No Englishman of the Saxon period, except the venerable Bede, can be compared with Alfred for the extent and excellence of his writings. His works may be classified into two divisions; translations from the Latin, and original works in the mother tongue. Of the first the chief were, (1) Orosius' History; (2) St. Gregory's Pastorals; (3) St. Gregory's Dialogues; (4) Bede's History; (5) Boethiv's Consolations of Philosophy; (6) Laws of the Mercians; (7) Asser's Sentences; (8) The Psalms of David. Of the second, (1) An Abridgement of Laws of the Trojans, the Greek, the Britons, the Saxons, and the Danes; (2) Laws of the West Saxons; (3) Institutes; (4) A book against unjust Judges; (5) Sayings of the Wise; (6) A book on the fortunes of Kings; (7) Parables and Jokes; (8) Acts of Magistrates; (9) Collection of Chronicles; (10) Manual of Meditations. (3). The Law-giver. Great as he truly was as a warrior, it was in the arts of peace that Alfred pre-eminently excelled. In every interval of repose allowed by his Norsemen foes, he occupied his mind in devising means for the improvement of the moral and physical condition of the people. He introduced the use of stone for building purposes and taught them how to erect houses such as he had seen in Rome and Milan. He never rebuilt a town without giving it a good capacious school, and he was also a great founder and restorer of churches and monasteries. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that he occupied himself largely with matters pertaining to legislation. Whenever he re-edified a town, he gave the people rules for re-modelling their municipal institutions, thus training them for self-government. As will be perceived from the list given above, his original writings were largely made up of abridgements of laws and the like. Of course there had been legal codes in existence in England before the days of Alfred. Ethelbert, King of Kent; Ina, King of Wessex; Offa, King of Mercia; besides other, had promulgated codes of law, or dooms; but all law and order had been destroyed during the dark times of the Danish inroads. Alfred collected the codes of his predecessors, and without apparently adding much of his own, compiled a very intelligible and consistent system of laws, which he submitted to the Witenagemot for sanction. Alfred was not a great advocate of innovation; as he states, he thought it better to allow an old law to stand in force, even if it were somewhat defective, rather than endanger the respect for constituted authority. His ideal was simplicity of construction, combined with impartiality of administration. According to Asser, he exercised vigilant supervision over the judges; the courts were improved, and a general legal reform took place all round. With that religiousness characteristic of the man, and recognising that if all the divine laws were duly observed, there would be but little necessity for those of human origin, he