SIR MATTHEW HALE.

THIS country has produced few greater men, and none better than Sir Matthew Hale, whose whole conduct in public life as a judge, and in private as a Christian, separated from his literary character, will always render his name venerable, and his example of inestimable value.

He was born at Alderly, in Gloucestershire, in 1609. His grandfather was a wealthy clothier at Wotton-under-Edge, in that county, who left a large family of sons and daughters well provided for. The second son, the father of the judge, was a barrister of Lincoln's Inn, but of so scrupulous a conscience that he gave over practice because he could not, in conscience, give a colour in pleadings which he thought was telling a lie. This, with other reasons, induced him to quit the Inns of Court, and retire into the country, where he left, out of his small estate, twenty pounds a year to the poor of Wotton, which his son confirmed to them, with some addition, and with this regulation, that it should be distributed among such poor housekeepers as did not receive alms of the parish. This good man died when his son was only five years old, but the loss of the father was supplied by the care of his mother,

and the tenderness of a near relation, Anthony Kingscot, of Kingscot, Esq.

After a private education he was removed to Magdalen Hall, Oxford, under the noted puritan, Obadiah Sedgwick; but it seems he did not imbibe any of the fanatical principles of his tutor, for the stage-players visting Oxford, says his biographer, he was so much corrupted by seeing many plays, that he almost wholly forsook his studies.

"The corruption of a young man's mind in one particular," continues the same writer, "generally draws on a great many more. So he being now broken off from his studies, and from the gravity of deportment, which was formerly eminent in him, far beyond his years, set himself to many of the vanities incident to youth, but still he preserved a great probity of mind, he loved fine cloaths, and delighted much in company; and being of a strong robust body, he was a great master of all those exercises which required much strength. He also learned to fence, in which he became so expert, that he worsted many of the masters of those arts; but as he was exercising himself in them, an instance appeared that gave some hopes of better things. One of his masters told him he could teach him no more, for he was now better at his own trade than himself. This Mr. Hale looked upon as flattery; so to make the master discover himself, he promised him the house he lived in, for he was his tenant, if he could hit him a blow on the head, and bade him

do

do his best, for he would be as good as his word: so after a little engagement, his master being really superior to him, hit him on the head, and he performed his promise, for he gave him the house freely; and was not unwilling at that rate to learn to distinguish flattery from plain truth."

These exercises gave him an inclination for a military life, and he was about to accompany his tntor, who was appointed chaplain in Lord Vere's regiment, then about to embark for the Low Countries; but being engaged in a lawsuit, and applying to his counsellor, Serjeant Glanville,*

Of this eminent lawyer, Sir John Glanville, Bishop Bur net, relates the following anecdote:

"His father had a fair estate, which he intended to settle on his eldest son, but he being a vicious young man, and there appearing no hopes of his recovery, he settled it upon the Serjeant, who was his second son. Upon his death, the eldest, looked upon as the mere

finding that what he had before threatening of an angry father, was now but too certain, became melancholy, and this, by degrees wrought so great a change in him, that what his father could not accomplish while he lived, was now effected by the severity of his last will. His brother, observing this, invited him, with many other friends, to an entertainment, and after other dishes had been served up, he ordered one that was covered to be set before his brother, desiring him to uncover it; which being done, the company were surprized to find it full of writings. The serjeant then told them, that he was now doing what his father would have done if he had lived to see that happy change which they all now were witnesses of; and therefore he now freely restored to his brother the whole estate."

that gentleman, perceiving Mr. Hale's abilities, persuaded him to study the law. This advice he followed, and at the age of twenty he was admitted a student of Lincoln's Inn, where he followed his studies with unremitting diligence. However he did not at first break off from keeping bad company, till induced to do so by an accident. He, with some other young students, being invited to be merry out of town, one of them called for so much wine, that notwithstanding all Mr. Hale could do to prevent it, he went on in his excess till he fell down apparently dead. All present were greatly frightened, and Mr. Hale retiring into another room, fell on his knees, praying earnestly to God, both for his friend, that he might be restored to life, and that himself might be forgiven for countenancing such excess, vowing, at the same time that he would never more keep the like company, nor drink a health again while he lived his friend recovered, and he religiously observed his vow to his dying day. Noy, the Attorney General,* being one of the

greatest

This person rendered himself obnoxious to the people by recommending to the king the unpopular measure of ship money. He was profoundly studied in the ancient records, and altogether a skilful lawyer, as well as an honest man, He died of excessive fatigue in his profession, in 1634, and Anthony Wood gives the following singular account of him, chiefly however taken from Howel's Familiar Letters :

greatest men in the profession, took early notice of him, directed him in his studies, and contracted such

"His body being opened after his decease, his heart was found shrivelled like a leather penny purse, nor were his lungs right, which caused several conjectures by the puritans. But that which was most observable after his death, was his will, dated June 3, 1634, at which all the world wondered, because the maker thereof was accounted a great clerk in the law, for therein, after he had bequeathed to his son Humphry a hundred marks per annum, to be paid out of his tenements in the hundred of Pyder, in Cornwall, be concludes, et reliqua omnia, &c. and the rest of all my lands, goods, &c. I leave to my son, Edward Noy, whom I make my executor, to be consumed and scattered about nec de eo speravi [nor did I hope better of him]." But Edward, says Wood, did not live long to enjoy the estate, for within two years after, he was slain in a duel in France, by one Captain Byron, who escaped scot free, and had his pardon, as William Prynne, an inveterate enemy to William Noy his father, reports.-As his majesty was somewhat troubled at his loss (by the death of the Attorney General) and the clergy more, so the generality of the common people rejoiced. The vintners drank carouses, in hopes to dress meat again, and sell tobacco, beer, &c. which by a sullen capricio, Noy restrained them from. The players also, for whom he had done no kindness, did, the next term after his decease, make him the subject of a merry comedy, stiled A Projector lately dead, &c. He had his humours as well as other men, but certainly he was a solid rational man, and though no great orator, yet he was a profound lawyer, and none was better versed in records than he. In his place of Attorney General, succeeded Sir John Banks, and the next year Sir Robert Heath, being removed from the chief justiceship of the King's Bench, for bribery,