The striving for liberty has been regarded as the special endeavour of the English, vigorously pursued from time immemorial, and liberty was achieved, it has been thought, by the Anglo-Saxons, and assuredly by the time of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and thereafter. So it seemed to Voltaire, who said of the English: ‘They are not only jealous of their own Liberty, but even of that of other nations.’ That striving for liberty was founded on a legal system based on truth, and bound in conscience as its constant and sure foundation. This is a model of which England herself has reason to be proud, a model for all the English-speaking peoples to make their own, and for all Europe to emulate, as it seemed to learned writers of modern times, among them Milton, Voltaire, Blackstone, Kant and Hegel. These noble ideals were traced back to Anglo-Saxon times, and trial by jury, with the institution of the jury itself, twelve good men and true from the vicinage, to bear witness on oath to the truth presented by a party in a dispute, was central to this historical conception. How wonderful to trace it back, and to associate its beginnings with no less a person than Alfred the Great, king of the West Saxons, who was credited with so much that is greatest in the governance of England as it was before the Norman Conquest, and as, in the opinion of many, it was slowly restored in later ages.