to protect their own lands against the Northmen, were reluctantly begun. It often happened that the ravages, which his advice was meant to prevent, occurred before the landholders would obey his foresight. Then, when they had lost their families and property, they mourned their folly with a repentance, says Asser, that could neither restore their slain relations, redeem their captive friends, nor even support themselves with common subsistence (1).

But Alfred was not discouraged by the tardiness of his subjects. By mild expostulation, by reasoning, by gentle flattery, or by express command; or, in case of obstinate disobedience, by severe chastisement, he overcame the pertinacity of vulgar folly; and wisely made his bishops, carls, ministers, and public officers, exert themselves for the common benefit of all his kingdom (2). Among other things, he was inflexible in exacting from all a competence for their offices. To produce this he compelled them to study literature. Even they who had been illiterate. from their infancy, earls, governors, and ministers, were compelled to learn to read and write (3), choosing rather to endure the painful toil, than to lose their preferment. If from age, or peculiar dulness of intellect, they could not be taught themselves, their son or some kinsman, or if none, some freeman or slave, educated for the purpose, was ordered to recite before them Saxon books, both day and night (4).

His public demeanour was very affable, mixed with decorous pleasantry; he was eager to join in the investigation of things unknown (5), for the curiosity of his mind was insuppressible.

Many Francs, Frisians, and other neighbouring nations, willingly came to submit to his authority, both noble and ignoble. He loved them all like his own people, received them honourably, and gave them both money and power (6).

His bishops and clergy, his nobles and servants, he treated with paternal affection; he was indefatigable in his endeavours to educate such of their children as were in the royal court, in every valuable morality; and he himself did not disdain to assist in their scholastic tuition (7).

His embassy to
India.

His embassy to India, to the shrine of St. Thomas, is as expressive of his mind and public spirit as any other action of his life. No other potentate in Europe could in that day have conceived it; because no other had acquired that knowledge which would have interested them in a country so remote and unknown. The embassy displays not only the extent of Alfred's

(1) Asser, 60.

(2) Ibid. 59.

(3) So I construe the expressions, "Literatoriæ arti studerent." Asser, 71. (4) Asser, 71. These passages of Asser are very curious.

(5) Et maxima et incomparabili contra omnes homines affabilitate atque jocunditate et ignotarum rerum investigationi solcrier se jungebat. Asser, 44,

(6) Asser, 44.

(7) This I presume is the meaning of omnibus bonis moribus instituere et literis imbuere solus die noctuque inter cætera non desinebat, Asser, 44.

information, but that searching curiosity, which characterised his understanding.

The journey is stated by several chroniclers. The Saxon Chronicle (1), Florence of Worcester (2), Radulph (3), and Bromton (4), simply mention, that Suithelm, the bishop of Shireburn, carried the benevolence of Alfred to India, to Saint Thomas, and returned in safety. Huntingdon (5), and Alured of Beverley (6), express that the embassy was sent in a discharge of a vow which the king had made. Matthew of Westminster (7), and Malmsbury, mention the curiosities which Suithelm brought back with him.

Malmsbury, who gives the fullest account of the incident, says that the king sent many presents over sea to Rome, and to St. Thomas, in India; that Sighelm, the bishop of Shireburn, was his ambassador, who penetrated with great success to India, to the admiration of the age; and that he brought with him on his return many foreign gems and aromatic liquors, the produce of the country (8). In another passage, Malmsbury declares, that some of those gems were to be seen in his days in the monuments of the church (9).

In the former editions of this work, for the purpose of verifying this extraordinary incident, a careful investigation was pursued, in order to show that it was long before believed that St. Thomas had been in India; that in the age of Alfred he was presumed to have died there; and that at that time there were Christians living there. It was also proved that such journeys were in those days attempted, and the inference was drawn from these facts, that the assertions of our chroniclers were not counteracted by any improbability in their assertions of this remarkable embassy (10).

(1) Sax. Chron. p. 86.

(2) 883. Assero Scircburnensi episcopo defuncto succedit Suithelmus, qui regis Alfredi eleemosynam ad S. Thomam, Indiam detulit, indeque prospere retulit. Flor. Wig. 320.

(3) Rad. Dic. 451. He dates it 887.

(4) Bromton, 812.

(5) Alfredus autem misit eleemosynam suam Romæ et etiam in Indiam ad S. Thomam, secundum votum quod fecerat quando hostilis exercitus hyemavit apud Londoniam. Hunt. 350.

(6) Lib. vii. p. 105.

(7) Matt. West. 333. Malm. calls him Sighelm.

He says that Suithelm brought back precious stones.

(8) Et trans mare Romam et ad Sanctum Thomam in Indiam multa munera misit. Legatus in hoc missus Sigelmus Scireburnensis episcopus cum magna prosperitate, quod quivis hoc seculo miretur, Indiam penetravit; inde rediens exoticos splendores gemmarum et liquores aromatum, quorum illa humus ferax est, reportavit. De Gestis, p. 44.

(9) Nonnullæ illarum adhuc in ecclesiæ monumentis visuntur. Malms. De Pont. 248.

(10) In the Saxon life of St. Thomas, in MS. Calig. A. 14., which is ascribed to Elfric in Jul. E. 7., the legendary account there is, "The Saviour himself came to him from heaven, and said to him, ⚫ A king of the Indians, who is called Gundoforus, will send his gerefa to Syria's land to seek some labourer who is skilful in

The journeys and writings of the late Claudius Buchanan, and of other travellers; and the subsequent efforts and correspondence of our Bible and Missionary Societies, have completely confirmed the facts, not only that Syrian Christian churches were early founded in the Indian peninsula, but that they are still existing in the same parts. And as the curious reader may desire to see our former collection of authorities, it is reprinted in the appendix to this chapter.

No other notices of Alfred's foreign correspondence have been transmitted to us, besides the compliment from the Jerusalem patriarch; except some donations from the pope (1), and several messages and presents from Alfred to Rome. The king appears to have sent embassies or couriers to Rome in several successive years (2).

When the measures are mentioned by which Alfred endeavoured to excite in his subjects a love of letters, it will not be forgotten that the University of Oxford has been connected with his memory.

The concurring testimonies of some respectable authors seem to prove, that he founded public schools in this city; and therefore the University, which has long existed with high celebrity, and which has enriched every department of literature and science by the talents it has nourished, may claim Alfred as one of its authors, and original benefactors.

But this incident, plain and intelligible as it appears to be, is environed with a controversy which demands some consideration; for it involves nothing less than the decision of the superior antiquity of the two Universities of England. We leave to abler pens the determination of the dispute, and shall only notice in the note a few particulars, concerning the first periods of the contest, and the point on which it turned (3).

His laws.

This indefatigable king made also a code of laws, with the concurrence of his witena-gemot or parliament, which has been called his Dom-boc. In this, for the first

6

arts. I will soon send thee forth with him.' Thomas answered, Send me whither thou wilt, except to the Indians.' But, on the command to go being repeated, he assented, and, when the regal officer came, they went together to the ship and reared their sail and proceeded with the wind; and they sailed forth then seven nights before they reached a shore, but it would be long to tell all the wonders that he did there. They came next to the king in India, and Abbanes boldly brought Thomas to the speech of the king, who said to him, 'Canst thou build me a kingly mansion in the Roman manner?' Thomas tried and succeeded, and had then liberty to preach, and baptized, and constructed a church, and Migdonia, the king's wife's sister, believed what he taught. Cott. MSS. Calig. A. 14. p. 112-118.

(1) Asser, 39. The pope, at Alfred's request, liberated the Saxon school in Rome from all pecuniary payments. Ibid.

(2) Asser, 55. The Saxon Chronicle states that in the years 883, 887, 888, 889, 890, Alfred's alms or letters were successively sent to Rome,

(3) See the last note of this chapter, p. 98.

time, he introduced into the Anglo-Saxon legislation, not only the decalogue, but also the principal provisions of the Mosaic legislation, contained in the three chapters which follow the decalogue, with such modifications as were necessary to adapt them to the Anglo-Saxon manners. In the laws attached to them, he mentions that, with the concurrence of his witena-gemot, he had collected together, and committed to writing, the regulations which his ancestors had established; selected such of them as he approved, and rejected the rest. He adds, that he had showed them to all his witena, who declared that it pleased them all that these should be observed. Forty heads of laws then follow, on the most important subjects of the Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence and legislation, obviously tending to increase the national civilization (1).

His police.

When Alfred regained his throne, and with that, the kingdom of Mercia, he found that the Danish invasions had so destroyed the ancient police of the kingdom, and the regular habits of the inhabitants, that the Anglo-Saxons were infesting each other with predatory depredations (2).

The means which he took to remedy this evil, and also to provide an efficient force to repress the Danes, are stated to have been some modification of the ancient provincial divisions of England, which had long before been known as shires. The alterations which he made with these are not detailed. But it is expressly declared that he began the system of dividing them into hundreds, and these into ten parts or tithings. Under these nominal divisions, the population of the country was arranged. Every person was directed to belong to some hundred or tithing.. Every hundred and tithing were pledged to the preservation of the public peace and security in their districts, and were made answerable for the conduct of their several inhabitants. In consequence of this arrangement, the inhabitants were speedily called out to repel an invader, and every criminal accused was sure to be apprehended. If he was not produced by the hundred or tithing to which he was attached, the inhabitants of these divisions incurred a general mulct. Thus every person in the district was interested in seizing or discovering the offender. If he fled, he must go to other districts, where, not having been marshalled within their jurisdiction, he would be known and punished as an outlaw, because unpledged; for he who was not pledged by some hundred and tithing experienced all the severity of the law (3). It is added to this statement, that Alfred divided the provincial prefects into two officers, judges and she

(1) See those in Wilkin's Leg. Sax. p. 28-46. I cannot doubt that these compose the dom-boc which some ancient writers alluded to.

(2) Ingulf, 28.; Malmsbury, 44.; and the Chronicle of Johannes de Oxenedes. Cott. MSS. Nero, D. 2. This chronicle is not much more than an abridgment

of Malmsbury.

(3) Ingulf, 28. Malmsb. 44.

riffs (1).-Until his time there were only sheriffs. He separated, by the appointment of justices or judges, the judicial from the executive department of the law, and thus provided an improved administration of law and justice. That golden bracelets were hung up in the public roads, and were not pilfered, is mentioned as a fact, which evidenced the efficacy of his police.

The unsettled state of society in Saxon-England, and that twilight of mind, which every where appears at this period, may have justified these severe provisions. They are, however, liable to such objections, that though we may admit them to have been necessary to Alfred, no modern government can wish to have them imitated. They may have suppressed robbery; they may have perpetuated public peace; but they were calculated to keep society in a bondage the most pernicious. They must have prevented that free intercourse, that incessant communication, that unrestricted travelling, which have produced so much of our political and literary prosperity. They made every hundred and tithing little insulated populations, to which all strangers were odious. By causing every member of cach district to become responsible for the conduct of every other, they converted neighbours into spics; they incited curiosity to pry into private conduct; and as selfishness is generally malignant, when in danger of meeting injury, they must have tended to legalise habits of censoriousness and acrimonious calumny.

That Alfred was assiduous to procure to his people the blessing of a correct and able administration of justice, we have the general testimony of Asser. He not only gave the precept, but he exhibited the example; he was a patient and minute arbiter in judicial investigations, and this, chiefly for the sake of the poor, to whose affairs, amongst his other duties, he day and night earnestly applied himself (2).

When we reflect that Alfred had, in the beginning of his reign, transgressed on this point, he claims our applause for his noble self-correction. It was highly salutary to his subjects; "for," says Asser, "in all his kingdom, the poor had no helpers, or very few

(1) Præfectos vero provinciarum qui antea vicedomini vocabantur in duo officia divisit, id est, in judices quos nunc justiciarios vocamus, et in vicecomites qui adhuc idem nomen retinent. Ingulf, 28. We will briefly remark here, that the Welsh anciently had the territorial divisions of cantref, a hundred, which contained two cymmwd; each of these had twelve macnawr, and two tref; in every macnawr were four tref, or towns; in every town four gafael, cach of which contained four rhandir; every rhandir was composed of sixteen acres. Thus every cantref contained, as the name imports, an hundred towns, or 25,600 acres. Leges Wallicæ, p. 157, 158. The preface to these laws states South Wales to have contained sixty-four cantrefs, and North Wales eighteen. Ibid. p. 1. The cantref and the cymmwd had each a court to determine controversies. Ibid. p. 389. On finding these in the laws of Hoel da, we are tempted to suggest they may have been introduced among the Romanised Britons; and from the Welsh bishop Asser's communications, have been imitated by Alfred in his English polity.

(2) Asser, 69.