much younger than himself, and just as gay as he was grave. She merely consented to be his wife, in submission to her parents, who coveted alliance with him on account of his wealth and rank; for by that time he was Attorney-General. With Lady Hatton, who would never take his name, he got a dowry of £30,000, and lost much of his peace, and some of his reputation. A daughter by this lady he gave away in marriage at a very early age, in order to recover interest at Court, at a time when his fidelity to the law and to his country had brought him into disfavour, and had soon the grief to see this daughter become a scandal to his family. It is also said of him that he was vindictive towards those who had injured him; that, during several years that he was AttorneyGeneral, he allowed himself to use extremely insolent language to those who stood before him to be tried, and manifested a heartless and vengeful temper towards fallen enemies. If Sir Edward Coke had been at all singular in this respect; if his rivals and antagonists, and perhaps most of his contemporaries, had not been similarly guilty; and if the temper and manners of those times had not been comparatively barbarous; the reproach which it is now almost fashionable to heap upon his memory, would have been less exaggerated than it is. It is undeniable that he was guilty of great indecorum: he even condescended to do the duty of a pursuivant; took part in the infliction of torture upon stateprisoners in the Tower; and, in many instances, appeared rather to be a partisan than a Judge: but high officers of state, in those days, had little notion of true dignity; and their common customs were such as would be deemed outrageous now, even if they were practicable. And it must not be forgotten that he afterwards declared torture to be contrary to the common law of England, and laboured successfully to effect its abolition. His good sense, and, in all matters of public duty, his conscientiousness, raise him high above most of his contemporaries; but he lacked vital godliness. In his early education and studies there does not appear to have been any mingling of earnest religion; and it is observable that, in his distribution of time, as recorded, there is no interval marked for private prayer.

Such religious feeling as he possessed was probably attained and cherished by attendance at public worship on the Lord's day. Fuller, in his "Church History," speaking of the famous high Churchman, "the judicious Hooker," so called, and his antagonist, Travers, whose controversial and profoundly learned sermons were delivered in succession in the same pulpit in the Temple, describes Sir Edward Coke as diligently taking notes of their discourses; and it is not unlikely that the more liberal ecclesiastical doctrine of Travers imparted some of its enlargement to the mind of Coke. Certain it is that he reverenced the law of God, in regard to His holy day; and that, amidst the licentiousness of the reigns of James I. and Charles I., he strenuously upheld that sacred observance. In the year 1621, when he was a Member of Parliament,-where he had been Speaker in the reign of Elizabeth, a Member introduced a Bill for the better observance of the day, and another Member, named Sheppard, a young man, moved an amendment, on which a remarkable debate ensued. In an account of the debate, we find the following passage:

Sheppard." Every one knoweth that Dies Sabbati is Saturday; but to forbid dancing on Sunday is in the face of the King's Book of Sports;' and King David says, 'Let us praise God in a dance.' This being a point of divinity, let us leave it to divines; and since King David and King James both bid us dance, let us not make a statute against dancing. He that preferred this Bill is a disturber of the peace, and a Puritan."

Sir Edward Coke.-"Whatsoever hindereth the observation of the Sabbath is against the Scripture. It is in religion, as in other things: if a man goes too much on the right hand, he goes to superstition; if too much on the left, to profaneness and Atheism; and take away reverence, and you shall never have obedience. If it be permitted thus to speak against such as prefer Bills, we should have none preferred."

On the motion of Sir Edward, Sheppard was expelled the House, and only re-admitted by begging pardon on his knees. Harsh discipline, no doubt; but if certain godless orators of

the present time were subjected to the like, they would suffer no more than they deserve.

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To relate the constitutional stand which this great lawyer made against the pretensions of James and Charles, miscalled 'prerogatives,” it would be necessary to recount the history of the great struggle of those reigns, up to the time when the Parliament assumed a position of direct hostility against Charles, the victim of his father's injurious education, and of the schemes of the Papacy to re-establish civil and religious despotism in England. One or two instances will suffice to show the character of Lord Chief Justice Coke. James wanted to release himself from legal impediments to the execution of his will on such as he desired to put out of the way by juridical forms, but in contempt of justice. To that end, he expressed a wish to take cases into his own hand, and pronounce judgment, without the intervention of a Judge; and the Judges were summoned into his presence to give their opinion on the proposal. They were too obsequious even to maintain their own rights; but Coke objected. The King was angry; and after much warmth on one side, and no less firmness on the other, the Chief Justice rejoined thus to a boastful sentence of the King's :

Coke, C. J.-"True it is, please your Majesty, that God has endowed your Majesty with excellent science, as well as great gifts of nature; but your Majesty will allow me to say, with all reverence, that you are not learned in the laws of this your realm of England; and I crave leave to remind your Majesty, that causes which concern the life, or inheritance, or goods, or fortunes of your subjects, are not to be decided by natural reason, but by the artificial reason and judgment of law, which law is an art which requires long study and experience, before that a man can attain to the cognisance of it. The law is the golden met-wand and measure to try the causes of your Majesty's subjects; and it is by the law that your Majesty is protected in safety and peace."

King James (in a great rage). "Then I am to be under the law, which it is treason to affirm."

Coke, C. J.-" Thus wrote Bracton: Rex non debet esse sub

homine, sed sub DEO et LEGE. 'The King should not be under man, but under GOD and the LAW.""

And at another time, when James wished all Judges to suspend the hearing of a case, whenever he might choose to interpose, and, quitting the bench, come to His Majesty for instructions, thus losing sight altogether of the law, Coke gave an answer which abashed them all, and put even the King to silence. The Judges, with the Chief Justice at their head, had been summoned to resolve this question:-In a case where the King believes his prerogative or interest concerned, and requires the Judges to attend him for their advice, ought they not to stay proceedings till His Majesty has consulted them? All the Judges except Coke cried, "Yes! yes!! yes!!!" Coke calmly said, "WHEN THE CASE HAPPENS, I SHALL DO THAT WHICH SHALL BE FIT FOR A JUDGE TO DO." This was indeed sublime.

"The Court (of High Commission) having proceeded hitherto only by citation, a new attempt was made to send a pursuivant at once into the house of any person complained against, to arrest him, and to imprison him. This matter being discussed in the Court of Common Pleas, Lord Chief Justice Coke, supported by his brethren, determined that the High Commission had no such power; that the practice was contrary to MAGNA CHARTA; and that if the pursuivant should be killed in the attempt, the party resisting him would not be guilty of murder. The authority of the Court of Common Pleas to check the usurpations of the High Commission by granting prohibitions, was contested; but Coke successfully supported it, and, in various instances, fearlessly stopped proceedings before this tribunal, which the King was known to favour."

The last causes which he conducted as Attorney-General were those of the conspirators in the "gunpowder-plot," where he displayed so much stern justice, that the Romish historians and their copyists never will forgive him. But in those cases, if he was a partisan, his party was justice, religion, and his country. He did nothing to please the Court; and it is observable that, immediately after the condemnation of those conspirators, James, who exceedingly disliked him, promoted

him to be Chief Justice, a post of higher dignity, but not nearly so lucrative, in order to bring him into the Privy Council, and thereby appealing to his pride, subdue his firmness, and by keeping him under the direct influence of King and courtiers, make him "obsequious." But this promotion produced just the contrary effect. At length he was commanded by the King to withdraw from Court, and to cease from the discharge of his judicial functions. He was even thrown into the Tower, and only released to be confined to his own country-house. But nothing could sully his reputation for integrity and loyalty. Never was there a sounder Protestant. In the reign of Charles I. he was made Sheriff of Buckinghamshire, in order to keep him from taking a seat in Parliament for Buckingham. He submitted, and the exChief Justice, in capacity of Sheriff, stood behind the Judge, when he came on the circuit, submissively bearing his white wand. But, on entering that office, he refused to repeat a clause in the oath to "seek and suppress all errors and heresies, commonly called Lollaries." Lollard, he said, meant Protestant, and therefore that was an oath he would never take. The Judges consequently agreed that it should not any longer be required.

The Petition of Right, which has been called the second Magna Charta, and contains the principles of the British Constitution, as it was settled in 1688, was drawn up and carried through Parliament by him. His great work on the Common Law of England, cited as "Coke upon Littleton," is acknowledged to be an enduring bulwark of our liberties, and a thesaurus of legal and historical learning.

His last days were his best. Trouble, experience, and religion had subdued much that was unlovely in him. He long refused medical aid, saying that he had never given his body to physic, his heart to cruelty, nor his hand to corruption. On the 3d day of September, 1634, at the age of eightythree, he pronounced his last words: "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done."