.]

This revolution dissolved the artificial fabric of civil and military
government; and the independent country, during a period of forty
years, till the descent of the Saxons, was ruled by the authority of the
clergy, the nobles, and the municipal towns. [179] I. Zosimus, who alone
has preserved the memory of this singular transaction, very accurately
observes, that the letters of Honorius were addressed to the cities
of Britain. [180] Under the protection of the Romans, ninety-two
considerable towns had arisen in the several parts of that great
province; and, among these, thirty-three cities were distinguished above
the rest by their superior privileges and importance. [181] Each of
these cities, as in all the other provinces of the empire, formed a
legal corporation, for the purpose of regulating their domestic policy;
and the powers of municipal government were distributed among annual
magistrates, a select senate, and the assembly of the people, according
to the original model of the Roman constitution. [182] The management of
a common revenue, the exercise of civil and criminal jurisdiction, and
the habits of public counsel and command, were inherent to these petty
republics; and when they asserted their independence, the youth of the
city, and of the adjacent districts, would naturally range themselves
under the standard of the magistrate. But the desire of obtaining the
advantages, and of escaping the burdens, of political society, is a
perpetual and inexhaustible source of discord; nor can it reasonably be
presumed, that the restoration of British freedom was exempt from
tumult and faction. The preeminence of birth and fortune must have
been frequently violated by bold and popular citizens; and the haughty
nobles, who complained that they were become the subjects of their
own servants, [183] would sometimes regret the reign of an arbitrary
monarch.

II. The jurisdiction of each city over the adjacent country, was
supported by the patrimonial influence of the principal senators; and
the smaller towns, the villages, and the proprietors of land, consulted
their own safety by adhering to the shelter of these rising republics.
The sphere of their attraction was proportioned to the respective
degrees of their wealth and populousness; but the hereditary lords of
ample possessions, who were not oppressed by the neighborhood of any
powerful city, aspired to the rank of independent princes, and boldly
exercised the r