Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/329

£$8 »T H E H I ST.O H Y .- •« Bodkin quantity, of it. And for this reafoti the latter appear to havp carefully repofited their brazen weapons in cloth, and to have even provided them ; with regular cafes 40 * . . When the Britons . imported their iron and br^fa from the Ga^c consent, they muft neceflariLy have purchafed the latf^f at an eafier expence than they procured the former* The Gauls, had certainly many large brafs- works carried on in the kingdom,, but feem to have had few iron forges within it 4i . And this would naturally induce the Belgse to be lefs diligent in their enquiry after "the veins of copper and calamine at hoipe, than in their; fearch for the courfes of iron orp t ; though the erne was equally difcoverable in ; the ifLand as theother* and lay equally witjiin, the jBelgic regions of it* Brafs being thus cheaper to the Bri- tons than iron, they formed of courfc fome domettic as well as military implements of it. Such domeftic uteris were cojrv- jpoii among the Gauls 4 V And fuch were common ^mqng the ^itons^ either imported into the ifland, as fome undoubtedly were, or manufactured within it, as others affuredly were 4I ^ The Britons ; had certainly brafs-fbu^exies ere&eji amoi>g tfaem> tnd certainly minted money and fabricated weapons of brafs, bi this condition of thp brafs*works the Roiqanp entered t}& ifland* And feeing fo great a demand ^mong the Britons fjap? the article of brafs, they mud fpeedily have inftru&ed , th$m jtg difcover the materials of it among themfelves. XJbis muft have unavoidably refulted from the . conqueft of t? Romans* Th<? power of furprizing their hew fubje&s with fo unexpected a difcovery would naturally ftimulate the pride of the Roman intell$&. The defire of obliging themfelves wjth fo cheap a lupply of that ufeful metal, stationary as thejjr were U* thfi kingdom, would naturally adu^te the f^liifhnefs qf the Rqmait heart* The veins of copper and the, beds of calamine would be eafily found out by an experienced enquirer, after ; thepi 5 >aad the former metal was therefore diftin^uUhed among the Brjto&s -by the one Roman appellation of Cyprium Koppr or Cppper.. Add many founderies of "brafs appear to have been .eftaljliftied by the Roman-Bfitons in many parte pf the iflandj S<?n>e piuft have been