Hale would give weight to his government,* never ceased his importunities, till he had prevailed upon

* And also take off an intrepid barrister, who might powerfully thwart his views. He had already pleaded for the eleven members, whom as most actively hostile to his views, Cromwell had daringly stimulated the army to accuse. Hale's scruples about accepting a commission from an usurper were quieted by his considering, that the administration of justice and the protection of property were at all times necessary:' and he was greatly pressed besides by many royalist lawyers, particularly Sir Orlando Bridgeman and Sir Geoffrey Palmer; as well as justified by the opinions of Dr. Sheldon and Dr. Henchman, subsequently promoted to the sees of Canterbury and London. Cromwell, indeed, had declared, that if he might not govern by red gowns, he was resolved to govern by red coats.'

On entering upon his employment, he drew up the following paper for his guidance:

Things necessary to be continually had in remembrance :

1. That, in the administration of justice, I am entrusted for God, the King, and Country; and therefore,

2. That it be done, 1. Uprightly; 2. Deliberately; 3. Resolutely.

3. That I rest not upon my own understanding or strength, but implore and rest upon the direction and strength of God. 4. That, in the execution of justice, I carefully lay aside my own passions, and not give way to them, however provoked.

5. That I be wholly intent upon the business that I am about, remitting all other cares and thoughts, as unseasonable, and interruptions.

6. That I suffer not myself to be prepossessed with any judgement at all, till the whole busines and both parties be heard.

7. That I never engage myself in the beginning of any cause, but reserve myself unprejudiced, till the whole be heard.

8. That in business capital, though my nature prompt me to pity, yet to consider that there is also a pity due to the country.

9. That I be not too rigid in matters purely conscientious, where all the harm is diversity of judgement.

10. That I be not biassed with compassion to the poor, or favour to the rich, in point of justice.

him to accept the office of one of the Justices of the Common Bench, as it was then called: for which purpose he was made by writ a Serjeant in January, 1654. He had great scruples, however, concerning the legality of the authority, under which he was to exercise his new office; and, after he had gone two or three circuits, being told by Cromwell (who, upon his dismissing a jury specially returned by himself, resented his sturdy support of the dignity of the laws and the rights of the people) that he was not fit to be a judge,' he replied, It was very true,'* and

11. That popular or court applause, or distaste, have no influence into any thing I do in point of distribution of justice. 12. Not to be solicitous what men will say or think, so long as I keep myself exactly according to the rules of justice.

13. If in criminals it be a measuring cast, to incline to mercy and acquittal.

14. In criminals that consist merely in words, when no more harm ensues, moderation is no injustice.

15. In criminals of blood, if the fact be evident, severity is justice.

16. To abhor all private solicitations, of what kind soever, and by whomsoever in matters depending.

17. To charge my servants, 1. Not to interpose in any business whatsoever; 2. Not to take more than their known fees; 3. Not to give any undue precedence to causes; 4. Not to recommend counsel.

18. To be short and sparing at meals, that I may be the fitter for business.

* Who can read with indifference (asks an able writer) the reasons which, with his usual modesty and sincerity, he assigns for declining the judicial office, and in which he represents himself as having "too much pity, clemency, and tenderness in cases of life, which may prove an unserviceable temper for bustling?" "

"Mitis precibus, pietatis abundans, "Pœnæ parcus erat."

(Claud. de IV. Cons. Honor. 113.)

He

thenceforward refused to try criminal causes. was the more readily excused, we may be assured, because he acted with so much firmness and integrity, in opposition to the power from which he derived his commission. Of this Dr. Burnet, in his Life of Hale,' produces one instance, which ought to be transmitted as a mirror for judges to the latest posterity. Soon after he was placed on the bench, a trial was brought before him at Lincoln

Yet so far did he share in the credulity of his contemporaries about witchcraft, that in the Suffolk Sessions (held at Bury St. Edmund's) of 1664, he not only condemned two widows of Lowestoff, but suffered judgement to be executed upon them: and even the learned Sir Thomas Browne, who wrote against • Vulgar Errors' (see a Note on the Life of Sir Thomas More, I. 90.) is said upon this occasion to have declared himself in court clearly of opinion, that the fits of the patients were natural, but heightened by the Devil co-operating with the malice of the witches;' confirming that opinion by a similar case in Denmark, and so far influencing the jury that the two women were hanged.

Sir Matthew Hale was too wise to be pedantic, and too honest to be artificial. Knowledge, reflexion, and a lively sense of morality and religion had elevated his mind far above the petty gratifications, which high office supplies to the weakness of vanity and the restlessness of ambition. But I suspect that, in order to sooth some unquiet misgivings and some tender yearning of his soul, he by frequent efforts of recollection summoned to his aid those maxims, which might lighten the burthen of his painful office as a Judge. Hence, in his Contemplations Moral and Divine, we read, "There must be duly considered the difference between a private person and a public person, whether minister or magistrate. The former, namely the private person, humility must teach him compassion, charitableness, gentleness: but the latter, being entrusted in a public ministration, doth alterius vices agere; his personal humility, as a private man, must teach him to be charitable, but yet not to be remiss or unfaithful in the exercise of his office.'

Assizes against a soldier of the garrison, for the murther of a townsman who had been of the King's party. The latter was in a field with a fowlingpiece on his shoulder, upon which the soldier informed him, he was acting contrary to an order made by the Protector, that no royalist should carry arms,' and would have forced his gun from him; but he, being stronger than his assailant, threw him down, and having beaten him, left him. The soldier, telling a comrade how he had been used, prevailed on him to assist him in taking revenge. Accordingly, they both watched the unsuspecting citizen, upon his return to the town, again demanded his gun which was again refused, and while his new foe was struggling with him, the other came behind, and running his sword into his body killed him on the spot. This happened in the time of the Assizes, so that they were both tried soon after the fact. Against the comrade there was no proof of malice prepense: he was, therefore, found guilty only of manslaughter, and burnt in the hand. But the other, on the clearest evidence, was convicted of murther; and though Colonel Whalley, Governor of the garrison, urged that the man was killed for having disobeyed the Protector's order, and that the soldier had only done his duty,' the Judge paid little regard either to his reasoning, or to some menaces which he threw out; not only passing sentence against him, but ordering execution to be done so suddenly, that there could be no time to apply for a reprieve.

He was at this time, we learn from the same authority, elected a member of parliament (for there being then no House of Lords, Judges might be

chosen to sit in the House of Commons), and he attended it with the design of obstructing the mad and wicked projects then set on foot by two parties, who had very different principles and ends.

On one hand, some that were perhaps more sincere, yet were really brainsick, designed they knew not what; being resolved to pull down a standing ministry of the law and property of England, and all the ancient rules of this government, and set up in it's room an indigested enthusiastical scheme, which they called 'the Kingdom of Christ, or of his Saints :' many of them being really in expectation, that one day or another Christ would come down and sit among them, and at least they thought to begin the glorious thousand years mentioned in the Revelation.

Others at the same time, taking advantages from the fears and apprehensions that all the sober men of the nation were in, lest they should fall under the tyranny of a distracted sort of people, who to all their other ill principles added great cruelty, which they had copied from those at Munster in the former age, intended to improve that opportunity to raise their own fortunes and families. Amidst these, Judge Hale steered a middle course; for, as he would engage for neither side, so he with many more worthy men came to parliaments more out of a design to hinder mischief, than to do much good; wisely foreseeing that the inclinations for the Royal Family were daily growing so much, that in time the disorders then in agitation would ferment to that happy resolution, in which they determined in May, 1660. And, therefore, all that could be then done was, to oppose the ill designs of both parties,