FIFTEEN hundred years ago, this island, with the exception of the highlands of Scotland, was covered with flourishing towns, many of them known to have been of considerable magnitude, situated on numerous public roads,—these latter of such excellent construction, that they have remained to the present day the foundation of most of our great English high roads. These towns, like those in other parts of the empire, enjoyed free municipal institutions (from which our own mediæval municipal institutions are derived), and in all but certain duties towards the imperial government, formed in themselves so many little republics, possessing all the ambitions and rivalries which seem inseparable from republican institutions. Among the slight notices of this island in ancient writers we learn that the towns of Britain were remarkable for their turbulence, which was encouraged, no doubt, by the distance of this province from Rome, and by the peculiar character of the population of the towns, which consisted of blood that was foreign to the soil, and which was not uniform in character in the different towns. We know further that, during the fourth century, these towns often confederated together, threw off the imperial yoke, and raised emperors of their own; and we have every reason for supposing that, when the restraint imposed by the central power became slackened, the towns confederated against one another, and that domestic dissensions and contests troubled the peace of the island. Such dissensions left the island exposed to the invasions of its foreign enemies, which had become very frequent and very formidable during the fourth century. The eastern coasts were often visited by the Teutonic rovers, Saxons, and Franks; the barbarous Caledonians, then called Picts, from the north rushed across the borders, and carried devastation through the land, in which they were assisted by the Irish, or, as they were then called, Scots, and probably by the Armorican Celts, or Britons from Gaul. The towns of Britain united would, no doubt, have presented a force sufficient to meet any of these invasions, but their very constitution rendered such a union difficult, except for a short period. Besides their independence of each other, the towns had only been expected to defend themselves, while the defence of the province was more especially the duty of the legions, and on their withdrawal, the towns seem to have followed their old practice in case of invasion, and shut themselves within their walls, or, at most, opposed the invaders without any union, thus leaving the open country to easy destruction.