V.
THE ROMAN ROAD BETWEEN SILCHESTER AND STAINES.
By Lt.-Col. P. L. McDOUGALL, of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
Introductory to certain notes upon the subject, read at the inaugural meeting of the society, may 10, 1854.
The general subject of "Roads" is one well worthy the attentive study of all those inquiring minds which seek to trace back effects to their causes, they being among the most important means by which the civilization of mankind has been effected.
At the present moment, when the nations of the earth are either armed or arming for battle, it is interesting to consider, that not only have roads been the great engine of civilization, through the medium of peaceful communication and by the arts of peace; but they have been so to a very great degree by facilitating conquest, and imbuing either the conquerors or the conquered with the superior civilization and refinement of those nations with which they have thereby been respectively brought in contact.
Thus Greece, conquered by the arms of Rome, imposed the yoke of her arts and literature on her subduers. And Rome, in conquering other countries, conferred upon them the advantages of her own civilization.
Rome, the iron kingdom of prophecy, was the greatest military nation the world has ever seen: conquest was the breath of its nostrils. While the subject of military organization occupies almost exclusively the public atten-
