the nations of Europe, and attached them to their rule by Romanising them; or, in other words, by educating them in the Roman literature and arts, and teaching them to emulate their conquerors instead of opposing them. Acquisitions made by superiority in war, were consolidated by superiority in the arts of peace; and the remembrance of the original violence was lost in that of the benefits which resulted from it. The provincials of Italy, Spain, Africa, and Gaul, having no ambition except to imitate the Romans, and to share their privileges with them, remained to the last faithful subjects of the empire; and the union was at last dissolved, not by internal revolt, but by the shock of external violence, which involved conquerors and conquered in one common overthrow. The Indians will, I hope, soon stand in the same position towards us in which we once stood towards the Romans. Tacitus informs us, that it was the policy of Julius Agricola to instruct the sons of the leading men among the Britons in the literature and science of Rome, and to give them a taste for the refinements of Roman civilisation.[1] We
- ↑ The words of Tacitus are, “Jam vero principum filios liberalibus artibus crudire, et ingenia Britannorum studiis Galloriun anteferre, ut qui modo linguam Romanam abnuebant, eloquentiam concupiscerent. Inde etiam habitus nostri honor et frequens toga. Paulatimque discessum ad delinimenta vitiorum, porticus et bal-
