word was wrapped and penetrated by a tone like the rich clash of stricken silver — the tremulous agitation of a deep and full emo tion. We must recall all those physical gifts, as well as his intellectual endowments, if we would realize the power of his oratory in the day of its strength and in the hour of its inspiration, when it was borne forward on some wave of thought which, reaching deep er and rising higher than its fellows, gath ered energy and power as it rose, flashed with a snowy crest of gorgeous language, and broke in a glorious burst of eloquence, which swept all lighter objects from its path, and thundered against the bulwarks of the stout est opposition, and hotly wrestled for the mastery, and tried all the strength of its material. But though his conceptions were
bold, his thoughts earnest and vigorous, and his language passionate and almost impet uous, he never for a moment lost the beauty and the grace of a courteous, frank, and generous nature. And now, in the solemn chamber of death, what generous heart will remember aught but his great gifts and his noble services — what voice will not be lift ed to crown him with the State's honor and affection, and to ask for peace and bless ing upon his memory?" I know that this sounds like the language of exaggeration; but the recollections of our older citizens who heard Mr. Preston speak and the traditions that hang around his name, and still linger among us, confirm and corroborate it as the " words of truth and soberness."
THE LEGISLATION AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OF KING ALFRED.
By Warw1ck H. Draper, Bakr1ster-at-Law. THE approaching celebration of the millenary of the death of King Alfred the Great is an occasion for learning about the works of him whom Freeman has called "the most perfect character in history." Much that is reliable can be said about the many amazing activities of this " mirror of princes." Readers of this journal, it is to be hoped, will find acceptable the following account of his legislation and local govern ment. The code of " Dooms " which bears his name, first edited by Wilkins in his " Leges Anglo-Saxonicae " (London, 1721), has been well known since its publication in 1840, by B. Thorpe, in "The Ancient Laws and In stitutes of England," where the Anglo-Saxon original is printed, together with a modern version, accompanied by notes, instructive
but sometimes inaccurate. A trenchant observation by the learned author of " The History of the Criminal Law of England" justifies the mention of the textual author ity for that original as a point of peculiar interest. Stephen (1, 5,) remarks that these early codes, from Kentish Aethelbehrts (560-616 A. D.) down to Eadward's (901-924), are "obviously a compilation made in the time of Henry I, by some private person, of the laws then in force, or supposed to be in force, among the English." This judgment, unless equivocal, is de cidedly erroneous, for the two best manu scripts upon which Thorpe's edition was based are proved by the modern and exact science of palaeography to be of a far earlier date. These manuscripts are among the trea sures of the library of Corpus Christi College,
