great fortune which he had amassed,-without any judicial exposure of his misdeeds, or temporal retribution for them, he was snatched away from impending misfortunes. On the 13th of January, 1640, he suddenly died at his residence, Durham House, in the Strand, in the 60th year of his age. Upon his death-bed he sent this last request to the King," that his Majesty would take all distastes from the parliament summoned against next April with patience, and suffer it to sit without an unkind dissolution."

The only contemporary writer who bestows upon him any thing like unqualified praise, is Lloyd, the author of "The State Worthies," who even lauds his love of constitutional government-saying, "of all those counsels which did disserve his Majesty he was an earnest dissuader, and did much to disaffect those sticklers who labored to make the prerogative rather tall than great, as knowing such men loved the King better than Charles Stuart; so that, although he was a courtier, and had had for his master a passion most intense, yet had he always a passion reserved for the public welfare, an argument of a free, noble, and right-principled mind." But Whitelock says, "he was of no transcendent parts of fame;" and Sir Anthony Weldon, that "if his actions had been scanned by a parliament, he had been found as foul a man as ever lived." L'Estrange is more impartial: "His train and suit of followers was disposed agreeably to show both envy and contempt; not like that of Viscount St. Alban's, or the Bishop of Lincoln whom he succeded, ambitious and vain; his port was state, theirs ostentation. They were indeed the more knowing men, but their learning was extravagant to their office; of what concerned his place he knew enough, and, which is the main, acted according to his knowledge." Fuller observes, with happy ambiguity, "It is hard to say whether his honorable life or seasonable death was the greater favor which God bestowed upon him." His most valuable eulogium is from Clarendon: "He was a man of wonderful gravity and wisdom, and understood not only the whole science and mystery of the law at least equally with any man who had ever sat in that place, but had a clear conception of

1 Echard, p. 476.

the whole policy of the government both of church and state, which, by the unskillfulness of some well-meaning men, jostled each other too much. He knew the temper, disposition, and genius of the kingdom most exactly; saw their spirits grow every day more steady, inquisitive, and impatient, and therefore naturally abhorred all innovations, which he foresaw would produce effects yet many; who stood at a distance, thought he was not active and stout enough in opposing those innovations. For though by his place he presided in all public councils, and was most sharpsighted in the consequence of things, yet he was seldom known to speak in matters of state, which he well knew were for the most part concluded before they were brought to the public agitation; never in foreign affairs, which the vigor of his judgment could well have comprehended; nor indeed freely in anything, but what immediately and plainly concerned the justice of the kingdom; and in that, as much as he could, he procured references to the Judges. Though in his nature he had not only a firm gravity, but a severity and even some morosity, yet it was so sharply tempered, and his courtesy and affability towards all men so transcendent and so much without affectation, that it marvelously recommended him to all men of all degrees, and he was looked upon as an excellent courtier without receding from the native simplicity of his own manners. He had, in the plain way of speaking and delivery, without much ornament of elocution, a strange power of making himself believed, (the only justifiable design of elocution'), so that though he used very frankly to deny, and would never suffer any man to depart from him with an opinion that he was inclined to gratify when in truth he was not, holding that dissimulation to be the worst of lying, yet the manner of it was so gentle and obliging, and his condescension such to inform the persons whom he could not satify, that few departed from him with ill will and ill wishes. But then this happy temper aud these good faculties rather preserved him from having many enemies and supplied him with some well-wishers, than furnished him with any fast and unshaken friends, who are always procured in Courts by more ardor and more vehement professions and appli

This is like the well-known observation, that "speech is given to man to enable him to conceal his thoughts."

III.-15

cations than he would suffer himself to be entangled with. So that he was a man rather exceedingly liked than passionately loved; insomuch that it never appeared that he had any one friend in the Court of quality enough to prevent or divert any disadvantage he might be exposed to. And therefore it is no wonder, nor to be imputed to him, that he retired within himself as much as he could, and stood upon his defense without making desperate sallies against growing mischiefs, which he knew well he had no power to hinder, and which might probably begin in his own ruin. To conclude, his security consisted very much in his having but little credit with the King; and he died in a season most opportune, in which a wise man would have prayed to have finished his course, and which, in truth, crowned his other signal prosperity in the world." But under this blaze of eager commendation, it is easy to discover the features of a character wary, selfish, unprincipled, reckless, plausible, of refined hypocrisy, desirous of preserving the decencies of life, but sincerely anxious about nothing beyond his own ease and advantage, -which by his sagacity and adaptation to the times he cultivated so successfully, that he continued comfortably till death in an office the tenure of which was so precarious that no man died in it for many years before or after him.

As a politician he must ever be held mainly responsible for the troubles arising from the collision between prerogative and law which he brought about. He was checked for a time by Montagu, who had been Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and was afterwards Lord Treasurer and President of the Council; but during nearly the greatest portion of the sixteen years he held the Great Seal, he was the only adviser of the government on legal and constitutional questions: and if he did not originate he is nearly equally culpable for not having strenuously opposed the many fatal measures brought forward during the interval of parliaments, and for having abetted the scheme of subverting the ancient liberties of his country. Lord Clarendon represents that Coventry gave good advice in the Cabinet; and "perplexed the designs and councils of the Court with inconvenient objections in law." But I look to his language in public, and to his acts,—which we authentically know, and which would only acquire a

deeper hue of atrocity if they were in opposition to his strong conviction and earnest remonstrances.

He was named in a commission which he drew, and to which he affixed the Great Seal, "to concert the means of levying money by impositions or otherwise-form and circumstance to be dispensed with, rather than the substance to be lost or hazarded." In the Star Chamber, "although the Archbishop of Canterbury was higher in rank, and all the Councillors and Judges who were summoned to attend, had an equal voice, yet the Lord Keeper was specially appointed by his patent to hear, examine, and determine all causes, matters, and suits in that Court;" and he was in reality the President. He is answerable, therefore, for those sentences of frightful and unprecedented cruelty which brought proverbial odium upon that tribunal, and within a year after his death led to its abolition, amidst the universal execrations of the people.

Tought not, however, to omit a story thus told to his credit by Sir Anthony Weldon, which, however improbable it may be, I have no means of contradicting: "Buckingham is grown now so exorbitant, he aspires to get higher titles both in honor and place as Prince of Tipperary and Lord High Constable of England, who herein wrought after Leicester's ambitious example; but he is crossed, too, with Coventry, now Lord Keeper; and, no doubt, on those just grounds his predecessor (Hatton) But Buckingham's ambition could not be so bounded; for, upon the opposing it by Coventry, he peremptorily thus accosted him, saying: 'Who made you, Coventry, Lord Keeper?' He replied: the King.' Buckingham sur-replied: 'It's false, 'twas I did make

did.'

you; and you shall know that I who made you can and will unmake you!' Coventry thus answered him: Did I conceive I held my place by your favor, I would presently unmake myself, by rendering the Seal to his Majesty.' saying: You shall not keep it long:' and surely, had not Felton prevented him, he had made good his word." an Equity Judge, he seems to have given entire

As

satisfaction. He certainly must have been familiarly acquainted with the law of England, and with the doctrines and practice of the Court of Chancery. Yet it is surpris

1 Ante, vol. ii. p. 305.

ing how little progress equity, as a science, made under him. No decision of his, of much value, is recorded; and no great principle or rule of the system can be traced to him. Several writers unaccountably state that few of his decrees were reversed, “because he made the parties come to a compromise, and had an allegation on the face of his decrees that they were pronounced by consent.' He took care that none of his decrees should be brought before a Court of Appeal by preventing parliament from ever assembling.

He deserves great credit for " Ordinancies made by the Lord Keeper Coventery (with the advice and assistance of Sir Julius Cæsar, Master of the Rolls) for the redress of sundry errours, defaults, and abuses in the High Courte of Chauncerye." I give No. 1 as a specimen, which shows the evil of prolixity then prevailing, and which will prevail in spite of all efforts to repress it,-while the remuneration of lawyers is regulated by the length of the written proceedings. "1. That bills, answers, replications, and rejoinders be not stuffed with repetitions of deeds or writings, in hæc verba, but the effect and substance of so much of them only as is pertinent and material be set down, and that in brief and effectual terms. That long and needless traverses of points not traversable or material, causeless recitals, tautologies, and multiplication of words, and all other impertinences, occasioning needless perplexity, be avoided, and the ancient brevity and succinctness in bills and other pleadings restored. And upon any default herein, the party and counsel under whose hand it passeth shall pay the charge of the copy, and be further punished as the case shall merit."

1 Lloyd. Fuller. From the following passage in "Madagascar," a poem by Sir William Davenant, written about this time, it appears that the reconciliation system was very much acted upon by Judges; and this accounts for the security with which they could then retain the épices with which they were presented on both sides :

"These when I saw, my hopes could not abstain

To think it likely I might twirl a chain

On a judicial bench; learn to demur,

And sleep out trials in a gown of fur;

Then reconcile the rich for gold-fring'd [lin'd] gloves,

The poor for God's sake, or for sugar-loaves."

I myself, when Attorney General, received tea from the East India Company, and sugar-loaves from the corporation of Kingston-on-Hull; but I was a party to reforms which took away all these sweets from the office.