was

ments for the citizens of Dublin. In this plan of government he was well-supported by his second wife, who, unlike her predecessor, all courtliness and vivacity," though a scribbler of verses too. has not hesitated to assail her ladyship also with his coarse and calumnious invective.

Swift

During the last four years of Queen Anne's reign the earl vigorously opposed almost all the measures emanating from the court, particularly the infamous schism bill. In 1714, soon after the arrival of George Ï. in England, his lordship was appointed lord-privy-seal: and in the beginning of next year was created marquess of Wharton and Malmesbury in England, and marquess of Catherlough in Ireland. But he did not long enjoy his new honours. He died in the month of April, 1715.

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The marquess of Wharton was a man of very considerable ability. His political life, if not brilliant, had the merit of consistency, and he freely sacrificed both his time and money to the objects of the liberal party. There was about him a rugged force of character which enabled him to surmount many difficulties which to minds of less energy and endurance would have often proved insurmountable. His lordship was in high repute among the gentlemen of the turf. Macky says of him, "He is certainly one of the completest gentlemen in England, hath a very clear understanding and manly expression, with abundance of wit. He is brave in person, something of a libertine, of a middle stature, and fair complexion." He is reported to have been the author of the celebrated song, entitled, Lilliburlero,' which had the effect, to use the expression of a popish pamphleteer, of "singing a prince out of three kingdoms." Dr Percy, in his Reliques of Poetry,' informs us that nothing could equal the extraordinary effect of this doggerel ballad, which made its appearance when the earl of Tyrconnel was sent a second time to Ireland in 1688. Burnet says, "A foolish ballad was made at that time, treating the papists, and chiefly the Irish, in a very ridiculous manner, which had a burden, said to be Irish words, Lero, lero, lilliburlero,' that made an impression on the (king's) army, that cannot be conceived by those who saw it not. The whole army, and at last the people, both in city and country, were singing it perpetually; and perhaps never had so slight a thing so great an effect." His lordship was also the reputed author of a letter purporting to have been written by Machiavelli to Zenobius Buendelmontius, in vindication of himself and his writings, which is printed at the end of the English translation of Machiavelli's works, edition 1680.

Charles, Earl of Halifax.

BORN A. D. 1661.-DIED A. D. 1715.

CHARLES, earl of Halifax, a native of Horton, in Northamptonshire, was born on the 16th of April, 1661, and educated at Westminster school and Trinity college, Cambridge. Some verses, which he wrote on the death of Charles II., having attracted the favourable notice of Lord Dorset, that nobleman invited him to London, where, in 1687, he wrote, in conjunction with Prior, The City Mouse and Country Mouse,' a parody on Dryden's Hind and Panther.' Hav

ing, about the same time, married the dowager-countess of Manchester, he abandoned an idea which he had previously entertained, of entering into holy orders, and became, by purchase, a clerk of the council. Shortly afterwards he obtained a seat in the house of commons, where he soon rendered himself conspicuous as a partisan of the whigs. At an early period of his senatorial career, while supporting the propriety of allowing counsel to persons accused of high treason, after a slight pause, the effect of embarrassment in his speech, he exclaimed, "Is it not reasonable to grant a prisoner, arraigned before a solemn tribunal, the privilege of a pleader, when the presence of this assembly can thus disconcert one of its own members?" He was appointed chancellor of the exchequer in 1694; first commissioner of the treasury in 1698, and created peer in 1700. During his administration, the bank of England was established, and that anticipation of the public revenues commenced, which produced the national debt. Whilst tory influence prevailed in the reign of Queen Anne, articles of impeachment were twice presented against him, but without effect, by the house of commons, to which he had given offence by supporting the proposition for a standing army in the time of peace. He was a zealous advocate for the union with Scotland, and greatly annoyed the queen by carrying a motion for summoning the electorate of Hanover to parliament, as duke of Cambridge.

On the accession of George I., he was raised to the earldom of Halifax; made a knight of the garter, and appointed first commissioner of the treasury, and auditor of the exchequer. He remained in office until his death, which took place on the 19th of May, 1715. His poems and speeches were published in the course of the same year; and Dr Johnson, who included the former in his edition of the British Poets, observes of him, that " it would now be esteemed no honour by a contributor to the monthly bundle of verses to be told, that, in strains either familiar or solemn, he sings like Montague." He aspired to the character of a Mecænas, and though not munificent, was eulogized by nearly all the poets of his day, except Pope and Swift, the latter of whom spoke of him with ridicule and contempt. By his political antagonists he was accused of having been servile and superficial; while, on the other hand, his admirers contend that he displayed great independence of mind, combined with solid judgment and ready apprehension. It is related that the earl of Dorset having, in allusion to the share he had had in the production of the still popular parody on The Hind and Panther,' introduced him, in the following terms, to William the Third:" Sire, I have brought a mouse to wait on your majesty;" the king replied, "You do well to put me in the way of making a man of him," and immediately granted him a pension of £500 per annum !

Lord Somers.

BORN A. D. 1650.-DIED A. D. 1716.

JOHN SOMERS was born at Worcester, in the year 1650. His father was an attorney of some eminence, who, during the civil wars, espoused the parliamentary side, and received the command of a troop of horse

under Cromwell. His mother was Catherine Ceavers, a lady of a Shropshire family. Of his early education, Dr Birch has preserved the following memorandum :-" The account of his behaviour at school I had many years ago from a school-fellow. I think Walsall in Staffordshire was the place where they learned their grammar together. I remember well his account of Johnny Somers being a weakly boy, wearing a black cap, and never so much as looking out when they were at play." In 1675, Somers entered as a commoner of Trinity college, Oxford; and, on the 5th of May, 1676, was called to the bar, though he continued to reside at the university for a considerable period after this, and took the degree of B. A. in 1681. It is supposed that his early acquaintance with Sir Francis Winnington and the earl of Shrewsbury mainly contributed to determine his attention to the law.

His first legal brochure was the report of an election case, entitled The memorable Case of Denzil Onslow, Esq., tried at the assizes in Surrey, July the 20th, 1681, touching his election at Haslemere in Surrey, wherein is much good matter, and direction touching the due ordering of elections for parliament.' His next work, entitled A Brief History of the Succession, collected out of the Records and the most authentic historians,' was designed to establish the authority of parliament to limit or qualify the succession to the crown, in opposition to the doctrines put forth by the kingly prerogative and jus divinum party of the day.'

The defeat of the exclusion bill having emboldened the king's party to try stronger measures, the lord-chief-justice North was employed to frame a royal declaration of the causes which had led to the dissolution of the two last parliaments. This proceeding was met by the friends of civil liberty, by the publication of a tract, entitled,A Just and Modest Vindication of the two last Parliaments,' which Burnet says was sketched by Sidney, recast by Somers, and finally corrected by Sir William Jones. It is an able and vigorous document, full of sound constitutional principle, and luminous in its argument. The same year called forth another well-timed disquisition on the political rights of his countrymen from Mr Somers's pen. It was entitled The Security of Englishmen's Lives; or the Trust, Power, and Duty of the Grand Juries of England explained according to the Fundamentals of the English Government." This tract was written in defence of the grand jury who had ignored a bill for high treason against Shaftesbury, and by this act drawn upon themselves the indignation of the court.

Immediately after leaving the university, Mr Somers began to practise at the bar, and, in 1683, we find him employed as one of the coun sel in the celebrated case of Pilkington and Shute. But the pressure of an extensive and accumulating professional practice did not wholly withdraw him from the lighter pursuits of general literature. In 1681 he had published a poetical translation of the epistles of Dido to Æneas, and of Ariadne to Theseus from Ovid; and soon after, he is supposed to have written the poem, entitled 'Dryden's Satire to his Muse,' a work of very considerable power and much greater promise than his former poetical attempt. We find him, about this time, patronising the

'Somers' Tracts, vol. i. p. 374.

Howell's State Trials, vol. ix. p. 187.

first folio edition of Milton, and at a later period he seems to have marked and fostered the rising genius of Pope.

In 1688 Somers appeared as one of the counsel for the seven bishops. The issue of that great trial is well-known; but it is not perhaps so generally understood, that, for a great part of the deep constitutional learning displayed on this occasion by the senior counsel, these gentlemen stood indebted to their young colleague in the defence, whose comparative youth had been objected to by the bishops themselves, on finding his name in the list of their legal advisers.

Upon the flight of James II., and the arrival of Prince William, Mr Somers was returned to the convention parliament by his native city of Worcester, and from the first, acted a conspicuous part in the debates of the house, particularly in the conference with the lords, on the wording of the commons' vote that James had abdicated, a term for which their lordships proposed to substitute the word deserted. On the vote "that the prince and princess of Orange should be declared king and queen," Mr Somers was named a member of the committee appointed to report generally on such things as were absolutely necessary to be considered for the better securing our religion, liberty, and laws. The result of these deliberations was afterwards incorporated with the 'Declaration of Rights; and on the final revisal of that instrument Mr Somers sat as chairman of the committee. The appointment of solicitor-general, and the honour of knighthood, was the reward bestowed on Mr Somers for these important services.

In 1692 Sir John Somers was raised to the post of attorney-general, and, in 1693, he was appointed lord-keeper of the great seal, and, in 1697, was raised to the peerage by the style and title of Baron Somers of Eversham, and in the same year he was appointed lord-highchancellor, with a grant of the manors of Ryegate and Horeleigh in Surrey, together with an annuity of £2,100 out of the fee-farm rents of the crown. The part which Somers had now to act was one of a very delicate and difficult nature. The tories were gradually gaining the ascendancy over the king's mind, while the whig party were kept together solely by the weight of the chancellor's name. Of the view which Somers himself took of his position, so early as the close of the year 1698, we have distinct evidence in the following extract from a letter written by him at that time :-"There is nothing to support the whigs," says he, "but the difficulty of his (the king's) piecing with the other party, and the almost impossibility of finding a set of tories who will write; so that, in the end, I conclude it will be a pieced business which will fall asunder immediately." On the 10th of April, 1700, an address was moved in the house of commons, praying that "John, Lord Somers, lord-chancellor of England, should be removed for ever from his majesty's presence and counsels." The motion was not carried, but the next day parliament was prorogued, and intimation made to Lord Somers that the king desired his lordship should part with the seals, and that in such a manner as might make it appear that the act was voluntary on his part. To this proposal, his lordship replied that, as the voluntary surrender of the seals might be taken advantage of by his enemies to his hurt and prejudice, he could not consent to such a mode of resigning office; but that he would instantly resign on his majesty's express warrant, demanding the seals. Soon afterwards, the

warrant being brought by Lord Jersey, Somers delivered the seals to that nobleman. It is consolatory to know that William lived to express sincere repentance for the ungrateful manner in which he had thus treated one of his best and ablest servants.

nors.

The chancellor's fall was followed up by his impeachment, together with the earls of Portland and Oxford, for high crimes and misdemeaOn the 19th of May, 1701, the commons exhibited articles of impeachment against Lord Somers, embracing three distinct heads; viz. his conduct with regard to the partition-treaties,-his passing of certain grants under the great seal to himself and others, and the affair of Captain Kidd. His lordship had already anticipated, in some measure, these charges, while the commons were deliberating upon them by soliciting and obtaining permission to be heard at the bar in his own defence. On this occasion Burnet informs us his lordship"spoke so fully and clearly, that, upon his withdrawing, it was believed, if the question had been quickly put, the whole matter had been soon at an end, and that the prosecution would have been let fall. But his enemies drew out the debate to such a length, that the impression which his speech had made, was much worn out; and the house sitting till it was past midnight, they at last carried it by a majority of seven or eight to impeach him."

With respect to the first head of the charges exhibited against Lord Somers, that of his conduct in the partition-treaties, his lordship clearly intimated, that so far from his having afforded his royal master any encouragement in the negotiation with France, he had thrown out considerable doubts as to its policy. On the second charge, he freely ac knowledged that the king had been pleased to grant him certain manors and rents for the better support of his dignity as a peer, but he denied that to obtain such grants either in his own person or in that of another, he had ever used solicitation. As to Captain Kidd's affair, he contended justly that he could not be held in any degree accountable for the bad faith of a man whom he had simply invested with a privateering commission to clear the American seas of pirates, but who ul timately became a pirate himself. The 17th of June was fixed for the trial; but on that day the commons, not appearing in support of their impeachment, Lord Somers was acquitted. It was soon after this impeachment that Swift commenced his pamphleteering career in London, attaching himself in the first instance to the whigs. The following sketch which Swift drew of Lord Somers at this juncture, under the character of Aristides, in his Discourse of the contests and dissensions between the nobles and commons in Athens and Rome,' may be compared with another portrait of the same individual by the same hand, which the reader will find in the History of the last years of the Queen.' The contrast is sufficiently striking; but it is the hireling writer himself who suffers by it. "Their next great man," says Swift, paying his court to the whigs, "was Aristides. Besides the mighty services he had done his country in the wars, he was a person of the strictest justice, and best acquainted with the laws as well as forms of their government, so that he was in a manner chancellor of Athens. This man, upon a slight and false accusation of favouring

'Burnet, vol. ii. p. 242, fol. ed.