As a scholar, his reputation was very high indeed. He is said to have understood at least fifteen languages; and his fame was not confined to this island, but extended to most parts of Europe. His literary correspondence was very extensive. Casaubon bears testimony to his universal erudition, and Spanheim and Vossius are eloquent in his praise. Yet it must be confessed that his compositions were vitiated by the bad taste of the times. They were full of pun and wit, and scraps of Greek and Latin; and though they all display the goodness of his heart, and his extensive learning, they must now be read rather for improvement than for pleasure. This prelate had a considerable share in that translation of the Bible which is now in use.

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SIR EDWARD COKE,

LORD CHIEF JUSTICE OF ENGLAND.
Born 1550.-Died 1634.

From 3d Edward VI., to 9th Charles I.

Or all the professions, that of jurisprudence affords the fairest and most promising field for the exercise of abilities. The divine, with very slender pretensions to talents, may rise on the props of patronage or connexions; the physician is often more indebted for success to his address than his skill, but neither patronage, connexions, nor address, can make a man an able lawyer or an eloquent pleader. In this profession there must be intrinsic merit: which at last will surmount all difficulties; and, trusting to itself alone, will if at all called into action, command that attention which the generality of men are obliged to court. It is not therefore to be wondered at that there should be so many candidates for the honours of the bar; and that, from among so many competitors, there should be some splendid instances of successful labours.

Among those whose legal attainments acquired them honour and opulence alive, and whose works instruct

when dead, sir Edward Coke holds an elevated place. This luminary of the law was the son of Robert Coke, esq. of Mileham, in the county of Norfolk. After a slight domestic education, he was sent to the grammar-school of Norwich when ten years old, and in due time removed to Trinity college, Cambridge..

What early evidences he gave of genius or application at school or college are not related. Our juvenile years commonly pass away unrecorded, and are soon forgotten. Talents are developed at very uncertain periods; the sprightly boy does not always turn out the man of abilities, nor does the backward genius of youth always characterize maturer years.

It seems that Coke was originally destined for the law; for after five years study at Cambridge, he was entered of Clifford's-inn; and the first incident that brought him into any notice was the precision with which he stated the case of the cook belonging to the house, and the shrewdness with which he pleaded it.

It has been remarked on other occasions, that the fortunes of men frequently turn on slight and fortuitous circumstances, which no foresight can anticipate, no prudence can forward or retard. When the young lawyer was defending the cause of the cook, he probably little thought that such an insignificant introduction would be the basis of his future fame: yet in consequence of the admiration which he excited on this occasion, he was called to the bar earlier than had been usual; and according to his own reports, in Trinity term 1578 he defended a clergyman in Norfolk, in an action of scandalum magnatum, brought against him by Henry lord Cromwell.

About this time he was appointed reader of Lyon's-inn,. and his lectures increased his reputation. By rapid degrees he acquired such extensive practice, and was considered as such a rising character, that after being seven years at the bar, he married an heiress of the ancient.

and honourable family of Paston, with whom he had a portion of thirty thousand pounds.

By this marriage he became allied to some of the noblest houses in the kingdom, and honours and emoluments began to be showered upon him abundantly, He was chosen recorder of Coventry and Norwich, obtained the patronage of lord Burleigh, and was frequently consulted on political as well as judicial affairs. Being returned to parliament by his native county of Norfolk, he was first appointed queen's solicitor, and soon after chosen speaker of the house of commons. In 1592 he became attorney-general, and by this step his rise to the summit of his profession was in a manner ensured. The only important business, however, in which he was employed in his new station during the reign of Elizabeth, was the trial of the earl of Essex, against whom he pleaded with peculiar acrimony.

Being left a widower with ten children, he turned his thoughts to another match of great fortune, and still greater connexions, This was the relict of sir William Hatton, and sister to lord Burleigh. But this marriage, however it might aggrandize him, was fatal to his domestic felicity. Their discordant tempers were the source of mutual misery; and after many bickerings and partial separations, king James was obliged to become a mediator between them. But no authority can awaken the passion of love, or resume its extinguished flame; they lived but to curse their destiny; and the lawyer sought solace in business and ambition, instead of those sweeter comforts which a happy home can impart.

In May, 1603, he was knighted by king James; and in the same year conducted the trial of the brave unfortunate sir Walter Raleigh, with such asperity and insolence, such scurrility and cruelty, as greatly lessened the respect of the public for his character. However, he gained credit by his sagacity in unravelling that dark and vindic

tive conspiracy, the gunpowder plot; and on the trial of the conspirators, gave the most unequivocal proofs of extensive capacity, acute penetration, and solid judgment. Soon after he was appointed lord chief justice of the common pleas, on which occasion he took for his motto the significant and appropriate words, Lex est tutissima cassis, "The law is the safest helmet." Having held this post with high reputation for seven years, he was promoted to be lord chief justice of the king's bench, and sworn a privy-counsellor.

Two years afterwards, when Egerton lord Ellesmere vacated the place of lord high chancellor, his majesty was at a loss to determine on a successor, and seems to have thought of sir Edward Coke: but the intrigues of Bacon and others prevailed; for the lord chief-justice, though the greatest lawyer, was far from being the best politician. Bacon, taking advantage of the inflexible character of his rival, painted his own more compliant disposition in such colours as suited the humour and the principles of James, and in consequence he bore away the prize. Between Coke and Bacon there appears to have been not only an emulation for rank and distinction, but a personal animosity which death only could extinguish. Bacon perhaps envied that legal superiority which Coke was generally allowed to possess; and Coke beheld with indignation and despair that universality of genius in Bacon, which defied all competition, and gained him the highest admiration of mankind.

Though sir Edward Coke had in the situation of attorney-general, and with prospects of higher preferment before him, stretched the prerogative in some cases too far; yet no sooner was he elevated to the chief bench of justice, than he seems to have determined to maintain the integrity and independence of his post. He gave public notice how much he detested corruption, by frequently repeating this maxim, "that a judge should neither give

nor take a bribe;" and instead of complying with arbitrary measures, on various occasions he shewed himself the firm friend of the liberties of his country, and of the rights of individuals.

This conduct, however honourable to himself, was not likely to ingratiate him with James, or render his office permanent for till the present reign the judges were dependant on the royal will; and justice wanted this best and greatest safeguard, an assurance that its ministers could not be displaced except for misconduct in their office.

By degrees sir Edward Coke became more and more obnoxious to government; and the chancellor Bacon, in the plenitude of his power, eagerly widened the breach by his courtly insinuations. The immediate cause of sir Edward's disgrace is differently accounted for. Certainly he had shewn himself unfavourable to the leading maxims of James's court; he had offended the favourite sir George Villiers, afterwards duke of Buckingham; and the chancellor was his inveterate enemy.

Against such a combination of powerful interests, it was impossible for him to maintain his ground; his fall was determined; and the manner in which it was accom plished was in the highest degree humiliating.

Being called before the privy-council, on the 20th of June, 1616, in the most unprecedented manner, he was obliged to kneel while the solicitor-general preferred several vague accusations against him; such as, "speeches of high contempt uttered in the seat of justice; and uncomely and undutiful carriage in the presence of his majesty, the privy-council, and the judges."

Reduced to this degraded situation, in an able and impartial manner he exculpated himself from the several charges urged against him, in support of which no direct evidence was advanced; but his removal being predeter. mined, the only business was to prepare the way, and to invent some plausible excuses for such an exertion of power.