WE begin with a sovereign who is well worthy of admiration, whether we regard him as a warrior, as a reformer of laws, or as a promoter of learning. His character seems to have approached as near perfection as was possible in a rude age.

ALFRED THE GREAT.

Alfred the Great, not many years after he ascended the throne, was to all appearance deserted by fortune, and left alone to struggle against adversity. In 877, the Danes came in such numbers into Wiltshire, that the Saxons, giving them selves up to despair, could not make head against them. Many fled out of the kingdom, not a

few submitted, and the rest retired, every man to the place where he could be best concealed. In this distress, Alfred, conceiving himself no longer a king, laid aside all marks of royalty, and took shelter in the house of one who kept his cattle. While he remained in this retreat, the adventure of the burned cakes happened, of which every one has heard.

Alfred afterwards retired to the isle of Athelney, in Somersetshire, where he built a fort for the security of himself, his family, and the few faithful servants who repaired thither to him. When he had been about a year in this retreat, having been informed that some of his subjects had routed a

great army of the Danes, killed their chiefs, and taken their magic standard, he issued his letters, giving notice where he was, and inviting his nobility to come and consult with him. Before they came to a final decision, Alfred, putting on the habit of a harper, went into the enemy's camp, where, without suspicion, he was everywhere admitted, and had the honour to play before their princes. Having thereby acquired an exact knowledge of their situation, he returned in great secrecy to his nobility, whom he ordered to their respective homes, there to draw together each man as great a force as he could; and upon a day appointed, there was to be a general rendezvous at the great wood called Selwood, in Wiltshire.

This affair was transacted so secretly and expeditiously, that in a little time, the king, at the head of an army, approached the Danes. Before they had the least intelligence of his design, Alfred, taking advantage of the surprise and terror they were in, fell upon them, and totally defeated them at thendan, now Eddington. Those who escaped fled to a neighbouring castle, where they were soon besieged and obliged to surrender at discretion. Alfred granted them better terms than they could have expected; he agreed to give up the whole kingdom of the East Angles to such as would embrace the Christian religion, on condition

that they should oblige the rest of their countrymen to quit the island, and, as much as it was in their power, prevent the landing of any more foreigners. For the performance thereof he took hostages; and when, in pursuance of the treaty, Guthrun, the Danish captain, came with thirty of his chief officers to be baptized, Alfred answered for him at the font, and gave him the name of Athelstan.

In 884, a fresh number of Danes landed in Kent, and laid siege to Rochester; but the king coming to the relief of that city, they were obliged to abandon their design. Alfred's success was now complete, chiefly owing to his fleet, an advantage of his own creating. Having secured the sea-coasts, he fortified the rest of the kingdom with castles and walled towns; and besieged and recovered from the Danes the city of London, which he resolved to repair and keep as a frontier.

Sea affairs, geography, and the discovery of unknown countries, or rather the description of countries then little known, obtained by means of bold navigators, occupied much of the time of King Alfred, and formed one of his favourite subjects for literary composition. But while thus engaged in drawing knowledge from the distant corners of the earth, he did not neglect home affairs. He taught the people how to build better

houses; laboured to increase their comforts; established schools; founded or rebuilt many towns; and having learnt the importance of fortifications during his wars with the Danes, fortified them as well as he could. He caused a survey to be made of the coast and navigable rivers, and ordered castles to be erected at those places which were most accessible to the landing of the enemy. Fifty strong towers and castles rose in different parts of the country; but the number would have been threefold, had Alfred not been thwarted by the indolence, ignorance, and carelessness of his nobles and people.

He revised the laws of the Anglo-Saxons, being aided and sanctioned therein by his ' Witenagemot,' or Parliament; and established so excellent a system of police, that, towards the end of his reign, it was generally asserted that one might have hung golden bracelets and jewels on the public highways and crossroads, and no man would have dared to touch them for fear of the law. Towards arbitrary, unjust, or corrupt administrators of the law he was inexorable; and if we can give credit to an old writer, he ordered the execution of no fewer than fortyfour judges and magistrates of this stamp in the course of one year.

Those who were careless he reprimanded and suspended, commanding them to qualify themselves for the proper discharge of their office before they

ventured to grasp its honours and emoluments. He heard all appeals with patience; and in cases of importance, revised all the law proceedings with the utmost care. His manifold labours in the court, the camp, the field, the hall of justice, the study, must have been prodigious; and our admiration of this wonderful man is increased by the wellestablished fact that all these exertions were made in spite of the depressing influence of physical pain and constant bad health.

KING CANUTE THE GREAT.

King Canute the Great became sole and undisputed sovereign of England in 1016. It is seldom that a rule obtained as his was, by force, and commenced in the most despotic manner, is moderated by experience, and becomes without any outward pressure humane and equitable. But this rare phenomenon is discernible in the case of Canute, and it is to be attributed to an improving change in his personal character. Increasing years witnessed a harsh disposition softened, and a rugged temper freed from much of its asperity, although the barbaric element came occasionally into play, and was never completely overcome.

It is said that, after a visit which he paid to Rome, Canute was milder and more just than he had been before. He reigned four or five years

longer, and these appear to have been years of tranquillity and happiness for England. No power from beyond sea could touch our coasts or dispute the sovereignty of the ocean with his fleets, and the turbulent and marauding Scots, Cumbrians, and Welsh were chastised and kept in awe by his English militia. Malcolm, the Scottish king, is said to have become his liegeman, or to have acknowledged his supremacy. The 'Basileus,' or Emperor of the Anglo-Saxons, for this was the title which Canute took to himself in the latter part of his reign, could thus boast that the English, the Scotch, the Welsh, the Danes, the Swedes, and the Norwegians were his subjects: he was called the 'King of Six Nations.' Throughout Europe he was looked upon as the greatest of modern sovereigns. Conrad, the emperor, who claimed to be the representative of the imperial Cæsars, and supreme head of the Christianized and holy Roman empire, might make a show of prouder | titles; but in extent of real dominions, in wealth and power, Conrad was as nothing compared with Canute, the descendant of the pirates of Denmark.

The ability, the energy, the industry which could keep such vast and distant countries together, and bring so many barbarous, warlike, and cruel people within the pale of Christendom, must have been altogether extraordinary. The dis

severance which followed his death is a proof that the union depended on the personal character and genius for government of Canute the Great.

In England he had the rare art and happiness to make a conquered people forget that they had been conquered, and that he was a conqueror and an alien. When the first cruel excesses were over, and when his throne was established in peace, the Anglo-Saxons appear to have ceased to regard him as a foreigner. The chronicles scarcely ever allude to his foreign birth; with them he is rex noster-our king,' 'our king, just and good,' 'our pious king,' etc.

It was after Canute's return from Rome, and when he was in the plenitude of his power, that the following well-known incident is related of him and his flattering courtiers. One day, disgusted with their extravagant adulations, he determined to read these courtiers a practical lesson. He caused his golden throne to be placed on the sea-shore as the tide was rolling in with its resistless might, and putting his jewelled crown upon his head, and seating himself upon the throne, he addressed the ocean, and said, 'Ocean! the land on which I sit is mine, and thou art a part of my dominion; therefore rise not, but obey my commands, nor presume to wet the edge of my royal robe.'

He sat for some time silent,