Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1901-11-08
THE REFORMER
King Alfred and What We Owe Him.

King Alfred ana what we owe HIN,
1t WAS 1000 years ago last wee
MONDAY that King Alfred, the great
est, wisest and best of British mon
archs, died, and the event had wild
observance and deserves still wider, il
the English speaking world. Not o !.
is Alfred's personality among the mos
fascinating in history, and his caree
Of deep human interest because OF tn
extremes of fortune it touched, be
tween his refuge as a peasant u
the cowherd's hut where the VIII
berated lin for his csralessnes owe
the cakes and his great work as TIM
first sovereign of cor solidated Eng
land: tetween bis spy service dis
guised as a harpist in the fleet OF the
Dar es ard his car struction OF the hee'
that swept those navies from the s1a
between his seemingly hopeless guet'
rilla fight ia the marshes of Somerset
shire and the day hat he finally broke
the power of the invading Mortimer
and Incorporated them into his people
but muuern Civilization owes for more
to him than is commonly realized, ard
in what he was, what be represented,
what he dit, are to be found the be-
ginnings or at least the first det1-
mite foundations of the Anglo saxon
institutions that have come to be such
q mighty forcs in the world.
Alfred was the Goth in the line OF
Saxon onarchs of Sussex. His graz d.
father, the great Egbert, had CONSOLE
dated the haptarchy, into which the
Saxon part of England was divided,
into one kingdom Alfred brorght all
England into it, Himself of mixed
Saxon and Celtic blood because of
several irtermarriagts with natives in
the 45o years Of Saxon kings that had
precaded him-and which Ina, the
l4th Saxon king, had inaugurated-
be largely hroauened the race basis
by encouraging intercourse and
amalgamation of the conquered
Danes. and the Celtic, Welsh,
Cornwallans and other native
Britons, and thus began that com
posite people, then Celtic Romar,
Saxon and Scandinavian, that ny toe
latter blending of Normal, Dutch and
Fleming, grew to the greatest
vrility and range Of f7culties and
power of all Europe, and on this side
of the Alta tic has reached great
might still ny FRESH infusion of Dutch,
Sweue, German, Spaniard, French,
II guen t, Celtic, Irish, aud much
more of the old native Ipdiaas6han .e
are won't to imsgire, and is now tn
undergo other enlargement and
transformation from the strains being
introduced from Southern Euroie.
Alfred was too great to know such
thir as race prejudice, tefnre his time
barbarous and unce sing warfare aas
the rule between men of differing
hloods as uerl as among then selves;
Will bln DeSo' " opoih'c no sicoe
force the fusion of races for the bet
teri g # them all
he found his country, so long raw
aged by war, swept almost clear OF Nd,
know ledge or civilization he gave it
the institutions that are basic to its
greatness today. How much be origi-
mated and how much he merely revived,
reformulatei ard readspted from old
Saxon ideas and practices can never
be exactly kroHn, but it is proof of
his practical wisdom that be sought
the sources Of his Institutions, as be
orly claimed in his modesty, largely
from what had been known and done
before in the evolution of his people.
The fact that he could SYSTEMATIC
them it to such whole is proof OF tn g
high quality Of his st4tesnanship.
The fundamental idea was expressed in
his i'll, that the English should ever
be as free as their thoughts, -" The
most potert mech uisn for preserving
this freedom in trial by jury, as the
ages since have known it, seems to have
been his creation The rudimentary idea
dates much further back in trisls be-
fore full assembl ges Of the people in
Athens and amoug the Ancient Ger
mans, as Tacitus tells US; but it sp-
preached its presert shape out of AL
fred's Tithirgs After conqueripg
peace for his country from the Dares,
he divided his people for purposes OF
into blocks of tens ibid
Dudley steal his idea of blocks Of
fiye'' from this source), then into hun
dreds and counties. Over each 10 was
q head man responsible for their con-
duct and government, over each 10 of
these blocks hundreder, ard over
them the county sdmi' istration,
sh eriff, &c Controversies that could
not be settled inside these decen-
1aries we're brought bef re u sworn
men from the hundred at its monthly
meeting with the hundredsr or presid-
ng magistrate of that division, to sd
minister justice. Here not only begins
The jury system, probably, but is the
trm idea of our electoral system and
u modern representative government |