ENG 
that they put to fea again without attempting any other 
enterprise. A third body of piratical Danes were dill 
more unfuceefsful than either of the former. Great 
numbers of them, after the departure of Haftings, feized 
and fortified Shobury ; and, having left a garrifon there, 
marched along the banks of the river till they came to 
Bodington, in the county of Glouceder, where, being re¬ 
inforced by a body of Welchmen, they threw up en¬ 
trenchments to defend this camp ; but they were fur- 
rounded by the king’s forces* and reduced to the utmod 
extremity. After having eaten their horfes, and many 
of them perifliing with hunger, they made a defperate 
daily, in which numbers were cut to pieces. Thofe who 
efcaped being purfned by the vigilance of Alfred, were 
finally difperfed, or totally dedroyed. Nor did lie treat 
the Northumbrian rebels with lefs feverity. Falling 
upon them while they were exer^ifing their ravages in 
the Wed, he took t«we.nty of their (hips ; and having tried 
all the prifoners at Wincheder, he hanged them as the 
common enemies of the date. 
Having, by this vigilance and well-timed feverity, given 
peace.and fecurity to his fubjefts, iijs next care was 1 to 
adorn his country by arts, as he had protected it by arms. 
He is laid to have drawn up a code of laws ; but thofe 
which remain to this day under his name feem to be only 
the laws already practiced in the country by his Saxon 
ancedors, and to which, probably, lie gave his fanftio.n. 
The trial by jury, mulfts, and fines for offences, by fome 
afcribed to him, are of a much more ancient date. But 
the care of Alfred for the encouragement of learning, did 
not a little tend to improve the morals, and redrain the 
habits, of the people. When he came to the throne, he 
found the Englifli funk into the groded ignorance and 
barbarifm, proceeding from the continued diforders of 
the government, and from the ravages of the Danes. Fie 
himfelf complains, that, on his accetfion, he knew not one 
perfoti fouth of the Thames who could fo much as inter¬ 
pret the Latin fervice. To remedy this defeft, he invited 
over the mod celebrated fcholars from all parts of Eu¬ 
rope; he founded, or at lead re-edablifhed, the univer- 
fity of Oxford, and endowed it with many privileges. Fie 
gave, by his own example, the dronged incentives to 
ftudy. He ufually divided his time into three equal por¬ 
tions ; one was given to the refection of the body, diet, 
andexercife; another to the difpatch of bufinefs; and 
the third to dudy and devotion. He made a confiderable 
progrefs in gramntar, rhetoric, philofophy, architecture, 
and geometry. Fie was an excellent hidorian, an adept 
in mufic, and was acknowledged to be the bed Saxon 
poet of the age. Fie left many works, of which fome re¬ 
main to this day. Fie tranfiated the Padoral of Gregory 1 . 
Boethius de Confolatione, and Bede’s Ecclefiadical Flidory, 
-into the Saxon language. Senfible that his illiterate fub¬ 
jefts were not much fufceptible of fpeculative indruc- 
tion, he endeavoured to convey his morality by parables 
and dories, and is faid to have tranfiated from the Greek 
the fables of ^Efop. Nor did he even negleft the more 
mechanical arts of life. Before his time, the generality 
of the people chiefly made ufe of timber in building. 
Alfred raifed his palaces of brick, and the nobility by de¬ 
grees began to imitate his example. He introduced and 
• encouraged manufactures of all kinds, and no inventor 
or improver of any ingenious art was fuffered to go unre¬ 
warded. Even the elegancies of life began to be brought 
to him from the Mediterranean; and his fubjefts, by 
feeing the productions of the peaceful arts, were taught 
to refpeCtThe virtues of judice and indudry, by which 
alone they could be procured. It was after a glorious 
reign oftwenty-nine years, thus fpent in the advancement 
of his fubjeCts’ happinefs, that he died, A. D. 901, in the 
vigour of his age, and the full enjoyment of his facul¬ 
ties, an example to princes, and an ornament to human 
nature. 
The character of Alfred feems to have made as near 
approaches to perfection, as the frailty infeparable from 
Li A N D, u. 55 1 
human nature will allow. Fie was unquedionably, in 
every refpeCt, one of the greateft men that ever gave 
fplendour to a throne, or dignified the annals of a peo¬ 
ple. Flis capacity was naturally brilliant, and was fo 
much improved by cultivation, that he became one of 
the mod politic and intelligent princes of his time. His 
difcernment was quick, his memory retentive, and his 
judgment found.’ His talents and virtues were not only 
of that fplendid kind which qualified him for-the exercife 
of royalty, but were fuch as would have procured him a 
high reputation in the fphere of private life. He was 
bold, active, and enterprifing; was pofl’efled of great for¬ 
titude and vigour of mind, and the mod Heady and inde¬ 
fatigable perfeverance.' Thotlgh firm, he was of a mild 
and placable temper; and, notwithdanding the elevation 
of his rank, he difpiayed on all occafions the mod eafy 
condefcenfion, and the mod winning affability. Some in¬ 
dances of great feverity occur in the hiltory of his reign ; 
but even thefe do not derogate from his general character 
of lenity and moderation. His aCts of rigour were always 
merited, and never unfeafonable ; for the diforders of the 
times, which mildnefs and forbearance would have en¬ 
couraged, required, for their extirpation, the pfe of 
powerful remedies. Fie was liberal without profufion, 
and charitable without odentation ; and, though pru¬ 
dently economical in the difpofal of his revenues, he 
maintained, in his court every requifite of regal pomp. 
His goodnefs of heart was confpicuous in his whole con¬ 
duct. He confidered himfelf as born to promote, to the 
utmod of his power, the accommodation and felicity of 
his fellow-creatut.es ; and though he was perfonally re¬ 
proved by one of his clerical friends for having neglefted 
the occafional complaints of thofe who petitioned him 
for .redrefs in the reign of his brother Ethelred, this neg- 
leCt might, perhaps, generally arife from the weak foun¬ 
dation on which the allegations of injury reded; and if 
it was judly imputed to him, it was amply atoned by his 
fubfequent behaviour. His afifeCtion for his people was 
ardent and fincere, and was recompenfed by a loyalty 
founded on gratitude and attachment. His adminiftration 
of juftice was didinguifiied by drift impartiality ; and the 
influence of rank and wealth could never procure from 
him a more favourable fentence than he would give to 
the poored and molt unfriendly peefons in a fimilar cafe. 
With refpeft to religion, he was lefs infefted with the 
fuperdition of the times than any of his fubjefts. His de¬ 
votion, though fervent, was rational ; and his firm ad¬ 
herence to Chridianity arofe not from idle credulity, but 
from deliberate dudy and conviftion. Thus did this ex¬ 
cellent prince did'ufe around him the light of knowledge 
and. improvement, and all the bleflings which are dedu- 
cihle from a beneficent, liberal, and enlightened, plan of 
government. He was, in the drifted fenfe, a patriot 
king; one who invariably confulted the true intereds of 
his country, and the univerfal welfare of his people, 
whom he protefted as a fovereign, and loved as a father. 
Fie merited, equally with the amiable Titus, the honour¬ 
able appellation of humani generis delicia, the delight of 
human nature ; and, while the fplendid talents of his 
mind, and the glorious aftions of his reign, claimed and 
procured to him the furname of Great, the more attrac¬ 
tive qualities of his heart, and his rondant praftice of 
virtue, entitled him to the epithet of Good. Alfred had, 
by his wife Ethelfwitha, the daughter of a Mercian earl, 
three fons and three daughters. His elded fon Edmund, 
died without iflhe during his father’s life-time. Flis third 
fon-Ethelward, inherited his father’s paflion for letters, 
and lived a private life. His fecond fon Edward, fuc- 
ceeded him in the fovereignty of'England. 
Edward was fcarcely fettled on the throne, when his 
pretenfions were difputed by-Ethel wald, his coufin-ger- 
man, who raifed a large party among his Northumbrians 
to efpoufe his caufe. At fint his exeytidns feemed to be 
favoured by 'fortune ; but he was foon after killed in 
battle, and his death freed Edward from a dangerous 
competitor. 
