which they felected the proper pofitions for them. On this principle, a summer-camp was abfolutely neceffary at Mancunium, as the warm beams of fummer are uncommonly fervid and fcorching upon the flope of the Caftle-field.'-To the queftion, But where would the Romans moft probably fettle the fummer ftation?' Mr. W. replies, Its real fite appears to have been pretty near to the regular station, about a mile to the north of it, and is now the fite of the Collegiate Church, and other buildings. This (he immediately adds) is infinitely the propereft fite in the vicinity of the town that can pretend to attract the notice of the enquiring antiquarians. This is abfolutely the only fite in the vicinity of the ftation that could pretend to attract the notice of the examining Romans.'

With refpect to the number of troops kept up here, it is fuppofed by Horfeley, that the Roman garrifon in Britain, during the fecond, third, and fourth centuries, amounted only to three legions, the fixth Victorious, the twentieth Valerian and Victorious, and the fecond Auguftan, and the auxiliaries regularly attendant upon them. And with this fuppofition the Hiftory of Dio, the Geography of Ptolemy, and the Itinerary of Antonine, feem all to concur, as they all mention these three and only these three legions to be refident in the island. This number of legions, as appears from the complement of a fingle legion during thofe centuries, which was 6100 foot and 726 horse, and from the ftated proportion of the auxiliary to the legionary troops, which was equal in the infantry and double in the cavalry, muft have contained about 36,600 foot and 6,534 horfe.' But, thus confidered, three legions and their auxiliaries are plainly infufficient for the purpofes of garrifoning the island.' The ftations mentioned in the Itineraries are not fewer than 140, but rather more, even after the Romans had retired to the vallum of Antoninus, and had abandoned all the ftations from Inverness to the Friths. But it would be evidently ridiculous to diftribute a body of about 43,000 men into 140 principal ftations, as fuch a diftribution could allot only 307 for a ftation, and its attendant caftellets;' --and each station is fuppofed to have had feveral fuch dependant upon it.

The garrifon therefore of each station, with its caftellets, could not, Mr. W. thinks, have been lefs than 400 effective men: and, even upon this difpofition, the total amount would have been 56,000. But a much greater number probably refided in the kingdom, as, during the difperfion of the reft, fome confiderable bodies must have been kept together, the more effectually to overawe the conquered Britons within the walls, and the unconquered without. And fuch bodies actually appear to have been thus kept together, one large corps

being quartered at York, another at Chefter, and a third at Caerleon in Monmouthshire. This being the cafe, there muft certainly have been more than three legions within the island' and the pofitive teftimony of Jofephus affures us, that in the reign of Vefpafian there were four. The account of Richard, as well as feveral infcriptions that have been difcovered, evince that there were more afterwards. Infcriptions have been found in Wales which clearly exhibited the name of the tenth legion; and to this we may add the feventh, or Claudian legion, which was fettled at Gloucefter, where it must have remained for a confiderable period, as the town was denominated from it Claudioceftria. Thus are five legions difcovered to have been refident within the island; two additional to the number supposed by Horseley.

Chap. 7. Regularly as the Romans extended their conquests in the island, they appear equally to have erected stations for themselves, and to have conftructed cities for the Britons.'

By this means the progrefs of their arms was diftinctly marked by the progrefs of cultivation, and the face of the country gradually brightened up, as the line of their conquests advanced.'-As the Romans prevailed, they carried along with them all the useful refinements of civil life. These they introduced, not with the godlike defign of foftening the rough genius of Lancashire, and of diffufing the fweets of focial happiness among its inhabitants, but merely to promote the little purposes of their own felfish policy. That eternal wif dom however, which gave all the central regions of the globe to the Romans, and gave them for reafons worthy the great Father of Humanity, directed the low cunning of man to his own exalted ends, the higher cultivation of the rational powers, and the better propagation of the fyftem of redeeming benevolence.'

Agricola fubdued Lancashire in 79, and immediately ordered stationary forts to be erected. This was neceffarily the first object of his attention :-The fecond had a deeper reach and more permanent confequences. Actuated by principles of policy, he exerted all his addrefs to invite the Siftuntii from their original habitations amidst extenfive forefts and marthes (where they might have kept up fome kind of independency) to a common refidence in towns; and his addrefs prevailed.Such was the first commencement of the prefent towns of Lancashire in general, and of Manchester in particular.

The rife of Manchefter is thus defcribed: The town was originally conftructed, not as the old central parts of it are now planted, at the distance nearly of a mile from the Caftle-field, but in the more immediate neighbourhood of the ftation. No tradition however afcertains the particular fite. In the vicinity

of a great town, and in a multiplicity of commercial avoca tions, little attention is generally paid to the remains of antiquity, or to the whifpers of tradition concerning them.'

But there is a small diftrict adjoining to the Caftle-field, which is frequently mentioned in records, and denominated ALDPORT or Old Borough. Within the compass of this district must the town have originally ftood. And a little fold of houfes remains in this diftrict to the prefent period, which carries, in all the records of the place, the actual appellation of ALDPORT TON, or Old Borough-Town: though, from fome conftructions made here about forty years ago by a gentleman of the name of Hooper, the old appellation has been popularly altered into Hooper-ton. On the ground therefore contiguous to thefe houses must the town have been originally planted. And betwixt the Castle-field and the fold is an area of 16 or 17 acres, which was certainly the original area of the ancient Manchefter.'-And, as a proof thereof,- the foil of the fouthern part of this area is abfolutely one great body of adventitious earth, fragments of bricks, pieces of hewn ftones, ard remnants of urns. Huge blocks of a millftone-grit have been recently dug up within the circuit of the area with their mortar firmly adhering to them: and the whole level of the ground appears to have been traverfed with streets of regular pavement in a variety of directions across it.'- Such was the fpot which Agricola felected for the town of Mancunium. And fuch was the commencement of a town that was to become fo confpicuous afterwards, to lengthen out into fair ftreets, and to open into graceful fquares, to contain affembled thoufands within her ample circuit, and to extend her varied commerce beyond the barriers of the ocean.'

[To be concluded in our next.]

P.

ART. VI. A Grammar of the Perfian Language. By William Jones, Efq; Fellow of Univerfity College, Oxford. 4to. 10 s. 6 d. in Boards W. and J. Richardfon. 1771.

MR

R. Jones obferves, in his preface to this Grammar, that the Perfian language is rich and elegant, that it has been spoken for many ages in the politeft courts of Afia, and that a number of admirable works have been written in it by hiftorians, philofophers, and poets, who found it capable of expreffing, with equal advantage, the most beautiful and the most elevated fentiments.

Mortar is the name of a warlike inftrument for throwing bombs, but the matter ufed to cement ftones in building fhould be wrote Morter. This remark may perhaps appear trivial to a common reader; but a true antiquarian is expected to attend to fuch minutia.

Every

Every candid Reader may fatisfy himself with refpect to the truth of this affertion, by perufing a differtation, lately publifhed by this ingenious Writer, on Oriental Literature; and of which we have given a very ample account in the forty-fourth volume of our Review, p. 425.

As the Perfian language is rich and elegant, and as the Eastern writers have diftinguished themfelves in their hiftorical, philofophical, and poetical writings, it must appear ftrange to many of our Readers that the ftudy of the Perfic should be fo little cultivated at a time when the tafte for general and diffufive learning feems fo univerfally to prevail; and that the literary productions of a celebrated nation fhould remain in manufcript, on the shelves of our public libraries, quite neglected even by men of taste and learning!

Our learned Author has fuggefted a variety of causes which have concurred to obftruct the progrefs of Eaftern literature: he very juftly reprefents the general ignorance of the Oriental languages as one great fource of the neglect of the Afiatic writers. Some will not be convinced that there is any thing valuable in these languages, and others diflike them because they do not understand them. But the most obvious reafon for the neglect of the Perfian tongue, is the great fcarcity of books which are neceffary to be read before the knowledge of it can be perfectly acquired. Our Author indeed obferves, that we have many Perfian books preferved in the different libraries of Europe, but that they are exhibited more as objects of curiofity than as fources of information; and are admired like the characters on a Chinese fcreen, more for their gay colours than for their meaning. What pity! nay, what a fhame is it, that proper perfons, under public patronage, are not employed at Oxford and Cambridge, to give us editions and liberal tranflations of the moft valuable and ufeful manufcripts extant in thofe univerfities.

Thus, while the writings of Greece and Rome a e ftudied, and diffuse a general refinement through our part of the world, the works of the Perfians (a nation equally diftinguished in ancient hiftory) are either wholly unknown to us, or confidered as entirely deftitute of tafte and invention.

It is alfo remarked by Mr. Jones, that the progrefs of Oriental literature has not only been checked by the ignorant, but likewife by thofe of the learned, who have confined their ftudies to the minutiae of verbal criticism, miftaking reading for learning, and fatisfying themfelves with running over a great number of manufcripts, in a fuperficial manner, without condefcending to be stopt by their difficulty, or to dwell upon their beauty and elegance.

He gives due praife indeed to the unwearied industry of thofe who have compiled grammars and dictionaries in the Eaftern languages; but he obferves, that fuch learned men would have gained an higher reputation if they had contributed to enlighten the vaft temple of learning, instead of spending their lives in adorning only its porticos and avenues. He alfo justly obferves, that the total infenfibility of commentators and critics to the beauties of authors they profefs to illuftrate, has contributed not a little to check the progress of Eastern learning; and, he adds, it is a circumftance equally unfortunate that men of the most refined taste, and the brightest parts, are apt to look upon a clofe application to the study of languages as inconfiftent with their spirit and genius: fo that the state of letters feems to be divided into two claffes, men of learning who have no taste, and men of taste who have no learning. We are afraid that the number of the latter is greater in the present age than it was in the laft; though we must obferve, at the fame time, that it had been happy for the republic of letters, if the literati of the last age had been as diftinguished for their tafte as for their learning.

Another caufe which, our Author apprehends, has operated more strongly than any before mentioned to the prejudice of Oriental literature, is the fmall encouragement which the princes and nobles of Europe have given to men of letters.

It is an indifputable truth, fays he, that learning will always flourish moft where the ampleft rewards are proposed to the induftry of the learned; and that the most fhining periods in the annals of literature are the reigns of wife and liberal princes, who know that fine writers are the oracles of the world, from whofe teftimony every king, ftatefman, or hero, must expect the cenfure or approbation of pofterity. In the old ftates of Greece the highest honours were given to poets, philofophers, and orators; and a fingle city (as an eminent writer observes) in the memory of one man produced more numerous and splendid monuments of human genius, than most other nations have afforded in a courfe of ages.'

Here our Author takes occafion to mention, with becoming praife, the munificence and liberality of the Ptolemies in Egypt, of Auguftus in Rome, of the Caliphs in Afia, and of that of the illuftrious family of Medici, who allured to Florence the learned Greeks whom the Turks had driven from their country; in confequence of which, a general light fucceeded to the gloom which ignorance and fuperftition had fpread over Europe. Our Author laments, however, that this light feems to have been

• Ascham.

gradually