Judges in the Olden Time.

but Coke went through with the case and decided it. In 1621, after an interval of six years, a parliament was summoned, and Coke, who saw that his dream of Court favor was over —seeing" too, Lord Bacon high in power— had himself returned to the House of Com mons for a Cornish borough, and put him self at the head of those Puritans who were, twenty-eight years later, to overturn the throne. He was then sixty-nine years old. Before the close of the session, he got the Commons to adopt a protestation that the liberties, franchises and privileges of parlia ment are the ancient and undoubted birth right of English subjects. James, highly incensed, sent for the journals of the House, tore out the page recording this imperti nence, and dissolved the parliament. Coke was committed to the Tower; but on the accession of Charles I., he was again in par liament, and again in opposition. Charles told the Commons, if they did not give the supply, "he must use the means which God had put into his hands," etc. The House fasted and took the sacrament; and the same day, Coke, then seventy-seven years of age, began his quaint and crabbed speeches about Magna Charta, Nullus liber homo, Habeas Corpus, and so forth; and in a short time had drawn up and brought forward the "Petition of Right." It passed the Com mons. The King sent lawyers to argue against it at the bar of the Lords, but Coke overpowered them at law, and into law the bill passed. Coke shortly after retired from public life, and published his famous com mentary upon Littleton. Coming now to the time of the Common wealth, Rolle is memorable for his modera tion and his opposition to Cromwell, when ever the policy of the latter led him to dis regard the constitution. Oliver was in many things nearly as despotic as the Stuarts. In a case of illegal taxing, he sent for the judges, and rated them for their reluctance to satisfy it. When they spoke of Magna

491

Charta, he told them that their Magna Charta — giving a very curious and laugh able pronunciation, still preserved among the traditions of Westminster Hall—had no weight at all with him in the case. If this same Oliver, whom Carlyle worshiped in his own Teutonic fashion, may be called the hand of the Commonwealth, Chief Justice St. John may be called its head, for he planned all the schemes for the overthrow of den's thecounsel royal in prerogative. the ship-money He case was; he Hampwas also the author of the English Navigation Laws, repealed only a few years since. After the Restoration, Sir Matthew Hale was a remarkable example of moral purity and judicial independence at such a period. The witchcraft trial in which he sentenced two poor old women to be hanged, is a blot upon his character; and yet no man should be condemned for his sincere belief. In 1668, he was invited to assist the bishop of Chester and Richard Baxter, in making a church establishment which should include the Presbyterians, but it fell to pieces. Among many other books, he wrote letters to his children; and among other exhorta tions, advises them "to know the condition of the poultry about the house, for it is no discredit to a woman to be a hen-housewife; to cast about to order their clothes with the most frugality, to mend them when they want," etc. But in his own person he was a great sloven—one of the most simple and careless of mortals. He married his maid servant in his old age, and never cared to have any intercourse with the great or wealthy; his children turned out none the better for it. Every one to his trade, and every one to his station, say we. Sir Mat thew Hale, while administering justice to others, failed to administer justice to his own family. During the time that elapsed from the Restoration to the Revolution, there were eleven Chief Justices. We single out Scroggs, who first hanged Roman Catholics