HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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-‘along which they coasted in security, sailing through the streights of Gibraltar,

• then distinguished, and known by the classical term of the Pillars of Hercules.

• Having entered the Atlantic with a degree of heroism which would almost have- reflected honour on the first discoverer of America, they proceeded through seas,•as well as along coasts, unknown at least to them, till they landed in safety On

or near the shores of Holland, after a triumphant passage through the British'channel. This incident fully proves, that however the science of navigation,or the art of building vessels, had declined with the supposed necessity of con-structing them, in regard to the Romans themselves, who still continued vainly'to assume the title of conquerors of the world, their subjects were by no meansdeficient (to say nothing of the magnanimity which marked the undertaking)in possessing a degree of nautical knowlege, or at least enterprise, which, intimes far more modern, would have been by no means contemptible.

As the greatest events, according to a very trite remark, have frequentlyarisen from the most trivial causes, so did this fugitive expedition of an exiledcolony, prove the basis of that temporary emancipation, or rather revolt, whichBritain, as will be presently seen, effected soon after this time from the yokeof Rome. The success of the enterprise, and the fear, which naturally becameexcited, of those mischiefs which might soon arise from the unrestrained ravagesof a people, appearing to possess the most essential points of what is called na-tional greatness, caused Maximinian, the elected colleague of Dioclesian, nearthe close of the third century, to form a fleet, or naval force, sufficient for thepurpose of watching their motions. It was stationed at Gessoriacum, nowcalled Boulogne. Carausius, who was appointed to command it, was a soldierof fortune. Sprung from the meanest origin, he had, by dint of his multifariousabilities and his bravery, displayed both as a soldier and a sailor, raised himselfto that rank which enabled him to carry his ambitious designs into execution.He was declared emperor ; but as personal qualifications alone had raised thisman to the throne in a part of the Roman dominions, the possession of whichhad caused the expenditure of much treasure, and the lives of many thousands ofthe bravest soldiers, so did the absence of that sagacity and political knowlegefurther the return of the revolters, on the decease of the usurper, to the protec-tion (for the submission of foreign colonies still continued to bear that term)of the Roman ea°je.

Constantius, to whom it was confided, after the first consternation occasionedby the usurpation of Carausius had subsided, to attempt the recovery of the

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