Cingat ut imbelles clemens, feriatque rebelles.
Pallia donantur velut his secreta tegantur.
Tiro mucrone sed et utens munere zonæ,
Indomitos punit, pronos sibi nectit et unit,
Palliat arcana,—ne signent pallia vana.”
[9] Woollen gowns were at this time the chief articles of exportation from Britain. Four centuries earlier than the date under review a Gyneceum, or manufactory, existed at Winchester. V. Gibbon, ch. 17.
V. Mabillon’s Acta S. Ben. pars 1. p. 169, quoting the Chron. Fontanellensis, c. 15.
[10] “Aliquid enim dissentionis diabolico fomento inflammante nuper inter Carolum regem et regem Offam exortum est: ita ut utrinque navigatio interdicta negotiantibus cesset.” Leland’s Collectanea, v. 1. p. 401. V. Opera Alcuini, 1. 6. Mabillon’s Annal: L. xxv. n. 76; L. xxvi. n. 10. V. also Matth. West. 278.
A brief review of the Anglo-Saxon system of government may, perhaps, be here not inapplicably inserted, in order to convey some definite idea of Offa’s position as the sovereign of Mercia, and enable the reader to trace more satisfactorily the improvements which he was the means of introducing into Britain.
The prescriptive constitution of the Anglo-Saxons was decidedly of a liberal form, and to it may be traced the majority of our own liberal institutions; but one most important difference exists between the ancient and modern constitution of Britain, in the fact of the sovereignty of the Saxon kingdoms not being positively hereditary. “A son who inherited his father’s virtues and talents,” observes the author of a popular History of Modern Europe, “was sure to succeed his sway; but if he happened to be weak or profligate, or was a minor, the next in blood, or the person of the greatest eminence in the state, generally procured an elevation to the throne.”[11]