have ever been at your Worship's service. Have you so, Sir?' quoth the Justice, 'I never remembered I had any such matter, no, not a sheep's tail.' So unless you offer sacrifice to the Idol Justices, of sheep or oxen, they know you not. If a warrant came from the Lords of the Council to levy a hundred men, he will levy two hundred, and what with chopping in, and shutting out, he'll gain a hundred pounds by the bargain. Nay, if he be to send out a warrant upon a man's request, to have any fetched in on suspicion of felony or the like, he will write the warrant himself, and you must put two shillings in his pocket as his clerk's fee, (when, God knows, he keeps but two or three Hinds,) for his better maintenance." (D'Ewes's Journal, 661.)

The justice who "misuses the king's press so damnably," will remind the reader of the scene in Henry IV. where "Robert Shallow, a poor esquire of the county, and one of the king's justices of the peace," allows Sir John Falstaff to traffic in a similar manner.

"Fal. Come, Sir, which men shall I have? Shal. Four, of which you please.

Bard. Sir, a word with you,-I have three

pounds to free Mouldy and Bullcalf.

Fal. Go to, well.

Shal. Come, Sir John, which four will you have?

Fal. Do you choose for me.

Shal. Marry, then, Mouldy, Bullcalf, Feeble, and Shadow.

Fal. Mouldy and Bullcalf!-For you, Mouldy, stay at home still, you are past service, and for your part, Bullcalf,-grow till you come unto it, I will none of you."

In the earlier periods of our history, to provide for the due execution of the law, and to repress the corruption of its ministers, was a task which the legislature was frequently called upon to perform. Thus, in the year 1572, a proposal was made by Sir Nicholas Bacon, the Lord Keeper, for the appointment of a commission to enquire into the administration of justice." I mean that the Queen's Majesty should make choice, every second or third year, of certain expert and approved persons, to whom a commission should be granted to try out and examine, by all ways and means, the offences of all such as have not seen to the due execution of the laws, according to the offices and charges committed to them by the Prince; and the offences so found and certified, to be sharply punished, without remission or redemption. Of effect much like this, and to the like end, was the visitation of the church first devised; whereof, in the beginning of it, came great good doubtless; and reason I see none, but the like good ought to follow upon like visitation made

upon temporal affairs. And the old commission of Oyer tended somewhat to this end. I doubt certainly, if the laws and statutes of this realm, should not indifferently, uprightly, and diligently, be put in execution, (as my trust is they shall,) especially in the great and open courts of this realm, then my burthen, I confess, is equal with the greatest, yet, for my part, I would gladly, every year, hear of and yield to such a comptroller." (D'Ewes's Journal, p. 194.)

At the present day we have a much surer guard against the peculation and corruption of the officers of justice, than any legislative enactments could bestow, the force of public opinion, and the power of a free press. Were it even possible that a suitor could be found bold enough to proffer a bribe to any of our judges, the universal disgrace and odium which would attach to the receiver of it, is a sufficient safeguard against such a practice, without considering the moral character and integrity of the individuals who now preside over our courts of justice.

SIR JOHN DAVIES, AND DAME ELEANOR, HIS WIFE.

This eminent lawyer was Attorney General in Ireland, in the reign of King James I. He was also celebrated as a poet (See Ante, p. 49.) and a political writer. At the beginning of the year

1588, he removed from Oxford to the Middle Temple, and applied himself to the study of the law; but was more distinguished by his abilities than by the regularity of his manners. "He interrupted the quiet of the Inn by his misdemeanours, for which he was fined, and by disorders, for which he was removed from Commons." (Life, prefixed to his Historical Tracts, p. 2.) Anthony Wood says, "That he, being a high-spirited young man, did, upon some little provocation or punctilio, bastinado Richard Martin, afterwards Recorder of London, in the Common Hall of the Middle Temple, while he was at dinner. For which act being forthwith expelled, he retired for a time in private, lived in Oxon in the condition of a sojourner, and followed his studies, though he wore a cloak." Davies and Martin were, it seems, both poets, and the facetiousness of the latter, which used to set the Temple table in a roar, and is said to have charmed King James, probably drew upon him the indignation of his brother wit.

The reputation of Davies, as a poet, is principally founded on his work, intitled Nosce Teipsum, a Poem on the Immortality of the Soul, first published in 1599, in quarto. It is a performance of very considerable merit, and has passed through several editions. In a note to the edition printed with Sir John's other poetical works, in 1773, it

is said, that this poem is, "without dispute, the best that was written in Queen Elizabeth's, or even in King James the First's time, except Spenser's Faery Queen." (See Remarks ante, p. 49.) On the death of Queen Elizabeth, Davies accompanied Lord Hunsdon into Scotland, to congratulate King James on his accession to the throne of England. Being introduced into his Majesty's presence, the King enquired of Lord Hunsdon the names of the gentlemen who were with him; and his Lordship naming among them John Davies, who stood behind, the King immediately asked, whether he was Nosce Teipsum? Lord Hunsdon informed him that he was the same; upon which the King, as Wood informs us, graciously embraced him, and thenceforward had so great favour for him, that soon after he made him his Solicitor and then his Attorney General in Ireland." In these offices he discharged his duties with great diligence and ability.

He was a member of the Irish Parliament, and, on his return to England, was returned for Newcastle-under-Line. When about to be placed in a station of high dignity, he was carried off by an apoplexy, in the night of the 7th December, 1626, in the fifty-seventh year of his age. He had supped that night with the Lord Keeper Coventry, having been previously appointed Lord Chief Justice of England, in the room of Sir Randolph