HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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than the prince from whom death had so lately delivered them during diereign of the valiant Edmund. He continued his reite-.rated attacks, which ledthat unfortunate sovereign to consent to a partition of his dominions, by whichhe resigned to the Dane the Saxon kingdoms of Mercia, East Anglia, andNorthumberland. It was not difficult to foretel, thmt the death of Edmundwould be the immediate forerunner of the entire assumption to himself of thewhole realm by the bold Canute. He nevertheless acted on the occasionwith a pretended moderation, which, though too flimisy perhaps to impose onthe credulity of many, was nevertheless so sufficiently flattering to the vanity■of all, as to induce them to bear the yoke of their servitude with apparentsatisfaction and good temper. He bestowed very extensive governments ouall the chief nobility, and parcelled out nearly the whole kingdom in this man-ner, contenting himself, till opportunity gradually ofFetrcd of revoking his gifts,with the kingdom of Wessex only. Soon as he foumd himself securely seatedon the throne, he sent back to Denmark as many of his followers as his ownsafety rendered it prudent for him to do. He restoned many of the popularSaxon customs which had been abolished, shewed no partiality in favour ofhis soldiers, and native subjects, but endeavoured, by a gradual incorporationof the two nations, to prevent the common unpopula.rity of a new ruler, bymixing, as it were, his assumed sovereignty of a cotnquered people with hislawful inheritance of an established and acknow leged dominion. The■ character of this prince, into which is interwoven the well known anec-dote of the rebuke given by him to certain courtiers, who imprudentlyattempted to flatter him, is drawn by a foreign au’thor nearly in the fol-lowing terms :—“ The extent of his dominion, and tlhe administration of jus-tice through the united realms of Denmark, Norway, and England, proved inno degree too great an undertaking for his extensive abilities. Nor did thecontemplation of his own greatness blunt, as proves ttoo frequently the case,the keenness of his understanding. Having been told by some persons of hiscourt, that his power was unlimited, and that the oicean .itself (meaning tospeak metaphorically, as it may be supposed) was subject to his controul, liecaused a banquet to be provided, and the tables to Ihe arranged on the seashore, close to the edge of the water, when the falling tide had nearly reachedits lowest ebb. Having seated himself in his chair of state, and invited hissveophantine friends to partake of the delicacies which he had prepared for them,an honour they were by no means averse to the acceptance of. He calmly

kept