Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/329

 £$8 »T H E H I ST.O H Y .- •« Bodkin quantity, of it. And for this reafoti the latter appear to havp carefully repofited their brazen weapons in cloth, and to have even provided them ; with regular cafes 40 *. . When the Britons. imported their iron and br^fa from the Ga^c consent, they muft neceflariLy have purchafed the latf^f at an eafier expence than they procured the former* The Gauls, had certainly many large brafs- works carried on in the kingdom,, but feem to have had few iron forges within it 4i. And this would naturally induce the Belgse to be lefs diligent in their enquiry after "the veins of copper and calamine at hoipe, than in their; fearch for the courfes of iron orp t ; though the erne was equally difcoverable in ; the ifLand as theother* and lay equally witjiin, the jBelgic regions of it* Brafs being thus cheaper to the Bri- tons than iron, they formed of courfc fome domettic as well as military implements of it. Such domeftic uteris were cojrv- jpoii among the Gauls 4 V And fuch were common ^mqng the ^itons^ either imported into the ifland, as fome undoubtedly were, or manufactured within it, as others affuredly were 4I ^ The Britons ; had certainly brafs-fbu^exies ere&eji amoi>g tfaem> tnd certainly minted money and fabricated weapons of brafs, bi this condition of thp brafs*works the Roiqanp entered t}& ifland* And feeing fo great a demand ^mong the Britons fjap? the article of brafs, they mud fpeedily have inftru&ed, th$m jtg difcover the materials of it among themfelves. XJbis muft have unavoidably refulted from the. conqueft of t? Romans* Th<? power of furprizing their hew fubje&s with fo unexpected a difcovery would naturally ftimulate the pride of the Roman intell$&. The defire of obliging themfelves wjth fo cheap a lupply of that ufeful metal, stationary as thejjr were U* thfi kingdom, would naturally adu^te the f^liifhnefs qf the Rqmait heart* The veins of copper and the, beds of calamine would be eafily found out by an experienced enquirer, after ; thepi 5 >aad the former metal was therefore diftin^uUhed among the Brjto&s -by the one Roman appellation of Cyprium Koppr or Cppper.. Add many founderies of "brafs appear to have been .eftaljliftied by the Roman-Bfitons in many parte pf the iflandj S<?n>e piuft have been