The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-11-30

the English Bishops Of those cities we're in no
sense successors of the Roman or British BIS
hops. A wide gap, the introduction OF auother
people and another language, the introduction
and the overthrow of another religion, cut off
the two series from one another. But IN
truth an English Bishoprio had no such neces-
sary connection with q city as continental
Bishopric had. The head church, served by
the Bishops monks or clerks, was placed
somewhere, but IL was by no means necessarily
placed in the greatest or most ancient town in
the diocese. Selsey, Ramsbury, Sherborne,
Wells, Lichfeld, EImham, Dunwich, were
episcopal sees, and little else, and all of them
have, either for a time or for ever, had
their episcopal rank taken from them. Dor
chester-the 0xfordshire Dorchester-was a
Roman site, but it had no continuous
civic existence like Chartres or Anglers.
None of these cities have anything like
the history, none of them have anything
like the outward appearance, of those cities in
France where the Gaulish hill-fort has gradu-
ally grown into the modern city. At Exeter
and Lincoln we do see an outward appearance
which may be fairly likened to that of the
French type Of city; but the historical ana
logy fails us. lincoln and Exeter were RO-
man cities, but they did not become English
BshOprics till the eleventh century, when
their episcopal chairs were removed to there
from Dorchester and Creditor. Colchester,
which, of all the towns in England, has the
best claim to assert continuous occupation
since Roman times, has never become a
Bishops see at all.
Again, London stands in England absolutely
by itself in the retention of anything like that
continuous Importance which Paris shares
with many other French cities. Our greatest
towns are, as q rule, neither the seats of
Roman dominion nor yet the seats of Eng
lish Bishoprics. Manchester and Leeds bear
names which connect them with very early
history, but they have no continuous great
ness. Our old ports have mostly sunk into
insignifcance; some of them have ceased to
exist. Southampton and Dover alone can
pretend to any continuous life. OF our cities
famous in the middle ages, Bristol and Nor
wich almost alone have kept up any unbroken
importance, and of Bristol and Norwich, as
the modern importance is quite secondary, the
antiquity is quite secondary also. Through
out England our connection with early times
is far more strongly shown in institutions than
in sites or buildings. In France it is the re-
verse.
The contrast, then, is striking in every way.
A French city, the seat of bishopric, the
capital OF an ancient province, can commonly
show an uninterrupted existence, an unin-
terrupted importance, from the very beginning
of civil and ecclesiastical history. The origin
of the town is lost in the maze Of historic
times, the origin of the church is lost amo ong
the early legends Of saints and martyrs. The
city retains either its own Celtic name or the
name of the Celtic tribe of which it was the
head. In England, on the other hand, cities
and churches are all of comparatively recent
date. Not more than two or three can even
pretend to continuous existence from British
or Roman times. Names have changed, the
seats of dominion have shifted, the seats of
ecclesiastical and Of civil rule do not coincide;
they often have never coincided. The con-
tinuous local history of our cities begins, as a
rule, with the seventh century or later. The
recorded continuous local history OF French
city goes back to Cesar or Sextius, and the
days of Caesar or Sextus were not its be-
ginning. Everything in England points
to thorough uprooting of old in
stitutions, the formation Of old 81 es, a
complete destruction, in short, Of all orgsniza-
tion and governments, which left a new ma
tion to make new start. That is to say, the
English conquest of Britain was something
wholly different from the FIan<ish, Bnrgun-
dian, Gothic conquests of Gaul. Without
making this comparison, and without carry
ing it out into minute details, no one can un-
derstsnd the phenomena of our early history.
Now this is just what our ingenious theorists,
our genealoe lists who trace our pedigree up
to our British ancestors, our clever men who
stand up for the Roman origin of, English
municipalities, never take the trouble to do.
History, like philosophy, to be really philo-
sophical must not be conjectural, but COM
paratiye. A comparison Of Britain with Gaul
or Spain will teach more than ten thousand
ingenious guesses. 1t is written on the face
of the two countries that the English conquest
of Britain places a complete break, what we
philosophers call "solution of continuity"
between the days before and the days attsr it.
The Frankish conquest of Gaul, with all the
important changes that it brought about,
made no such plete break. In a word,
EnplishmeD Emo ishnap with oarta;,
Celtic infusion. Frenchmen, Notwithstanding
a certain Teutonic infusion, are Celts to this
day.