Stranica 66 [66]
OCR
44 ORIGIN OF THE CITY survived to Saxon times, and became the progenitor of the present corporation. That the Romans during their brief occupation of Augusta made it a municipal city is not impossible, though it is more likely that they looked on it more as a fortification than anything else. In any case we have no evidence either way. We are on firmer ground when we deal with the second statement. We do now that, even if there was a Roman municipality, and if it survived the trials of the Saxon invasion and other calamities between 410 and 604, it could not have survived the Danish desolation of 839; and those who would have us believe in that survival have to account for the fact that after the time of Alfred we find London organised as a shire in itself, and can trace every modern municipal office back to its origin in the system universal throughout England, and without any imitation or survival visible of the Koman forms of municipal government. There are many other strange theories to be found in the pages of London antiquaries, but most of them, like that of the late Mr, Black, are so extravagant
