a province in which Roman and native were as distinct as modern
Englishman and Indian, and 'the departure of the Romans' in the fifth
century left the Britons almost as Celtic as their coming had found
them. The adoption of this view may be set down, I think, to various
reasons which have, in themselves, little to do with the subject. The
older archaeologists, familiar with the early wars narrated by Caesar
and Tacitus, pictured the whole history of the island as consisting of
such struggles. Later writers have been influenced by the analogies of
English rule in India. Still more recently, the revival of Welsh
national sentiment has inspired a hope, which has become a belief, that
the Roman conquest was an episode, after which an unaltered Celticism
resumed its interrupted supremacy. These considerations have, plainly
enough, very little value as history, and the view which is based on
them seems to me in large part mistaken. As I have pointed out, it is
not the view which is suggested by a consideration of the general
character of the western provinces. Nor do I think that it is the view
which agrees best with the special evidence which we possess in respect
of Britain. In the following paragraphs I propose to examine this
evidence. I shall adopt an archaeological rather than a legal or a
philological standpoint. The legal and philological arguments have often
been put forward. But the legal arguments are entirely _a priori_, and
they have led different scholars to very different conclusions. The
philological arguments are no less beset with difficulties. Both the
facts and their significance are obscure, and the inquiry into them has
hitherto yielded little beyond confident and yet wholly contradictory
assertions and theories which are not susceptible of proof. The
archaeological evidence, on the other hand, is definite and consistent,
and perhaps deserves fuller notice than it has yet received. It
illuminates, not only the material civilization, but also the language
and to some extent even the institutions of Roman Britain, and supplies,