midable naval and military force which Alfred now commanded, procured him tranquillity for the remainder of his reign. During the last three years he was at full leisure to devote his time and his talents to arts the most glorious for a king to cultivate: he softened the ferocious manners of his subjects by the encouragement which he gave to literature, and taught them the value of industry, by securing to them the possession of property, and diffusing prosperity and happiness over a land to which these blessings had long been unknown.

While engaged in these truly great pursuits, he was arrested by the hand of death, in the vigour of his age and faculties, after a splendid reign of twenty-nine years: during which he had fought an almost unparalleled number of battles with general success; and had deservedly acquired the titles of Great, and Foun der of the English Monarchy.

Contrasted with the brightest ornaments of either ancient or modern times, the character of Alfred will appear to advantage. Whether regarded as a citizen, a king, a legislator, or a hero, he presents the finest model for imitation that even the power of fancy could delineate. In him the virtues were so well tempered, and so justly blended, that none exceeded its proper limits. He possessed the most enterprising spirit, with the coolest prudence; the most steady perseverance, with the mildest flexibility; the most rigid justice, with the gentlest mercy. He knew how to reconcile the vigour of authority, with the arts that conciliate love; and to give the sovereign command the air of a friendly recommendation. With the highest capacity, and the most ardent inclination for science, he united the most · shining talents for active life. His civil and military qualifications equally claim our admiration, and keep our judgment in suspence which ought the most to be the object of our applause. B 4

Nature too, as if anxious to produce a finished model of excellence, had bestowed on Alfred every personal attraction that can please the eye or engage the heart. He was well made, active, and vigorous; dignified in his mien and air; with an open, engaging countenance, which never failed to allure regard.

But the character of Alfred is too illustrious to be dismissed without a more particular enumeration of its leading features and brilliant energies; for to him can be traced the origin of several of the most valuable privileges and wisest institutions of our country.

After he had repressed the incursions of the Danes, and internal tranquillity gave him an opportunity of exerting his talents for government with effect, he began with establishing the principles of justice. Having divided the kingdom into counties, and these into hundreds and tithings, and established the incomparable mode of trial by juries, which is the best security of our liberties both personal and political; in order to guide the magistrates in the administration of justice, he framed a body of laws which, though now lost, are not obsolete, but still operate in full force under the name of the COMMON LAW; an inestimable code of jurisprudence, by which the rights of individuals are most sacredly guarded, and public and private delinquents rendered amenable to judicial animadversion.

Though a convention of the states, on extraordinary emergencies, seems to have been of much earlier date than the reign of Alfred, yet to him we owe their regular periodical meetings, which he fixed to be twice a year in London; a city which he had himself repaired and beautified, and constituted the capital of his kingdom. In these assemblies, laws were enacted by the advice of the most enlightened and distinguished subjects; while on ordinary occasions the monarch was directed

by a kind of privy council, composed of some among the principal persons who attended his court.

When Alfred ascended the throne, he found his people in a state of ignorance and barbarism. He himself complains, that on his accession he could not find one person south of the Thames, who was capable of translating the Latin service into his mother-tongue. In every age, and among all nations, it has been found that purity of morals has kept pace with the extension of sound knowledge and good principles. As a sove reign, he saw it was his duty and his interest to promote a spirit of learning among his subjects; and his own example must have furnished a very powerful incentive. He not only excelled all the English of his time in general literature; but by encouraging learned foreigners to settle here, and by an impartial appreciation of merit, he rendered science both honourable and advantageous. He built and endowed many schools; and if the illustrious university of Oxford does not own Alfred for its original founder, which is a point that has been disputed, it is generally allowed that to him it is indebted for some of its most valuable privileges, and much of its early reputation and distinction.

As genius is a plant which does not always or exclusively spring in a patrician soil, and without the fostering hand of patronage it can seldom bring its fruits to perfection, this sagacious monarch not only sowed the seeds of knowledge, but took care, when they shot forth, to rear them with parental attention. The vicious • and the illiterate, whatever other distinctions they might claim, were never the objects of Alfred's regard; while merit and science engrossed, as they deserved, all his favour, and every reward in his power to bestow. Indeed, this was the golden age of literature among the Anglo-Saxons; the harvest was abundant, and the la

bourers were not more than could obtain an ample recompense for their toil. The penetrating mind of the sovereign qualified Lim to discriminate between real and specious claims to preferment: intrigue could not deceive him; and interest was useless, when judgment, abilities, and probity, were to decide the prize.

Of the private life of Alfred we have few memorials; but enough to show that he was one of the most amiable of men in every domestic relation. Success could not elevate him to the extravagances of joy, nor the heaviest calamities affect him with unmanly despair. He inspired his children with a portion of his own genius, and qualified them for the important destinies to which they were born. To his friends he was open, cheerful, and communicative; to his enemies he showed no resentment after they were disarmed; and to his country he was a truly parental guardian. A remarkable economist of his time, he devoted one part to sleep and the refection of his body by diet and exercise, another to the dispatch of business, and the third to study and devotion: and as, in those rude ages, the art of measuring hours was very imperfect, he used tapers of equal length, which he fixed in lanterns; and when one was burnt out, it warned him that a new avocation awaited him. By this wise distribution of his time, though subject to frequent interruptions by ill health, and though he was obliged to fight in person fifty-six battles by sea and land, he acquired more knowledge, and composed more books, some of which are still extant, in a life of no extraordinary length, than many, possessed of genius and leisure, with all their laborious researches, have been able to perform in more fortunate ages, though letters were the sole object of their pursuit.

As the welfare and comforts of society are not pro

moted by literature only, but also by the cultivation of humbler arts which come into daily use and are equally necessary to all, he did not neglect to encourage mechanical industry; and no inventor or improver of whatever could tend to embellish life, or add to its conveniences, was suffered to go unrewarded. He likewise introduced and encouraged manufactures; and by his zeal for naval and commercial enterprise, first taught his subjects the art of defending themselves at home, and the advantages of an interchange of produce and labour with foreign countries.

To complete the character of this great hero, king, and scholar, he was temperate, pious, and devout. Knowing that states must rise or fall according to their attention to religion, or their neglect of its precepts, he rebuilt and restored almost every monastery in his dominions, which the fury of the Danes had brought to ruin; he also founded and improved others, and gave many substantial proofs of his regard for the welfare of the church in all its component parts.

Thus, in the latter part of the reign of Alfred, justice was purely administered, religion and its professors were respected, and the nation flourished in peace, happiness, and security. The vigour of the sovereign's genius pervaded every department of the state. It is even said, the police was so excellent, that golden bracelets were hung up near the highways, and no one dared to touch them. Yet amidst this firm support of legal authority, Alfred preserved the most inviolable regard to the liberties and constitutional rights of the people. His last will, among other pathetic passages and be quests to posterity, contains this ever memorable sentiment, the best pledge of his being a truly PATRIOT KING: "It is just the English should for ever remain as free as their own thoughts."