e time, that there were some actual Belgae in Britain is likely
enough; but that they were a separate substantive population, of
sufficient magnitude to be found in all the parts of Britain where
Belgic names occurred, and still more that they were Germans, is an
unsafe inference; safe, perhaps, if the two texts of Caesar stood alone,
but unsafe, if we take into consideration the numerous facts,
statements, and presumptions which complicate and oppose them.

The Belgic names themselves, which occurred in Britain, were as
follows:--

_a._ _Attrebates._--There were Attrebates both in Belgium and Britain;
the Gaelic ones in _Artois_, which is only _Attrebates_ in a modern
form. Considerable importance attaches to the fact, that before Caesar
visited Britain in person, he sent _Commius_, the Attrebatian, before
him. Now, this Commius was first conquered by Caesar, and afterwards set
up as a king over the Morini. That Commius gave much of his information
about Britain to Caesar is likely; perhaps he was his chief informant.
He, too, it was who, knowing the existence of Attrebates in Britain,
probably drew the inference which has been so lately suggested, viz.,
that of a Belgae migration, or a series of them. Yet the Attrebates of
Britain were so far from being on the coast, that they must have lain
west of London, in Berkshire and Wilts; since Caesar, who advanced, at
least, as far as Chertsey, where he crossed the Thames, meets nothing
but Cantii, Trinobantes, Cenimagni, Segontiaci, Ancalites, Bibroci and
Cassi. It is Ptolemy who first mentions the British _Attrebatii_; and he
places them between the Dobuni and the Cantii. Now, as the Dobuni lay
due west of the Silures of South Wales, we cannot bring the Attrebatii
nearer the coast than Windsor.

_b._ The _Belgae_.--These--like the Attrebatii, first mentioned by
Ptolemy--are placed south of the Dobuni, and on the sea-coast between
the Cantii and Damnonii of Devonshire; so that Sussex, Hants, and
Dorset, may be given them as their area.

_c._ The _Remi_ are mentioned by no better an authority than Richard of
Cirencester, as Bibroci under another name.

_d._ The _Durotriges_, too, or people of _Dor_-set, are stated by the
same authority to have been called _Morini_.

_e._ _f._ In Ireland we have two populations with German names; the
_Menapii_ and the _Chauci_, both in the parts about Dublin, and in the
neighbourhood of one another. And these are mentioned by Ptolemy.