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DR. GILES'S Lire or ALFRED.* ALTHOUGH there are extant a contemporary biography of Alfred, his own works, and more than all his last will, yet in popular opinion, and till lately in historical literature, the Monarch himself was rather rated with such mythological founders of nations as Cadmus, Romulus, and Woden, than with great historical persons like Charlemagne or Willilin the Conqueror. The stern Johnson could sing of "Alfred's golden reign," and the sceptical and cautious Hume breaks out into an unwonted panegyric on the great King who seemed to realize the idea of a "sage" or wise man, and whose want was the existence of critical contemporary observers, that posterity might have been able to discern some of those blemishes from which "as a man" he could not have been entirely exempt. Had the philosophical historian lived to our day, his wish might have been gratified without a critical observer of the ninth century ; for some critics of the nineteenth have attributed the gap in a disastrous period of the Monarch's history to a sudden defeat through the de- sertion of his subjects, caused by the private vices and public tyranny of his earlier years. This view, which originated with Sharon Turner, may be blown aside. The closer and more painstaking inquiries into Anglo-Saxon literature and the old chroniclers, which laudably distinguish the present age, have tended to dissipate some of the halo that national tradition had thrown around Alfred's name, but in reality to place his glory on the surer footing of truth. The golden bracelets safely suspended in the highways—the minstrel visit to the Danish camp—the institution of trial by jury—the geographical arrangement of England into shires, and some other Anglo- Saxon institutions deeply seated in the constitution of the Germanic tribes —may be given up without in any degree diminishing the glory of Al- fred the Great. Although the extinction of the Heptarchy is generally dated from the time of Egbert, circa 827, yet Alfred was the first Mon- arch who really possessed supreme authority over the whole country; and in this light he may be truly said to have founded the English monarchy. He did more, however, than found a kingdom; he regenerated a people. Till Alfred's century, the Saxons in England formed a series of petty prin- cipalities, continually at war with each other, and latterly harassed by the Danes. The forma of their institutions might survive, but they Were rather as carcasses than as living bodies, if indeed much more than the memory of them remained. Alfred ascended the tbrone when the strength of his dominions was reduced by a series of bloody battles with the Danish invaders, who had established them- selves in the North and the East; nor was it till after long struggles that he succeeded in repelling or subduing the Northmen. With the in- stinctive eye of genius he saw the true defence of England consisted in a fleet, and be is entitled to the praise of being the founder of her navy. As noon as victory enabled him to establish peace, he not only restored order to the country, but reinstated and consolidated its institutions. A creator of laws he was not, nor did he profess to be; but he is entitled to the same kind of credit as Justinian, with this important distinction, that Alfred had to collect and arrange for himself. It was said of Au- gustus, "He found Rome brick, he left it marble " : allowing for the dif- ference of his means and the barbarity of his times, similar praise is the meed of Alfred. His encouragement of learnieg and learned men may challenge competition with that of any other patron; but as in law so in literature, the King had to labour with his own hands. His extant works, indeed, are only translations, though free ones ; but he may without exaggeration be named as the "fons et principium " of that long course of lettered glory which has attended his people. The fine and useful arts were equally an objectof his care: he collected around him from all quar- ters workmen ekilfid in such arts as the age possessed, the highest of which were building and jewellery. The art of war had sunk to the lowest ebb, and, as practised in his age, was little more than brute force assisted by surprises : but when, towards the close of his reign, Hastings the Dane invaded England, and, with a tactic beyond his age, pitched one camp.. at Romney and another at Minster in the Isle of Sheppy, so aa..to be favourably situated for plundering excursions, to command an extent of country within his lines as it were, and to secure a base of operations and a retreat, Alfred met him by strategy superior to his own ; for it operated of itself as effectually as a modern movement. Penetrating and taking up a strong position be- tween both camps, he crippled their plundering excursions, and com- pelled them to fight or break up. Chieftains of a far inferior character to Alfred have maintained order and done justice during their lives ; to administer the law in person was a general custom in Oriental as it always is in barbarian communities ; but Alfred may seem to have es- tablished the custom in England, which practically existed till the time of John, of the King in his own person, or by some immediate deputy, administering justice in his own court ; as we still have the theory in the Court of King's Bench. "The King's courts, in those times, were more properly so called than at pre- sent. The Sovereign himself, like the Eastern Caliphs, often administered justice in person: Alfred certainly did so; and Asser accords to his praise, that he strove, in his own judgments, to hold the scales of justice even between all his subjects, whether noble or ignoble. At the courts held by his earls and prefects, the most unbecoming quarrels often arose: the suitors Seldom acquiesced in the sentence which those officers pronounced; and sought with the greatest eagerness to carry their causes before the King himself. 'If any one,' continues Asser, was con- scious of injustice on his side in the suit, though by law and agreement he was compelled, however reluctant, to go before the King, yet with his own good will he never would consent to go. For he knew that in the King's presence no part of his wrong would be bidden: and no wonder, for the King was a most acute investigator in passing sentence, as he was in all other things. He inquired into almost all the judgments which were given in his own absence, throughout all his dominions, whether they were just or unjust."

• The Life and Times of Alfred the Great. By the Rev. J. A. Ones, D.C.L., Author

Of "The History of the Ancient Britons," "Life and Letters of Thomas a Beeket," &c. Published by Bell.

His love of knowledge passed beyond the merely useful : he is said to have sent an embassy or pilgrimage to India. His reputation among Isis contemporaries was almost as great as that which has attended his name through succeeding times. "Daily embassies," says Asser, were sent to him by foreign nations " from the Tyrrhenian sea to the farthest end of Ireland "; and his biographer also speaks of " letters " which he had seen and read, "accompanied by presents from the Patriarch of Jerusalem." The true character of Alfred, however, is shown in results. Talk as we will about the superiority of the Anglo-Saxons, they were an unruly and unlucky race. Throughout the four centuries and upwards that inter- vened between the arrival of Hengist and Horse (if such chieftains ever lived) until " Alfred's golden reign, England was distracted by the wars and anarchies of numerous principalities' accompanied by the violence and crimes of barbarism. From Alfred's death to the Conquest, (900._ 1066,) foreign invasion, and the vices of corruption and decay, were added to the ruder offences ; and the Norman conquest came to override the country, changing its property, and endeavouring but in vain to sub- vert its institutions. The order which Alfred had established from the Teutonic chaos, and more than that, the impression of his character on the minds of men, was sufficient to resist internal decadence and external force. The Saxons, and the Normans as soon as they had become settled enough to be oppressed, fixed their affections upon the great Anglo-Saxon King, and made his institutions the object of their aspiration. Sometimes they were false in their facts, sometimes uncritical in their panegyrics ; but perhaps they had a truer perception of the qualities which fashion peoples and found states than the critics who are keen in detecting flaws but let the spirit of the whole escape them.

The Lye and Times of Alfred the Great is composed upon the plan which characterized two former works of Dr. Giles—that of pre- senting original authorities in their own words. In the present case some modification has taken place, owing to the greatness of the subjects, and perhaps the paucity of materials. In important or disputed matters the biographer brings together the views of the principal modern authors who have written upon Alfred ; and, besides entering rather more fully into commentary himself, Dr. Giles gives a summary of the Saxon history in England previous to the reign of his hero. From the paucity of ori- ginal materials, and the want of historical vigour in the author's mind, the book may not have so much literary value or attraction as either of the previous works of Dr. Giles ; but it is a useful volume, as collecting into one view all the facts that are known respecting the life of Alfred, ex- hibiting the various opinions upon disputed points, and containing a very fair and sensible summing-up by the biographer. It also impressively suggests to the reader, the terrible condition to which society must have been reduced in Anglo-Saxon times. The author's long familiarity with our old chroniclers and other writers gives him an easy knowledge of his general subject, which no sudden effort could attain. It will be found pervading the volume, especially on questions of disputed locality. With a little more strength and vivacity of style, Dr. Giles could undertake a book that might be made curious and interesting—the TOpography of English History. Here is a brief outline of a part of the Heptarchy.

"The Saxon Heptarchy, as the seven kingdoms at this time existing in Eng- land are commonly denominated, never showed signs of durability: nor were their chiefs ever possessed of an equal share of power. It is probable, that jealousy of each other contributed much to prolong their separate existence, until the time of Egbert, a period of nearly three hundred years. Another cause which served to produce the same effect may be fouud in the scanty population which was at that time spread over the country, and probably also in the natural bar- riers, inlets of the sea, ridges of chalk downs, woods, heaths, and morasses, which separated the different states. Thus, the -Western frontier of Kent was 'pro- tected by the dense wood of Anderida, coeval with the Roman dominion, from the South Saxons, who, occupying the cultivated parts of Sussex close upon the South coast, were in their turn separated by the Southampton water, and other inlets of the sea near Portsmouth, from being easily invaded by the inhabitants of Wessex. In a similar manner the East Anglians, occupying the modern counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, and protected on their right by the Wash with its mighty inundations, and on the left by the estuary 41 the Thames, were secure from most of the discords which arose between the other states, awl seemed.. almost to form another island by themselves. Again, the powerful Nerthern kingdom of Northumbria, safe from an enemy in its rear, because there was at that time no people beyond it whose power the Northumbrian monarchs coal fear, was exposed to hostility on the South and South-west by the proximity of the native Britons, and the powerful Saxon kingdom of Mercia, which, occupying the centre of the island, in the very middle of the other kindred states, was at all times liable to come into contact with each of them, and seldom, in fact, enjoyed a long interval of tranquillity."

It may be a hint to law reformers to remark, that though Alfred him- self must have been in advance of his people in many of their ideas, he made no attempt to change laws that depended upon manners, but left them untouched, at least by legislative action. The following passage presents a view of some of Alfred's legislative predecessors, as well as of himself.

"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 lawe 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 mur- der to the smallest petty larceny, had its value, and might be compensated by the payment of a sum of money. Another celebrated legislator was Ina, King of the West Saxons; and a few 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 Offs, 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 opi- Mons 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 Jeru- salem, 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 by the counsel of my " Witan," (Parliament,) and in otherwise 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 Ins my kinsman, or of Offa King of the Machine, 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, showed 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

i set this n 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. 'Ifs 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 hi guild-brethren pay half, and for the other half let him flee.'

" The law concerning 'boo-lands' (No. 41) seems to show 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 ac- quired 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 kins- men.'

"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.'

" ' 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 house- hold, let them all go into slavery. A boy of ten years may be privy to a theft.'" An appendix of various illustrative documents is added to the Life: it consists of Alfred's will, a description of his jewel found at Athelney many years ago, some of his correspondence, and the proverbs attributed to him. The documents are printed in the original, with translations. There is also a good index.