e proved no less fatal to himself than to the vanquished
barbarians.

The only accession which the Roman empire received during the first
century of the Christian era was the province of Britain. In this single
instance the successors of Caesar and Augustus were persuaded to follow
the example of the former, rather than the precept of the latter. The
proximity of its situation to the coast of Gaul seemed to invite their
arms; the pleasing, though doubtful, intelligence of a pearl-fishery
attracted their avarice; and as Britain was viewed in the light of a
distinct and insulated world, the conquest scarcely formed any exception
to the general system of continental measures. After a war of about
forty years, undertaken by the most stupid, maintained by the most
dissolute, and terminated by the most timid of all the emperors, the far
greater part of the island submitted to the Roman yoke. The various
tribes of Britons possessed valor without conduct, and the love of
freedom without the spirit of union. They took up arms with savage
fierceness; they laid them down, or turned them against each other, with
wild inconstancy; and while they fought singly, they were successively
subdued. Neither the fortitude of Caractacus, nor the despair of
Boadicea, nor the fanaticism of the Druids, could avert the slavery of
their country, or resist the steady progress of the imperial generals,
who maintained the national glory, when the throne was disgraced by the
weakest or the most vicious of mankind. At the very time when Domitian,
confined to his palace, felt the terrors which he inspired, his legions,
under the command of the virtuous Agricola, defeated the collected force
of the Caledonians at the foot of the Grampian hills; and his fleets,
venturing to explore an unknown and dangerous navigation, displayed the
Roman arms round every part of the island. The conquest of Britain was
considered as already achieved; and it was the design of Agricola to
complete and insure his success by the easy reduction of Ireland, for
which, in his opinion, one legion and a few auxiliaries were sufficient.
The western isle might be improved into a valuable possession, and the
Britons would wear their chains with the less reluctance, if the
prospect and example of freedom was on every side removed from before
their eyes.

But the superior merit of Agricola soon occasioned his removal from the
government of Britain; and forever disappointed this rationa