SIR THOMAS MORE, Chancellor of England, BORN in London in 1480, was son of sir John More, knight, one of the judges of King's Bench. He received the first part of his education at St. Anthony's, Threadneedle-street, and was afterwards admitted into the family of cardinal Morton, archbishop of Canterbury, who was accustomed to say of him to his guests-" This boy who waits at table, whoever lives to see it, will prove a marvellous man." In 1497, he entered at Oxford, where he continued two years, and then, being designed for the law, removed to New Inn, London; and soon after, to Lincoln's Inn, of which his father was a member. About the age of twenty, he became disgusted with the law, and shut himself up, during four years, in the Charter-house, devoting himself exclusively to the services of religion. At this period he was so bigotted to monkish superstitions, and monkish discipline, that, like lady Margaret, he wore a hair-shirt next his skin, (which he is said never afterwards to have wholly laid aside,) fasted often, and not unfrequently slept on a bare plank. He had a strong inclination to take orders, and even to turn Franciscan; but was over-ruled by his father, whose authority was moreover reinforced by the amorous propensities of the son, which were not to be subdued even by the austerities of the cloister. Accordingly he married Jane, eldest daughter of John Colt, esq. of New-hall, Essex. About this period, too, he was appointed law reader at Furnival's Inn, which he held for three years; and besides, read a public lecture in the church of St. Laurence, Old Jewry, upon St. Austin's treatise De Civitate Dei. At the age of two and twenty, he was elected member of the parliament called by Henry VII. in 1503, to demand a subsidy and nine fifteenths, for the marriage of Margaret, his eldest daughter, to James, king of Scotland. More opposed this demand with such force of argument, that it was finally rejected by the house. In 1508, he was made judge of the Sheriff's Court; also a justice of the peace, and became eminent at the bar. In 1516, he went to Flanders, in the retinue of bishop Tonstal and doctor Knight, who were sent by Henry to renew the alliance with the archduke of Austria, afterwards Charles V. On his return he was offered a pension by cardinal Wolsey, which, however, he thought proper to refuse; though soon after accepted of the king, the place of master of the requests. About this time also his majesty conferred on him the honour of knighthood, appointed him one of his privy council, and admitted him to the greatest personal familiarity. In 1520, he was made treasurer of the exchequer; and about the same period built a house at Chelsea, on the banks of the Thames; and being now a widower, married a second wife. In 1523, a parliament being summoned to raise money for a war with France, he was elected speaker of the house of commons; and in this character opposed, with great firmness, and with equal success, an oppressive subsidy demanded by the minister, cardinal Wolsey. He was sent, in 1526, with cardinal Wolsey and others, on a joint embassy to France; and in 1528, was made chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. On the following year, his majesty appointed him, together with Tonstal, bishop of Durham, ambassadors, to negociate a peace between the emperor, Henry, and the king of France; and in the peace hence resulting, concluded at Cambray, he obtained for the kingdom advantages so far beyond what had been expected, that the king, on the disgrace of cardinal Wolsey, gave him the great seal on the 25th of October of the same year; and it is remarkable, that he was the first layman who had ever obtained that honour. But perceiving, from the measures pursued by the king in respect of his divorce from queen Catharine, that a final rupture with Rome would be inevitable, and that himself, from his office, must be entangled in the contest, he resigned the seal, after having sustained his high dignity only two years and a half. On the passing of the act of supremacy, in 1534, he refused to take the required oath, and he died on the block, a martyr to catholicism, on the 5th of July, 1535. Sir Thomas retained his hilarity, and even his habitual facetiousness, to the last; and made a sacrifice of his life to his integrity, with all the indifference he would have shewn in an 66 ordinary affair. Nothing is wanting (says Hume) to the glory of this end, but a better cause, more free from weakness and supersti tion. But as the man followed his principles and sense of duty, however misguided, his constancy and integrity are not the less objects of our admiration."-The following couplet, which is attributed to him, will serve to indicate the habitual state of mind, which enabled him to meet his fate with a fortitude so admirable: If evils come, then our fears are vain; A large portion of the writings of sir Thomas More are in Latin, of which a collection in folio was published at Basil, in 1566; and the year following, at Louvain. Among this number is his Eutopia, his most celebrated work, which was written in 1516, and first published at Basil in 1'518; at least this is the first edition of which we have any account. From this book it appears that in the early part of his life he was a free thinker, though he was subsequently devoted to catholic principles. It was composed during the greatest hurry of his professional business; and at this |