HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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with his fleet, the Romans beheld the fugitive changed in a moment into anopponent so formidable, that their general deemed it prudent to adopt theextraordinary measure of summoning all the ships from every part of theempire into the neighbouring seas. While Carausius was preparing to repelthis unprecedented armament, his hopes of future aggrandisement were cutshort by.the hand of his confidant Alectus, at once his murderer, and suc-cessor.

This miserable assassin, inferior in courage and in conduct to Carausius,having totally forfeited the esteem of the Britons by the singular baseness ofhis late crime, contrived, however, not only to keep this great Roman power atbay for a considerable time by the aid of his navy, but even to harass the coastof Gaul, and to distress its trade. At length Constantius determined to hazardthe event of a sea engagement, and for that purpose sailed to meet whatmight fairly be called the British fleet, which then happened to lie near theIsle of Wight; but a thick fog intervening, the Romans passed unobservedeven to the shore's of the island, where, meeting with a hearty welcome fromthe natives, they landed, and in a spirit of bravery which could not readilybe credited, were there not authentic testimony of the event having takenplace, burned their own ships. They soon after, in a pitched battle, defeatedand killed Alectus, who had abandoned his best security, to fight them onshore.

The short interval, during which Britain had remained an independent sove-reignty, ceased at this period, and with its independency, fell likewise its. mari-time consequence. The internal convulsions of Rome, which soon after fol-lowed, shook even the most distant colonies of that mighty empire, and theconduct of its succeeding lieutenants, by turns treacherous, rebellious, or inac-tive, presents only a series of mutual piratical annoyance, interrupted occasion-ally by treaties no sooner made, than violated. At length the Romans, aftera partial and fruitless possession of Britain for nearly five hundred years, volun-tarily quitted the island in the reign of the emperor Honorius.

The Britons, abandoned by those who, in attempting to be their governors,had necessarily become their protectors, soon found themselves unable toresist the attacks of their ancient foes, the Scots and Piets. The arrival ofthe Saxons succeeded. Whether these strangers wxre invited as auxiliaries,or came as invaders, has been unnecessarily made a point of controversy amonghistorians, for it is idle to suppose, that the small number which first landed

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