§ 9. The wealth of detail here given strikes us at first as foolish with regard to so simple-seeming an invention. But the idea of a lantern only seems simple because so familiar to us. Its first inception was a true flash of genius, and had all the simplicity of genius. And, strange as it may seem, the idea never does seem to have occurred to anyone before Alfred. Even in the most civilized period of classical antiquity unprotected oil-lamps and torches were the only means of lighting known. Nor does the plan of measuring time by the burning of a candle appear to have been practised, the dropping of water being the gauge in use amongst the Greeks and Romans. Alfred's candles must have been thin rods of wax (as they burnt down at the rate of 3 inches per hour), with wicks presumably made of linen thread (of course, not plaited, and thus requiring frequent snuffing). Each candle apparently weighed 1 ounce Troy, being 12 pennyweights. A modern -inch wax candle, with plaited wick, weighs 1 ounces per foot, and burns at the rate of 1 inches per hour.

Alfred's laws-The Witan-His introduction to the code-Offences against the person-Against property-Dog's first bite-SanctuaryStatutory holidays-Observance of Sunday-' Church-scot.'

§ I.

Τ

HE sense of order and method, which come out

so strongly in Alfred's disposition of his time and of his revenue, must have combined with his intense desire for the maintenance of justice and the spread of knowledge amongst his people, in suggesting to him the codification of the floating traditions which at this date made up English law. The practices and principles which by immemorial user were binding in the common law of the land had indeed been partly written down in statutes known by the name of Ina, King of Wessex, dealing chiefly with offences against property, and in those of Ethelbert, the first Christian King of Kent, dealing chiefly with offences against the person. There was also a Mercian statute-book attributed to their greatest King, Offa. There existed, moreover, many records of single cases decided as precedents' by many synods of holy Bishops, and eke other high courts of Witan. . . . And in many synod-books they wrote, here one doom, there another.

§ 2. I then, Alfred, King, gathered these together, and had written down many of those that our forefathers held, such as liked me. And many that liked me not set I aside, with advice of my Witan, and on other wise bade to hold them.... I then, Alfred, King of the West Saxons, showed all these to my Witan. And they then said that it liked them well all for to hold.'

3. The Witan,' it may be mentioned, was the embryo Parliament of the Anglo-Saxon constitution, not yet a representative body (a development which did not obtain till the thirteenth century), but the general assembly of the realm, in which every free-born Englishman had a right to appear in person and to vote, or, if it pleased him, to speak also, on any proposition brought forward by the executive government. As a matter of fact, few but the leading men of each district practically took the trouble to attend at any place of meeting remote from the district. And only the higher aristocracy were personally summoned by the King's writ. The Witan thus constantly tended to become more and more a House of Lords; and, indeed, our present House of Lords represents by a succession of unbroken continuity this primitive feature of every Teutonic constitution. But a real original 'Witan' may still be seen in full activity in the general assemblies of some of the Swiss cantons, at which every citizen attends armed, under the open sky, and expresses assent or dissent, not by formal voting, but by unmistakable acclamation. Such was the body to whose approval Alfred submitted his new code of English law.

§ 4. And it is specially characteristic of Alfred's genius that in so doing it was no mere dry codification of offences and penalties that he laid before his people. Not only did he make the enactments of previous legislators his own by careful revision; but he gave his work a literary and religious finish, by prefixing to it a digest of the Mosaic law (omitting the ceremonial clauses), with a conclusion of his own pointing out how the severe spirit of that law was modified by that of the new law of Christ. He thus begins with a free version of the Ten Commandments:

$5. The Lord was a-speaking this Word to Moses; and thus He said:

'I am the Lord thy God. I led thee forth out of the Egyptians' land and out of their bondage.

'Love thou not other strange Gods above Me.

'Nor My Name take thou idly; for that thou beest not guiltless with Me if thou idly takest My Name.

Mind that thou hallow the Rest-day. Work ye six days,

and on the seventh rest you. For that in six days Christ made heaven and earth, the seas, and all creatures that are in them, and rested Him on the seventh day, and therefore the Lord hallowed it.

Honour thy father and thy mother that the Lord gave thee, that thou be the longer living on earth.

'Nor slay thou not.

6 Nor commit thou not fornication.

Nor steal thou not.

'Nor speak thou not false witness.

'Nor covet thou not thy neighbour's goods unrighteously. 'Nor work thee not golden gods nor silvern.'

[This last precept is verse 23 of Exodus xx., and forms no part of the Ten Commandments, though it seems to be introduced here to make up the number. It must be remembered that while, from the first, ten was the recognised number of the Commandments (see Deut. iv. 13), the details of the numeration have also from the first varied. The division made in Deuteronomy v. differs from that in Exodus xx., though the precepts are identical. And it is this Deuteronomical division which has been generally accepted amongst Christians; both the Roman and Greek Churches agreeing in considering what Protestants call the second Commandment as part of the first, and makingNeither shalt thou desire thy neighbour's wife' the ninth. The Protestant numeration came in at the Reformation, with a view to emphasizing the prohibition of images. The Jews have made up their 'Ten Words' on yet a third system, agreeing with Catholics in regarding the Protestant first and second as one, and with Protestants in uniting the Catholic ninth and tenth, but considering the first Word' to be: I am the Lord thy God which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the House of Bondage.']

§ 6. The precepts found in Exodus xxi., xxii., xxiii., follow almost entire, with the substitution of‘Christian' for 'Hebrew' in xxi., ver. 2, and the omission of the dedication of the firstborn (xxii. 29). The institution of the sabbatical year is also omitted. At the end of xxiii. 13, Alfred continues thus: § 7. 'These be the dooms that Almighty God Himself

spake unto Moses, and bade him to hold. And since the Lord's only-begotten Son, our God, that is our Saviour Christ, came on this middle earth,1 He said that He came not to break these bodes, nor to forbid them, but with all good to eke them out; and mild-heartedness and lowliness of mind did He teach.

§ 8. Then, after His Passion, ere His Apostles were gone forth to teach all the earth, and while yet they were together, many heathen people did they turn to God. Thus, while they were all together, they sent errand-doers to Antioch and to Syria to teach Christ's law. Then when they understood that they sped not, then sent they an errand-writing to them. And this is the errand-writing that all the Apostles sent:

§ 9. "To Antioch and to Syria and to Cilicia, that be now from heathen peoples turned to Christ.

"The Apostles and the Elder Brethren wish you health. And we give you to wit that we have heard that some of our fellowship have come to you with our words, and bade you to hold a heavier way than we bade them, and have too much misled you with their manifold ordinances, and have rather perverted your souls than set them right.

"Then we assembled us together on this, and it seemed good to us all to send Paul and Barnabas, men that will give their lives for the name of the Lord. With them we send Judas and Silas to tell you the same.

"It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us that we lay no burden upon you above that which is needful for you to hold: that is, then, that ye forbear from the worship of devilsguilds, and from the partaking of blood and of things strangled, and from fornication, and that ye do not unto others as ye would not they should do unto you."

§ 10. From this one doom a man may understand that he should doorn all aright. Nor needeth him none other doombook. Let him take heed that he doom to no man as he would not that he should doom to him, if he sought doom of him.

'Since it came to pass that many peoples took on the Faith

1 Middangeard. This was a common name for the world, as being below heaven and above hell.