ights of the crown in the
county, and to levy the fines imposed, which in that age formed no
contemptible part of the public revenue.

[* Ingulph. p. 870.]

There lay an appeal, in default of justice, from all these courts, to
the king himself in council; and as the people, sensible of the equity
and great talents of Alfred, placed their chief confidence in him, he
was soon overwhelmed with appeals from all parts of England. He was
indefatigable in the despatch of these causes;[*] but finding that his
time must be entirely engrossed by this branch of duty, he resolved to
obviate the inconvenience, by correcting the ignorance or corruption of
the inferior magistrates, from which it arose.[**] He took care to have
his nobility instructed in letters and the laws; [***] he chose the
earls and sheriffs from among the men most celebrated for probity and
knowledge; he punished severely all malversation in office;[****] and
he removed all the earls whom he found unequal to the trust;[*****]
allowing only some of the more elderly to serve by a deputy, till their
death should make room for more worthy successors.

[* Asser. p. 20.]

[** Asser. p. 18, 21. Flor. Wigorn. p. 594. Abbas
Rieval. p. 355.]

[*** Flor. Wigorn. p. 594. Brompton, p. 814.]

[**** Le Miroir de Justice, chap. 2.]

[***** Asser, p. 20.]

The better to guide the magistrates in the administration of justice,
Alfred framed a body of laws, which, though now lost, served long as the
basis of English jurisprudence, and is generally deemed the origin of
what is denominated the COMMON LAW. He appointed regular meetings of the
states of England twice a year, in London,[*] a city which he himself
had repaired and beautified, and which he thus rendered the capital of
the kingdom.

[* Le Miroir de Justice.]

The similarity of these institutions to the customs of the ancient
Germans, to the practice of the other northern conquerors, and to the
Saxon laws during the Heptarchy, prevents us from regarding Alfred
as the sole author of this plan of government, and leads us rather
to think, that, like a wise-man, he contented himself with reforming,
extending, and executing the institutions which he found previously
established. But, on the whole, such success attended his legislation,
that everything bore suddenly a new face in England. Robberies and
iniquities of all kinds were repressed by the punishment or reformation
of t