'he looked upon the independance and uprightnefs of the judges, as effential to the impartial adminiftra'tion of juftice, as one of the beft fecurities of the rights and liberties of his fubjects, and as moft conducive to the honour of the Crown; and therefore earnestly recommended to parliament, that the judges might 'be continued during their good behaviour, notwith'ftanding any demife of the Crown.' This the parliament immediately took into confideration, and with all poffible difpatch paffed a law in every respect conformable with the recommendation."

It cannot be fuppofed that our illustrious judge was exempt from the frailties of humanity. There is one circumftance recorded of him, which fufficiently proves indeed, that he had not rifen fuperior to the fuperftitious credulity of the times. It almoft furpaffes belief at the prefent day, with what reverence and horror our forefathers looked upon nature, before the world was enlightened by learning and philofophy, and how they loved to aftonifh themfelves with the apprehenfions of witchcrafts, prodigies, charms, and enchantments. There was not a village in England that had not a ghoft in it, the church-yards were all haunted, every large common had a circle of fairies belonging to it; and there was fcarce a shepherd to be met with who had not feen a fpirit!! The mind is overwhelmed in astonishment at the fact, that Sir Matthew Hale, the moft pious, learned, enlightened, and humane judge, that ever adorned the Bench, fhould declare his belief in witchcraft 2, at the affizes held March 10th, 1664, at Bury St. Edmund's, in Suffolk, where he paffed the fentence of death upon two old crazy wretches for that fuppofed crime, for which they were executed on the 17th of the fame month. Before we venture to reproach his memory with extreme feverity, we ought, in candor, to take into account the ftrong prejudices of the times in which he lived 3. "And it is but an act of justice to

'Spectator, 419.

his

The statute of 1 Jac. cap. 12. against conjuration, witchcraft, &c. was repealed by an act of 9 Geo. 2. cap. 5.

The Chief Justice North dreaded the trying of a witch; for it was seldom, in those times, that a poor o.d wretch was brought to

his character to ftate the grounds upon which he refted his belief of this doctrine: Firft, because the Scriptures affirm it Secondly, Because the wisdom of all nations, particularly our own, hath provided laws against witchcraft; which implies a belief of fuch a

crime.'

Of his deteftation of vice and immorality, he did not fcruple on all occafions to bear his decided and public teftimony. The debaucheries and loose beha viour of Sir William Scroggs, then Serjeant at Law,

trial upon that account, but she was persecuted with a popular rage, which clamoured for her death; and if a judge had the courage to declare against that vulgar opinion, the common people were ready to exclaim that the judge has no religion, for he does not believe witches. An old man was tried before Judge North, for a wizzard: The evidence against him was, the having bewitched a girl of about thirteen years old; for she had strange and unaccountable fits, and used to cry out upon him, and spit out of her mouth straight pins; and whenever the man was brought near her, she fell into her fits and spit forth straight pins. His lordship wondered at the straight pins, which could not be so well couched in the mouth as crooked ones; for such only used to be spit out by people bewitched. He examined the witnesses very tenderly and carefully, so as none could collect what his opinion was, for he was fearful of the jurymen's precipitancy if he gave them any offence. When the poor man was told he must answer for himself, he entered upon a defence as orderly and well expressed and sensible, as if it had been conducted by the attorneygeneral himself. The sum of it was malice, threatening, and circumstances of imposture in the girl; to which matters he called his witnesses, and they were heard. After this was done, the judge was not satisfied to direct the jury, before the imposture was fully cleared, but studied, and beat the bush a while, asking sometimes one, and then another question, as he thought proper. At length he turned to the justice of the peace that committed the man, and took the first examinations; And, Sir,' said he, pray will you ingenuously declare your thoughts, if you have any, touching these straight pins which the girl spit, for you saw her in her fit? Then, my Lord,' said he, I did not know that I might concern myself in the evidence, • having taken the examination, and committed the man. But since your Lordship demands it, I must needs say, I think the girl doubling herself in her fit, as being convulsed, bent her head down close to her stomacher, and with her mouth took pins out of the edge of that, and then righting herself a little, spit them into some by⚫ stander's hands. This gave a universal satisfaction to the whole audience, and the man was acquitted. As the judge went down stairs out of the court, an hideous old woman cried, God bless your • Lordship!' What is the matter, good woman?' said the judge; My Lord,' said she, Forty years ago they would have hanged me for a witch, and they could not; and now they would have hanged my poor son,' NORTH'S Life of Lord Guilford, p. 138. who

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who was afterwards made Lord Chief Juftice of the King's-bench, rendered him highly obnoxious to the venerable judge, who refused him the privilege, which he claimed, of a ferjeant when he was arrested for a debt by a King's-bench warrant.

His Lordship would fometimes relax the gravity of his deportment on the Bench, and relieve the folemnity of his magifterial character, by an occafional effufion of innocent humour. In his difcernment of rifing merit, he felt a pleasure in acknowledging it, and readily embraced the opportunity of paying a delicate compliment worthy of the accomplished gentleman to bestow, and highly gratifying to the feelings of him who receives it.

He entertained a high opinion of the profeffional skill of Mr. North (afterwards Lord Keeper of the Great Seal) and believed he would become eminent in the law. When the court was feated, the judge feeing North pufhing very hard to get in, fpoke from the bench, to make way for the little gentleman, for,' faid he, he will foon make way for himself "'

It has been intimated that he had cultivated a taste for architecture, and the arts. He, appears, however, to have thought that every branch fhould be ftudied and cultivated with a view to practical utility.

When the Duke of Beaufort was engaged in his building at Badminton, his neighbour, the Lord Chief Justice Hale, made him a vifit, and obferving the many contrivances the Duke had for the difpofing of fo great a family, he craved leave to fuggeft one to him, which he thought would be much for his service, and it was to have but one door to his houfe, and the • window of his study, where he fat, moft open upon that.' The principle upon which he offered this advice to his Grace, was founded on a long experience of the world, and a conviction that a regard to œconomical arrangements was not only compatible with ' North, p. 46.

1

2 Ibid.

.

The king, though long detained a prifoner, and now produced as a criminal, fuftained the majefty of a monarch. With great dignity he declined the authority of the court, and refufed to fubmit himfelf to its jurifdiction. He reprefented that, having 'been engaged in treaty with his parliament, and having finished almost every article, he had expected to be brought to his capital in another manner, and 'to have been restored to his power as well as to his liberty that he could not perceive any appearance of the upper houfe, fo effential a member of the conftitution; and had learned that even the commons, whofe authority was pretez ded, were fubdued by lawlefs force, and were bereaved of their liberty: that he himfelf was their native hereditary king, nor was the whole authority of the flate, though free ' and united, entitled to try him, who derived his dignity from the Supreme Majefty of Heaven: that, admitting thefe extravagant principles, which levelled^ all orders of men, the court could plead no power delegated by the people, unless the confent of every individual, down to the meaneft and inoft ignorant peafant had been firft obtained: that he acknowledged without fcruple that he had a truft committed to him, a truft moft facred and inviolable; he was ' entrusted with the liberties of the people, and would not betray them by recognifing a power founded on the moft atrocious ufurpation: that, having taken arms, and frequently expofed his life in the defence of the conflitution, he was willing, in this laft and moft folemn fcene, to feal with his blood thofe precious rights for which, though in vain, he had fo long contended: that thofe who had arrogated a title to fit as his judges, were born his fubjects, and born fubjects to thofe laws which determined that 'the king can do no wrong: that, he was not reduced to the ncceffity of fheltering himself under that general maxim which guards every English monarch, even the leaft deferving, but was able, by

6

the

the most fatisfactory reasons, to justify thofe measures in which he had been engaged; that, to the whole world, and even to them his pretended judges, he was defirous, if called upon in another manner, to prove the integrity of his conduct, and affert the juftice of thofe defenfive arms to which, unwillingly and unfortunately, he had recourfe; but that, in order to preferve a uniformity of conduct, he 'must at present forego the apology of his innocence, 'left by ratifying an authority no better founded than that of robbers and pirates, he be juftly branded as the betrayer, inftead of being applauded as the martyr, of the constitution.'

His judges were not to be moved by this unanfwerable plea, but ftill perfevered in their fatal purpose. Inflamed with republican and puritanical rage, in fpite of every law human and divine, they brought their fovereign to the fcaffold; and afterwards, with the fame levelling hand, laid the peerage, the church, the parliament, and the law itself in the duft. May our conftitution, the admiration of foreign countries, and the glory of our own, be equally cherished and revered by the prince and the fubject! May they be taught by this memorable example, neither by a stretch of prerogative on the one hand, nor licentious outrage on the other, to exceed thofe juft bounds within which the privileges of the people, and the rights of the monarch, reflect a mutual lustre, and confpire to their mutual happiness!

I cannot, however, fupprefs my fufpicion, that Burnet has been in this circumftance alfo miftaken. His teftimony, as far as I can difcover, is unconfirmed. It is difficult to fuppofe, if Hale had been employed as counfel to Charles, a profound filence would have been obferved by contemporary writers. It does not appear even that the king called in any lawyer to his affiftance; nor is it neceffary to draw this inference, from the admirable argument he delivered, who has left behind fuch fpecimens of his fuperior abilities,