civil, military, and ecclesiastical, and to treat of each of these, separately and distinctly.
From the earliest records of the island, previous to its conquest by the Romans, there is sufficient to prove the antiquity of its existence, and to shew that some parts of the coast held a sort of commercial intercourse, at a very remote period, with distant nations. The very etymology of the island itself is traced, by some authorities, to the tin which some parts of it contained, and which is said to have formed an important branch of its barter and traffic with the Phoenicians. The same spirit of commerce might have extended from the extremity of the western to that of the eastern shores of the island, bringing with it those first seeds and sources of civilization among the more barbarous, from their intercourse with more polished nations. May we not infer this of the very part of our island we are speaking of, and suppose, that the manners and habits of the men of Kent and Sussex gave them , from these causes, a superiority to others of the Aborigines of Britain ? In the Commentaries of Caesar, the inhabitants of this part of the coast are highly panegyrized by the pen of that elegant historian, to which the following very classical allusion is made by our Shakspeare, in a passage, in one of his finest historical plays, where he says Kent, in the Commentaries Caesar writ, Is term'd the civil'st place of all this isle ; Sweet is the country, because full of riches, The people liberal, valiant, active, wealthy . "
The inhabitants of this so contiguous part of the Sussex coast, have a fair claim to be considered as included in the eulogium . We may be here furnished with a clue to guide us through the dark regions and uncertainties of conjecture, as to the primitive manners, habits, and genius of these Aborigines of our isle, and thereby trace by what progressive steps, and from what causes, the Havens, since termed Cinque Ports, have improved and first risen to local and national importance. Their consequence as commercial ports is, however, at this time trifling, falling far short of what it must have been some centuries ago, and eclipsed as it -
