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 amalgamation of the Romans and their new allies; and little by little the national character of the latter became entirely obliterated.

But to trace now the precise history of this gradual change would be as impossible as it will be one day to follow the progress of civilization in the woods of North America.
But it must be remarked that this metamorphosis affected only the inhabitants of the high grounds, and the Batavians (who were in their origin Germans) properly so called.