great part of the world besides, imitate ignorant and cruel schoolmasters, who are readier to flog their pupils than to teach them. Instead of these dreadful punishments enacted against thieves, it would be much better to make provision for enabling those men to live by their industry whom you drive to theft, and then put to death for the crime you cause.' He exposes the absurdity of the law of forfeiture in case of larceny, which I am ashamed to say, notwithstanding the efforts I have myself made in parliament to amend it, still disgraces our penal code, so that for an offence for which, as a full punishment, sentence is given of imprisonment for a month, the prisoner loses all his personal property, which is never thought of by the Court in pronouncing the sentence. It was otherwise among the Utopians. "Those that are found guilty of theft among them are bound to make restitution to the owner, and not to the prince. If that which was stolen is no more in being, then the goods of the thief are estimated, and restitution being made out of them, the remainder is given to his wife and children.” I cannot refrain from giving another extract to prove that, before the Reformation, he was as warm a friend as Locke to the principles of religious toleration. He says, that the great legislator of Utopia made a law that every man might be of what religion he pleased, and might endeavour to draw others to it by the force of argument, and by amicable and modest ways, without bitterness against those of other opinions. "This law was made by Utopus not only for preserving the public peace, which he saw suffered much by daily contentions and irreconcilable heats, but because he thought it was required by a due regard to the interest of religion itself. He judged it not fit to decide rashly any matter of opinion, and he deemed it foolish and indecent to threaten and terrify another for the purpose of making him believe what did not appear to him to be true."* * His most wonderful anticipation may be thought that of Lord Ashley's factory measure by "the Six Hours' Bill," which regulated labour in Utopia. "Nec ab CHAP. XXXIII. His ora tory. His wit and humour. It is to be regretted that we have so few specimens of More's oratory; but his powers as a debater called forth this eulogium from Erasmus:-"His eloquent tongue so well seconds his fertile invention, that no one speaks better when suddenly called forth. His attention never languishes, his mind is always before his words; his memory has all its stock so turned into ready money, that without hesitation or delay it supplies whatever the occasion may require.' But by no grave quality does he seem to have made such an impression on his contemporaries as he did by his powers of wit and humour. I therefore introduce a few of his pointed sayings beyond those which have occurred in the narrative of his life. He said, that "to aim at honour in this world is to set a coat of arms over a prison gate." "A covetous old man he compared to a thief who steals when he is on his way to the gallows." He enforced the giving of alms by remarking, that "a prudent man, about to leave his native land for ever, would send his substance to the far country to which he journeyeth." Sir Thomas Manners, with whom he had been very familiar when a boy, was created Earl of Rutland about the same time that More was made Lord Chancellor, and, being much puffed up by his elevation, treated with superciliousness his old schoolfellow, who still remained a simple knight, but would not allow himself to be insulted. "Honores mutant Mores," summo mane tamen, ad multam usque noctem perpetuo labore, velut jumenta fatigatus; nam ea plus quam servilis ærumna est; quæ tamen ubique fere opificum vita est exceptis Utopiensibus, qui cum in horas viginti-quatuor æquales diem connumeratâ nocte dividant, sex duntaxat operi deputant, tres ante meridiem, a quibus prandium ineunt, atque a prandio duas pomeridianas horas, quam interquieverunt, tres deinde rursus labori datas cœna claudunt. Etenim quod sex duntaxat horas in opere sunt, fieri fortasse potest, ut inopiam aliquam putes necessariam rerum sequi. Quod tam longe abest ut accidat, ut id temporis ad omnium rerum copiam, quæ quidem ad vitæ vel necessitatem requirantur vel commoditatem, non sufficiat modo sed supersit etiam." -Utop., vol. ii. 68. * Erasm. Epist. As they had been personally known to each other from the time when More was an undergraduate at Oxford, there can be no truth in the story that the two having met at the Lord Mayor's table, being strangers except by reputation, and conversing in Latin, More having sharply combated some latitudinarian paradox sported by Erasmus, the latter said, "Aut tu es Morus aut Nullus," to which the answer was, "Aut tu es Erasmus aut Diabolus." In 1523 Erasmus sent his portrait to More from Basle, and More in return sent Erasmus the famous picture by Holbein of himself and his family, including the Fool, which is still preserved in the town-hall at Basle. cried the upstart Earl. "The proper translation of which,' said the imperturbable Chancellor, "is, Honours change CHAP. XXXIII. He did not even despise a practical joke. While he held Practical joke. his city office he used regularly to attend the Old Bailey Sessions, where there was a tiresome old Justice, "who was wont to chide the poor men that had their purses cut for not keeping them more warily, saying, that their negligence was the cause that there were so many cut-purses brought thither." To stop his prosing, More at last went to a celebrated cutpurse then in prison, who was to be tried next day, and promised to stand his friend if he would cut this Justice's purse while he sat on the bench trying him. The thief being arraigned at the sitting of the Court next morning, said he could excuse himself sufficiently if he were but permitted to speak in private to one of the bench. He was bid to choose whom he would, and he chose that grave old Justice, who then had his pouch at his girdle. The thief stepped up to him, and while he rounded him in the ear, cunningly cut his purse, and, taking his leave, solemnly went back to his place. From the agreed signal, More knowing that the deed was done, proposed a small subscription for a poor needy fellow who had been acquitted, beginning by himself setting a liberal example. The old Justice, after some hesitation, expressed his willingness to give a trifle, but finding his purse cut away, expressed the greatest astonishment, as he said he was sure he had it when he took seat in Court that morning. More replied, in a pleasant manner, "What! will you charge your brethren of the bench with felony ?" The Justice becoming angry and ashamed, Sir Thomas called the thief and desired him to deliver up the purse, counselling the worthy Justice hereafter not to be so bitter a censurer of innocent men's negligence, since he himself could not keep his purse safe when presiding as a judge at the trial of cut-purses. * * Sir John Sylvester, Recorder of London, was in my time robbed of his watch by a thief whom he tried at the Old Bailey. During the trial he happened to say aloud that he had forgot to bring his watch with him. The thief being acquitted for want of evidence, went with the Recorder's love to Lady Sylvester, CHAP. Sir Thomas I am, indeed, reluctant to take leave of Sir Thomas More, XXXIII. not only from his agreeable qualities and extraordinary, merit, but from my abhorrence of the mean, sordid, unprincipled Chancellors who succeeded him, and made the latter half of the reign of Henry VIII. the most disgraceful period in our annals. More compared to his immediate suc cessors. and requested that she would immediately send his watch to him by a constable he had ordered to fetch it.-But I can hardly conceive such a jest as above recorded being now played off at the Central Criminal Court, even on an alderman of London. CHAPTER XXXIV. LIFE OF LORD CHANCELLOR AUDLEY. CHAP. XXXIV. Jan. 1523. Sir THO MAS AUD His charac ter and WHEN Sir Thomas More resigned the Great Seal, it was delivered to Sir THOMAS AUDLEY, afterwards Lord Audley, with the title, first of Lord Keeper, and then of Lord Chan- May 20. cellor.* There was a striking contrast, in almost all respects, 15226. between these two individuals, the successor of the man so distinguished for genius, learning, patriotism, and integrity, having only common-place abilities, sufficient, with cunning Ley, Lord Keeper. and shrewdness, to raise their possessor in the world, — having no acquired knowledge beyond what was professional and official, — having first recommended himself to promotion by conduct. defending, in the House of Commons, the abuses of prerogative, and, for the sake of remaining in office, being ever willing to submit to any degradation, and to participate in the commission of any crime. He held the Great Seal for a period of above twelve years, during which, to please the humours of his capricious and tyrannical master, he sanctioned the divorce of three Queens, — the execution of two of them on a scaffold, the judicial murder of Sir Thomas More, Bishop Fisher, and many others, who, animated by their example, preferred death to infamy, the spoliation of the Church and a division of the plunder among those who planned the robbery,-and reckless changes of the established religion, which left untouched all the errors of Popery, with the absurdity of the King being constituted Pope, and which involved in a common massacre those who denied transubstantiation and those who denied the King's spiritual supremacy. Luckily for Audley, he has not much attracted the notice of historians; but there can be no doubt that he had a considerable influence upon the events which disgraced the latter half of this reign; and we must now inquire into his |