Charlevoix county herald., 1911-11-11


then jumped into the water.
Follow me. my comrades" he cried.
''if you would not see your Eagle
taken by the enemy. II / die | shall
have done my duty to Rome, and TO
my general" So the old story goes,
familiar to every schoolboy, and re.
membered, perhaps, by that soldier
who stood at the salute in Kensington
Gardens.
But whatever stories we may weave
about the boat that has been dug up
from the London mud after nineteen
hundred years or so, at least it has
come to us as a reminder of the civili.
zation which was enthroned upon the
Thames at London, which carved
great roads through the forest lands,
which built temples and palaces,
baths and terraced gardens. fortified
camps and strong walls. north and
south, east and west, in this island OF
ours, before England" had a name
in history. They did their work well,
those Romans, and though fifteen hun.
dred years have passed since the last
OF them went away into the ghost
world. leaving Britain prey to savage
hordes. leaving their temples and
their terraces to be the hiding places
Of wolves until the stones fell among
the tangled weeds, England has still
many memorials of their rule. Our
motor cars speed upon the highways
down which the Roman legions
marched. Straight from London to
Chester goes Waiting street, and the
Fosse way from Bath to Lincoln. Er.
mine street is still high road from
London to York, and the Via Mariti-
ma" (the seaside road) still winds it's
way along the sea coast OF Wales to
Pembrokeshire.
Hardly year passes but a plow
turns up pot full of coins which bear
the image and the superscription OF
Claudius or Constantine. or some
great emperor whose edicts carried as
far as this misty isle. The peasants
spade unearths a tesselated pavement
which formed the floor OF a Roman
gentleman's villa, or a stone rudely
carved by Roman soldier who in.
scribed his homage to Mars or Diana
and the old gods in whose worship he
found courage and beauty. Britain
was no mere outpost of empire held
precariously by a little garrison
among hostile tribes. 1t was a Roman
province, where for nearly four hun.
dred years the Roman law ruled, and
a civilization noble and strong and
beautiful in it's well-ordered system
was raised among a conquered people,
who yielded, after the first struggle,
gladly to their conquerors. IL IS not
difficult to reconstruct that Roman
civilization In Britain, to conjure up
the picture of that civil life in such
cities as Bath, and York, st. Albans
and Lincoln, where stones OF Roman
buildings are found In the walls OF
Norman churches and English battle.
ments. The officers OF Vespasian and
Severus, Titus and Constantine, were
gentlemen of Roman dignity and valor,
and their life in Britain reflected the
splendor, the, luxury and the beauty
that they had known In the imperial
city.
Most of us have forgotten those
things. Yet they have a moral for a
race which has founded an empire
greater than that of Rome, and, like
the Romans, has given its law to many
far colonies. The Roman empire has
perished, for after strength came
weakness, and the seeds OF vice and
luxury were reaped in harvest OF de.
struction. How is it with us in i'm.
perial London? There are some who
hear the distant rumbling OF new
world forces beating against the fab.
ric of our imperial system. The world
changes, and no man may foretell the
things that are to come. But always
we may look back and learn the moral
of the past. and listen to the voices
that speak from old graves.
PHILIP GIBBS.