tributed considerably towards the actual grandeur of Great Britain; but at the same time it has led to many bloody wars; and when we consider the law of nations, England has no more right to the dominion of the seas than any other nation on the surface of the globe, or than a conqueror who invades another country, like the Danes in England. To the present century was destined the glory of returning to more moderate principles, and of willingly giving up a portion of the usurped rights for her own welfare, as well as that of other nations, whereby England will doubtless flourish more than by the old system adopted for so many centuries, when she was constantly at war with all other maritime powers, for which a sufficient pretence was found in the least imaginary umbrage given to England's "Sovereignty of the Seas."

41. Alfred's Artistical and Professional Co-adjutors.

We have already mentioned, in Note 35, the names of eminent ecclesiastics whom Alfred invited to his court, and who assisted him in the execution of his great purposes of instructing others as future teachers for his institutions. But none of the names of those artists or professional men, whom Alfred likewise invited to his shores, have come down to us. It has, however, been amply proved that he was the most skilful artist of his time, having, according to Spelman, made himself the royal crown. We may accordingly presume him to have been equally versed in other arts.

41a. Alfred's Officers.

The names of several of Alfred's officers have been recorded; some of them having obtained distinctions, like Odun, Alderman of Devonshire, for their victories over the enemy. The division of the kingdom into counties, for military purposes, begins more fully to display itself: thus we read of Ethelelm, the Earl or Alderman of Wiltshire; Bertwolf, Duke or Earl (for the titles have the same meaning) of Essex; Edwolf, the king's minister, in Sussex; Earl Ceolmund, in Kent; Edred, Duke of Devonshire, probably successor to the brave Odun, and several others.

42. Parliament in Alfred's time.

We find no exact indication of those institutions in any of the various works on Alfred and his times; our readers must therefore be satisfied with Haller's authority. That there was a parliament in Alfred's time, wherein the

people were admitted, is partly proved by Littleton, and again contested by others, whose opinion on the subject we will notice in a future page.

43. Alfred's severity.

All authors agree upon Alfred's wisdom, and his skill as a ruler; but if Haller speaks of "Moderate Monarchy," it seems to us that such an expression is only applicable to the principles developed in the dialogue between Alfred and his Counsellor, given in the Fifth Book. Alfred was the most absolute monarch that ever sat on England's throne, of which, the condemnation to death of fourty-four judges in one year, is a sufficient proof. The difference between such acts and those of Nero is, that the latter acted thus to oppress the people, and gratify his own improper desires; while Alfred did it for the good of his people, and in a time when such severe means were absolutely necessary. In the "Miroir des Justices," already mentioned in p.218, the author quotes rolls in the time of King Alfred, and among many other inflictions of the king's love of justice, he mentions several executions, which appear to have been both summary and arbitrary, and, according to our present notions, cruelly severe. It is true, that the minds and habits of every part of society were in those times so violent, that our estimation of the propriety of these judicial severities cannot now be accurately just. But yet, even with this recollection, the capital punishments, with which Alfred is stated to have visited judicial errors, corruptions, incapacity, dishonesty, and violence, which are recorded in the Miroir, strike our moral feeling as coming within the expressions of the “immoderate tyranny," which he is said to have first exhibited.

That Alfred should desire the improvement of his people, was the natural result of his own improving mind. But, if he at first attempted to effect this by violence, and to precipitate, by pitiless exertions of power, that melioration which time and adapted education, laws, example, and institutions, only could produce, he acted with as much real tyranny as if he had shed their blood from the common passions of ordinary despots; but his motives must not be confounded with theirs: he meant well, though he may have acted in this respect injudiciously. Yet no motive can make crime not criminal. However men may palter with the question to serve temporary purposes, no end justifies bad means. Cruelty and violence are always evils, and tend to produce greater ones than those they are intended to cor

rect. We may therefore understand from the examples mentioned by Horne, that even Alfred's better purposes, thus executed, may have attached to the beginning of his reign the charges of tyranny and cruelty, and may have produced the temporary aversion of his people. They could not appreciate his great objects. They saw what they hated. They probably misconceived, for a time, his real character, and by their alienation may have contributed to amend it. Virtue, without intending it, will often act viciously from ignorance, prejudice, wrong advice, or undue alarm. Wisdom must unite with virtue to keep it from wrong conduct or deterioration; but true wisdom arises from the best human and divine tuition, and the gradual concurrence of experience. Alfred possessed these in the latter part of his life, but in its earlier periods he had not attained them.

44. Prerogatives of Earls.

Of this we find no authority in any of the modern or contemporary works on Alfred.

BOOK IV.

45. City of London Rebuilt.

"In 886," according to Asser, "after the burning of cities and the slaughter of his people, he honourably rebuilt the City of London, and made it again habitable. He gave it into the custody of his son-in-law, Ethelred, Earl of Mercia; for all the Angles and Saxons, who had before been dispersed everywhere, or were in captivity with the Pagans, voluntarily turned and submitted to his dominion."

46. Reluctance of the Saxons to build Castles.

"I will say nothing," relates Asser, "of the castles, which he ordered to be built, but which, being begun late, were never finished, because the hostile troops broke in upon them by land and sea, and, as often happened, these thwarters of the royal ordinances repented when it was too late, and blushed at their non-performance of his commands. I speak of repentance when it was too late, on the testimony of Scripture, whereby numberless persons have had cause for too much sorrow after many insidious evils had been wrought. But, though by those means, sad to say, they may be roused to sorrow, and bitterly afflicted by the loss of fathers, wives, children, ministers, servant-men, servantmaids, and furniture and househould-stuff, what is the use

of hateful repentance when their kinsmen are dead, and they cannot aid or redeem those who are captive from captivity? for they are not able even to assist those who have escaped, as they have not wherewith to sustain even their own lives. They repented, therefore, when it was too late, and grieved at their incautious neglect of the king's commands, and they praised the royal wisdom with one voice, and tried with all their power to fulfil what they had before refused, namely, concerning the erection of castles, and other things useful to the whole kingdom."

But, whilst the king's ministers neglected to fulfil their master's commands, and preferred, with true Saxon blood, to face their enemies in an open field of battle, rather than retire for safety behind the walls of a fortress, the king himself zealously discharged such of these duties which came under his own immediate care, and restored the towns and cities, that were dilapidated, to more than their former condition.

Spelman seems to have thought that Alfred was the first to construct buildings of hewn stones.

47. Foundation of Monasteries.

Alfred had ordered that two monasteries should be built, one for monks at Athelney, a place surrounded by impassable marshes and rivers, where no one could enter but by boats, or by a bridge laboriously constructed between two other heights; at the western end of which bridge was erected a strong tower, of beautiful work, by the king's command; and in this monastery he collected monks of all kinds, from every quarter, and placed them therein.

The other monastery, a residence for nuns, was built near the eastern gate of Shaftesbury; and his daughter, Ethelgiva, was placed in it as abbess. With her many other noble ladies, bound by the rules of the monastic life, dwelt in that monastery. These two edifices were enriched by the king with much land, as well as personal property.

Besides the monasteries of Athelney and Shaftesbury, it appears that Alfred built another religious house at Winchester, called the "New Minster." Though we find nothing about its foundation in the earlier Chronicles, yet, as Winchester was the principal city of Wessex, and the place where the king held his court, it may be supposed that no pains or expense were spared to construct it with becoming magnificence. As the foundation of this monastery was only commenced a short time before the death of Alfred, it is

described by the historian, William of Malmesbury, as having been designed, rather than built, by this king. It was placed so near the Cathedral, or Old Minster of Winchester, that the services which were chaunted in the choir of the one could be easily heard by the singing-men who were officiating in the other; and King Edward is said to have paid a mark of gold to the bishop for every foot of land that he purchased, in order to have sufficient ground for the offices and out-buildings of the monastery. The inconveniences of this great proximity were soon felt by the inhabitants of both those religious houses, and before the time of Malmesbury the building was destroyed, and the materials removed to the outside of the city, where was built the abbey of Hyde, of which King Alfred has, in consequence, often been described as the founder.

It has been often vaguely stated by different writers, that Alfred was not only a benefactor to monasteries in general, but also built many new ones: those, however, which we have mentioned are the only ones which can, on good and positive authority, be ascribed to him, though he in a variety of ways made large and valuable gifts to various other religious houses.

48. Revenues of the Church.

We will, in a future page, enumerate the gifts of Alfred to the church and monasteries, upon speaking of the division of his fortune (see Note 56.) Haller's remark upon the wealth of priests is but too well founded, since the whole of Europe, and even a portion of the new world, have suffered from their abuses. Even in modern times, and towards the end of the last century, in civilized France, the church having five millions of revenue from tithes, with nearly half the land of the kingdom besides, assigned only £20 a year to the parochial working clergy, while all the rest was a prey to the vices of a sinecure and dissolute hierarchy. The landed property in that country was so unequally divided, that one-third of it only was in the hands of the lay commonality, the churches and the nobles possessing all the rest.

In regard of the revenue of the Church of England, compared to that of all other Christian churches, we have a document before us, proving that the clergy of the latter, consisting of 203,728,000 hearers, receive £9,949,000; and the clergy of England and Wales, consisting of 6,500,000 hearers, receive £9,459,565, being nearly as much as the expenses of the whole Christianity in all parts of the world.