I may not flatter myself that I can assist in fulfilling these prophecies, and in making his name immortal; but I can easily show that he deserves a place among the Worthies of Westminster Hall.

His origin

He was descended from an ancient family of Somersetshire, which likewise produced Sir Edward and education. Dyer, Chancellor of the Garter under Queen Elizabeth, an eminent poet, as well as an accomplished courtier, and a very formidable competitor with the Earl of Leicester and Sir Christopher Hatton for the favours of their royal mistress.-James Dyer was born about the year 1512, and was the second son of Richard Dyer, who had a good estate at Wincanton, in that county. Whetstones, the rhyming biographer, who celebrated the great ornaments of the reign of Elizabeth, gives us this account of his education :

"In tender yeares he was to learning set;

And vessels long their seasoned liquors taste:

As time grew on, he did to Oxford get,

And so from thence he was in Strand Inne* plaste;
But him with fame the Middle Temple graste:
The depth of lawe he searcht with painefull toyle,
Not cunning quirks the simple man to spoyle."+

As a proof of the early genius he displayed for reporting, we are told by prose authorities that he was remarkable for a diligent attendance in the courts of law every morning from

His early genius for reporting. A.D. 1530.

seven to eleven, with his note-book, in which he took down, in short-hand, the arguments and judgments in all important cases occurring in Westminster Hall. When he returned to his chamber after supper, at six o'clock, he digested and abridged his notes into a lucid report of each case, introducing only the facts necessary for raising the point of law determined, with

*Then an Inn of Chancery where LORD DYER," reprinted in 1816 at the legal studies began. Auchinlack press.

+ THE LIFE AND DEATH OF THE GOOD

a brief statement of the manner in which it was pre sented by the counsel to the court, and the opinion of each of the judges;-improving infinitely upon the YEAR-BOOKS, which generally presented a confused mass of dialogue between the counsel and the judges,—the reader often being left in doubt whether the speaker stood at the bar or sat on the bench. His merits as Hence the admirable reports of Lord Chief Justice Dyer, which were afterwards given to the world, and hence the valuable labours of succeeding reporters on the same model.

a reporter.

A.D. 1537.

After having been a student of law rather more than seven years, he was called to the bar. His progress there was not very rapid, for both his parts and acquirements are said to have been more solid than brilliant. He avoided all evil arts to promote the success either of others or of himself.

"He with much care his clyents' wrongs redrest;

By vertue thus he clymede above the rest,
And feared no fall, sith merit was his guide,
When reaching heads ofte slip in cheifest pride."*

March, 1553.
He is

Speaker of the House of

Commons.

He steadily advanced in business and in reputation, insomuch that in the last parliament of Edward VI. he was returned as a member of the House of Commons; and he was elected Speaker, although without the rank of Solicitor General, or of Serjeant, usually considered necessary for that dignity. We have no particulars of his performance when, being presented at the bar of the House of Lords, he prayed that the privileges of the Commons might be allowed,-for the Journals merely say that he made "an ornate oration before the King." On account of Edward's declining health, the parliament sat only one month,†-- at the end of which, Dyer ceased for ever to be a parliament man; and,

* Whetstones.

+1 Parl. Hist. 599-602.

having received 1007. for his fee as Speaker, he was probably not sorry to be freed from the distraction of politics, that he might devote himself exclusively to his favourite pursuit.

Immediately after, he took the degree of Serjeant at

A.D. 1553.

Law; and, as he had warmly espoused the Protestant side, it was expected that he would soon receive high promotion; but his hopes. seemed extinguished by the premature death of the Protestant King, and the accession of the bigoted Mary.

Oct. 19.

Queen's

Serjeant.

He had no concern in the plot for putting the Lady Jane Grey on the throne, and, as a sound lawyer, he had denied the power of Edward to change the succession to the crown by his will, contrary to an act of parliament as well as to the common law of the realm. It was probably for that reason that, although he did not, like many others, now change his reHe is made ligion, he was honoured with the appointment of Queen's Serjeant. I presume that, without any formal reconciliation to the Church of Rome, he must, after the example of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Sir William Cecil, and the Princess Elizabeth herself, good Protestants in their hearts,-have conformed, during this reign, to the dominant worship; for Lord Chancellor Gardyner could not have recommended to the royal favour a notorious schismatic. Dyer certainly enjoyed the confidence of Mary's Government; and he was employed as one of the counsel to prosecute Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, charged with high treason, as an accomplice in Sir Thomas Wyat's rebellion.* On this occasion, he met with a signal defeat;

April, 1554. He conducts the prosecution against Sir Nicholas Throckmorton.

* It has been supposed that he acted as one of the judges on this occasion, because his name is mentioned in the

commission (see Life of Dyer, prefixed to the last edition of his Reports); but it is mentioned with that of the Attorney

the prisoner, who was a man of great ingenuity and eloquence, having the almost unprecedented good luck, in those ages, to obtain a verdict of acquittal. We have a very minute report of the proceedings, showing that as yet there were no rules whatever as to procedure or evidence on criminal trials. Much of the time was occupied with questioning the prisoner, and, instead of any formal speeches being delivered, a conversation was kept up between the judges, the jury, the counsel, and the prisoner, in the midst of the reading of written confessions and depositions. When the jury had been sworn, thus spoke Sir Nicholas :

"And it may please you, Master Serjeant, and the others my masters of the Queen's learned counsel, albeit you are appointed to give evidence against me, yet I pray you remember I am not alienate from you, but that I am your Christian brother. You ought to consider that you are not so privileged but you have a duty of God; which, if you exceed, will be grievously required at your hands. It is lawful for you to use your gifts which I know God hath largely given you, as your learning, art, and eloquence, so as thereby you do not seduce the minds of the simple and unlearned jury. For, Master Serjeant, I know how by persuasions, enforcements, prescriptions, applying, implying, inferring, conjecturing, deducing of arguments, wresting and exceeding the law, the circumstances, the depositions, and confessions, unlearned men may be enchanted to think and judge things indifferent, or at the worst but oversights, to be great treasons. Almighty God, by the mouth of his prophet, doth conclude such advocates to be cursed, saying, 'Cursed be he that doth his office craftily, corruptly, and maliciously.' And consider, also, that my blood shall be required at your hands, and punished in you and yours to the third and fourth generation. You and the Justices, when called in question, excuse such erroneous doings by the verdict of twelve men; but I assure you such purgation serveth you as it

General, and it always has been, and still is, the custom, in commissions of oyer and terminer, to name the King's counsel as commissioners; this nomination not preventing them from practising as advocates before their brother commissioners. I have often thought of

the difficulty which would arise if they were to be guilty of a contempt of court, and deserve to be committed,-since, for anything I know, they might at any moment seat themselves on the bench and act as judges.

did Pilate, and you will wash your hands of my bloodshed as Pilate did of Christ's. And now to your matter."

An attempt was first made to induce the prisoner to confess, without any evidence being given against him, and he is thus interrogated :

"How say you, Throgmorton, Did not you send Winter to Wyat, and devise that the Tower of London should be taken?'A. 'I confess I did say to Winter that Wyat was desirous to speak with him.' Q. Yea, sir, and you devised together of taking the Tower of London, and of other great treasons.'—A. 'No, I did not so: prove it."

Dyer afterwards said,—“And it may please you, my Lords, and you, my masters of the jury, to prove that Throckmorton is a principal doer in this rebellion, many things are to be declared, -amongst others, Crofte's confession. He saith, Sir Nicholas, that he and you, and your accomplices, did many times devise about the whole matters, and he made you privy to all his determinations." Throckmorton: “Master Crofte is yet living, and is here this day; how happeneth it he is not brought face to face to justify this matter? Either he said not so, or he will not abide by it." Dyer: "For the better confirmation of all the treasons objected against the prisoner, and therein to prove him guilty, you of the jury shall hear the Duke of Suffolk's deposition, who was a principal, and hath suffered accordingly."

"Then," says the report, "the said Serjeant read the Duke's confession touching the prisoner, amounting to this effect, That the Lord Thomas Grey did inform the said Duke that Sir Nicholas Throckmorton was privy to the whole devices.”

Throckmorton: "But what doth the principal author of this matter say against me; I mean the Lord Thomas Grey, who is yet living? Why is not his deposition brought against me, for so it ought to be if he can say anything? Neither the Lord Thomas Grey hath said, can say, or will say anything against me, notwithstanding the Duke's confession and accusation, or he should have been here now. The Duke doth refer only to what he says he has heard from the Lord Thomas."

After a long trial, conducted in the same fashion, the jury very properly found a verdict of NOT GUILTY,-for which they were imprisoned and heavily fined.* This acquittal was a great mortification to the Government,

* 2 St. Tr. 869-902.