the Goths, Vandals, Huns, and other barbarians, haftened its deftruction.

206. These fierce tribes, who came to take vengeance on the empire, either inhabited the various parts of Germany, which had never been subdued by the Romans, or were feattered over the vast countries of the north of Eu rope, and north-west of Afia, which are now inhabited by the Danes, the Swedes, the Poles, the fubjects of the Ruf fian empire, and the Tartars.

207. They were drawn from their native country by that reft leffness which actuates the minds of barbarians, and makes them rove from home in queft of plunder, or new fettlements. The first invaders met a powerful refistance from the fuperior difcipline of the Roman legions; but this, inftead of daunting men of a ftrong and impetuous temper, only roufed them to vengeance.

208. They return to their companions, acquaint them with the unknown conveniencies and luxuries that abound. ed in countries better cultivated, or bleffed with a milder climate than their own; they acquaint them with the bat. tles they had fought, of the friends they had loft, and warm them with refentiment against their opponents.

209. Great bodies of armed men (fays an elegant hif torian, in describing this fcene of defolation) with their wives and children, and flaves and flocks, iffued, like regular colonies, in queft of new fettlements. New adventurers followed them.

210. The lands which they deferted were occupied by more remote tribes of barbarians. These, in their turn, pufhed for ward into more fertile countries, and, like a torrent contin ually increafing, rolled on, and swept every thing before them. Wherever the barbarians marched, their route was marked with blood. They ravaged or destroyed all around them. They made no diftinction between what was facred, and what was profane. They respected no age, or fex, or rank.

211. If a man was called to fix on the period in the hiftory of the world, during which the condition of the hu man race was moft calamitous and afflicted, he would, with out hefitation, no me that which elapfed from the death of Theodofius the great, in the year of our Lord' three hun

dred and ninety-five, to the establishment of the Lombards in Italy, in the year of our Lord five hundred and feventy

one.

212. The cotemporary authors, who beheld that scene of defolation, labor and are at a loss for expreffions to deffcribe the horror of it. The fcourge of God, the deftroyer of nctions, are the dreadful epithets by which they distinguish the most noted of the barbarous leaders.

213. Conftantine, who was emperor the beginning of the fourth century, and who had embraced chriftianity, changed the feat of empire from Rome to Conftantinople. This occafioned a prodigious alteration. The western and eas tern provinces were separated from each other, and governed by different fovereigns. The withdrawing the Roman legions from the Rhine and the Danube to the east, threw down the western barriers of the empire, and laid it open to the invaders.

214.

Its

Rome (now known by the name of the Western Empire, in contradiftinction to Conftantinople, which, from its fituation, was called the Eaftern Empire), weakened by this divifion, becomes a prey to the barbarous nations. ancient glory, vainly deemed immortal, is effaced, and Odoacer, a barbarian chieftain, is feated on the throne of the Cæfars. These irruptions into the empire were gradual and fucceffive.

215. The immense fabric of the Roman empire was the work of many ages, and several centuries were employed in demolishing it. The ancient difcipline of the Romans, in military affairs, was fo efficacious, that the remains of it defcended to their fucceffors, and must have proved an overmatch for all their enemies, had it not been for the vices of their emperors, and the univerfal corruption of manners among the people.

216. Satiated with the luxuries of the known world, the emperors were at a lofs to find new provocatives. The most diftant regions were explored, the ingenuity of mankind was - exercised, and the tribute of provinces expended on one favorite difh. The tyranny, and the univerfal depravation of manners that prevailed under the emperors, or, as they are called, Cæfars, could only be equalled by the barbarity of thole nations who overcame them.

217. Towards the close of the fixth century, the Saxons,

à German nation, were mafters of the fouthern and more fertile provinces of Britain; the Franks, another tribe of Germans, of Gaul; the Goths, of Spain; the Goths and Lombards, of Italy, and the adjacent provinces.

218. Scarcely any veftige of the Roman policy, juris prudence, arts, or literature remained. New forms of government, new laws, new manners, new dreffes, new languages, and new names of men and countries, were every where introduced.

219. From this period, till the fixteenth century, Europe exhibited a picture of moft, melancholy Gothic barbarity. Literature, fcience, tafte, were words fcarcely in ufe during these ages. Perfons of the highest rank, and in the moft eminent ftations, could not read or write. Many of the clergy did not understand the breviary which they were obliged daily to recite: fome of them could fcarcely read it.

220. The human mind neglected, uncultivated, and depreffed, funk into the moft profound ignorance. The fupe rior genius of Charlemagne, who, in the beginning of the ninth century, governed France and Germany with part of Italy; and Alfred the great in England, during the latter part of the fame century, endeavored to difpel this darknefs, and give their fubjects a fhort glimpfe of light.

221. But the ignorance of the age was too powerful for their efforts and inftitutions. The darkness returned, and even increased; fo that a still greater degree of ignorance and barbarifm prevailed throughout Europe..

222. A new divifion of property gradually introduced a new fpecies of government formerly unknown; which fingular inftitution is now diftinguifhed by the name of the feudal fyftem. The king or, general, who led the barbarians to conqueft, parcelled out the lands of the vanquished among his chief officers, binding thofe on whom they were beflowed to follow his ftandard with a number of men, and to bear arms in his defence.

223. The chief officers imitated the example of the fovereign, and in diftributing portions of their lands among their dependants, annexed the fame condition to the grant. But though this system seemed to be admirably calculated for defence against a foreign enemy, it degenerated into a fyftem of oppreffion.

224. The ufurpation of the nobles became unbounded

and intolerable. They reduced the great body of the people into a ftate of actual fervitude. They were deprived of the natural and most unalienable rights of humanity. They were flaves fixed to the foil which they cultivated, and together with it were transferred from one proprietor to another, by fale or by conveyance.

225. Every offended baron, or chieftain, buckled on his armor, and fought redress at the head of his vaffals. His adverfaries met him in like hoftile array. The kindred and dependants of the aggreffor, as well as of the defender, were involved in the quarrel. They had not even the liberty of

remaining neuter.

226. The monarchs of Europe perceived the encroachments of their nobles with impatience. In order to create fome power that might counterbalance those potent vaffals, who, while they enflaved the people, controled or gave law to the crown, a plan was adopted of conferring new privileges on towns. These privileges abolished all marks of fervitude ; and the inhabitants of towns were formed into corporations, or bodies politic, to be governed by a council and magiftrates of their own nomination.

227. The acquifition of liberty made fuch a happy change in the condition of mankind, as roufed them from that stupidity and inaction into which they had been funk by the wretchedness of their former ftate. A spirit of industry revived; commerce became an object of attention, and began to flourish.

228. Various caufes contributed to revive this spirit of commerce, and to renew the intercourfe between different nations. Conftantinople, the capital of the eaftern or Greek empire, had efcaped the ravages of the Goths and Vandals, who overthrew that of the weft.

225. In this city, fome remains of literature and science were preferved: this too, for many ages, was the great em porium of trade, and where fome relifh for the precious commodities and curious manufactures of India was retained. They communicated fome knowledge of these to their neighbors in Italy; and the crufades which were begun by the christian powers of Europe with a view to drive the Saracens from Jerufalem, opened a communication between Europe and the east.

230, Conftantinople was the general place of rendezvotis

for the chriftian armies, in their way to Paleftine, or on their return from thence. Though the object of thefe expeditions was conqueft, and not commerce, and though the iffue of them proved unfortunate, their commercial effects were both beneficial and permanent.

231. Soon after the clofe of the holy war, the mariners compass was invented, which facilitated the communication between remote nations, and brought them nearer to each other. The Italian ftates, particularly those of Venice and Genoa, began to establish a regular commerce with the east, and the ports of Egypt, and drew from thence all the rich productions of India.

232. These commodities they difpofed of to great advantage among the other nations of Europe, who began to acquire fome tafte of elegance, unknown to their predecef fors, or defpifed by them. During the twelfth and thir teenth centuries, the commerce of Europe was almost entirely in the hands of the Italians, more commonly known in those ages by the name of Lombards.

233. Companies, or focieties of Lombard merchants, fettled in every different kingdom; they became the carri ers, the manufacturers, and the bankers of Europe. One of thefe companies fettled in London, and from hence the name of Lombard Street was derived.

234. While the Italians in the fouth of Europe cultiva ted trade with fuch industry and fuccefs, the commercial fpirit awakened in the north towards the middle of the thirteenth century. As the Danes, Swedes, and other nations around the Baltic, were at that time extremely barbarous, and infested that fea with their piracies, this obliged the cit ies of Lubec and Hamburg, foon after they had begun to open fome trade with the Italians, to enter into a league of mutual defence.

235. They derived fuch advantages from this union, that other towns acceded to their confederacy; and, in a fhort time, eighty of the moft confiderable cities, fcattered through thofe large countries of Germany and Flanders, which ftretch from the bottom of the Baltic to Cologne on the Rhine, joined in an alliance, called the Hanfeatic league; 236 Which became fo formidable, that its alliance was courted, and its enmity was dreaded by the greatest moparchs. The members of this powerful affociation formed