thrown over him by the apprehension of its coming';" our admiration of his character is lost in astonishment, and we may in vain search all history, ancient or modern, to furnish his parallel.

There is, however, another field of action on which Alfred's merits conspicuously displayed themselves— the science of legislation and government, which, as it is of the highest importance to mankind, because on it in a great measure depends the happiness of our species, we shall reserve for consideration in the next chapter.

i Asser, anno 888.

CHAP. XXIII.

SAXON LAWS OF ETHELBERT, INA, WITHRED, AND OFFA-ALFRED COMPILES A CODE-EXAMPLES OF HIS LAWS QUOTED-HIS STRICT ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE-NUMEROUS APPEALS TO HIM FROM THE INFERIOR COURTS-HIS MODE OF REPRIMANDING AND TEACHING HIS IGNORANT JUDGES-HIS SEVERITY IN PUNISHING THE CORRUPT HIS REFORMS IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF COUNTIES, HUNDREDS, AND TITHINGS-INSTITUTION OF JUDGES AND SHERIFFS -THE INSTITUTION OF FRANKPLEDGE-HIS ABSOLUTE POWERDIVISION OF HIS INCOME, AND ECONOMY OF HIS TIME.

THE remains of Anglo-Saxon legislation earlier than the time of Alfred are few and imperfect. Ninety short sentences contain all that has been preserved of the laws of Ethelbert, king of Kent. Sixteen sentences contain the Dooms of his successors Lothaire and Edric, and twenty sentences comprise all the laws that have survived of Withred, another king of the same province. The subjects to which these ordinances apply are a few of the most obvious injuries that occur in a simple state of society. It is remarkable, that almost every crime, from murder to the smallest petty larceny, had its value, and might be compensated by the payment of a sum of sum of money. Another celebrated legislator was Ina, king of the West-Saxons, and a few

They occupy from p. 1 to 43, of vol. i. of Thorpe's Ancient Laws and Institutes of England.

pages of his laws also have been preserved. It must not however be omitted, that the laws of Ina have come down to us not in a separate and independent form, but appended to those of Alfred, to whose care in collecting and preserving the ancient jurisprudence of his country we are indebted for all that we now know of the subject.

As the West-Saxons owed their principal code of laws to Ina, so was Offa, the legislator of the Mercians : but his laws have not been preserved; and if in later times Alfred published a separate collection for the use of Mercia with the laws of Offa annexed, as those of Ina were attached to the laws of Wessex, that collection also has either perished, or has not yet been discovered. It might be expected that the laws of a people, emerging, under the auspices of the Church, from barbarism, would be strongly tinged with the opinions of the clerks who compiled them. In fact, the whole of these legislative codes are based upon the authority of the Scriptures and of the Church. The first ordinance of Ethelbert enacts, that the abstraction of any property belonging to God or to the Church shall be compensated for by twelve-times its value.

The Laws of Alfred plead the authority of the Apostolic Council held in Jerusalem, and of the Constitutions which the Church had gradually collected since the times of the Apostles.

"Wherefore I Alfred king"-continues the code to which we refer" gathered these together, and commanded many of those to be written which our forefathers held, those which to me seemed good; and many of those which seemed to me not good, I rejected,

b

From p. 102 to 151 of the same work; but half of these pages is occupied by the English translation.

• Ibid. p. 59.

by the counsel of my witan' [parliament], and in other wise commanded them to be holden; for I durst not venture to set down in writing much of my own; for it was unknown to me what of it would please those who should come after us. But those things which I met with, either of the days of Ina my kinsman, or of Offa, king of the Mercians, or of Ethelbert, who first among the English race received baptism, those which seemed to me the rightest, those I have here gathered together, and rejected the others. I then Alfred, king of the West-Saxons, shewed these to all my witan, and they then said that it seemed good to them all to be holden.”

The nature of all the laws in Alfred's code is peculiar and striking to our present notions. The principle of compensation for offences, of values attached to different ranks, and of taking sanctuary in the Church until the compensation could be assessed, engendered a complicated system, which ramified into almost as many precedents as there were cases. An instance or two of these laws will set this in a stronger light.

"If any one, for whatever crime, flee to any of the minster-hams, &c. let him have three days to protect himself, unless he be willing to come to terms. If during this space any one harm him by blow or by bond, or wound him, let him make compensation, &c. for each of these according to regular usage, &c. &c. and to the brotherhood, 120 shillings as compensation for the church-frith [breach of church privilege], &c."

"If a man be born dumb or deaf, so that he cannot acknowledge or confess his offences, let his father make compensation for his misdeeds."

"If a man, kinless of paternal relatives, fight, and slay a man; then, if he have maternal relatives, let them pay a third of the 'wer' [fine or compensation

money], his guild-brethren another third, and for a third let him flee. If he have no maternal relatives, let his guild-brethren pay half, and for the other half let him flee."

The law concerning boc-lands' [No. 41.] seems to shew, that a species of entail existed as early as the days of Alfred.

"The man who has boc-land,"-i. e. land held by deeds or writings," and which his kindred left him, we ordain that he must not give it from his kinsfolk; if there be writing or witness that it was forbidden by those men who at first acquired it, and by those who gave it to him, that he should do so; and then let that be declared in the presence of the king and of the bishop, before his kinsmen."

The laws of Ina, adopted by Alfred for his own, are of the same general character: the following examples may suffice.

"Let a child, within thirty days, be baptized. If it be not so, let him make compensation with thirty shillings: but, if it die without baptism, let him make compensation for it with all that he has."

"If any one be guilty of death, and he flee to a church, let him have his life, and make compensation as the law may direct him. If any one put his hide in peril, and flee to a church, let the scourging be forgiven him."

66

If any one steal, so that his wife and his children. know it not, let him pay 60 shillings, as compensation: but if he steal with the knowledge of all his household, let them all go into slavery. A boy of ten years may be privy to a theft."

It is manifest that such laws as these belong to an infant state of things, and can be of no other use in