formed into one corporation, who, under the name of a tithing, decennary, or fribourg, were answerable for each other's conduct, and over whom one person, called a tithing-man, headbourg, or borsholder, was appointed to preside. Every man was punished as an outlaw, who did not register himself in some tithing; and no man could change his habitation, without a warrant or certificate from the borsholder of the tithing, to which he formerly belonged. When any person in any tithing or decennary was guilty of a crime, the borsholder was summoned to answer for him; and, if he were not willing to be surety for his appearance, and his clearing himself, the criminal was committed to prison, and there detained till his trial. If he fled, either before or after finding sureties, the borsholder and decennary became liable to inquiry, and were exposed to the penalties of law. Thirty-one days were allowed them for producing the criminal; and, if the time elapsed without their being able to find him, the borsholder, with two other members of the decennary, was obliged to appear, and, together with three chief members of the three neighbouring decennaries (making twelve in all), to swear that his decennary was free from all privity, both of the crime committed, and of the escape of the criminal. If the borsholder could not find such a number to answer for their innocence, the decennary was compelled by fine to make satisfaction to the king, according to the degree of the offence. By this institution, every man was obliged, from his own interest, to keep a watchful eye over the conduct of his neighbours.But Alfred took care to temper these rigours by other institutions, favourable to the freedom of the citizens; and nothing could be more popular and liberal, than his plan for the administration of justice. The borsholder summoned together his whole decennary, to assist him in deciding any lesser difference, which occurred among the members of this small community. In affairs of greater moment, in appeals from the decennary, or in controversies between members of different decennaries, the cause was brought before the hundred, which consisted of ten decennaries, or a hundred families of freemen, and which was regularly assembled once in four weeks for

the deciding of causes. And, besides these monthly meetings of the hundred, there was an annual meeting, appointed for a more general inspection of the police of the district, for the inquiry into crimes, the correction of abuses in magistrates, and the obliging of every person to show the decennary, in which he was registered. The people, in imitation of their ancestors the ancient Germans, assembled there in arms.-The next superior court to that of the hundred was the county court, which met twice a-year, after Michaelmas and Easter, and consisted of the freeholders of the county, who possessed an equal vote in the decision of causes. The bishop presided in this court, together with the alderman; and the proper object of the court was the receiving of appeals from the hundreds and decennaries, and the deciding of such controversies, as arose between men of different hundreds. Formerly, the alderman possessed both the civil and military authority; but Alfred, sensible that this conjunction of powers rendered the nobility dangerous and independent, appointed also a sheriff in each county, who enjoyed a co-ordinate authority with the former in the judicial function. His office also empowered him to guard the rights of the crown in the county, and to levy the fines imposed, which, in that age, formed no contemptible part of the public revenue. There lay an appeal, in default of justice, from all these courts to the king himself in council.-As good morals and knowledge are almost inseparable in every age, though not in every individual, the care of Alfred for the encouragement of learning among his subjects was another useful branch of his legislation, and tended to reclaim the English from their former dissolute and ferocious manners. But the king was guided in this pursuit less by political views, than by his natural bent and propensity towards letters. When he came to the throne, he found the nation sunk into the grossest ignorance and barbarism, proceeding from the continued disorders in the government, and from the ravages of the Danes : the monasteries were destroyed; the monks butchered or dispersed; their libraries burnt; and thus the only seats of erudition in those ages were totally sub

verted. Alfred himself complains, that, on his accession, he knew not one person south of the Thames, who could so much as interpret the Latin service; and very few in the northern parts, who had even reached that pitch of erudition. But this prince invited over the most celebrated scholars from all parts of Europe; he established schools everywhere for the instruction of his people; he founded, at least repaired, the University of Oxford, and endowed it with many privileges, revenues, and immunities; he enjoined by law all freeholders possessed of two hides of land, or more, to send their children to school for their instruction; he gave preferment, both in church and state, to such only as had made some proficiency in knowledge; and, by all these expedients, he had the satisfaction, before his death, to see a great change in the face of affairs; and, in a work of his, which is still extant, he congratulates himself on the progress which learning, under his patronage, had already made in England.-Sensible that the people, at all times, especially when their understandings are obstructed by ignorance and bad education, are not much susceptible of speculative instructions, Alfred endeavoured to convey his morality by apologues, parables, stories, apophthegms, couched in poetry; and, besides propagating among his subjects former compositions of that kind, which he found in the Saxon tongue, he exercised his genius in inventing works of a like nature, as well as in translating from the Greek, the elegant fables of Esop. He also gave Saxon translations of different histories, and likewise of a work concerning the consolation of philosophy. And he deemed it nowise derogatory from his other great characters of sovereign, legislator, warrior, and politician, thus to lead the way to his people in the pursuits of literature.-Meanwhile, this prince was not negligent in encouraging the vulgar and mechanical arts, which have a more sensible, though not a closer, connexion with the interests of society. He invited, from all quarters, industrious foreigners to repeople his country, which had been desolated by the ravages of the Danes. He introduced and encouraged manufactures of all kinds; and no inventor or im

prover of any ingenious art did he suffer to go unrewarded. He prompted men of activity to betake themselves to navigation, to push commerce into the most remote countries, and to acquire riches by propagating industry among their fellow-citizens. He set apart a seventh portion of his own revenue for maintaining a number of workmen, whom he constantly employed in rebuilding the ruined cities, castles, palaces, and monasteries. Even the elegances of life were brought to him from the Mediterranean and the Indies; and his subjects, by seeing those productions of the peaceful arts, were taught to respect the virtues of justice and industry, from which alone they could arise. Both living and dead, Alfred was regarded by foreigners, no less than by his own subjects, as one of the wisest and best princes, that ever adorned the annals of any nation. Hume.

EDWARD VI.

KING Edward the Sixth, that incomparable young prince, died in 1553, in the sixteenth year of his age. He was counted the wonder of his time. He gave very early many indications of a good disposition to learning, and of a most wonderful probity of mind; and, above all, of great respect to religion, and every thing relating to it; so that, when he was once in one of his childish diversions, somewhat being to be reached at, that he and his companions were too low for, one of them laid on the floor a great Bible, that was in the room, to step on; which he beholding with indignation, took up the Bible himself, and gave over his play for that time. He was, in all things, subject to the orders laid down for his education, and profited so much in learning, that all about him conceived great hopes of extraordinary things from him, if he had lived. He was so forward in his learning, that, before he was eight years old, he wrote Latin letters to his father. "All the graces," says Cardan, were in him. He had many tongues when he was yet but a child: together with the English, his natural tongue, he had both Latin and

French; nor was he ignorant, as I hear, of the Greek, Italian, and Spanish, and perhaps some more. But for the English, French, and Latin, he was exact in them, and apt to learn every thing. Nor was he ignorant of logic, of the principles of natural philosophy, nor of music. The sweetness of his temper was such as became a mortal; his gravity becoming the majesty of a king; and his disposition suitable to his high degree." He was not only learned in the tongues, and other liberal sciences, but knew well the state of his kingdom. He kept a book, in which he wrote the characters, that were given him, of all the chief men of the nation, all the judges, lord-lieutenants, and justices of the peace over England: in it he had marked down their way of living, and their zeal for religion. He had studied the matter of the mint, with the exchange and value of money; so that he understood it well, as appears by his journal. He also understood fortification, and designed well. He knew all the harbours and forts, both of his own dominions, and of France and Scotland; and how much water they had, and what was the way of coming into them. He acquired great knowledge of foreign affairs; so that he talked with the ambassadors about them in such a manner, that they filled all the world with the highest opinion of him that was possible; which appears in most of the histories of that age. He had great quickness of apprehension; and, being mistrustful of his memory, used to take notes of almost every thing he heard; and afterwards wrote them out in his journal. He had a copy brought him of every thing that passed in council, which he put in a chest, and kept the key of that always himself. In a word, the natural and acquired perfections of Edward's mind were wonderful; but his virtues and true piety were yet more extraordinary. He was an exact keeper of his word; and therefore, as appears by his journal, was most careful to pay his debts, and to keep his credit; knowing that to be the chief nerve of government; since a prince, that breaks his faith, and loses his credit, has thrown up that which he can never recover, and made himself liable to perpetual distrusts, and extreme contempt. He was