[** Foedus Alfred. et Gothurn. apud Wilkins, cap. 3, p. 47. Leg. Ethelstani cap. 2, apud Wilkins, p. 58. LL. Ethelr. sect. 4. Wilkins, p. 117.]
The next superior court to that of the hundred was the county court, which met twice a year, after Michaelmas and Easter, and consisted of the freeholders of the county, who possessed an equal vote in the decision of causes. The bishop presided in this court, together with the alderman; and the proper object of the court was, the receiving of appeals from the hundreds and decennaries, and the deciding of such controversies as arose between men of different hundreds. Formerly, the alderman possessed both the civil and military authority; but Alfred, sensible that this conjunction of powers rendered the nobility dangerous and independent, appointed also a sheriff in each county, who enjoyed a coördinate authority with the former in the judicial function.[*] His office also impowered him to guard the rights of the crown in the county, and to levy the fines imposed, which in that age formed no contemptible part of the public revenue.
There lay an appeal, in default of justice, from all these courts, to the king himself in council; and as the people, sensible of the equity and great talents of Alfred, placed their chief confidence in him, he was soon overwhelmed with appeals from all parts of England. He was indefatigable in the despatch of these causes;[*] but finding that his time must be entirely engrossed by this branch of duty, he resolved to obviate the inconvenience, by correcting the ignorance or corruption of the inferior magistrates, from which it arose.[**] He took care to have his nobility instructed in letters and the laws; [***] he chose the earls and sheriffs from among the men most celebrated for probity and knowledge; he punished severely all malversation in office;[****] and he removed all the earls whom he found unequal to the trust;[*****] allowing only some of the more elderly to serve by a deputy, till their death should make room for more worthy successors.
[** Asser. p. 18, 21. Flor. Wigorn. p. 594. Abbas Rieval. p. 355.]
[*** Flor. Wigorn. p. 594. Brompton, p. 814.]
The better to guide the magistrates in the administration of justice, Alfred framed a body of laws, which, though now lost, served long as the basis of English jurisprudence, and is generally deemed the origin of what is denominated the COMMON LAW. He appointed regular meetings of the states of England twice a year, in London,[*] a city which he himself had repaired and beautified, and which he thus rendered the capital of the kingdom.