BRITAIN 2,000 YEARS AGO

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIX, 1 February 1936, Page 10

BRITAIN 2,000 YEARS AGO

When'tiie standard-bearer of the Roman legion who accompanied Caesar in bis invasion leaped from his galley into the sea, and called aloud to his panicstricken comrades, “Follow me, my fel-low-soldiers, 1 will never betray my country or my general,” the Britons were a nation of savages as wild as the Indians of the Rocky ’Mountains', and apparently as untouchable. Indeed, some time after the Romans had possessed the island, they doubted the capacity of the Britons to receive improvement. A letter said to have been written by a senator at Rome to his friend in tlie country, contained this memorable picture. “By the way, the last news from Britain appears to' lie unfavourable, and it begins to be doubted whether the island was over worth the trouble ancl the cost of its conquest. For, besides being enveloped in fogs throughout the year, which makes all approach to it dangerous, and Slaving its navigable channels impeded by innumerable shoals, the natives are so-incorrigibly stupid, as well as barbarous, that it is thought tliev cannot be made serviceable, even as slaves.”