Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/114

 78 R L .F R E D. his institutions were the foundation of what is called the com- mon law,fo ftvled either on account of ics being the common law of all the Saxons, or becaufe it was common both to Spelman's Saxons and Danes. It is (aid alfo, but this is a difputed Liteof Alfr. point, that he was the firft who divided the kingdom into P- 107- fhires: what is afcribed to him is not a bare divilion of the countr y> but the fettling a new form of judicature ; for after .aq. having divided his dominions into fhires, he fubdivided each 44 47> 48. fliire into three parts, called tythings, which though now grown out of date, yet there are fome remains of this ancient divifion in the ridings of Yorkfhire, the laths of Kent, and the three parts of Lincolnshire. Each tything was divided into hundreds or wapcntakes, and thefe again into tythings or dwellings of ten houfcholders: each of thefe houfeholders flood engaged to the king, as a pledge for the good behaviour of his family, and all the ten were mutually pledges for each other; fo that if any one of the tything was fufpecled of an offence, if the headboroughs or chiefs of the tything would not be fecurity for him, he was imprifoned ; and if he made his efcape, the tything and hundred were fined to the king. Each fhire was under the government of an earl, under whom was the reive, his deputy, fince, from his pffice, called fhire-reive, Srlden,Ana- or fh e, jft ^Elfred alfo framed a book called the Book of a .' e! ' Winchefter, and which contained a furvey of the kingdom; . and of which the Doomfday Book, ftill preferved in the Ex- Leg. Edv. in. ' . . przef. etcap. chequer, is no more than a fecond edition. 8. In the management of affairs of ftate, after the cuftom of his anceftors the kings of the Weft Saxons, he made ufe of the great council of the kingdom, confifting of bifhops, earls, the king's aldermen, and his chief thanes or barons. Thefe, in the firft part of his reign, he convoked as occafion ferved ; but when things were better fettled, he made a law, that twice in the year at leaft, an aflembly or parliament (hould be held at London, thereto provide for the well-governing of the commonwealth : from which ordinance his fucceffors varfed a little, holding fuch affemblies not in any place certain, but wherever they refided, at Chriftmas, Eatter, or Whitfumide. As to extraordinary affairs, or emergences which would not admit of calling great councils, the king acted therein by the advice of thofe bilhops, earls, and officers in the army, who happened to be about his perfon. He was certainly a great and warlike prince; and though the nation could never boaft After Men. ^ a g reater foldier, yet he never willingly made war, or re- P. 70. fuftd peace when deiired. He iecured his coafts by guard- fhips,