New-York tribune., 1882-02-19
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

The title OF MT. Green's last venture III tie Pci' vi
history is taking one, and the whole is perhaps
well chosen, although the promise which 1t hods
out-that of showing the forma ion and growth OF
England AZ q Iation-is not kept. Mr.. Greenih 'his
title seems t. use the name Englanl in sense
rather geographical than political or social
mad the story that he tells is that OF the
bringing the whole of the Anglo-Saxon
colonies in Britain under one rule process III 'hat
may be called process which did not proceed, ana
had no purpose which wen on through some ooo
wears of the darkes; year, o th DARK Ages and The
annals OF which are imperfect records OF saVagery
and slaughter almost exceptional in that savaPe
and s'auchterous pcrol Mr. Green complains of
the view taken of this dark and happily dim reilod
OF Eng ISL history by Milton and by mos other men
of English blood He saws: cannot but feel thatt
is no slight misfortune that such period should re-
main compare lively unSnown and that ltS suug-
cles which were really the birth throcs OF our Ma
tonal life should be st II to most Englshmen as they
were to Milton, jnere battles of kites and crows.
Whether il Is Milton or Mr.. Green who takes the
right view of this subject, it is certain the later
has pre- sentcd if not authentic and coherent ae-
count of this period, certainly connected story OF
its principal events and has made very success
fu attempt to show their relations and their inter
tependence. For the first time. we have something
like real history of the socalled Saxon hep'archy;
although that phrase Gf we remember rgEtlyl, does
not occur in Mr.. Green's DOCK.
In brief introduction the historian sets forth the
Roman conquest of Britain, gives us glance at inc
condition Of society in Romanzed Britain, describes
with some particularly the physical character OF
The country-a very impor ant pont-shows us a
Land nhabi ed by q disSev red people some Romin
or Romanized, others un-Romanlzed-a land TINS
weakened attacked on the land side by barbarous,
p,undering Pic's and from the sea by SaXons no
less barbarou1 or pundering and more savage ana
clio es his introduction by telling us that after
Struggle of thirty years, unadel by Rome, the
British people trOve TO divide its foes by calling IN
the Saxon pirates against the phndcrlng Picls-for
Mr. Green accepts this old tradition without ques-
ton.
His first chapter tells us of the landing of lengist
and Horsa on the Island of rhanet in Kent
These leaders were not SaXons, nor yet Angles but
Jutes being OF that people of whose aolIatlon IN
previous centuries have record III the name,
Jutland Of the northern province of Denmark
With the landing A. ID. 450, of the three keels,"
winch in the legend known TO all his readers, and
which Mr.. Green accepts without question, perhaps
of necesJ.y brought Heng,t aud Horsa 10 the
shores of Kent induced by the usual pledges of
land and nav" our author tells that English his
tory begins. What those Keels were is a matter
more interesting than many OF those oil
which his pan requires the setting 1orth
with sometimes rather wearisome detail ana we
give our readers this description of the KIND OF YES
sci in which those savage scandinavian and Low
Dutch freebooters sa led who, by squattlng and
slaught r made Britain INTO England. Chance pre-
served one of these vessels SleswiCk peat bog
for fourteen hundred years: The boat is flat-bO'
toned seventy feet long, and eight or nine feet
wide its sides of oak boards fastened with bark
ropes and iron bots Fifty oars drove 1t over the
waveswith freight of warriors whose arms-aXes
swords lances, and knIveS-wera found heaped
together in its hold. Like the galieyS OF the Middle
Ages such boats could only creep cautiously along
from harbor TO harbor in rough weather; but IN
smooth wafer their swftness fitted them admirably
for the piracy by which the men of these tribes we're
already making themselves dreaded. Their fiat bot
t,ns enabled them to beach the vessel on any fitting
coast and a S ep shore at once transformed the
l. atmcn lrtO war band.'
The men. of which these boats carried some sixty
or seventy were the most ruthless robbers. mur-
derers and ravishers that the world has ever seen;
and they were moreover rs cruel an American
Indian in their torture of cdptiyes. Contemporary
evidence tells us this, and also what bold and
cunning sealnen they were. private letter written
bv a British Roman of the period says: And more
than this TO their men shipwreck is school OF
seananship rather than matter of dread. They
know the dangers OF the deep like men who are
every day in contact with them For since storm
throws those whom they wish to attack oil their
guard while it hinders their own coming onset
from being seen from afar, they gladly risk them
selves in the midst OF wrecks and sea-bcaten rocks
IN the hope of making profit ont of the very tenn
pest" The profit that they made pirates was
chiefly in human livestock. For although they
carried oil everything that not too hot or too
heavy land very little in those days was too hot or
too heavy for them), they principally sought men,
women and children to carry them into slavery.
They also had custom, religious custom-ior
when did men fan to invoke religion IN sup
mort and sanctfcation of their worst passions p
by which on the eve Of their return homewald
from shore which they had successfully harreI
they slew 10y long and pain ul tortdTes one man
in every ten Of those whom they had taken making
the selection b. lot. and deeung ii religious act
rather TO torture these captves than to take ran
som for them. Such were the people VIII IN the
tradition accepted bv Mr.. Green tells us the Brltons
and fbe British Romans called in 10 help them
against the Picts Such were the people, English
men of Old England and of New-Engiand In whose
dolngs we are told that the history of your AFRO
CANT race begins If the remedy were not worse
than he disease (which rather proved TO be the
easel what must the Picts have been against whom
the welI-kuown Jute was called in as a protectOTf
The old story, which all know, and which we are
called upon TO accept, is that the Brtons and the
Jutes fought together against the Pic;s, and drove
them back northward: and that then the Jutes
picked quarrel with their employers, fought them
and after some strife Of varying issues, defeated
them in a battle" at Wipped's-heet, and became
masters oc Kent; and that all this took about fifteen
wears. Then came the Saxons and the Frislans
who between 4. ID. $50 and 800 landed north of the
Thames and about the same time, but little Later
came the most important OF all those bands of rob
bers. the Euges or Angles, who lived south of the
Jutes. in the Jutland Peninsula and near the
mouth of the Elbc and they coming in great num-