Excerpt from Holland, Belgium, Switzerland

But the policy of C$sar made greater progress than his arms. He had defeated rather than subdued those who had dared the contest. He consolidated his victories without new battles; he offered peace to his enemies, in proposing to them alliance; and he required their aid, as. Friends, to carry on new wars in other lands. He thus attracted toward him, and ranged under his ban ners, not only those people situated to the west of the Rhine and the Meuse, but several other nations more to the north, whose territory he had never seen; and particularly the Batavians - a valiant tribe, stated by various ancient authors, and particularly by Tacitus, as a fraction of the Catti, who occupied the space com prised between these rivers. The young men of these warlike people, dazzled by the splendor of the Roman armies, felt proud and happy in being allowed to identify themselves with them. Caesar encouraged this disposition, and even went so far on some occasions as to deprive the Roman cavalry of their horses, on which he mounted these new allies, who managed them better than the Italian riders.

These auxiliaries were chicfly drawn from Hainault, Luxem burg, and the country of the Batavians, and they formed the best cavalry of the Roman armies, as well as their choicest light infantry force. The Batavians also signalized themselves on many occasions by the skill with which they swam across several great rivers with out breaking their squadrons' ranks. They were amply rewarded for their military services and hazardous exploits, and were treated like stanch and valuable allies. But this unequal connection of a mighty empire with a few petty states must have been fatal to the liberty of the weaker party. Its first effect was to destroy all feeling of nationality in a great portion of the population. The young adventurer of this part of the Low Countries, after twenty years of service under the imperial eagles, returned to his native wilds a Roman. The generals of the empire pierced the forests of the Ardennes with causeways, and founded towns in the heart of the country. The result of such innovations was a total amalga mation of the Romans and their new allies, and little by little the national character of the latter became entirely obliterated.

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