King Alfred of England. This item is unavailable.King Alfred of England

THE BRITONS.

A

lfred the Great figures in history as the founder, in some sense, of the

British monarchy. Of that long succession of sovereigns who have held

the scepter of that monarchy, and whose government has exerted so vast an

influence on the condition and welfare of mankind, he was not, indeed, ac-

tually the first. There were several lines of insignificant princes before him,

who governed such portions of the kingdom as they individually possessed,

more like semi-savage chieftains than English kings. Alfred followed these

by the principle of hereditary right, and spent his life in laying broad and

deep the foundations on which the enormous superstructure of the British

empire has since been reared. If the tales respecting his character and deeds

which have come down to us are at all worthy of belief, he was an hon-

est, conscientious, disinterested, and far-seeing statesman. If the system of

hereditary succession would always furnish such sovereigns for mankind,

the principle of loyalty would have held its place much longer in the world

than it is now likely to do, and great nations, now republican, would have

been saved a vast deal of trouble and toil expended in the election of their

rulers.

3 JACOB ABBOTT

Although the period of King Alfred's reign seems a very remote one as we

look back toward it from the present day, it was still eight hundred years

after the Christian era that he ascended his throne. Tolerable authentic his-

tory of the British realm mounts up through these eight hundred years to

the time of Julius Caesar. Beyond this the ground is covered by a series of

romantic and fabulous tales, pretending to be history, which extend back

eight hundred years further to the days of Solomon; so that a much longer

portion of the story of that extraordinary island comes before than since the

days of Alfred. In respect, however to all that pertains to the interest and

importance of the narrative, the exploits and the arrangements of Alfred are

the beginning.

The histories, in fact, of all nations, ancient and modern, run back always

into misty regions of romance and fable. Before arts and letters arrived at

such a state of progress as that public events could be recorded in writing,

tradition was the only means of handing down the memory of events from

generation to generation; and tradition, among semi-savages, changes every

thing it touches into romantic and marvelous fiction.

The stories connected with the earliest discovery and settlement of Great

Britain afford very good illustrations of the nature of these fabulous tales.

The following may serve as a specimen:

At the close of the Trojan war,[1] AEneas retired with a company of Trojans,

who escaped from the city with him, and, after a great variety of adventures,

which Virgil has related, he landed and settled in Italy. Here, in process of

time, he had a grandson named Silvius, who had a son named Brutus, Brutus

being thus AEneas's great-grandson.

One day, while Brutus was hunting in the forests, he accidentally killed his