and appointed judges, or, as they were called in Ingulf's time, “justices," to decide causes; whilst the sheriffs, as the other officers were named, continued to exercise the duties which properly belonged to them.

Springing out of the civil division of the county into hundreds and tithings, is another institution, that of Frankpledge, as it is generally called, which has been ascribed to Alfred, not by any of the earlier chroniclers, but by Ingulf and Malmesbury, from whom succeeding writers have mostly copied. "If any one was accused of any crime, he was obliged immediately to produce persons from the hundred and tithing to become his surety; and if any one was unable to find a surety, he had cause to dread the severity of the law. If any one who was impleaded made his escape, either before or after he had found a surety, all persons of the hundred and tithing paid a fine to the king."

29. Burgraves.

Our German author has made use of this expression, which we have adopted, and we must acknowledge our uncertainty whether these functions were among those called præfectus, or vicedominus, which however we do not believe, because the etymology of that word is composed of the German words burg, castle or burg, and graf, earl or count, who, when engaged in lower functions, is also called castellan; but he is then only a steward, or major domo, and not a nobleman. The word burgrave, as used by Haller, seems to us to imply governor of a castle or district.

30. Golden Bracelets hung on Trees.

Nearly similar acts are recorded of King Edwin; also of Frothi, King of Denmark; of Rollo, Duke of Normandy; and of Briant, King of Munster.

31. Ignorance of the Nobility.

It sometimes happened that Alfred's earls and prefects were too old or of too dense intellect to begin learning to read. In such a case, Alfred took their sons, or some more distant kinsman, whom he instructed to read to them; or if no other person could be found, he made one of his own men, whom he had brought up to reading, undertake the office of teacher, and recite Saxon books before the ignorant noblemen, whenever they could find time for so doing. The result of this useful but to us rather humorous process was, that the nobles, in the words of Asser, "lamented with

L

deep sighs, in their inmost hearts, that in their youth they had never attended to such studies; and they blessed the young men of our days, who happily could be instructed in the liberal arts, whilst they execrated their own lot, that they had not learned these things in their youth, and now, when they were old, though wishing to learn, they were unable." The ignorance and other deficiences of Alfred's judges were, however, leniently dealt with, in comparison with the punishment which the king inflicted on partiality and wilful injustice. His severity on this head has been recorded in general terms by Asser; but we learn from a work, called the "Miroir des Justices," (originally written in Norman-French by Andrew Horne, in the reign of Edward II., and translated into English in 1646,) that perversion of justice met with no connivance from this inflexibly upright king. "He hanged Cadwine, because he condemned Hachwy to death, without the assent of all the jurors, in a case where he put himself upon the jury of twelve men; and because Cadwine removed three who wished to save him against the nine, for three others into whose jury this Hachwy did not put himself."

"He hanged Markes because he adjudged During to death by twelve men not sworn.”

"He hanged Freberne, because he adjudged Harpin to death when the jurors were in doubt about their verdict; for when in doubt, we ought rather to save than condemn."

In all, the author of the "Miroir des Justices," has recorded forty-four cases of punishment, more or less severe, which Alfred inflicted on those who had perverted the integrity of the judgment-seat.

Could Alfred return, after a lapse of a thousand years, upon our earth, and behold his simple and mild laws changed and confused, their administration misled, and so many abuses from the tools of their execution-the attorneyswould he find hemp enough in England to punish them?

32. Abuse of the Confessions of, and suspicion on,
a Culprit.

Haller departs here from the point of the general German country laws, founded upon the ancient Roman laws; according to which, the accused was forced to confess his crime; and it was seldom a culprit suffered capital punishment without previously making such a confession. This was sometimes wrung from him by torture; but even after the torture was abolished, the same system of justice was

mostly adopted. A hardened criminal has often endeavoured to escape the insidious question by obstinate denial; therefore the judge could not condemn him without a wellproved evidence, and that real, clear, and beyond doubt; but not such as is sometimes called evidence in England, where the general accuser collects five or six probabilities, or other suspicions, and pronounces them a full and incontestable evidence, so that the audience, who ought to be convinced, as well as the jury, of the innocence or guilt of the accused, are not aware, five minutes before the verdict is given, whether he will be declared guilty or not guilty.

33. Alfred's absolute Power.

When we consider the different occupations with which the busy mind of Alfred was continually engrossed, the question naturally occurs, how he could find time for accomplishing so many things. It may be admitted, that he possessed external advantages which had fallen to the lot of none of his predecessors, but these advantages were all of his own acquirement, and therefore, so far from explaining, they rather add to the credit of his achievements. As he prevailed in a war, which had destroyed all the other kingdoms of the heptarchy, there were no surviving rights of any one, against whom he could be a trespasser. And, as there is no authority more complete than that which follows conquest by the sword, so Alfred, having wrested the land which he ruled out of the hands of an enemy, found his authority unbounded, except by the limits of the island itself; and the tenure by which he held it was, in fact, the law of his own will. He was, consequently, not only greater than any of his predecessors, but possessed absolute if he power, thought proper to use it. If, however, he was checked by a sense of what was due to his subjects, and modified his own authority by enacting wise and equal laws, it is a subject for panegyric, and leaves his fame brighter than it otherwise would have been; for such a mode of administering the kingly authority, so far from enslaving Alfred, made him more truly powerful, and gave him the good will of his people, which was the ablest instrument he could employ for the accomplishment of his great and useful ends.

34. Catholic Liturgy read in Latin.

Now, after a thousand years, the Liturgy of the Catholic service is still read in Latin; and if the gothic building of the church, with the sound of instruments and voices

elevate the soul, the manner in which the Liturgy is spoken paralyzes the effect; and the mere babbling of words, not understood by the congregation, reduces it to a mere form.

35. Alfred's Co-adjutors in Instruction.

Of the difficulties which lay in Alfred's path, when he at last saw peace restored, and the opportunity which he had so long desired at last offered, for improving the people whom he was called upon to govern, the isolated position, in which he stood, was by far the most formidable. Since the death of his brothers, he stood alone in the world, and was removed as far above his subjects in the qualities of the mind, as by the regal authority which he held. When he was a boy, he could not find teachers to direct his own studies, and now that he possessed the power to promote the reforms which he meditated, and to improve the social and political condition of his subjects, he had difficulty in finding persons to co-operate with him in this laudable work. This was his first endeavour, which he took every opportunity of promoting, "To procure," as Asser tells us, "coadjutors in his good designs, to aid him in his strivings after wisdom, that he might attain to what he aimed at; and therefore, like a prudent bird, which, rising in summer with the early morning from her beloved nest, steers her rapid flight through the uncertain tracks of æther, and descends on the manifold and various flowers of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, essaying that which pleases most, that she may bear it to her home; so did he direct his eyes afar, and seek without that which he had not within, namely, in his own kingdom."

It was from Mercia, principally, that Alfred obtained the assistance which he sought. "As some encouragement to his benevolent intentions," continues the biographer, "God, listening to his complaint, sent certain lights to illuminate him, namely, Werfrith, Bishop of the church of Worcester, a man well versed in the Divine Scriptures, who, by the king's command, first turned the books of the dialogues of Pope Gregory, and Peter, his disciple, from Latin into Saxon; and, sometimes, putting sense for sense, interpreted them with clearness and elegance. After him was Plegmund, a Mercian by birth, Archbishop of the Church of Canterbury, a venerable man, and endowed with wisdom; with whom came Ethelstan and Werwolf, his priests and chaplains, Mercians by birth, and men of erudition. These four had been invited out of Mercia by King Alfred, who

exalted them with many honours and powers in the kingdom of the West-Saxons, besides the privileges which Archbishop Plegmund and Bishop Werfrith enjoyed in Mercia. By their teaching and wisdom the king's desires increased unceasingly, and were daily gratified. Night and day, whenever he had leisure, he commanded such men as these to read books to him: for he never suffered himself to be without one of them, wherefore he possessed a knowledge of every book, though of himself he could not yet understand anything of books, for he had not yet learned to read."

But it would seem that Mercia could not supply a sufficient number of ecclesiastics and teachers to gratify the "commendable avarice" of the king; the continent of Europe was searched to increase the number; "he sent messengers to procure teachers out of Gaul, and invited from thence Grimbald, priest and monk, a venerable man, and a good singer, adorned with every kind of ecclesiastical discipline and good morals, and most learned in Holy Scripture. He also obtained from thence John, also a priest and monk, a man of most energetic talents, learned in all kinds of literary science, and skilled in many other arts. By the teaching of these men the king's mind was greatly enlarged, and he, in return, gave them much riches, and honoured them with much influence." The ecclesiastics, whom Alfred thus invited from abroad, were men who had obtained a high reputation for learning in their own country. John of Corvey, in Old Saxony, was the priest and monk so famous both in literature and science, and Grimbald was Provost of St. Omer's, in France. To procure the grant of his services from his ecclesiastical superior, Fulk, Archbishop of Rheims, without whose consent he could not leave France, Alfred despatched an embassy, consisting of several bishops and others, ecclesiastics and laymen. The ambassadors bore with them large presents for the archbishop, and pledged themselves in their master's name, that Grimbald should be well received and highly honoured in England as long as he lived. Fulk, the archbishop, wrote back a letter to Alfred, in which he signified his assent to the king's request, though the loss of the eminent scholar would give much pain to himself.

Asser was a native of Wales, or, as he calls it, Western Britain, and was now invited by the king to take up his residence in Saxony.* Accordingly, he traversed the many intervening provinces which lay in his road, and, under the

* Vide note, p. 237.