under circumstances of great hardship.  Several kings resigned their crowns to devote themselves to religious contemplation in monasteries,—­more at that time and in this nation than in all other nations and in all times.  This, as it introduced great mildness into the tempers of the people, made them less warlike, and consequently prepared the way to their forming one body under Egbert, and for the other changes which followed.

The kingdom of Wessex, by the wisdom and courage of King Ina, the greatest legislator and politician of those times, had swallowed up Cornwall, for a while a refuge for some of the old Britons, together with the little kingdom of the South Saxons.  By this augmentation it stretched from the Land’s End to the borders of Kent, the Thames flowing on the north, the ocean washing it on the south.  By their situation the people of Wessex naturally came to engross the little trade which then fed the revenues of England; and their minds were somewhat opened by a foreign communication, by which they became more civilized and better acquainted with the arts of war and of government.  Such was the condition of the kingdom of Wessex, when Egbert was called to the throne of his ancestors.  The civil commotions which for some time prevailed had driven this prince early in life into an useful banishment.  He was honorably received at the court of Charlemagne, where he had an opportunity of studying government in the best school, and of forming himself after the most perfect model.  Whilst Charlemagne was reducing the continent of Europe into one empire, Egbert reduced England into one kingdom.  The state of his own dominions, perfectly united under him, with the other advantages which we have just mentioned, and the state of the neighboring Saxon governments, made this reduction less difficult.  Besides Wessex, there were but two kingdoms of consideration in England,—­Mercia and Northumberland.  They were powerful enough in the advantages of Nature, but reduced to great weakness by their divisions.  As there is nothing of more moment to any country than to settle the succession of its government on clear and invariable principles, the Saxon monarchies, which were supported by no such principles, were continually tottering.  The right of government sometimes was considered as in the eldest son, sometimes in all; sometimes the will of the deceased prince disposed of the crown, sometimes a popular election bestowed it.  The consequence of this was the frequent division and frequent reunion of the same territory, which were productive of infinite mischief; many various principles of succession gave titles to some, pretensions to more; and plots, cabals, and crimes could not be wanting to all the pretenders.  Thus was Mercia torn to pieces; and the kingdom of Northumberland, assaulted on one side by the Scots, and ravaged on the other by the Danish incursions, could not recover from a long anarchy into which its intestine divisions