ALFRED. 119

upon tlieir frontiers, made anew the most hum-ble submissions to him ; and he thought it prudentto take them under his immediate government,without establishing over them a viceroy of theirown nation The Welsh also acknowledgedhis authority; and this great prince had now , byprudence and justice and valour, established hissovereignty over all the southern parts of theisland, from the English channel to the frontiersof Scotland ; when he died, in the vigour of hisage and the full strength of his faculties, after aglorious reign of twenty-nine years and a half* 7 ;in which he deservedly attained the appellationof Alfred the Great, and the title of Founder ofthe English monarchy.

The merit of this prince, both in private andpublic life, may with advantage be set in oppo-sition to that of any monarch or citizen, whichthe annals of any age or any nation can presentto us. Fie seems indeed to be the model of thatperfect character, which , under the denominationof a sage or wife man, philosophers have beenfond of delineating, rather as a fiction of theirimagination, than in hopes of ever seeing it reallyexisting: So happily were all his virtues temperedtogether; so justly were they blended; and sopowerfully did each prevent the other from exceed-ing its proper boundaries! He knew how toreconcile the most enterprizing spirit with the

" Flor. Wugorn. p. 598.

7 Asser. p. 21. Chron. Sax. n. 99.

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58 1 .