which, in all probability, this conduct brought the chief-justice at court, was farther increased by the dispute in which he involved himself with the lord-chancellor, Ellesmere, with regard to the authority of their respective courts. Bacon artfully fomented the contest, and incited the king to take part in it against Coke. On the 26th of July, 1616, he was cited before the privy-council and reprimanded for "certain acts and speeches wherewith his majesty was unsatisfied." On the 15th of November, in the same year, Sir Henry Montague was appointed chief justice, Coke having been previously deprived of his high judicial rank by a writ of supersedeas.

The marriage of Sir Edward's daughter to Sir John Villiers, the brother of the earl of Buckingham, facilitated the restoration of Coke to the royal favour. He had at a former period expressed himself averse to this alliance, but now saw reasons sufficient to induce him to give his consent to the match, which was likewise eagerly promoted by Secretary Winwood, betwixt whom and Sir Francis Bacon a coolness had arisen, and who saw in the restoration of the late chief-justice to power the surest means of humbling the lord-keeper. Bacon did what he could to prevent the match, but drew upon himself the severe censure of the king for his interference, and being soon after convicted of bribery, was disgraced. To the honour of Sir Edward Coke-who was one of the committee appointed to prepare the charges against the chancellor he displayed great moderation and forbearance in his conduct towards his fallen enemy.

Although thus restored to favour, Sir Edward received no other appointment than that of privy-councillor. In 1620, he appeared in parliament as one of the representatives for the borough of Liskeard, in Cornwall. In this capacity he strenuously upheld the authority of parliament and the privileges of the commons; and he took so active a part in the question of privileges arising out of the case of Sir Edwin Sandys, that, on the 27th of December, 1621, he was committed to the Tower, and soon afterwards he was again dismissed from his place at the council-table. On the accession of Charles I., Coke took a conspicuous part in opposing the subsidies. To get rid of his opposition in the house of commons, he was nominated sheriff of Buckinghamshire, but, notwithstanding this appointment, he was returned as knight of the shire for Norfolk. In the third parliament of Charles I., Sir Edward appeared as one of the representatives for Buckinghamshire, and gave his assistance to the framing of the famous petition of right. Sir Robert Heath, the attorney-general, having, on the first discussion, treated some of Coke and Selden's precedents for the ancient liberties of England slightingly, Coke replied, restating them, and declaring, in the full confidence of his powers and his cause, that "it was not under Mr Attorney's cap to answer any one of those arguments." He also boldly attacked the duke of Buckingham, whom he openly denounced as the cause of all the nation's misfortunes. On the dissolution of this parliament, in March, 1628, O. S., Sir Edward Coke retired from public life to his seat at Stoke-Pogis, where he spent the remainder of his life. He died on the 3d of September, 1634, and was buried at Titeshall church, in Norfolk. A short time previous to his death his house was searched by an order from the privy-council, for treasonable and seditious papers, and many of his valuable MSS. carried away

"Sir Edward Coke," says a writer in the Retrospective review,' "has been emphatically and truly called, the oracle of the law, for his name alone confers an almost undisputed authority. His learning was at once profound, excursive, and curious. When he applied the powers of his strong mind to the illustration of a legal question, he wholly exhausted the subject, and rather than quit it he would resort even to remote analogies. With the grounds and reasons of the common law he was perfectly familiar, and, upon the whole, he may be considered the most consummate lawyer of his own or any other time. His works, the honourable monuments of his unconquerable industryfor they were composed in the precious intervals of a more than usually active professional life-have received from succeeding times those marks of distinction which are due to their merit. His Institutes and Reports are called par excellence, 'The Institutes' and The Reports,' and his first Institute, the Commentary upon Littleton, has become the bible of the law. In the course of his laborious researches, some inaccuracies and incongruities necessarily occur, more especially in the posthumous portions of his works. The incorruptible integrity which he displayed in his professional character is, even more than his learning, worthy of the highest praise. His preferment was always obtained, to use his own words, without either prayers or pence, and in an age more than usually corrupt, he avoided the general contamination."

William Noy.

BORN A. D. 1577.-DIED A. D. 1634.

THIS strenuous supporter of the royal prerogative was the son of William Noy of St Burian in Cornwall, gent. He was born there in 1577, and, at the age of sixteen, he became a student at Exeter college, Oxford. Here he continued about three years a severe_student, and from thence proceeded to the study of the common law in Lincoln's inn, where he persevered with extraordinary diligence in that pursuit, and where he laid the foundation of his great reputation for a knowledge of old records and precedents.

Toward the close of the reign of James the First he was chosen to represent Helston, in his native county; and in two successive parliaments appeared as "a professed enemy to the king's prerogative."

In 1625, soon after the accession of Charles 1st, he was elected for St Ives, in Cornwall, and in this and the following parliament persevered in his opposition to the royal claims. Having thus distinguished himself on the side of popular rights, he was sent for by Charles, who told him that he would make him his attorney-general. Noy appeared at first indifferent to the proposed honour; but, after much solicitation, accepted the office, and, from that moment, commenced a course diametrically opposed to the former, and became the most able and determined advocate of the prerogative of the crown, advising and assisting the king, in his measures for raising money without consent of parliament. Clarendon remarks of him, that on this advancement, "the court made no impression upon his manners: upon his mind it did; and, though he wore about him an affected morosity, which made him unapt to flatter other

men, yet even that morosity and pride rendered him the most liable to be flattered himself that can be imagined. And by this means, the great persons who steered the public affairs, by admiring his parts and extolling his judgment, as well to his face as behind his back, wrought upon him by degrees, for the eminency of the service, to be an instrument in all their designs; thinking that he could not give a clearer testimony that his knowledge in the law was greater than all other men's, than by making that law which all other men believed not to be so. So he moulded, framed, and pursued the odious and crying project of soap; and with his own hand drew and prepared the writ for shipmoney, both which will be the lasting monuments of his fame."

Noy was an indefatigable student and antiquary; and, being exhausted with severe application, went, in 1634, to Tunbridge wells, for the benefit of the waters; but, receiving no benefit from them, he sunk under his complaint-a disease of the heart-and died there on the 9th of August, in that year. His body was conveyed to New Brentford, in Middlesex, and buried there under the communion-table of the parish church.

The king, it is said, was much affected by the death of his attorneygeneral; and, on the news of his decease reaching Laud, archbishop of Canterbury, then at Hoydon, he inserted in his diary :-" I have lost a dear friend of him, and the church the greatest she had of his condition since she needed any such." The clergy in general sympathized with this prelate on their loss; but the people, in general, rejoiced. Lloyd, in his State Worthies, observes of Noy, that "he was very vigilant over the adversaries of the church. Witness his early foresight of the danger, and industrious prosecution of the illegality of the design of buying impropriations, set up by persons not well-affected to the constitution." He adds, that "he loved to hear Dr Preston preach, because he spake so solidly, as if he knew God's will."

Noy, however, was no friend to the puritans, but eagerly seized those occasions which his office admitted for visiting them with the penalties of the law. This appears in his prosecution of Prynne for a passage in his Histrio-mastix,' which Laud and the bishops pretended was treasonable, or at least scandalous to the character of the queen, Henrietta, who had acted a part in a play at Somerset-house.

Noy's will created much surprise, from its singularity, and affords some idea of his peculiar manner. After bequeathing his son, Humphrey, a hundred marks per annum, he says, "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 melius speravi, nor do I hope any better of him." But Edward, whatever effect so harsh a censure might have had upon him, lived only two years after his father, either to squander the estate or to reform, being killed in a duel in France, by one Captain Byron. Noy left many MSS. prepared for publication, and several of which were printed during the commonwealth.-1. A Treatise of the principal grounds and maxims of the laws of England.' 1641.-2. Perfect Conveyancer, or several select and choice precedents.' 1655.-3. Reports and cases in the time of Queen Elizabeth, King James, and King Charles I., containing the most excellent exceptions for all manner of declarations, pleadings, and demurs, exactly examined and laid down.' 1656.-4. The Complete

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Lawyer; or a treatise concerning tenures and estates in lands of inheritance for life and other hereditaments, and chattels, real and personal, &c.' 1661.-5. 'Arguments of law and speeches.'

He also left behind him several choice collections that he had made from the records in the Tower of London, reduced into two large paper books of his own hand-writing. One contained collections concerning the king's maintaining his naval power, according to the practice of his ancestors; and the other about the privileges and jurisdiction of ecclesiastical courts. To the latter collection, Dr Thomas James of Oxford, in the compilation of his 'Manuduction or Introduction unto Divinity,' printed in 1625, confesses himself indebted.

Sir Henry Wotton.

BORN A. D. 1568.-DIED A. D. 1639.

THIS celebrated statesman was the fourth son of Thomas Wotton, of Bocton-Malherb in Kent, and grandson of Sir Edward Wotton, privycouncillor, and treasurer of Calais, under Henry VIII. He was born in 1568, and received his early education at Winchester, whence he was removed to Oxford, where he entered as a gentleman-commoner of New-college in 1584, but soon after removed to Queen's college. While at Oxford, he distinguished himself by close application to his studies; his proficiency in logic and philosophy was highly satisfactory to his tutors, but he peculiarly attached himself to the instructions of Albericus Gentilis, an Italian refugee of the protestant faith, who at this time filled the chair of jurisprudence at Oxford. This able man honoured young Wotton with his confidence, and assisted him in the attainment of Italian. He appears also to have occasionally sought relief from severer studies in the society of the muses, for we find him receiving the thanks of the society of Queen's college for the gratification which his tragedy of Tancredo' had afforded them.

In 1589 his father died, and he succeeded to a small annuity of one hundred marks. On this slender pittance he determined to set out on his travels; and accordingly he appears to have spent several years in France, Germany, and Italy. He resided but one year in France; the next three years he spent in Germany, chiefly at Ingolstadt and Vienna, where he passed for a German and a catholic. At Vienna he lodged with the emperor's librarian, and enjoyed an opportunity of inspecting numerous important manuscripts relating to the state of the empire. From Germany he passed into Italy, where he remained five years. His long residence in the latter country, though ostensibly devoted to the pursuit of literature and the fine arts, was doubtless connected with some purposes of a political nature, for we find him using many precautions to conceal his nation. In May, 1592, he thus writes to Lord Zouch from Florence, giving an account of his journey from Ve◄ nice to Rome: "I had the company of the baron, with whom, notwith standing the catholic religion, I entered into very intrinsical familiarity, having persuaded him that I was half his countryman, himself being born, though under the duke of Cleve, not far from Colen, which went for my town. I found him by conversation to be very indiscreet, soon

led, much given to women, careless of religion,-qualities notably serving my purpose; for while a man is held in exercise with his own vices, he hath little leisure to observe others; and besides, to feign myself an accommodable person to his humour in all points was indeed most convenient for me; looseness of behaviour, and a negligent worldly kind of carriage of a man's self, are the faults that States least fear, because they hurt only him in whom they are found. To take the benefit of this, I entered Rome with a mighty blue feather in a black hat: which, though itself were a slight matter, yet surely it did work in the imaginations of men three great effects: first, I was by it taken for no Englishman, upon which depended the ground of all; secondly, I was reputed as light in my mind as in my apparell (they are not dangerous men that are so); thirdly, no man could think that I desired to be unknown, who by wearing that feather, took a course to make myself famous through Rome in a few days." With all his precautions, however, and blue feather to boot, a sagacious Scotchman was so near discovering his secret that he judged it prudent to withdraw from Rome. He now took up his abode at Sienna, where he remained some time. In 1595 he returned to England.

Wotton's accomplishments, learning, and knowledge of the world, soon recommended him to the earl of Essex, who appointed him one of his secretaries. On the ruin of his patron he made his escape to France, and thus escaped sharing the fate of his fellow-secretary, Henry Cuff, who was hanged for concealing his knowledge of his master's treasons. He soon turned his steps once more to Italy, and took up his residence in Florence, where he gained the esteem of the grand duke, Ferdinand, and where an incident occurred which was destined to introduce him to the acquaintance and favour of king James. Ferdinand had intercepted a despatch of great importance relative to an intrigue for assassinating the king of Scots; and being desirous to communicate the discovery to James, his secretary, Vietta, recommended Wotton as a fit messenger to employ in so delicate and hazardous a mission. Wotton at once undertook the task; and the more effectually to escape suspicion, he proceeded first to Norway, where he embarked for Scotland. On reaching Stirling he gained admission to the king under the assumed character of a Florentine; but, after delivering his despatch, he contrived to inform his majesty in a whisper that he was an Englishman in disguise, and solicited a private interview. This was granted, and Wotton spent above three months at the Scottish court, during all which time his real name and character were unknown to any one save James himself.

A few months after his return to Florence, the death of Elizabeth— whom he had vainly attempted to propitiate by the composition of a work entitled 'The State of Christendom,' in which he took care to represent her majesty's government as the model of perfection—and the accession of James, terminated his expatriation, and opened up his way to honour and offices. James received him with the utmost cordiality, declaring that "he was the most honest, and therefore the best dissembler he had ever met with;" he soon after knighted him, and next year offered him his choice of the embassies to France, to Spain, or to Ve

I Walton's Life of Wotton.