Alfred having conquered the Danes at Edington, and Guthrun their general and his principal officers having been baptized in the church of Aller, near Langport, in Somersetshire, Alfred concluded a treaty of peace with Guthrun, and gave him the kingdoms of East Anglia and Northumberland for himself and his Danes, appointing the boundaries of his dominions and giving him laws which were agreed to and confirmed by Alfred’s and Guthrun’s nobles. In all cases which were not provided for by this treaty, Guthrun consented that the Danes should observe the general laws of Alfred. This treaty was afterwards confirmed and enlarged by Edward the Elder, Alfred’s son, with the consent and approbation of his and Guthrun’s nobles. THE LATIN LANGUAGE. So sensible were the Romans of the influence of language over national manners, that it was their most serious care to extend, with the progress of their arms, the use of the latin tongue. The ancient dialects of Italy, the Sabine, the Etruscan, and the Venetian, sunk into oblivion; but the eastern were less docile than the western provinces to the voice of its victorious preceptors. This obvious difference marked the two portions of the empire with a distinction of character, which, though it was in some degree concealed during the meridian splendour of prosperity, became gradually more visible, as the shades of night descended upon the Roman world. The western countries were civilized by the same hands which subdued them. As soon as the barbarians were reconciled to obedience, their minds were opened to any new impressions of knowledge and politeness. The language of Virgil and Cicero, though with some inevitable mixture of corruption, was so universally adopted in Africa, Spain, Gaul, Britain and Pannonia, that the faint traces of the Punic or Celtic idioms were preserved only in the mountains or among the peasants. The Celtic was indeed preserved in the mountains of Wales, Cornwall, and Armorica; and it may here be observed that Apuleius reproaches an African youth, who lived among the populace, with the use of the Punic, whilst he had almost forgot Greek, and neither could nor would speak Latin. The greater part of St. Austin’s congregations were strangers to the Punic. Education and study insensibly inspired the natives of the countries just mentioned with the sentiments of Romans; and Italy gave fashions, as well as laws, to her latin provincials. They solicited with more ardour, and obtained with more facility, the freedom and honours of the state; supported the national dignity in letters and in arms; and at length in the person of Trajan, produced an Emperor whom the Scipios would not have disowned for their countryman. Spain alone produced Columella, the Senecas, Lucan, Martial, and Quinctilian.