mons. king, in the council of the nobles and wise men.. The latter long retained the impression of the wisdom of ancient Rome, a certain predilection for knowledge, as if the muses had ever sought the land of freedom. This national council was assembled in a regular manner twice every year. Free men held that place in it, which in the records is distinguished by the name of ComThe judgments that were given during these times became the model and foundation of the common law, the traditional remains of original customs and rights, as declared in every case by the voice of twelve men of the same rank with the accused. These decisions, handed down from antiquity, formed the favourite law of the country, the foundation of England's liberty, as it had descended from the earliest ages. Those institutions which had not their origin in the primitive manner of the people, were introduced in latter times by violence and craft. How the constitution, manners, and religion of a people may undergo frequent alterations, while through all such vicissitudes the love of freedom may still remain inherent in them, and display proofs of its influence on every occasion; how this general sentiment, exalted by all private interests, may yet in no particular give rise to any excess, but may produce an equilibrium of power in the whole fabric of the state; how this spirit of independence may find the way of limiting the power of the king, by means of a parliament, and the authority of the latter, by means of the king, and the influence of one house by that of the other; and how these strong and multifarious bonds of liberty may give to all classes of the people a lofty elevation of character; all these great and splendid problems find their solution in the history of the English nation. When we observe the old Albiones in the mountains of Caledonia, the Britons in Wales, and the English themselves all animated with the same spirit, we are obliged to conjecture the existence of some permanent, ever-operative cause, powerful enough to overcome the original characters which these nations brought with them from foreign realms. As the laws of the Chinese, Indians, and Egyptians, resisted the effect of repeated vicissitudes over a very lengthened period; and the institutions of Lycurgus maintained their relation to the rugged feet of the Taygetus;-the same as the Romans and Carthaginians acquired, from local circumstances, those characters which have excited the admiration of posterity; the manners of the Germans remained permanent on their native soil, underwent in Spain a complete reverse, and gave way in France to a more sprightly character; so we may contemplate the British isles, as destined by nature to become the land of freedom. Finer fruits are the gifts of a warmer climate; but colder regions bring forth hardier bodies; the former enervates and renders its people effeminate; the latter enables them to bear even servility with patience; the climate of England holds the enviable mean, and moderation is the character of all its institutions. The whole northern region of the world was as yet unknown. Scarcely does a faint glimmering break forth by degrees more like the polar lights than the splendour of day. Scandinavia, Russia, Sarmatia, and the land of the Gepidi, to the confines of the eastern empire, were still enveloped in darkness; but England was destined to become the central point of the civilized south and the rude north; and she it was who, in later years, through the mighty lever of navigation and commerce, was to propagate universal civilization. THE FIRST BOOK. ALFRED THE HERO.2 THE powerful Egbert governed no more; Ethelwulf, his son, inherited his crown-but neither his genius nor his courage; and his eldest son, Ethelwald, extorted from him half his realm, but was himself only for a short time possessor of the vacant throne. Under his reign began the misfortunes of England. The inhabitants of England were no more the old warriors of Saxony; for, under the milder climate of England, their manners and customs had become softened; the contempt of death, and the thirst for victory and conquest, had been eradicated by the superior power of the priests. Kings were seen visiting, and coming from afar, to pray at the altars of the holy monks. Of the priests they implored victories, which their ancestors had B |