humber had forcibly abducted from their own countries.

One of these was a daughter of a King of Almaen (Germany): her name, Susa, or Estrildis. Struck with her extraordinary charms of mind and person, Locrinus declared his intention to marry her. Corineus on hearing of this intention was so incensed that it required the utmost efforts of their mutual friends to prevent the breaking out of a civil war. Eventually Locrinus found himself under the necessity of observing his engagement with Gwendolene. But retaining his passion for Estrildis, he secretly built a palace for her at Caersws, near the banks of the river which divides Lleegria from Cambria. Here, with the connivance of his brother Camber, he indulged his affection for his beautiful captive without restraint. In this manner he concealed her for seven years. Estrildis gave birth to a daughter, Sabra, surpassing even the mother in loveliness, and rivalling in grace her ancestress, Venus, the mother of OEneas, whom the Greeks and Romans had idolized into the goddess of beauty. Gwendolene also gave birth to a son, Madoc, or Mador, who was consigned to the guardianship of Corineus. But Corineus in pro­cess of time dying, and relieving Locrinus from his former apprehensions, the latter immediately divorced Gwendolene, and proclaiming Estrildis his wife, advanced her to the throne. Infuriated at the discovery of the intrigue and the additional dishonor of her deposition, Gwendolene retired to Cornwall, and levying all the forces of her father’s dukedom, declared war against her husband. The two armies met on the river Stour, and in the battle Locrinus fell dead from the shot of an arrow. Gwendolene, hastening after the victory to the Cambrian frontier, seized Estrildis and Sabra. The former she ordered to immediate execution, but in despite of the recollection of her wrongs and the natural vindictiveness of her temper, was so moved by the supernatural loveliness of Sabra, that many days elapsed before she could be persuaded to con­demn her to death. She was then taken by her Guards to a meadow (Dôl-forwyn, the maiden’s meadow), and cast into the river, which from that time has been called Sabra, or Sabrina (the Severn), after her name.

Gwendolene, during the minority of Madoc, conducted the government with great vigor and ability. On her decease at Tintagel castle, Madoc, whose favorite recreation was the chase, left the affairs of the kingdom entirely in the hands of his uncle, Camber. Madoc founded Caer Madoc, or Doncaster.

Membricius, son and heir of Madoc, transferred the College erected by Dares Phrygius from Cirencester to the present site of Oxford. The original name of Oxford is Caer Mymbyr. He inherited his father’s attachment to the chase. His death was a singular one: pursuing a horde of wolves after nightfall, he was attacked by them and torn to pieces at Pontbleiddan, or Wolverston, near Oxford. Evroc the Great, his son and successor, was the first British Sovereign who turned his attention to continental acquisitions. His victorious arms overran France and Central Europe. The family alliances which had formerly existed between the Kymry of Italy and Britain were renewed by the intermarriages of twenty-one of his daughters with the Umbrian Houses of the Alban Kingdom in Italy. His son, Assaracus, led the Kymry to the frontiers of Pwyl, or Poland. Evroc founded Caer Evroc, or York; Caer Edin, or Edinburgh; Dumbarton, and Caer dolur, Bain-borough castle. His reign, which lasted sixty years, is one of the most illustrious in our early annals.

He was succeeded by his son Brutus Darian Lâs (of the Blue Shield). Brutus was succeeded by Leil, the founder of Carlisle and Chester. Leif, by Rhun of the Strong Shaft (paladr brds), who founded Shaftesbury (Caer paladr),—Winchester (Caer wynt),—Canterbury (Caer taint). He built also many Druidic circles and temples.

In the reign of Rhun, B.C. 892 (the era when Zachariah prophesied in Judea), the first of the three Confederate Expeditions commemorated in the Triads went forth from Britain. Urb, grandson of Assaracus, the son of Evroc the Great, being driven from his territories in Scandinavia, or Lochlyn, landed at Caer Troia, with but one attendant, Mathatta Vawr. Presenting himself before Rhun and the national council, he implored them to pledge their solemn oath that they would grant him his petition. Moved by this appeal of the royal exile, they inadvertently consented to his request. Urb asked, that from every capital fortress in the kingdom he might take as many armed men as he entered it with. Rhun, bound by the oath of the council, was obliged to give the required permission; but immediately foreseeing the consequences, issued an edict, that no Britain should on pain of death enter any fortress with Urb. Neither threats nor persuasion, however, could shake the fidelity of the Prince’s gigantic Squire, and in defiance of all preventive measures, Urb entered the first fortress with Mathatta Vawr by his side. From this he took two,—from the second, four,—from the third, eight,—and so on, till the fighting force of the Island was found insufficient to supply the demand exceeding 120,000 men made on the seventeenth city. Urb accordingly set sail with the 60,000 already levied, for Scan­dinavia. By their assistance he soon recovered his throne. Part of this armament settled in the country called after them the Cimbric or Kymric Chersonese, now Denmark. From these descended, first, the terrible Cimbri, who, in alliance with the Teutones, overthrew and destroyed so many armies of Rome ; and secondly, in after ages, the Norman race who conquered Normandy, Saxon England, and other lands. The facility with which the Normans fused and intermarried with the Kymry and Bretons, identifying themselves with their History and Traditions explains itself by this community of descent. The other moiety of the host of Urb followed up their career of conquest across Europe to the lands of Galas and Avena (Galatia and Ionia), in Asia Minor. These are the Kymry to whom the Greek and Latin authors assign the subjugation of the East prior to the foundation of the Persian Empire by Cyrus. No individual of the Con-federate Host of Urb ever returned, state the Triads, to Britain. They settled in the conquered countries. The three Confederate are also termed the three Silver Hosts of Britain. They were all picked men and their arms were of the three metals—gold, silver, and steel. This account is in harmony with the astonishment expressed by the Classic writers at the splendid character of the equipments of both infantry and cavalry in the Kymric armies. The three Confederate are known too as the Three Inconsiderate Hosts, because they laid the Island open to the three Capital Invasions—those of the Coranidæ, the Romans, and the Saxons.

The drain caused by this expedition on the military resources of the Island enabled the Coranidæ, a marine tribe from the Lowlands of the Continent facing the Eastern side of Britain, to establish themselves between the Humber and the Wash. This was the earliest Teutonic or German settlement: they are the Coritani of the Roman writers. They acknowledged allegiance and paid tribute to the British Crown at Caer Troia, but were invariably false, in critical emergencies such as a foreign invasion, to the National cause.

Rhun was succeeded by Bleddyn, or Bladud, who built Caer Badon, or Bath, and constructed therein a magnificent circular temple. He was succeeded by Lear (Llyr), the founder of Caer Llyr (Leicester) ; the closing scenes of whose long and peaceful reign in connection with the unnatural ingratitude of his two elder, and the affecting devotion of his youngest daughter, Cordelia, has been made familiar to the European world by the dramatic pen of Shakespeare. The succession then descended through Cordelia, Kynedda, Rivallo, Gorust, Cecil (Sitsyllt), Iago, Cymac, to Gorvod. The two sons of Gorvod, Fer and Por, perished—one in civil war, the other by the machinations of a vindictive mother. In them ended the elder male line of the Britannidae, or dynasty of Brutus.

After an interregnum of some years, occupied by the contests of various claimants to the throne, Dyvnwal Moelmud, hereditary Duke of Cornwall, and the representative by both paternal and maternal descent, of the younger line of the Britan­nidæ, was by general consent recognized Sovereign Paramount. His first act was to reduce to a Code the civil and international usages which the late commotions had disturbed. The Laws, thus systematized, are eminently distinguished for their clearness, brevity, justice, and humanity. They have come down to us in the Druidic form of Triads. We give a few examples.

“There are three tests of Civil Liberty,—equality of rights—equality of taxation—freedom to come and go.

There are three causes which ruin a State,—inordinate privileges—corruption of justice—national apathy.

There are three things which cannot be considered solid longer than their foundations are solid,—peace, property, and law.

Three things are indispensable to a true union of Nations, —sameness of laws, rights, and language.

There are three things free to all Britons,—the forest, the unworked mine, the right of hunting wild creatures.

There are three things which are private and sacred property in every man, Briton or foreigner,—his wife, his children, his domestic chattels.

There are three things belonging to a man which no law of men can touch, fine, or transfer,—his wife, his children, and the instruments of his calling; for no law can unman a man, or uncall a calling.

There are three persons in a family exempted from all manual or menial work—the little child, the old man or woman, and the family instructor.

There are three orders against whom no weapon can be bared—the herald, the bard, the head of a clan.

There are three of private rank, against whom no weapon can be bared,—a woman, a child under fifteen, and an unarmed man.

There are three things that require the unanimous vote of the nation to effect,—deposition of the sovereign—introduc­tion of novelties in religion—suspension of law.

There are three civil birthrights of every Briton,—the right to go wherever he pleases—the right, wherever he is, to protection from his land and sovereign—the right of equal privileges and equal restrictions.

There are three property birthrights of every Briton,—five (British) acres of land for a home—the right of armorial bearings—the right of suffrage in the enacting of the laws, the male at twenty-one, the female on her marriage.

There are three guarantees of society,—security for life and limb—security for property—security of the rights of nature.

There are three sons of captives who free themselves,—a bard, a scholar, a mechanic.

There are three things the safety of which depends on that of the others,—the sovereignty—national courage—just administration of the laws.

There are three things which every Briton may legally be compelled to attend,—the worship of God—military service—and the courts of law.

For three things a Briton is pronounced a traitor, and forfeits his rights, emigration—collusion with an enemy —surrendering himself, and living under an enemy.

There are three things free to every man, Britain or foreigner, the refusal of which no law will justify,—water from spring, river, or well—firing from a decayed tree—a block of stone not in use.

There are three orders who are exempt from bearing arms,—the bard—the judge—the graduate in law or religion. These represent God and his peace, and no weapon must ever be found in their hand.

There are three kinds of sonship,—a son by marriage with a native Briton—an illegitimate son acknowledged on oath by his father—a son adopted out of the clan.

There are three whose power is kingly in law,—the sovereign paramount of Britain over all Britain and its isles —the princes palatine in their princedoms—the heads of the clans in their clans.

There are three thieves who shall not suffer punishment,—a woman compelled by her husband—a child—a necessitous person who has gone through three towns and to nine houses in each town without being able to obtain charity though he asked for it.

There are three ends of law,—prevention of wrong—punishment for wrong inflicted—insurance of just retribution.

There are three lawful castigations,—of a son by a father —of a kinsman by the head of a clan—of a soldier by his officer. The chief of a clan when marshalling his men may strike his man three ways—with his baton—with the flat of his sword—with his open hand. Each of these is a correction, not an insult.

There are three sacred things by which the conscience binds itself to truth,—the name of God—the rod of him who offers up prayers to God—the joined right hand.

There are three persons who have a right to public maintenance—the old—the babe—the foreigner who cannot speak the British tongue.”

These and other Primitive Laws of Britain, not only rise far superior in manly sense and high principle to the Laws of Ancient Greece and Rome, but put to shame the enactments of nations calling themselves Christians at the present day. They contain the essence of law, religion, and chivalry. A nation ruling itself by their spirit could not be otherwise than great, civilized, and free. One of their strongest recommendations is, that they are so lucid as to be intelligible to all degrees of men and minds.

In addition to being one of the founders of British Legislation, Dyvnwal designed and partly made the Royal British Military Roads through the Island. These were nine in number,—

1. The Sarn Gwyddelin (corrupted into Watling street), or Irish Road, in two branches, from Dover to Mona and Penvro.

2. The Sam Iken (Iknield street), the road from Caer Troia, Northward through the Eastern districts.

3. Sam Ucha (Iknield street), from the mouth of the Tyne to the present St. David’s.

4. Sam Ermyn, from Anderida (Peven­sey) to Caer Edin (Edinburgh).

5. Sam Achmaen, from Caer Troia to Menevia (St. David’s).

6. Sam Halen, from the Salt Mines of Cheshire to the mouth of the Humber.

7 Sam Hàlen, from the Salt Mines to Llongborth (Portsmouth).

8. The Second Sam Ermyn, from Torbay to Dunbreton on the Clyde.

9. The Sam ar y Môr, or military road following the coast around the Island.

These roads were pitched and paved, and ran sometimes in a straight, sometimes a sinuous line, at a moderate elevation above the ground, forming a network of communication between the Cities of Britain. Being completed by Belinus, they are known as the Belinian roads of Britain. The Romans followed these lines in their first and second invasions, and subsequently laid down in great measure their own military roads upon them. Hence the Belinian and Roman roads are found constantly running in and out of each other.

The reign of Dyvnwal was marked with signal prosperity. The trade in tin, copper, iron, lead, horses, carried on with Tyre and the East through the medium of the Phoenicians, attained dimensions hitherto unexampled. The manufactures of swords (hardened by some process now lost, to a temper superior to that of steel), statues, ornaments, doors, gates of bronze—into the composition of which tin largely enters—were carried on to such an extent that Asia appears to have been deluged with them. No tin mines but those of Britain existed then, nor are any to be found now but those of Malacca, of comparatively very recent discovery. Wherever, therefore, bronze is mentioned by the sacred or classic authors, there is evidence of the trade and manufactures of Trojan Britain. From Phoenicia and the East in return poured a steady stream of the precious metals. British merchants frequented the mart at Tyre ; and Ezekiel is literally correct in describing the city which rose “ very glorious and of great beauty, in the midst of the sea,” as the merchant of the people of the Isles afar off. The wealth accruing from the commerce thus conducted affords an easy explanation of the profuse expendi­ture of gold and silver lavished by the Kymry on their arms and steeds.

After a memorable reign of forty years, Dyvnwal Moelmud died, and was interred at the White Tower, in Caer Troia. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Belinus; the younger, Brennus, receiv­ing Alban for his government.

Brennus (Bran), a young man of stern temperament and unbounded ambition, distinguished by a courage which no difficulties could daunt, and a generosity towards his friends no funds, however princely, could supply, soon involved himself with his sovereign and brother. Instigated by the usual incentives which interested courtiers and diplomatists know so well to apply to the bosom of kings, he prepared to strike at the Crown Para-mount. To strengthen himself for this unnatural enterprize, he sailed to Norway, and there won and married Anaor, daughter of Elsing, king of Llochlyn. Anaor had previously been betrothed to Guthlac, king of the Cimbric Chersonese, who, on hearing of the indignity thus practised upon him, fitted out a fleet to intercept Brennus on his return. Intelligence of the conspiracy being also in Britain conveyed to Belinus, he immediately marched Northwards and possessed himself of all the fortified cities in his brother’s dominions. Guthlac and Brennus meeting with their fleets, the engagement was broken off by a furious tempest ; the ship in which Anaor was embarked happening in the con-fusion to be captured by Guthlac. The storm raged for five days, at the end of which Guthlac and Anaor were wrecked off Bamborough, where Bel­inus was encamped, prepared to repel the invasion of his brother. They were immediately conducted to him, and honorably received. A few days after Brennus, having weathered the storm, arrived with the remnant of his armada in Albania. News soon reached him of the capture of his wife, first by Guthlac, and then by Belinus. Maddened by the intelligence, he pressed forward towards Bamborough, giving out he would destroy the whole Island with fire and sword, if his bride and kingdom were not restored to him. Belinus absolutely refusing to comply with these demands, a battle took place at Calater. The Norsemen were defeated with the loss of fifteen thousand slain, and Brennus compelled to save himself by flight into Gaul. Guthlac, on signing a treaty by which the Cimbric Chersonese (Dacia, afterwards Denmark), became part of the British Empire, was dismissed with Anaor to his own kingdom. The next seven years were devoted by Belinus to the completion of the roads begun by his father. A law was made throw­ing them open to all, natives and foreigners, and placing them on the same footing of religious security as the river and the sanctuary. “There are three things free to a country and its borders,—the rivers, the road, and the place of worship. These are under the protection of God and His peace: whoever on or within them draws weapon against any one, is a capital criminal.” In this law originated the expression—“the King’s Highway” ; these highways, on which it was a capital offence to stop or commit an outrage on a traveller, being the nine Belinian roads thus placed under the protection of God and the nation.

Meanwhile Brennus, having in vain solicited aid from the kings of Celtica, betook himself to Seguin, prince of the Ligurians in Gaul. He was enter­tained as became his birth and the relationship which existed between the Ligurians of the Alps and Britain. His services in the field secured him the respect of the nation at large, whilst his personal qualities won him the affection of Rhonilla, the only child of the prince. They were married: Seguin promising his son-in-law his assistance to recover his government in Britain, and at the same time nominating him his successor to the throne of Liguria. At the end of the year Seguin died. Brennus on ascending the throne, immediately divided the treasures which the old king had hoarded, among the most influential chiefs in his new domains, thus securing their consent and co-operation to the intended Invasion of Britain. A treaty was concluded with the Kelts for a free passage through Gaul; forces collected from all quarters, and eventually embarked on board a fleet which had been constructed for the purpose by the Veneti (Gwynedd, Venedotia, La Vendee) of Armorica. A landing was effected at Anderida,—the same spot where in after ages Vespasian, Ella the Saxon, and William the Norman, found ingress into Britain. Belinus, marching from Caer Troia, drew up his forces opposite to those of his brother, and the same ground which afterwards reeked with the best blood of Saxondom under Harold, would have now streamed with that of Trojan Britain, but for the intervention of Corwenna, the aged mother of the two contending sovereigns. Reaching with trembling steps the tribunal from which Brennus was haranguing his army, she threw her arms around his neck, as he descended to receive her, and kissed him in transports of affection. She then adjured him by every appeal a mother could address to a son, to save her from the horrible spectacle of seeing the children of her womb engaged in impious hostilities against God, the Laws of nature, their country, and themselves. Pointing out the injustice of his cause, and the ease with which far nobler conquests than that over a brother might be achieved, if two such armies, instead of destroying, would unite with each other, she entreated him to be reconciled to his rightful sovereign. Moved by these representations, Brennus deposited his helmet and arms on the tribunal, and bareheaded went with her, amidst the profound silence of both armies, to his brother. Seeing him approach, Belinus dismounted from his chariot, threw down his lance, and meeting him half way, folded him in his embraces. The cheers of the two armies on witnessing the scene rent the skies. In a few minutes all order was dissolved; Briton and Ligur­ian were no longer to be distinguished; the banners were bound together; the seamen of the fleet, informed of the event, poured on shore, and a day which threatened to be one of the most shameful and disastrous in British annals ended in a general jubilee of joy and festivities. Happy would it be for mankind if every mother of Kings were a Corwenna—if every contending monarch listened to the remonstrances of nature and humanity with the like readiness as Belinus and Brennus.

After long consultation, Belinus decided on attempting, with the confederate forces, the con-quest of Europe. The nation enjoyed tranquility at home—the sceptre was swayed by one powerful hand—a vast host with whose aspirations it was dangerous to tamper, panted for employment—the means of transport were in the Thames ; Gaul was torn with petty factions and the Umbrian population of Northern Italy, oppressed by the Etrurian domination, waited but the display of the great standard of their race—the Red Dragon—on the crest of the Alps, to rise and vindicate their ancient liberties. The Armament accordingly landed to the number of 300,000 men at the mouth of the Seine. One battle on the plains of Tours decided the fate of Gaul. City after city wearied of in­testine struggles which led to no result, gladly accepted a conquest that promised to bring in its train a blessing to which they had long been strangers—security for life and property. The banditti which under the name of soldiers swarmed in Gaul were either exterminated or incorporated in the regular forces. Two years sufficed to reduce all Celtica to order under the British law and admin­istration. The Cymro-Celtic army then moved under the Brothers towards Italy. The Ligurians joined them, and the first military passage of the Alps was in the face of apparent impossibilities accomplished. The glory which has hitherto attached to the two names of Hannibal and Napoleon belongs in justice to those of the two British leaders, Belinus and Brennus. They were the first that ventured—the first that succeeded in overcoming the snowy barriers which nature has built as if purposely to shield the sunny climes of Italy from the sword of the North. Of the nature of the forces which were about to re-establish the Kymric Empire in Italy, we have vivid accounts transmitted us by the classic authors. “The greater and more warlike Cimbri,” states Plutarch,” live in the Northern ocean, in the very ends of the earth. They are called Cimbri—not from their manners, it is the name of their race. As to their courage, spirit, force, and vivacity, we can compare them only to a devouring flame. All that came before them were trodden down, or driven onwards like herds of cattle.” Justin records an anecdote illustrative of the contempt with which they regarded the character and military science of the Greeks. After subduing the Triballi and Getæ (Goths), the Cymro-Celts offered their alliance, in earnest of their pacific disposition towards him, to Antigonus, King of Macedonia. Antigonus treated the offer as if it proceeded from fear or policy. “What are these Greeks ?” asked the Kymry of their ambassadors, on their return, “they are remarkable for two things,” replied the ambas­sadors, “they call positions which have neither moats nor ramparts, camps, and they think if they have plenty of gold, they have no need of steel.” Over the plains of Northern Italy, the Kymric army swept in three divisions. The Etrurians made a gallant but ineffectual stand in defence of their Empire. Defeated in five engagements, they with-drew their cognate population southward, consign­ing each city, as they abandoned it, to the flames. The old Umbrian nationality was restored, the liberated and the liberators forming from this period one Federation with equal rights and laws. The following cities are enumerated by Justin and Pliny, as being founded by Brennus on the expulsion of the Tuscans,—Milan, Como, Brescia, Verona, Burgamo, Mantua, Trent, and Vicentia. It is to be observed, that the conquests of the Kymry were those of civilization, not destruction. Wherever they settled, they proclaimed equality of laws, they erected temples, made roads, built cities, and culti­vated literature, especially poetry. The conquests, on the other hand, of the German and the Northern nations in the dark ages, were those of barbarism over civilization—of the principle of destruction over that of conservatism and consolidation. From the Cymro-Celts of Cisalpine Gaul sprung many of the first writers of the Roman Empire—Livy, Pliny, Catullus, Vigil, &c., &c.

Rome at this time is represented by her own writers as an independent metropolis, exercising considerable influence in the Italian Peninsula. The British writers on the contrary state she was a dependent or tributary of Etruria, and that the Porsena or King of Etruria was in right of such title, Consul also or Chief Magistrate of Rome. This account is confirmed by the Greek Historians, and by the searching analysis which this particular part of the early Traditions of Rome has recently undergone. The way in which the Kymry came into conflict with the city which had always been the sacred city of their Race in Italy, and afterwards ruled the world, was as follows, —-

Belinus after the conquest of Cisalpine Keltica had with one half of his forces marched Northwards and was engaged in subjugating the various tribes which in after ages became known in the aggregate as the German or Teutonic people. The Romans intro­duced great confusion in History by giving nations not their generic name, or the name by which they called themselves, but some appellation fastened upon them from some peculiar habit or character­istic. German means in the Teutonic language, the same as Belgæ in the Kymric—war-men, warriors. The Belgæ of the Continent were Kymry, not Kelts. They were the descendants of the Kymry who conquered the country under Brennus, and in Cesar’s time occupied one third of Gaul. Eastward of them lay the Teutons (Tudeschi, Deutch). These were now subdued by Belinus, and the most fertile part of their territory around the Hercynian forest divided among the Kymro-Celtic army. The Kymro-Celts in Cesar’s time were known as the Volcæ, and retained their old superiority in arms and civilization over the surrounding Teutons. Brennus taking tip his headquarters at Mediolanum (Meifod, Milan) gradually extended his arms South-ward. Among other cities, he besieged Clusium, a city of Lower Etruria. The inhabitants sent to Rome for aid. Three brothers of the Fabian Cenedl or Clan, accompanied the deputation back as Ambassadors. An interview being requested and granted, Brennus was asked, what injury he had received from the Clusians? He replied, “these Etrurians have twice as much land as they can cultivate—we are powerful, numerous, and in want of land, yet they refuse to part with an acre of their useless territory.” But by what right do you advance such a claim? Again asked the Ambassadors. “By the oldest of all rights,” answered Brennus, with a stern smile,—“the law which pervades all nature, and to which all animals are subject—the right of the strong over the weak. It is by this law these Etrurians, and you Romans, originally obtained your possessions. Either restore these possessions to their former owners, or abide by the law against yourselves.”

The next day, Quintus Ambustus Fabius headed a sortie of the Clusians against the besiegers. He slew a Keltic officer, and whilst stripping him of his arms, was recognized as one of the Roman ambassadors. Amongst the Kymrv, an ambassador was always a sacred character, and as we have seen, prohibited from carrying any weapon himself; and it constituted a grave offence even to unsheath a weapon before him. Their indignation, therefore, at this double violation of the laws of nations, as recognized among themselves, was extreme. Striking his camp, Brennus despatched an embassy to Rome, demanding that Quintus Fabius should be given up to him. The Feciales, or college of heralds, at Rome, advised the senate to comply, pointing out the grossness of an act which reflected dishonor on the whole nation. The people (Plebs), however, not only overruled the motion, but creating the three brothers military tribunes, appointed them to the command of the army. Brennus at once gave the word “for Rome.” “His forces,” states Plutarch, “injured no man’s property; they neither pillaged the fields, nor in­sulted the towns.” On the 6th June, A.U. 363, B.C. 490, the two armies met at the confluence of the little river Allia with the Tiber. The Romans were routed with great slaughter; and Rome itself, with the exception of the capitol, fell three days afterwards into the hands of the conqueror. The anniversary of the battle of Allia was noted as “the black day” in the Roman calendar. No business was transacted in Roman calendar. No business was transacted in it, and every citizen who appeared in public, did so in mourning vestments. The capitol stood a siege of six months. During it Fabius Dorso, pro­ceeding in his pontificial robes to the Quirinal hill, offered up there the sacrifice usual on the clan-day (dies gentilitia), of his family. The Roman writers express surprize that he was permitted to do this, and return in safety. But the Kymry would as soon have thought of striking their sovereign as of unsheathing a weapon against both a priest and the head of a clan. In making way for him and escorting him back to the capitol, they only observed the usages of Britain. An attempt made by the Porsena of Etruria to raise the siege being defeated by a second victory on the part of Brennus, the Romans agreed to ransom the citadel for one thousand pounds weight in gold. When the gold was being weighed in the presence of the different commanders, Brennus, taking off his belt and sword, threw them into the opposite scale: “What means that act?” asked the Roman consul. “It means,” replied Brennus, “gwae gwaethedigion” (voe victis), — woe to the vanquished.” The Romans endured the taunt in silence. The gold was transferred to Narbonne in Gaul. Brennus withdrew his troops, and shortly afterwards con­cluded an offensive and defensive alliance with Dionysius of Sicily.

The once accepted account of the recovery of the gold and the defeat of Brennus by Camillus, is now abandoned by all scholars as a fiction of Roman vanity. Rome indeed only comes into the province of History after her capture by the Kymry.

Virgil, whose archological accuracy cannot be too highly spoken of, describes the uniform and arms of the conquerors of Rome :—their vest was a mass of gold-lace (aurea vestis), they wore the gold torque round their necks, a sword by their side, two javelins with heavy steel heads were their principal missiles; oblong shields, borne on their shoulders during a march, covered their whole bodies in action. In Kymric, ysgwydd means the shoulder —hence “scutum,” the shoulder-piece shield. It is one of the most striking proofs of the sub­serviency and littleness of modern scholarship that it should have permitted itself to be Romanized into the idea that an army thus described was not far in advance of the Romans themselves in every element of civilization.

Brennus reigned thirty years in Northern Italy. The Cymro-Keltic kingdom thus established was henceforth known as Cisalpine Gaul. Its subse­quent history is connected with the Roman. Its people were the first nation admitted to the full rights of Roman citizenship.

Belinus, after the conquest of Germany, founded Aquileia, where he was afterwards worshipped as a god. Returning through Gaul, he divided its territories amongst his five younger sons, retaining the government of Britain alone in his own hands. He employed the latter years of his long and glorious reign in peaceful legislation and the con­struction of public works. Belin’s castle (Billing’s gate), and the stupendous embankment of the Thames, were begun and completed under this monarch. He built also Caer lean (originally Caer usc), and repaired the Druidic temples of Côr gawr (Stonehenge), and Ambri. He died in the 80th year of his age. His body was burnt, and the ashes deposited in a golden urn on the top of the highest tower of his palace on the Thames.

He was succeeded by Gwrgant the Peaceful, the chief incident in whose reign was the reduction of Dacia (Denmark), which had attempted to separate itself, to its former state of annexation. Returning to Britain, he met an Iberian or Hispanian fleet, seeking a country to colonize. Their leader was Partholyn. Gwrgant assigned them the South of Erin, or Ierne (Ireland). From them descended the Milesian Kings and clans of the sister island.

Gwrgant was buried at Caerlleon.

From this date to about fifty years preceding the Julian Invasion, Britain enjoyed a long era of peace and prosperity.

The sceptre was swayed by the following Kings: Gorvonian the Just—Artegal—Elidyr the Pious—Vigen — Peredur — March— Morgan— Einion — Rhûn — Geraint — Cadell —Coel —Por—Corineus — Fulgen Eldad — Androgeus — Urien — Eliud—Cledor—Cleton—Geraint—Merion—Bleddyn—Cap — Owen —Cecil—Blegàbred-.Arthmail—EIdo1 — Redion — Rhydderch Sawl — Pir — Cap 11 — Manogan, to whom succeeded his son, Beli Mawr. The Kymric Genealogies are generally headed with his initials—B.M. The succession upward from him to Brutus, the founder of the Trojan Dynasty, is readily found by reference to any of the ancient royal pedigrees. Beli reigned forty years. He had three sons, Lud, Caswallon (Cassibellanus), and Nennius. Lud succeeded him. He rebuilt the walls of Caer Troia, with seven principal towers and gates. One of these, Ludgate, retains his name. He issued an edict, commanding the city to be henceforth called Llud-din (Londinium, Caer Lludd), instead of Caer Troia. The people, headed by Nennius, threatened to rise and depose Lud, if the edict were not rescinded. He was compelled to give way. After the death of Nennius, a second attempt, supported by Androgeus, was more suc­cessful. The name Londinium gradually super­seded the old heroic one of Troy. Lud was buried in the vault under his tower at Ludgate. He left two sons of tender age, Anndrogeus and Tenuantius. The Irish having invaded Mona, and the Roman arms under Cesar threatening at this time the total subjugation of Gaul and Bretagne, Caswallon was during their minority appointed Regent of the kingdom. He immediately marched upon Mona, and defeated the Irish at Manuba, with such slaughter that a pestilence arose from the number of the dead bodies exposed to the heat of the summer. The bones were afterwards collected into pyramids on the nearest point to Ireland, Caer gybi, Holy-head. On his return to London, embassies from Gaul requesting aid against Cesar, waited upon him.

Before we proceed to the third, or Roman era, it may be well to give a succinct account of the great Gentile, or Druidic Religion, under which Britain had during these many centuries been ruled, and of which she was the Japhetic centre and head in Europe.

THE DRUIDIC RELIGION OF BRITAIN

THE Druidic Religion was brought into Britain by the Gomeridæ, from the Mountains of Noah, or the Caucasus, at the first emigration under Hu Gadarn. Its leading principles were the following.

“God is an Infinite Spirit, whose nature is wholly a mystery to man in his present state. He is self-existence; from him all creation emanated and into him it is always resolving and will always con­tinue to resolve itself back. To the human mind, but not in himself, he necessarily presents a triple aspect in relation to the past, the present, and the future—the Creator as to the past, the Saviour or Preserver as to the present, the Re-creator as to the future. In the Re-creator, the idea of the Destroyer was also involved. The Druidic names for God were Duw, Deon, Dovydd, Celi, Ior, Perydd, Rhun, Ner.

Matter is the creation of God. Without God it cannot exist. Nature is the action of God through the medium of matter.

The universe is matter as ordered and system­atized by the intelligence of God. It was created by God’s pronouncing his own name—at the sound of which, light and the heavens sprung into exist­ence. The name of God is in itself a creative power. What in itself that name is, is known to God only. All music or natural melody is a faint and broken echo of the creative name.

The Druidic symbol of it is three pencils of light. Of these three lines, in various conjunctions, was framed the first or Bardic Alphabet. Knowledge and religion cannot be separated.

The universe is in substance eternal and imper­ishable, but subject to successive cycles of dissolution and renovation.

The soul is a particle of the Deity possessing in embryo all his capabilities. Its action is defined and regulated by the nature of the physical organization it animates.

The lowest point of sentient existence is that in which evil is unmitigated by any particle of good. From this point existence ascends by cycles of genera, until it attains its acme by being blended with that of the Deity. The human cycle is the middle one in which good and evil are equipoised. Every human being is a free agent—the soul accord­ing to its choice being liable to fall back into the lower cycles, or capable of rising into the higher. Probation ceases with the human cycle. Above it good becomes the dominant, evil the helpless principle. Continually thus ascending, the soul becomes at last united to and part of God, and in God again pervades the universe.

A soul which has passed the probationary state has the power of returning to it and resuming for the good of mankind the morphosis of humanity. The re-incarnation of such is felt in its action and effects through the whole race whose nature is thus taken by the superior being.

The soul which prefers evil to good retrogrades to a cycle of animal existence the baseness of which is on a par with the turpitude of its human life. The process of brutalization commences at the moment when evil is voluntarily preferred to good. To whatever cycle the soul falls, the means of re-attaining humanity are always open to it. Every soul, however frequent its relapses, will ultimately attain the proper end of its existence—union with God.

The creation of animals commenced with that of water molecules. Terrestrial animals are of a higher order than the aquatic, and rise through dis­tinct gradations up to man. Animals approach the human cycle in proportion to their utility and gentleness—every animal may be killed by man in by the sacrifice of life in lieu of life.”

Prior to the creation of man, night-light alone prevailed. Man was created with the first rising sun.

Death or the dissolution of the present material organization is a simultaneous art with life, or the assumption of a new existence. The soul passes through an indefinite number of these migrations till it attains Deity.

A finite being cannot support eternity as a same­ness or monotony of existence. The eternity of the soul until it merges in the Deity, is a succes­sion of states of new sensations, the soul in each unfolding new capabilities of enjoyment.

In creation there is no evil which is not a greater good than an evil. The things called rewards and punishments are so secured by eternal ordinances that they are not consequences but properties of our acts and habits. Except for crimes against society, the measure of punishment should be that which nature itself deals to the delinquent. Perfect penitence. is entitled to pardon. That peni­tence is perfect which makes the utmost compensa­tion in its power for wrong inflicted, and willingly submits to the penalty prescribed. The atonement of penitents who voluntarily submit themselves to death in expiation of guilt incurred, is perfect. The souls of all such pass on to the higher cycles of existence.

“The justice of God cannot be satisfied except by the sacrifice of life in lieu of life.”

Cesar’s words are very remarkable, defining the doctrine of vicarious atonement with theological precision.—“The Druids hold that by no other way than the ransoming of man’s life by the life of man is reconciliation with the Divine Justice of the immortal God’s possible.“—Cesar’s Com­mentaries, Book III.

Such are a few of the principal Doctrines of a religion which was at one time professed from the shores of the Baltic to the straits of Gibraltar. In France, its central University was at Dreux. In Britain, it numbered thirty-one chief seats of education—each seat was a Cyfiaith, or city, the capital of a tribe. Their names were as follows:

Seats of the Three Arch-Druids of Britain.

Caer Troia Caer Lud London

Caer Evroc York

Caer Lleon Caerleon

Seats of the Chief Druids of Britain

Caer Caint Canterbury Caer Meivod Meivod

Caer Wyn Winchester Caer Odor Bristol

Caer Municip St. Albans Caer Llear Leicester

Caer Sallwg Old Sarum Caer Urnach Uroxeter

(Salisbury) Caer Lleyn Lincoln

Caer Leil Carlisle Caer Glou Glocester

Caer Grawnt Cambridge Caer Cei Chichester

(Granta) Caer Ceri Cirencester

Caer Meini Manchester Caer Dwr Dorchester

Caer Gwrthegion Palmcaster Caer Merddin Carmarthen

Caer Coel Colchester Caer Seiont Carnarvon

Caer Gorangon Worcester (Segontium)

Caerleon ar Dwy Chester Caer Wysc Exeter

Caer Peris Porchester Caer Segont Silchester

Caer Don Doncaster Caer Baddon Bath

Caer Guoric Warwick

The revolution of two thousand years has effected but slight change in the original names of these cities.

The students at these colleges numbered at times 60,000 souls, amongst whom were included the young nobility of Britain and Gaul. The authority and privileges of the Druidic Order were very great. They sat as magistrates, deciding all questions of law and equity. They regulated and presided over the rites and ceremonies of religion. The power of excommunication, lodged in their hands, put the party against whom it was issued out of the pale of the law. They were exempt from military duties, taxes, and imposts. A tenth of the land was appropriated for their support. None but a Druid could offer sacrifice, nor was any candidate admissible to the order who could not prove his genealogy from free parents for nine genera­tions back. The consent of the head of the clan, or of twelve fathers of families in the clan, was necessary to the public admission of a candidate into the order. The examinations preparatory to full initiation into the two higher grades of the Bard and the Druid, were of great severity. An Ovydd (or Vates) might claim his grade by proving himself, in public examination before the head of the clan and twelve Druids, master of the special art or science he professed to teach or exercise. None but the initiated were taught the Esoteric doctrines of the order—hence the profound reserve maintained on certain points of their teaching by Taliesin and other Christo-Druidic Bards.

The sacred animal of their religion was the milk-white bull—the sacred bird, the wren—the sacred tree, the oak—the sacred plant, the missletoe —- the sacred herbs, the trefoil and the vervain—the sacred form, that of the three divine letters or rays, in the shape of a cross, symbolizing the triple aspect of God. The sacred herbs and plant, with another plant—hyssop, the emblem of fortitude in adversity —were gathered on the sixth day of the moon.

The vast monumental remains of the Druidic establishment extend over Britain, from Cornwall to the Hebrides. In South Britain, or Lloegria, the central temples were those of Amber and Belin (Stonehenge). In Albyn, Perth and its vicinity—in Cambria, Mona, were the chief districts for the obelisc churches and the splendid national cere­monies therein performed. Each of these temples was a Planetarium, or representation of the system of the heavens. The principles on which they are constructed are strictly astronomical; and the accuracy with which the ponderous monoliths which compose them are adjusted demonstrates a very high state of mechanical science.

The Druidic principles allowed no monolith to be profaned by the touch of steel or other metal, neither could any other than massive single stones, solid throughout, be used in their temples. These architectural remains of the old Britannic religion lie for the most part on the elevated ridges or in the mountain solitudes of the Island, indicating their construction to have commenced at that remote date when the lowlands were still partially sub-merged. In Greece and Italy these Japhetic ruins are known as the Cyclopean or Titanic. “The Druids of Britain,” observes Doctor Stukeley, in his work on Stonehenge, “advanced their inquiries to such heights as should make the moderns ashamed of themselves; and we may with reason conclude there was somewhat very extraordinary in those principles which prompted them to such a noble spirit as produced these works which, for grandeur and simplicity, exceed any of the European wonders.”

In strictness, none of the Druidic Circles can be termed Temples, for the Druids taught there were but two inhabitations of the Deity—the soul the invisible, and the universe the visible temple. The monolithic structures were types only of the latter.

The great festivals of Druidism were three —- the solstitial festivals of the rise and fall of the year, and the winter festival. At the spring festival, the bâltân, or sacred fire, was brought down by means of a burning lens from the sun. No hearth in the Island was held sacred until the fire on it had been re-lit from the bâltân. The bâltân became the Easter festival of Christianity—as the mid-winter festival, in which the missletoe was cut with the golden crescent from the sacred oak, became Christmas. The misletoe with its three berries was the symbol of the Deity in his triple aspect—its growth on the oak, of the incarnation of the Deity of man.

The hypaethral altar in the Druidic circle was called the Cromlech, or stone of adoration, (literally the stone of bowing). On it the hostia, or victim to be immolated, was laid; and in order that the blood might run off more easily, its position was inclined. Near it another stone received in an excavation the aqua pura, or holy water—that is, rain water direct from heaven. Druidism itself was ordinarily known as “Y Mien “—the stone.

The canonicals of the Arch-Druid were extremely gorgeous. On his head he wore a tiara of gold,—in his girdle the gem of augury,—on his breast the ior morain, or breast-plate of judgment, below it, the glan neidr, or draconic egg,—on the fore-finger of the right hand, the signet ring of the order,—on the forefinger of the left, the gem ring of inspiration. Before him were borne the coel­bren, or volume of esoteric mysteries, and the golden crosier with which the misletoe was gath­ered. His robe was of white linen, with a broad purple border—the symbolic cross being wrought in gold down the length of the back.

When Druidism merged into Christianity, these rites, festivals, and canonicals, became those of the Christian Church. Little variation exists between the. modern ceremonials of religion, as witnessed in a Roman Catholic cathedral, and those of Druidic Britain two thousand years since. Their derivation from Druidism is not more evident than the striking contrast they present to the simple and unadorned ritual of Primitive Christianity. Some of these observances are common to Judaism and Druidism—others are to be found in Druidism alone.

No Druidic service could be celebrated or rite observed except between sunrise and sunset. Every official act was to be discharged “in the eye of the light and face of the sun.” The seat of the presiding Druid was termed Gorsedd; to remove it was a capital offence. The great Gorseddau, or convocations, were held at the solstices and equinoxes—the minor at the new and full moon.

The vestments of the Bard were blue; of the Druid, white; of the Ovate, green. The Druids taught viva voce. No part of their teaching was allowed to be committed to writing. In public transactions they used the Bardic characters—in transactions with foreigners, the Bardic or Greek, as occasion required. From the importance they attached to the sublime study of Astronomy, they were termed by the Greeks, Saronidæ, (serenyddion, from the Kvmric seren, a star) Astronomers. Their system of education appears to have embraced a wide range of arts and sciences.

The Druidic religion was pre-eminently patriotic—hence it was the only Gentile Religion systematic-ally misrepresented and marked out for extirpation by the Roman government; all others being received indifferently to its protection. The spirit it infused into the people contributed no less than the military science displayed by a series of able and intrepid commanders, to render the tardy pro­gress of the Roman arms in Britain a solitary exception to the rapidity of their conquests in other parts of the world.

Diodorus Maximus quotes a Druidic Triad as well known to the Greeks,—“Worship the Gods—do no man wrong—be valiant for your country.”

Valerius Maximus mentions a curious fact, illus­trative of the sincerity of their faith in the doctrines they held :—“The Druids have so firm a con­viction of the immortality of the soul, that they advance sums of money to their friends on the understanding that such money, or its equivalent, is to be repaid when they meet after death.” (Lib. II. c. 6.) “It is certain,” states Lucan, “the Druidic nations have no fear of death. Their religion rather impels them to seek it. Their souls are its masters, and they think it contemptible to spare a life the return of which is so sure.”

The Druidic religion, in its corrupted Asiatic or Semitic form of Budhism, is still the religion of nearly one half of mankind. We have noticed its leading features, therefore, at greater length than the compass of this little volume would have warranted us in doing those of any obsolete or defunct faith, such as the mythologies of Greece and Rome.

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