kingdom in fact stronger, and secured a temporary rest for the whole of England. Mercia, that part of it at least which remained English, was governed by its Alderman Æthelred, and by the King’s daughter Æthelflæd, known as the Lady of the Mercians. On the death of Gutred, the Danish King of Northumbria, Alfred re-established his power there, and the peace and prosperity of England were further increased by the fact that the energy of the Danes was for the present chiefly directed against France and Belgium. Guthrum died in 890, and though the treaty was confirmed by his successors, the defeat of the Danes in Belgium threw fresh invaders into the kingdom. In 893, Hasting, a well-known sea-rover, in alliance with the Anglians and Northumbrians, committed fresh ravages in all directions; but at last, having ventured up the Lea, Alfred hit upon the expedient of draining the river, and leaving their ships aground. After this they were glad to retreat, but lesser expeditions were constantly vexing the coast. The reign of Alfred is thus divided into two periods of Danish war, between which, and at the close of his life, there occurred intervals of peace. [Sidenote: Appreciation of Alfred’s character.] It has been usual to attribute to Alfred most of the marked peculiarities of English civilization, the formation of shires, the establishment of juries, and so on. Such assertions will not bear examination. As a lawgiver, he collected the laws of the three principal states over which he ruled--Kent, Mercia, and Wessex--which had been already recorded by the Kings Æthelberht, Offa, and Ine. As a warrior he was on the whole victorious, and understood the necessity of establishing a fleet, which he appears to have constructed on a different principle from that of the Danes, the ships being longer, and serving less as mere stages on which to fight. As a governor he was impartial and strict; his police was severe, the system of mutual responsibility became universal, and under him the idea of morality began to mingle with the idea of injury to the commonwealth, which had been the Saxon notion of crime. His son Eadward, who succeeded him, was probably as great as his father, but he had not the love of literature which forms the marked characteristic of Alfred’s public life. It has been questioned whether Alfred could himself read; however this may have been, he was so conscious of the necessity of literature for the people that he set himself to work to make translations for them. “The History of the World on Christian Principles,” by Orosius, Bede’s “History of the Anglo-Saxon Church,” and Boethius’ “Consolation of Philosophy,” were the works he translated. Besides his own literary work, he established conventual schools at Shaftesbury and Athelney, and probably a more general one at Oxford. The love of the people, whom his indefatigable energy saved from their barbarous and pagan invaders, has attributed to their