The theory of the Germanic origin of the Picts removes another difficulty. How is the disappearance of the Celtic tongue from England to be accounted for? The Saxons, on seizing the soil, would not exterminate the inhabitants, but retain them as bondsmen. Had the majority of the occupants of England been the original Britons or Romanized Celts, we should have found in our daily speech, and in the names of our towns and villages, a large intermixture of Gaelic and Latin; but such is not the case. Grant that the Picts were a branch of the great Gothic family—and that successive waves of them had, long before the time of Cerdic, poured from the lowlands of Scotland over the plains of England, and the almost entire extermination of the ancient British is easily accounted for. If the theory here advocated, cannot be sustained, it must at least be allowed, that the population of North Britain was largely leavened with individuals of the Saxon race. These strangers would doubtless obtain that supremacy over the natives which the Franks did in Gaul; so that, even upon this limited view of the question, the influence of the Germanic race in fixing the destinies of Britain, at this critical period, is apparent. Footnote 11: The whole of these are accurately figured and described in the "Materials for the History of Britain," published by the government. It is to be hoped that a work so auspiciously begun will not be strangled in its birth, by a false application of the principles of national economy. Footnote 12: Whitaker’s History of Manchester, i. 228. Footnote 13: "Politically speaking, Rome is now the city of the dead." _Times_, March 18th, 1850. ----- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration] ~The Roman Barrier of the Lower Isthmus.~ PART II. A GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE LINE OF THE WALL. Numerous are the appellations which the Great Barrier of the Lower Isthmus has obtained. 'It was called by ancient writers _vallum barbaricum_, _prætentura_ and _clusura_; by Dion διατειχισμα; by Herodian χωμα; by Antoninus and others _vallum_; by some of the Latin historians _murus_; by the English the Picts’-wall, or THE WALL; and by the Britons _gual Sever_, _gal Sever_, and _mur Sever_. The names _prætentura_ and _clusura_ are given to it upon account of its being stretched out against, and excluding the enemy.' To the names thus enumerated by Camden, must be added, the Thirl Wall, the Kepe Wall, and that by which it is best known at present, the ROMAN WALL. [Sidenote: GENERAL VIEW OF THE WORKS.] This great fortification consists of three parts. I. A Stone Wall, strengthened by a ditch on its northern side. II. A Turf Wall or Vallum, to the south of the stone wall.