Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/443

 •iloB • TH£ HISTORY ■' Book!." "have been worfhiped among x^ Jrt ;' tfte^laiiguages bf five ' dif-j ferent nations, the Angles, the Britbhs,! tfte ; Pi^ts, tfie^cots, and the Latins. Thus the .'Saxon Chronicle 'mentions* five Xefteobe or nations to have 'inhabited* Britain, the Angles, the Britons, the rifts', the Scots,, ana the Boc-Iederie*. And what aecifively evinces the B6c-ledene and the Latihi of thefe authors to be a&ually and abfolutely the original Rpmaps, they both im- mediately after the mention of thefe feveral ' nations endeavour to afcertain the periods of their primary intro,du£|:ion into Bri* htin ; and referring the firfj advent of the Britons the Pi£ts and the Scots to certain dark 'arid fuccenive aeras, they fix the fifft arrival of the Angles in the time of Hengitt, and they fettle thjS firft arrival of the Latins in the days of Caefar 6. In this interior condition pf the ifland, .Mancunium and the Siftuntii enjoyed in. peace all the various advantages of theKo- man refidence among thqnx, employed ii^ the profecution of commerce, engaged in the. profefliQn of. Chriftianity, and bleft equally iq the feeling of prefent and in the profpeft of fu- ture happinefs. But alas! the period was now haftily approach- ing when the general happinefs of the ifland 4 was to ceafe. War was now ready to enter the five provinces of Roman Britain, to deform the fair fcenes of Roman cultivation and Britifh refinement, to ravage her rich vallies, and to deface her gay cities. Mifery was now ready to be let loofe upon the five diocefes of Roman Britain, to diftinguifh by the teft of fuiFerings the mere votary of the eftablifhment from the cordial embracer of 'the religion,' to give the genuine Chriftian the honourable privilege of retain- ing his faith under the weight of difcouragement and the efta- blifhment of idolatry, and to call out all thofe ftronger graces off the foul which fhoot a&ive through the breaft in the trying pe- riod of calamity, and which more particularly exalt the fehti- iincnt invigorate the mind and dignify the man. • The Caledonians the Saxons the Scots were all preparing • to defcend upon Roman Britain, united by the bond of in*
 * tereft and impelled by the hope of conqueft. This was the fafl

utomxnencement of an aefa of fbrrows to her. And this it is re- iquifite