Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/403

 To Alfred the Great, England also owes the first attempt to secure a more speedy and equal distribution of justice by the division of the kingdom into hundreds and tithings, combined with a careful survey of the whole country, known as the "Book of Winchester," the model probably of the later and still more famous Domesday Book. The laws of the Anglo-Saxons were also revised, and a code was formed with selections from the best of those of other nations. The wisdom and the justice of Alfred first raised England out of the darkness of one of the darkest ages, and secured for her a position at sea she had never previously held; and, though a thousand years have since passed away, we cannot but think that those statesmen who are now devoting their attention to the commercial and maritime interests of their country would do well to study the policy of Alfred at a period of bigotry, superstition, and ignorance, when piracy at sea, and plunder on land, afforded a large source of remunerative employment to the people.

His son Edward followed his example in the care he bestowed on his fleet; and, though much of his time was occupied in constructing castles to keep back the ever encroaching Danes, he was able to equip and to maintain during his reign one hundred ships to protect trade and guard the coasts. But his son, Athelstan, displayed even greater anxiety to increase the power of his fleet, being at the same time the first English monarch who, by his laws, made trade a road to honour. One of these laws enacted, that if any merchant or mariner successfully accomplished three voyages on the high seas with a ship and cargo