IT

T seems to have been generally supposed that the Britons had no manner of intercourse with other nations, and were even scarcely known to any of them, till they were found out, invaded, and subdued by the Romans. But this must be a very erroneous idea. They were certainly very well known to the Belgic and Gallic nations, whose youth were often sent hither to complete their education, from a prevailing opinion, that the schools of this country afforded very superior advantages. That very opinion implies that those continental nations were well acquainted with the state and circumstances of this country, and that the intercourse between them and our ancestors must have been pretty general and extensive. Accordingly we read of a certain king of Soissons, before Cæsar's time, who had much communication with this country, and held here some territorial possessions*. Our ancestors also assisted the Gallic nations in their wars with

the Romans, which is the reason given by Cæsar for undertaking the invasion and subjugation of their country. This fact is corroborated by the British Triads. But our ancestors were known, not only to those neighbouring nations, but even to some that lay at no small distance; and that long before Cæsar and his legions began to disturb the world.

Carte, but more especially Whitaker, has made it appear from good authority, that those great commercial nations of antiquity, the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, traded to this island for many ages before the Romans made their appearance in these western parts of Europe. "The first commerce of the Britons," says Whitaker,

was occasioned by the resort of the Phoenicians to their coasts. Those bold adventurers in navigation and traffic, having planted colonies at Carthage and Cadiz, and ranging along the borders of the great untraversed

ocean

ocean of the west, reached the south-western promontories of Britain, and entered into a trading correspondence with the inhabitants. The real singularity and commercial consequence of the voyage gave great reputation to the officer that conducted it, and have occasioned the name of Midacritus to be transmitted with honour to posterity. Midacritus brought the first vessel of the Phoenicians to our coasts; and it was he who opened the first commerce of the Phoenicians with our fathers. He found the country to abound particularly with tin, which was equally useful and rare. He trafficked with the Britons for it; and he returned home with a valuable cargo of that metal. Such was the first effort of the commercial genius of Britain, which was afterwards to conduct the vessels of the island to the shores of Carthage and Tyre, and even to raise the Britons superior in boldness and skill to the Phoenicians! This was before the time of Herodotus, and about five hundred years before the Christian era.

Pliny, lib. vii. c. 56.

"The trade was opened with the natives of the Cassiterides, or Scilly islands, one of which was greatly superior in size to the rest, and denominated Cassiteris Insula, or the Tin-island. The cargo which Midacritus brought from this island, and the account which he gave of it, occasioned a regular resort of the Phoenicians to the coast of Scilly. The trade was very advantageous to the state, and the track was solicitously concealed by the public."

Thus continued the traffic of Britain for nearly three hundred years, being esteemed the most beneficial in Europe, and carefully sought after by all the commercial powers in the Mediterranean. The Greeks of Marseilles first followed the course of the Phoenician voyagers; and sometimes before the time of Polybius, and about two hundred years before the age of Christ, began to share with them in the trade of tin.

The Carthaginian commerce declined the Massylian increased; and in the reign of

cle-pearls; polished horse-bits of bone, horse-collars, amber toys, and glass vessels*"

The

Such, our historian continues, was the nature of our foreign traffic when the Romans settled among us and it instantly received a considerable improvement from them. This appears from that very remarkable circumstance in the interior history of the island, the sudden rise and commercial importance of London, within a few years after their settlement in the country. The trade was no longer carried on by the two great roads on the southern shore, or the staple continued in the Isle of Wight. principal commerce still appears to have been confined to the south, and to the counties of Middlesex, Kent, Sussex, and Hampshire. But it was also diffused over the whole extent of the Roman conquests, and carried on directly from the western or eastern shores, as well as the southern. New ports were opened on every side of the island, most indeed about the southern angle of it, but some along the eastern and western coasts. Thus Middlesex had the port of London; Kent the ports of Rhutupæ, Dubris, and

Lemanis; Sussex, those of Adurnum, Anderéda, and Novus; and Hampshire that of Magnus. Yorkshire also had its port Felix on one side, and Lancashire its port Sistuntian on the other. These were evidently the commercial harbours of the Roman Britons. The articles introduced into the island at Sheen, in addition to those previously mentioned, are said by our sagacious author to comprehend sugar, pepper, ginger, writing-paper, and, perhaps, some other similar commodities. The Saccharum, or sugar of the Romans, he observes, like our own, was the extracted honey of a cane, brought from Arabia or India, and used only for medical purposes. The articles sent out of the island, he adds, must have been partly the same as before, with the additional ones of gagates or jet, the British being the best and most copious in Europe, and of the silvery marl of Kent and Essex, which was shipped off for the marshy countries on the Rhine; bears for the foreign amphitheatres, baskets, salt, corn, and oysters. Lead, cattle, and hides, are also mentioned. British dogs are also said to have been a very gainful traffic to the Romans. And as the interior

parts