souring his temper, during the greatest part of his life.

FOOTNOTES:

[48] Historians, copying after one another, and examining little, have
attributed to this monarch the institution of juries, an institution
which certainly did never prevail amongst the Saxons. They have likewise
attributed to him the distribution of England into shires, hundreds, and
tithings, and of appointing officers over these divisions. But it is
very obvious that the shires were never settled upon any regular plan,
nor are they the result of any single design. But these reports, however
ill imagined, are a strong proof of the high veneration in which this
excellent prince has always been held; as it has been thought that the
attributing these regulations to him would endear them to the nation. Be
probably settled them in such an order, and made such reformations in
his government, that some of the institutions themselves which he
improved have been attributed to him: and, indeed, there was one work of
his which serves to furnish us with a higher idea of the political
capacity of that great man than any of these fictions. He made a general
survey and register of all the property in the kingdom, who held it, and
what it was distinctly: a vast work for an age of ignorance and time of
confusion, which has been neglected in more civilized nations and
settled times. It was called the Roll of Winton, and served as a model
of a work of the same kind made by William the Conqueror.

CHAPTER V.

SUCCESSION OF KINGS FROM ALFRED TO HAROLD.

[Sidenote: Edward, A.D. 900.]

[Sidenote: Athelstan A.D. 925.]

[Sidenote: Edmund, A.D. 942.]

[Sidenote: Edred, A.D. 947.]

[Sidenote: Edwin, A.D. 957.]

His son Edward succeeded. Though of less learning than his father, he
equalled him in his political virtues. He made war with success on the
Welsh, the Scots, and the Danes, and left his kingdom strongly
fortified, and exercised, not weakened, with the enterprises of a
vigorous reign. Because his son Edmund was under age, the crown was set
on the head of his illegitimate offspring, Athelstan. His, like the
reigns of all the princes of this time, was molested by the continual
incursions of the Danes; and nothing but a succession of men of spirit,
capacity, and love of their country, which providentially happened at
this time, could ward off the ruin of the kingdom. Such Athelstan was;
and such was his brother Edmund, who reigned five years with grea