Northman or Jute. What Alfred did for the laws of England may be analysed thus: (1) He made a collection of the Kentish and West Saxon and Mercian statutes, amending the old common law that was handed down unwritten. There were the laws of Kent consisting of the dooms of the first Christian king, Æthelberht, and the additions made by his successors, Aldhaere, Eadric, Wihtraed; the laws of his own predecessor, Ine of Wessex; and the famous collection of dooms of Offa the great Mercian king. In the case of the first two, he seems to have incorporated the whole collection without modification by him. In the case of the Mercian dooms, alterations or modifications of dooms which did not please him were made with the consent of the Witan. (2) He added some laws of his own which were to run for all three kingdoms-such, for instance, as the law of treason: "If any one is treacherous about the king's life by himself, or by protecting outlaws or their men, be he liable in his life and in all that he owns." The value of the king's life had been greatly increased by becoming the symbol of the unity of the three kingdoms, and this is an expression of its enhanced value to the united kingdom. (3) By issuing together the existing dooms he supplied a basis for judgments on the frontier Alfred's districts where two law systems met. laws became the basis of the judicial system for the Welsh in the west of England, as well as for West Saxons and the Mercians that were under Alderman Æthelred. In the days of Edward, the next king, when it became necessary to have some common basis of judgment for Danes and English, the regulations accepted are expressly traced back to the ordinances of Alfred and Guthrum—i.e. to the enactments in their convention of peace. (4) It was perhaps even more important for the time, and it certainly made most immediate impression on his own people, that "he found the laws powerless, and he gave them force." The extraordinary weakness of the Saxon judicial system was in its lack of executive force. Jurisdiction had begun by being voluntary. The court at first could not compel obedience to its decision any more than a tribunal of arbitration to-day can compel the sovereign states to fulfil its award. Though it had got beyond this stage before Alfred's time, the man who had won his suit was still left to gather "the fruits of judgment" for himself. And if everything else failed he might wage war openly on his obstinate opponent. Under such circumstances the courts might set afoot deadly feuds quite as easily as settle them. Alfred made it clear that the whole might of the king lay behind the law, and that there was an adequate sanction of force to compel obedience. The word "carcer," for prison, begins to appear in his laws, indicating that there was no English word in use which meant the same thing, and we know that his dooms introduce the thing as well as the word. The strenuous executive provisions of the king are quite sufficient to account for all that was told afterwards about the peace of the land in his time; how women might travel safely by the high-roads unprotected, and gold bracelets might be left there and not be stolen. These are the traditional equivalents for a reign of justice in the land.1 Alfred's reputation as a creator of order rests, and most firmly, on the high ideal which actuated his measures; the cautious and practical statesmanship with which he accepted and utilised the material that came to his hand; and the executive force he supplied behind the whole judicial system. 1 The stories about bracelets and the like occur in Iceland, in Denmark, and elsewhere. They are common Teutonic folk-traditions. Of course, the story in Horne's "Mirror of Justice" about Alfred hanging his judges is mere fiction. Chapter VII "Let us recognise with frankness . . the principles of brotherhood amongst nations."-W. E. Gladstone. "The brotherhood of man as an actual fact is essential to the real and endless advance of humanity."-W. D. Mackenzie. "Beyond home and city lies the broader sphere of humanity, for which there is but small native passion, and hence but little inspiring force impelling us to its duties. Yet here are our widest relations. And it is here chiefly that Christ becomes an inspiration through His loyalty of love. Christ is humanity to us, the Son of Man, the Brother of all men."-The Note-Book. ENGLAND has had two rulers to whom religion was pre-eminently the moulding power in life, the dominant influence by which character and destiny were shaped-Alfred and Cromwell. We have had other religious kings, but in these two, motives, ideas, sentiments, aims, are all steeped in the consciousness that man is a being in relation to God, and that God has a will and purpose which man is here to fulfil. Religion is a key to their lives, without which they can only be partly understood. Both of these men were pre-eminent in their time for the largeness of conception which inspired their dealings with foreign peoples. Both made a pro found impression on their contemporaries by the vivid and personal interest which they took in the affairs of lands distant from their own. It is tempting to see some relation of cause and consequence between the common elements in both lives; it is certainly true that when religion is strong it tends to break down parochialisms and provincialisms of thought. Lover of his country as he was, Alfred thought of England, not as an independent and isolated unit, but as a member in the body of Christendom. The unit was the larger one composed of the Christian peoples. His patriotism was all the richer because he wanted England to be not only his "fatherland," maintaining the tradition of his ancestors, but also a worthy part of Christendom, sharing the virtues and graces and duties which have no country. So, to Cromwell England was not only his own country, it was also a vital part of the great Protestant community, bound to do its part in all that concerned the community as a whole. It is also true that habits of thought and feeling which issue in the sense of human solidarity may be greatly promoted and quickened by a religion which deals with man simply as man, brought into relation to a World Ruler, and which steadily regards the essentials which are universal rather than the differences that are local and particular. In the modern religious phrase, it was the feeling |