Brutus, the chieftain or leader of this Trojan colony, is said to have been the son of Sylvius, the son of Ascanius, the son of Æneas; who in consequence of having shot his father as he was hunting in one of the Italian forests, withdrew to Greece, where he found the descendants of those Trojans, that had been transported thither by the Greeks after the sacking of Troy, in a state of bondage. He put himself at their head, and offered to conduct them to another country; for which they sailed along the coast of Africa until they arrived at the Straits of Gibralter. From thence they kept along the coast of Spain, winding to the north, and north-east until they eventually arrived in Gaul, where they attempted to settle but, being forced to quit, they sailed across to Britain, and landed at Totness in Devonshire. This Island, which was at that time called Albion or the "White Island," they found inhabited by a race of giants, whom Brutus and his companions soon routed and slew. "Brutus then insisted that the Island should take its name from him and be called Britain, and the inhabitants, Britons, that his claim might be perpetuated; and from that time the language was called British."-British Chronicle.

This is a part of the embellishment, easily detected by a comparison with the Historical Triads, from which we shall presently cite a passage on the original names of Britain. Excepting such high colouring, the narrative is a simple tale founded in fact, and confirmed by the traditions and records of Spain.

Pedro de Rosas, in his history of Toledo, gives the following account of these Adventurers :

"After the Celts, and as it were at the same time, came certain Greeks bound for England and Ireland, called Almozudes, or Almonides, who landed at Corunna.” Their chieftains according to Florian de Campo, and Don Rodrigo Ximenes-two other Spanish writers, were "Roman Consuls; the one called Tolemon, the other Brutus," while the colony itself consisted of Greeks: So striking a coincidence in the Chronicles of Spain must materially add to the credibility of the Ancient British Chronicle, called the History of Geoffrey.

In that History are contained the two following points, which we are anxious to specify :

First, that Brutus and his Trojan associates from Greece, arrived

in Britain about 1200 years after the Deluge, or according to modern Chronology, 1074 years before Christ :

:

Secondly, that Britain was at that early period found inhabited. It is true, the inhabitants were called giants," but the original word means nothing more than men of large stature, and great strength and such is precisely the description which the Romans have given of the Ancient Britons, who lived a thousand years later than those with whom Brutus had had to contend. And besides, the word translated 'giants' is still vernacular in the Principality, and constantly applied to large, robust, and athletic men.

The inference we now draw from these two points is this,-that Brutus and his colony were not the Aborigines of Britain: the Triads, therefore, which give account of the Aboriginal tribes called Kymry, so far from being contradicted by the British Chronicle, derive from it additional weight. For while the Chronicle says that Brutus found this country inhabited when he landed, the Triads explain who those original inhabitants were, and whence they came.

Again, the history of Brutus says, that this Island was called Albion or "White Island," before he gave it the name of Britain: but the Triads speak of the names of Britain at a period of far higher antiquity, and point out the true origin of the word Britain ;- -a name which has puzzled all English antiquarians.

"There were three names given to the Isle of Britain from the beginning: Before it was inhabited it was called the Sea-girt green spot. After it was inhabited, it was called the Honey Island: And after the people were formed into a commonwealth by Prydain the son of Aedd the Great, it was denominated the Isle of Prydain, -[English, Britain's Isle.] And no one has any right to it but the tribe of the Kymry: for they first settled in it: and before that time no persons lived therein, but it was full of bears, wolves, crocodiles, and bisons."-Triad 1.

The Aborigines on landing called this Island, the "Honey Island," from the quantity of wild honey they found in it: and by that name it went among the natives until the time of Prydain, of whom we find the following notice in the 4th Triad :

:

"There are three national Pillars of the Isle of Britain-the first was Hu the Mighty, &c.

"

The second was Prydain the son of Aedd the Great, who first

organized a social state and sovereignty in Britain: for before that time, there was no justice, but what was done by favour, nor any law except that of superior force."

Thus Prydain became so celebrated as a Patriot, and Legislator, and Benefactor of his country, that, as a mark of gratitude and respect to him, the Island was called the Isle of Prydain [Britain] after his name: and this is the name by which the descendants of the Ancient Britons in the Principality call it at this day" Ynys Prydain." The strictly literal meaning of Prydain is Beautiful.

This great man will again come under our notice in connexion with another point.

We have now, we trust, satisfactorily shewn that, although the true period at which Britain became first inhabited cannot be precisely fixed, yet that every direct or indirect allusion to the subject, that can be traced in the most ancient histories extant, assume and support the fact of its having been inhabited from the remotest times;—from times so remote that they must have bordered closely on the age of Noah. And how irrelevant soever to the subject of Druidism this discussion may at first appear to some of our readers, we consider that a most material point has been gained by it towards ascertaining the true origin of that Religion: for the nearer we trace the primary colonization of Britain to the time of the dispersion of mankind from Babel, the more sure we shall be of discovering the real and unquestionable source from which the Aborigines derived their fundamental principles of Druidism.

We shall, therefore in future, assume this position as a maxim of great probable truth,-That the interval between the dispersion of mankind from Shinar, and the entrance of the first colony of the Kymry into Britain, did not, at the utmost, exceed 150 years. And this opinion, be it remembered, we rest chiefly on the testimony of the infallible records of Inspiration: On which we, for our part, never hesitate to place the most implicit reliance; but we gladly avail ourselves, for the satisfaction of others, of every concurrent testimony from other sources; especially where, as in the case before us, Scripture has only made a general statement, leaving the truth of it, in reference to particular cases, to be proved by the events themselves. And certainly, the event so far as it can at this tremendous distance be ascertained in reference to

Britain, fully bears out the truth of the Mosaic History, that God scattered the human race abroad from Shinar, upon the face of all the earth;" and that immediately after having confounded their language, for it is added, as a proof, that "they left off to build the City" of Babel.

Again, in reference to Europe and its Islands, one of which is Britain, it is expressly said ;—“The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras ; And the sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah. -And the sons of Javan: Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim :-By these were the Isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands: every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations." (Gen. chap. x.)

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If this passage has any meaning at all, it must imply that those very men whose names are here recorded, actually divided amongst them the Isles of the Gentiles," that is, Europe and its Islands: for it is said that they did it, not in Shinar, or at Babel, but in their lands. Now, considering the brevity of this part of the Sacred History, it is difficult to conceive of any expression more clear, explicit, and decisive, than that employed, to record the actual division of Europe and its Islands by those heads of families whose names are mentioned seriatim. We are far from wishing to force this point; but we are really at a loss to understand for what purpose such an expression should have been used, if not for the one we have specified. And as this is a point to which few of the numerous writers on the Antiquities of Europe, have paid any attention, we have dwelt upon it the more largely in hopes it may tend to correct the error of general opinion, and establish the truth. Having thus brought the period of the primary colonization of Britain, so near to the actual dispersion of mankind from Shinar, as to come almost in contact with the close of Noah's life; the difficulty of accounting for the source from which the Aboriginal Britons derived the great and fundamental principles of Druidism, is materially diminished, if not entirely removed: And the true origin of that religion, which writers have loved to conceal and envelop in clouds of darkness, is gradually opening to our view, and will soon appear as clear as the noon day.

THE RELIGION OF NOAH INTRODUCED BY THE ELDER BRANCH OF JAPHETH INTO BRITAIN.

At no period of time has the world been without religion of one description or another. Whatever may have been the religion of man before his transgression, there can be no question that his religion after that melancholy occurrence, was also that of all his pious posterity during the Antediluvian era; and the same that Noah carried with him into the Ark and brought out again on his disembarkation;—the same that he and his children subsequently practised and obeyed in the land of Armenia; The same that Shem, Ham, and Japheth, taught to the children that were born to them after the flood; and the same that was in fact the religion of the whole human family during the period they resided together in the East, prior to their dispersion. For as "the whole earth was then of one language and of one speech;" so was it also of one religion: and that religion was the TRUE RELIGION.

Let us then in this place enter into a particular examination of the nature, character, and principles, of that most Ancient Religion, the religion of Adam and the Antediluvians subsequently to the Fall; and of Noah and his family after the Deluge: for it is not at all improbable that we shall find some traces of it by and by in Britain, embodied by the Aborigines in their ever-memorable system of Druidism.

It is true, we have no detailed information given us in Scripture of the religion of mankind before the flood; but the notices of it which occur, though brief and scattered, are sufficient when brought together to enable us to form a correct opinion of its leading features and peculiar character. And from those notices it is clear beyond the possibility of a doubt, that the religion of mankind from the fall of man in Paradise down to the general dispersion after the flood, was one and the same in the abstract with that which God at a subsequent period established among the Children of Israel. For it is quite evident that many of the positive rites and religious observances, established among the Israelites in the time of Moses, had been known to mankind and practised by them from the creation of the world.

For instance, the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, was only a repetition of that law which God had given to man as a rule of con