sist his power, and desirous of possessing some established form
of government, were forward, on his first appearance, to send
deputies, who submitted to his authority, and swore allegiance to him
as their sovereign. Egbert, however, still allowed to Northumberland,
as he had done to Mercia and East Anglia, the power of electing a
king, who paid him tribute, and was dependent on him.
[FN [k] Ethelward, lib. 3. cap. 2. [1] Ethelward, lib. 3. cap. 3.
[m] Ingulph. p. 7, 8, 10]

Thus were united all the kingdoms of the Heptarchy in one great state,
near four hundred years after the first arrival of the Saxons in
Britain, and the fortunate arms and prudent policy of Egbert at last
effected what had been so often attempted in vain by so many princes
[n]. Kent, Northumberland, and Mercia, which had successively aspired
to general dominion, were now incorporated in his empire, and the
other subordinate kingdoms seemed willingly to share the same fate.
His territories were nearly of the same extent with what is now
properly called England; and a favourable prospect was afforded to the
Anglo-Saxons, of establishing a civilized monarchy, possessed of
tranquillity within itself, and secure against foreign invasion. This
great event happened in the year 827 [o].
[FN [n] Chron. Sax. p. 71. [o] Ibid.]

The Saxons, though they had been so long settled in the island, seem
not as yet to have been much improved beyond their German ancestors,
either in arts, civility, knowledge, humanity, justice, or obedience
to the laws. Even Christianity, though it opened the way to
connexions between them and the more polished states of Europe, had
not hitherto been very effectual in banishing their ignorance, or
softening their barbarous manners. As they received that doctrine
through the corrupted channels of Rome, it carried along with it a
great mixture of credulity and superstition, equally destructive to
the understanding and to morals. The reverence towards saints and
relics seems to have almost supplanted the adoration of the Supreme
Being. Monastic observances were esteemed more meritorious than the
active virtues; the knowledge of natural causes were neglected from
the universal belief of miraculous interpositions and judgments;
bounty to the church atoned for every violence against society; and
the remorses for cruelty, murder, treachery, assassination, and the
more robust vices, were appeased, not by amendment of life, but by
pe