that he had sent for them to draw up a legal instrument according to the instructions which he produced to them. Being quite unprepared for such a proposal, they were thrown into the greatest perplexity. They expressed doubts to which the King listened with impatience; but they at last obtained a respite that they might peruse the various acts of succession which had been passed in the preceding reign, and consider the best mode of accomplishing the object which his Majesty for the good of his people had in view. On deliberation they were more convinced of the entire illegality of the scheme, and of the personal peril in which they would themselves be involved by assisting in it. Accordingly, two days after, at a Council over which the Chancellor presided, and from the commencement of which Northumberland chose to be absent,-being asked for the instrument they had been ordered to prepare, they boldly answered that such an instrument would be a flat violation of the statute of the 35th of the late King, and would subject both those who should draw it and those who had advised it to be prosecuted for high treason. Northumberland, who had been within hearing in an adjoining room, finding that the persuasions of the Chancellor could make no impression upon them, and that his project was in danger of instantly blowing up, rushed into the Council Chamber with the most indecent violence, threatened to proceed against them as traitors, and declared that "he was ready to fight in his shirt with any man in so just a quarrel."* They still considered there was less peril in disobedience, and they departed expressing a resolute refusal. Northumberland was not thus to be baulked. Gryffith, the Attorney General, was supposed to be the chief instigator of the opposition. He was therefore dismissed †, and the others were again summoned to Greenwich the following day. Edward, prompted by Northumberland, sternly asked them "why his command had not been obeyed ?" The Chief Justice answered, that to obey would have been dangerous to them, and of no service to his Grace; that the succession having been settled by parliament, could only be altered by parliament; and that nothing could be done but to call a parliament and introduce a bill for that purpose. The King replied, that he intended to follow that course, but that in the mean time he wished to have the deed of settlement prepared which should be ratified in the parliament to be held in September. The Chancellor and the whole Council who were attending in a body joined in the request, with a hint of their power to commit to the Tower for a breach of allegiance. Montague at last agreed, on condition that the Chancellor would make out a commission under the Great Seal to draw the instrument, and a full pardon under the Great Seal for having drawn it. This * This language would not appear so indecorous then as now, for instead of proposing a prize-fight according to the rules of the ring, it referred to judicial combats, which at that time occasionally took place before the Judges. He was rewarded for his fidelity by being re-appointed by Mary, while Mr. Solicitor was dismissed. arrangement still was not satisfactory to Gosnald the Solicitor General, but means were found to bring him over the following day; and the Chancellor having made out the commission and the pardon in due form, the official instrument was engrossed on parchment, settling the Crown on the Lady Jane Grey. The Chancellor himself now began to waver, and he refused to set the Great Seal to it unless it was signed not only by the King, but by all the Judges and all the members of the Council. The Judges all signed it except Sir James Hales, a Justice of the Common Pleas, who although a zealous Protestant, could not be prevailed upon by any solicitations or threats to derogate from the rights of the Princess Mary, the lawful heir to the Crown.* The Councillors all readily except Cranmer, who at last had the weakness to yield (as he confessed) against his own conviction. † Goodrich then affixed the Great Seal to the patent, and Northumberland, [JUNE 21.] having got possession of it, confidently expected forthwith to reign under the name of his daughter-in-law. ‡ Edward's strength henceforth declined so rapidly as to create a strong suspicion that poison assisted in hastening his end, probably without foundation, for his feeble constitution had been undermined by consumption, which it had been for some time foreseen must, ere long, disappoint the hopes which the nation had entertained of the coming felicity of his reign. He expired on the 6th of July, but his death was kept secret for three days, while preparations were made for the accession of Queen Jane, and steps [A. D. 1553.] were taken to get the ladies Mary and Elizabeth into the power of Northumberland the usurper. Goodrich was allowed to retain the Great Seal as Chancellor, without any fresh appointment, and he heartily concurred with Northumberland in all the steps which were taken to carry into effect the new settlement of the Crown. The Lord Mayor, six Aldermen, and twelve principal citizens of London were privately summoned before the Council, and he read to them the patent for changing the succession, explained its provisions, and enforced its validity. He then required them to take an oath of allegiance to the new Sovereign, and dismissed them with an injunction not to betray the secret, and to watch over the tranquillity of the city. * He had a very unsuitable return for his fidelity when Mary was upon the throne. - See Life of Gardyner, post. The Archbishop's signature appears the first, and then the Chancellor's; that of Cecil (afterwards the celebrated Burleigh) was the last, and it was so placed as to give him the pretext to which he resorted, that he signed only as a witness. Burnet, vol. vi. pp. 275, 276. Upon his trial for high treason in Mary's reign, although he could not contend that Jane had been so far sovereign de facto as to entitle him to the benefit of the statute of Hen. VII., he tried to defend himself by this commission under the Great Seal, which he contended amounted to a pardon; but the Court held that it had no force, being contrary to an act of Parliament, and that it could not pardon future treason to be committed after the King's death. See Burnet, xi. 243. On the fourth morning the Chancellor rode with the other Lords of the Council to Sion House, to do homage to Queen Jane, who was herself still entirely ignorant of her cousin's death, and of her approaching elevation. The Duke of Northumberland having announced to her the astounding intelligence, the Chancellor and other Councillors all fell on their knees, declared that they took her for their Sovereign, and swore that they were ready to shed their blood in support of her right. When she had recovered from the swoon into which she fell, they intimated to her that she must, according to the custom of English Sovereigns on their accession, repair to the Tower of London, there to remain till her coronation; and they accompanied her down the Thames in a grand state barge which had been prepared for her, all the great officers of the Court and the principal part of the nobility joining in the procession. In the evening a proclamation was published, superscribed by Jane as Queen, and countersigned by the Chancellor, setting forth her title; and she was proclaimed by the heralds without any opposition, but without any acclamations from the people. A messenger arriving next day from Mary, as Queen, commanding the Council, on their allegiance, to give immediate orders for her proclamation, the Chancellor and twenty-one Councillors, Cranmer being of the number, sent an answer, directed to the "Lady Mary," requiring her to abandon her false claim, and to submit, as a dutiful subject, to her lawful and undoubted Sovereign. They likewise sent a mandate to the Lord Lieutenant of the county of Essex, where Mary was now mustering forces, which, after cautioning him against assisting the rebels, thus concluded; "Requiring your Lordship nevertheless, like a nobleman, to remain in that promise and steadiness to our Sovereign Lady Queen Jane's service as ye shall find us ready and firm with all our force to the same, which neither with honour, nor with safety, nor yet with duty, we may now forsake."* But intelligence was in a few days received at the Tower that the Duke of Northumberland, who had marched with an army to suppress the insurrection, was deserted by his troops, and that the nobility, the gentry, and the commons, satisfied with the declaration of Mary, that she did not mean to change the national religion, were flocking from all quarters to her standard, and joyfully acknowledging her as Queen. The Chancellor and other Councillors, in great alarm, now left the Tower under the pretence of receiving the French Ambassador at Baynard's Castle, but, in reality, with the intention of sending in, as * The date is "Tower, July 19." The signatures are,— "Cranmer. "Lord W. Paget. Strype, 913. speedily as possible, their adhesion to Queen Mary, in the hope of pardon. Having summoned the Lord Mayor and a deputation of Aldermen, the discussion was commenced by the Earl of Arundel, who declaimed against the ambition of Northumberland, and asserted the right, by birth and statute, of the two daughters of Henry VIII. The Earl of Pembroke then drew his sword, exclaiming, "If the arguments of my Lord of Arundel do not persuade you, this sword shall make Mary Queen, or I will die in her quarrel." He was answered with shouts of approbation. Goodrich thereupon declining to act any longer as Chancellor, delivered up the Great Seal to the Lords Arundel and Paget, that they might carry it to Queen Mary to be disposed of as her Grace should deem proper. They immediately framed a recognition of Mary as their lawful Sovereign, which was signed by all present, including the Duke of Suffolk, who had joined them, and the whole body rode through the streets in procession, proclaiming Queen Mary at Paul's Cross, and all the principal stations of the city. The Earl of Arundel and Lord Paget immediately afterwards set off for Framlingham, where Mary then was, and riding post all night, next morning delivered into her hands the Great Seal, clavis regni, and she was so pleased with the [JULY 20, 1553.] gift and the accompanying news that she immediately granted them forgiveness. At the same hour Jane, leaving the Tower, returned to Sion House after a nine-days' dream of empire. By some historians she is reckoned among the Sovereigns of England. Goodrich most undoubtedly acted as her Lord Chancellor, although there was not time to make a new Great Seal with her style and insignia upon it. He was beset with great terrors from the part he had ostensibly taken in concocting the patent to change the succession; but, partly from his sacred character and partly from his real insignificance, he was not molested, and he was permitted to retire to his diocese. His zeal for the Reformation now so far cooled that he offered no opposition to the restoration of the old religion introduced by Mary, and he retained his bishopric till his death, which occurred on the 10th of May, 1554. In the lottery of life some high prizes are appropriated to mediocrity, and he was the holder of a fortunate ticket. We ought here to take a retrospect of changes in the law, and of the administration of justice during the short reign of Edward VI. In the history of our religious establishment, it is the most memorable in our annals, for now indeed the Reformation was introduced, and it may be important to remember that this was done by the legislature, without any concurrence of convocations, and against the almost unanimous wish of the heads of the church. The criminal law was improved by repealing a number of Henry VIII.'s fantastical treasons, and by enacting that in every prosecution • Rot. Cl. 1 Mary, p. 7. 60 LIFE OF LORD CHANCELLOR GOODRICH. for treason the overt act should be proved by two credible witnesses.* At the commencement of the reign an act passed from which no very favourable inference can be drawn as to the morals, habits or accomplishments of the English nobility in the middle of the 16th century. House-breaking by day or night, highway robbery, horse stealing, and the felonious taking of goods from a church, having been made capital offences, it was provided, "that any Lord or Lords of the parliament (to include Archbishops and Bishops), and any Peer or Peers of the realm having place and voice in parliament, being convicted of any of the said offences for the first time, upon his or their request or prayer, though he cannot read, be allowed benefit of clergy and be discharged without any burning in the hand, loss of inheritance, or corruption of blood." It seems strange to us that this privilege of peerage should have been desirable, or should have been conceded; but it continued in force till taken away by an act passed after the the trial of Lord Cardigan in the reign of Queen Victoria. Edward's Chancellors, without any statute for that purpose, took upon themselves, in many instances, the exercise of legislative power. Thus in April, 1549, Lord Chancellor Rich issued a proclamation under the Great Seal, addressed to all justices of the peace, enjoining them "to arrest all comers and tellers abroad of vain and forged tales and lies, and to commit them to the galleys, there to row in chains during the King's pleasure ;" and by similar proclamations rates were fixed for the price of provisions; penalties were imposed on such as should buy bad money under its nominal value, and the melting of the current coin was prohibited under pain of forfeiture.‡ The attainder of the Seymours shows that the ruling faction could still perpetrate any atrocity through parliamentary or judicial forms. Nevertheless, in this reign, able judges presided in Westminster Hall, and between party and party justice was equally administered. The prejudices against the equitable jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery subsided, and although hardly any of the decisions of the Chancellors are preserved, till nearly the close of the reign, when there were heavy complaints of the inexperience of Goodrich, — they appear to h. ve been satisfactory to the public.§ * 1 Ed. 6. c. 12, 5 & 6 Ed. c. 11. t1 Ed. 6. c. 12. s. 10. 14. § Dyer's Rep. Moore's Rep. |