who knew nothing of it, for he said he referred all such things to the under sheriff; and having next asked the under sheriff concerning it, he found the jury had been returned by order from Cromwell; upon which he shewed the statute, that all juries ought to be returned by the sheriff, or his lawful officer: And this not being done according to law, he dismissed the jury, and would not try the cause. Upon which the Protector was highly displeased with him, and at his return from the circuit, he told him in anger, He was not fit to be a judge;' to which all the answer he made was, "That it was very true." Another thing met him in the circuit, upon which he resolved to have proceeded severely. Some anabaptists had rushed into a church, and had disturbed a congregation while they were receiving the sacrament, not without some violence. At this he was highly offended, for he said, "It was intolerable for men, who pretended so highly to liberty of conscience, to go and disturb others, especially those who had the encouragement of the law on their side." But these were so supported by some great magistrates and officers, that a stop was put to his proceedings; upon which he declared he would meddle no more with the trials on the crown side.

When Penruddock's trial was brought on, there was a special messenger sent to him, requiring him to assist at it. It was in vacation time, and he was at his country house at Alderly: He plainly refused to go, and said, "The four terms and two circuits were enough, and the little interval that was between, was little enough for their private affairs ;" and so he excused himself. But if he had been urged, he would not have been afraid of speaking more plainly.

The same year he was elected one of the five knights to represent the county of Gloucester, in the parliament which began at Westminster, September the third, 1654. He duly attended the house, on purpose to obstruct the mad and wicked projects then set on foot, by two parties, that had very different principles and ends. One of those parties, who were downright brainsick enthusiasts, were resolved to pull down a standing ministry, the law and property of England, and all the ancient rules of this government, and set up in their 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 other Christ would come down and sit among them, and at least they thought to begin the

glorious

glorious thousand years mentioned in the Revelation. The others, taking advantage from the fears and apprehensions all the sober people of the nation were in, lest they should fall under the tyranny of that distracted sort of people, (who to all their other 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 a great many more worthy men, came to parliaments, more out of a design to hinder mischief, than to do much good: that is, to oppose the ill designs of both parties, the enthusiasts as well as the usurpers. Among the other extravagant motions made in this parliament, one was, to destroy all the records in the Tower, and to settle the nation on a new foundation; so he took this province to himself, to shew the madness of this proposition, the injustice of it, and the mischiefs that would follow on it; and did it with such clearness and strength of reason, as not only satisfied all sober persons, (for it may be supposed that was soon done) but stopt even the mouths of the frantic people themselves.

When the Protector died, he not only excused himself from accepting of the mourning that was sent him, but also refused the new commission offered him by Richard; alleging," He could act no longer under such authority." He did not sit in Oliver's second parliament, in 1656; but in Richard's, which met January twentyseventh 1658-9, he was one of the burgesses for the university of Oxford. And in the Healing Parliament, anno 1660, which recalled King Charles II. he was elected one of the knights for the county of Gloucester, through the Lord Berkeley's interest, and without any charge to himself, though he had a competitor that had spent near a thousand pounds; a great sum to be employed that way in those days. In that parliament, he moved that a committee might be appointed to look into the propositions that had been made, and the concessions that had been offered by King Charles I. during the late war; that from thence such propositions might be digested, as they should think fit to be sent over to the king at Breda. He was also very earnest and instrumental in getting the act of indemnity passed. The twenty-second of June, his majesty recalled him among others, by writ, to the degree of serjeant at law. And, upon settling the courts in Westminster Hall, con

stituted

stituted him, November the seventh the same year, Chief Baron of the Exchequer. When the Lord Chancellor, Clarendon, delivered him his commission, he made a speech to him according to custom, wherein he expressed his great and just esteem for him in the following words: That if the king could have found out an honester and fitter man for that employment, he would not have advanced him to it; and that he had therefore preferred him, because he knew none that deserved it so well.' Some time after he was knighted. It is an honour usually conferred upon the chief judges, but Mr. Hale desired to avoid it; and therefore declined for a considerable time all opportunities of waiting on the king: Which the Lord Chancellor observing, he sent for him upon business one day, when the king was at his house, and told his majesty, There was his modest Chief Baron;' upon which he was unexpectedly knighted.

He continued eleven years in that place, and very much raised the reputation and practice of the court, by his exact and impartial administration of justice, as also by his generosity, vast diligence, and great exactness in trials.* According to his rule of favouring and relieving those

*Of which we have the following instances: He would never receive any private addresses or recommendations from the greatest persons, in any matter in which justice was concerned. One of the first peers of England went once to his chamber, and told him, That having a suit in law to be tried before him, he was then to acquaint him with it, that he might the better understand it, when it should come to be heard in court.' Upon which Sir Matthew interrupted him, and said, "He did not deal fairly to come to his chamber about such affairs, for he never received any information of causes but in open court, where both parties were to be heard alike;" so he would not suffer him to go on. Whereupon his Grace, (for he was a Duke) went away not a little dissatisfied, and complained of it to the King, as a rudeness that was not to be endured. But his majesty bid him Content himself that he was no worse used,' and said, He verily believed he would have used himself no better, if he had gone to solicit him in any of his own causes.' Another passage fell out in one of his circuits, which was somewhat censured as an affectation of unreasonable strictness; but it flowed from his exactness to the rules he had set himself. A gentleman had sent him a buck to his table, that had a trial at the assizes; so when he heard his name, he asked, "If he was not the same person that had sent him the venison ?" And finding he was the same, he told him, "He could uot suffer the trial to go on, till he had paid him for his buck" To which the gentleman answered, That he never sold his venison, and that he had done nothing to him, which he did not do to every judge that bad gone that circuit,' which was confirmed by several gentlemen then present: But all would not do, for the Lord Chief Baron had learned from Solomon, that a gift perverleth the ways of judgment; and therefore he would not suffer the trial to go on, till he

bad

those that were lowest, he was now very charitable to
the Nonconformists, and took great care to cover them
as much as possible from the severities of the law. He
thought many of them had merited highly in the business
of the King's restoration, and at least deserved that the
terms of conformity should not have been made stricter
than they were before the war. But as he lamented the
too rigorous proceedings against them, so he declared
himself always of the side of the church of England, and
said, "Those of the separation were good men: but they
had narrow souls, who would break the peace of the
church about such inconsiderable matters as the points in
difference were." After the fire of London, he was one
of the principal judges that sat in Clifford's Inn to settle
the differences between landlord and tenant, being the
first that offered his service to the city in that affair:
Wherein he behaved himself to the satisfaction of all par-
ties concerned. He was heartily engaged (together with
Dr. Wilkins, afterwards Bishop of Chester, &c.) in the at-
tempt to bring a comprehension to pass in the year 1668,
for the more moderate dissenters, and a limited indulgence
towards such as could not be brought within the compre-
hension; but so strong was the opposition, that the whole
project was let fall; and, says Bishop Burnet, those who
had set it on foot came to be looked
with an ill eye,
as secret favourers of the dissenters, underminers of the
church, and every thing else that jealousy and distaste
could cast upon them. On this occasion Judge Hale and
Dr. Wilkins came to contract a firm and familiar friend-
ship, and an intimacy and freedom in converse that the
Judge used with no other. He held also great conversa-
tion with the reverend Mr. Richard Baxter, who was his
neighbour at Acton, on whom he looked as a person of
great devotion and piety, and of a very quick apprehen-
sion: Indeed, as he thought the Nonconformists were too
hardly used, he bestowed his charity largely among them,
and took great care to cover them all he could, from the
severities some designed against them.

upon

Let us view him now when broken in health, and growing weaker daily in body. He made a voluntary surrender of his office, which he had held about four years and a half, having sued to the King for a writ of ease,

which

had paid for the present; upon which the gentleman withdrew the record.
And, at Salisbury, the dean and chapter, according to custom, presented
him with six sugar loaves in his circuit, he made his servants pay for the
sugar before he would try their canse.
2 E

VOL. III.

which he was unwilling to grant, and deferred it till the Lord Chief Justice Hale, being wearied by application and delay, drew up a deed of surrender with his own hand, and delivered it to the Lord Chancellor. He had behaved in that high station with his usual strictness and diligence, One thing was much observed and commended in him, viz. that when there was a great inequality in the ability and learning of the counsellors that were to plead one against another, he thought it became him, as the judge, to supply that; so he would enforce what the weaker counsel managed but indifferently, and not suffer the more learned to carry the business by the advantage they had over the others in their quickness and skill in law, and readiness in pleading, till all things were cleared in which the merits and strength of the ill-defended cause lay. He was not satisfied barely to give his judgment in causes, but did, especially in all intricate ones, give such an account of the reasons that prevailed with him, that the counsel did not only acquiesce in. his authority, but were so convinced by his reasons, that he brought them often to change their opinions; so that his giving of judgment was really a learned lecture upon that point of law. And even the parties interested were generally satisfied with the justice of his decisions, even when they were made against themselves.

The writer of his life inserts a paper, which shews that Sir Matthew Hale thought himself no longer bound in duty to hold his office, and was desirous to quit it, that he might wholly apply himself to better purposes. The close of that paper is as follows: "I do not know a better temporal employment than Martha had, in testifying her love and duty to our Saviour, by making provision for him; yet our Lord tells her, that though she was troubled about many things, there was only one thing necessary, and Mary had chosen the better part." He had been wont to worship GoD in his family, performing it always himself if no clergyman was present: But as to private exercises of devotion, he used the greatest privacy, and indeed used the greatest caution to conceal the religious impressions which were in his mind, from fear, lest by some fall he should bring reproach on religion: But now in his weak state he retired often to his closet for devotion as long as he could go, and when his infirmities prevented, he made his servants carry him thither in a chair. It was in February 1675-6 that he surrendered his office, and as the next winter came on, he saw with great joy his

deliverance