The love of justice and truth was one of the main traits of Alfred’s character, and he painfully perceived that the ealdormen of shires, though faithful and valiant warriors, were not learned and impartial enough to administer justice.  There was scarcely one of them who could read the written law, or who had any extensive acquaintance with the common law or the usages which had been in force from time immemorial,—­as far back as in the original villages of Germany.  Moreover, the poor and defenceless had need of protection.  They always had needed it, for in Pagan and barbarous countries their rights were too often disregarded.  When brute force bore everything before it, it became both the duty and privilege of the king, who represented central power, to maintain the rights of the humblest of his people,—­to whom he was a father.  To see justice enforced is the most exalted of the prerogatives of sovereigns; and no one appreciated this delegation of sovereign power from the Universal Father more than Alfred, the most conscientious and truth-loving of all the kings of the Middle Ages.

So, to maintain justice, Alfred set aside the ignorant and passionate ealdormen, and appointed judges whose sole duty it was to interpret and enforce the laws, and men best fitted to represent the king in the royal courts.  They were sent through the shires to see that justice was done, and to report the decisions of the county courts.  Thus came into existence the judges of assize,—­an office or institution which remains to this day, amid all the revolutions of English thought and life, and all the changes which politics and dynasties have wrought.

Nor did Alfred rest with a reform of the law courts.  He defined the boundaries of shires, which divisions are very old, and subdivided them into parishes, which have remained to this day.  He gave to each hundred its court, from which appeals were made to a court representing several hundreds,—­about three to each county.  Each hundred was subdivided into tythings, or companies of ten neighboring householders, who were held as mutual sureties or frank (free) pledges for each other’s orderly conduct; so that each man was a member of a tything, and was obliged to keep household rolls of his servants.  Thus every liegeman was known to the law, and was taught his duties and obligations; and every tything was responsible for the production of its criminals, and obliged to pay a fine if they escaped.  Every householder was liable to answer for any stranger who might stop at his house.  “This mutual liability or suretyship was the pivot of all Alfred’s administrative reform, and wrought a remarkable change in the kingdom, so that merchants and travellers could go about without armed guards.  The forests were emptied of outlaws, and confidence and security succeeded distrust and lawlessness....  The frank pledge-system, which was worked in country districts, was supplied in towns by the machinery of the guilds,—­institutions combining the benefit of modern clubs, insurance societies, and trades-unions.  As a rule, they were limited to members of one trade or calling.”