had in the interim become a student of law in the Middle Temple, and returning to college took his degree of M. A. June 14, 1681. While studying law, he never neglected the belles lettres, and it was by his amusements in that way, his translations, and poetical performances, that he first became known to the public. At that time merit of this kind was a passport both to fame and riches, and Mr. Somers, who in some degree owed his promotion to the muses, showed himself not ungrateful when he endeavoured to raise into notice their favourite votary Addison. Sir Francis Winnington, then solicitor, was one of his earliest patrons. By such assistance, united to his own merit and application, he became, what was very rarely seen in those days, when a deeper legal knowledge was supposed essential to a barrister, an eminent counsel, before he had attained the age of thirty. It is imagined by some, that his early acquaintance with the duke of Shrewsbury, might have contributed to turn his attention to the law, and possibly accelerated his rapid progress in that profession. His abilities, however, and powerful oratory, were always exerted in favour of liberty, and in the support of that rational freedom which is equally opposed to licentiousness and slavery.

Having formed an acquaintance with lord Russell, Algernon Sidney, and other supporters of liberty at that time, he frequently employed his pen against the arbitrary proceedings of the reign of Charles II.; but as it was his practice to publish such pieces without his name, very few of them are now known, and these we shall notice at the conclusion of this article. In 1688, when in his thirtysixth year, he distinguished himself as counsel for the seven prelates who were tried for opposing the dispensing power of James II. He had afterwards a considerable share in concerting the measures for bringing about the revolution. He was chosen representative for his native city of Worcester, in the convention-parliament; and in the conference between the two houses about the word abdicated, on which he delivered a celebrated speech, he was appointed one of the managers for the House of Commons.

On the accession of king William, Mr. Somers was rewarded for his exertions, by being, on May 9, 1689, made solicitor-general, elected recorder of Gloucester in 1690, appointed attorney-general, on May 2, 1692, and lordkeeper in 1693. We may judge of his popularity, his

activity, and political skill, by the following expression of lord Sunderland, in a letter to king William, written about this period: "Lord Somers," says he, "is the life, the soul, the spirit of his party; and can answer for it." A character of such influence was not to be neglected by.a yet unestablished monarch, and accordingly king William, who had conferred the honour of knighthood on Mr. Somers when solicitor-general, now created him baron of Evesham, and lord chancellor of England. For the support of these dignities and honours, his majesty made him a grant of the manors of Ryegate and Howlegh, in Surrey, and another grant of 2,100l. per annum out of the fee-farin rents of the crown. Lord Orford, in a note on his very flippant character of lord Somers, thinks these grants formed an alloy, but has not told us how lord Somers's rank was to be kept up without them. "One might as well," observes lord Hardwicke, "lay a heavy charge on his father's (sir Robert Walpole) memory, for the grants of lucrative offices obtained for his family, and taking a pension when he resigned. Lord Somers raised no more from his offices and grants than a fortune which enabled him to live with decency and elegance."

Before the king's departure for Holland, in the summer of the year 1697, his majesty communicated to lord Somers a proposition made by count Tallard, to prevent a war about the succession to the crown of Spain, upon the death of the then monarch of that kingdom; and the chancellor afterwards received a letter from his majesty, then in Holland, informing him, that fresh offers had been made to the same purpose; and requiring him to dispatch full powers, under the great seal, with the names in blank, to empower his majesty to treat with the before mentioned Count. This order he accordingly complied with; and the negociations being immediately entered upon, a treaty was concluded. This was the first Partition-treaty; and in the next session of parliament, which began Nov. 16, 1699, great complaints were made in the House of Commons against the chancellor; and the House being resolved, on Dec. 6, to push the resumption of the grants of the Irish forfeited estates, by tacking it to the land-tax-bill, an address was concerted on April 10, 1700, praying, that "John lord Somers, lord chancellor of England, should be removed for ever from his majesty's presence and councils;" but the majority of the House voted against any such address. VOL. XXVIII.

P

However, the parliament being prorogued the next day, his majesty sent for the lord chancellor, and desired him to surrender the seals voluntarily; but this his lordship declined, thinking that it would imply a consciousness of guilt. He told the king, however, that whensoever his majesty should send a warrant under his hand, commanding him to deliver them up, he would immediately obey it. Accordingly an order was brought to him for this purpose by lord Jersey, upon which the seals were sent to the king. Thus was lord Somers removed from the post of chancellor, the duties of which he had discharged with great integrity and ability; and although this was contrary to the king's inclinations to make such a sacrifice, it was not sufficient to appease the tory party, who now formed a design to impeach him. This his lordship in some measure anticipated, by sending, on April 14, 1701, a message to the House of Commons, in which, "having heard that the House was in a debate concerning him, he desired that he might be admitted and heard." This was granted, and a chair being set by the serjeant, a little within the bar on the left hand, he had directions to acquaint lord Somers, that he might come in; and on his entrance the Speaker informed him, that he might repose himself in the chair provided for him. His lordship then defended himself with respect to his share in concluding the partition-treaty, which was the principal charge against him in that House, and, according to Burnet, "spoke so fully and clearly, that, upon his withdrawing, it was believed, if the question had been quickly put, the whole matter had been soon at an end, and that the prosecution would have been let fall. But his enemies drew out the debate to such a length, that the impression, which his speech had made, was much worn out; and the House sitting till it was past midnight, they at last carried it by a majority of seven or eight to impeach him."

On the 19th of May following, the articles of impeachment against lord Somers were carried to the House of Peers, but a misunderstanding arising between the two Houses, he was acquitted by the Lords, without any farther prosecution of the Commons. King William dying not long after, lord Somers, not being a favourite at the new court, withdrew from public life, and spent much of his time at his seat near Cheshunt in Hertfordshire, in the study of history, antiquities, and polite literature. From 1698 to 1703 he had sat as president of the Royal Society,

of which he had been elected a fellow in the first of these years. He still continued his attendance in the House of Peers, where he opposed the bill to prevent occasional nonconformity; and was one of the managers for the Lords, in the conference between the two Houses upon that bill in 1702. In 1706 he projected the plan for the union of England and Scotland, and was appointed by queen Anne one of the managers. The same year he introduced a bill for preventing delays and expences in proceedings at law: and also some regulations with regard to passing private acts of parliament.

Upon a change of measures in 1708, he was again called into office, and appointed president of the council. But the whig interest, of which he was the chief support, began now rapidly to decline. The same engine was played off against it, which has so often since been the last resource of party animosity. The empty splendours of conquest were derided; and the people warned that, while they joined in the buzza of victory, they were impoverishing themselves merely to enrich a few creatures of the minister. Swift had no small concern in this revolution of the public mind, by his pamphlet on "The Conduct of the Allies." Another change of administration was effected in 1710, and lord Somers once more retired from public life. To›wards the latter end of queen Anne's reign he grew very infirm, and survived the powers of his understanding. Mr. Cooksey, one of his biographers, and a descendant, attri-butes this

to a cause which every admirer of lord Somers must regret, and perhaps wish suppressed *. His lordship died of an apoplexy, April 26, 1716.

* Mr. Cooksey, an enthusiastic admirer of lord Somers, and who defends him ably, as well as indignantly, against the insinuations of Swift, &c. has yet concluded his Essay on the life and character of his lordship, with the following particulars, more seriously affecting his character than all that his contemporary enemies had advanced. "His (lord Somers's) ideas, as to con.nexion with women (having been disappointed in his first attachment, on which he renounced ever after the thought of marrying) were such as he professes and teaches in the Tale of a Tubt, jacere collectum humorem in corpora queque. Nor did any man ever

+ Mr. Cooksey, as we shall soon to lord Somers. ››,

suffer more than he did from indulging this favourite maxim, in which he was by no means nice, or in the least degree delicate. To this was owing his frequent illnesses and calls to Tunbridge; and, what was worst of all, that wretched state to which the brightest parts and intellects God ever bestowed on man, were reduced before his final dissolution." We know not how to reconeile this with Miss More's introducing his lordship in her "Religion of the Fashionable World," as one who was not only remarkable for a strict attendance on the public duties of religion, but for maintaining them with equal exactness in his family."

notice, attributes the "Tale of a Tub”.

Many are the encomiums which have been bestowed upon this noble and illustrious person. Burnet tells us that "he was very learned in his own profession, with a great deal more learning in other professions; in divinity, philosophy, and history. He had a great capacity for business, with an extraordinary temper; for he was fair and gentle, perhaps to a fault, considering his post: so that he had all the patience and softness, as well as the justice and equity, becoming a great magistrate." Lord Orford calls him "one of those divine men, who, like a chapel in a palace, remain unprofaned, while all the rest is tyranny, corruption, and folly. All the traditional accounts of him, the historians of the last age, and its best authors, represent him as the most incorrupt lawyer, and the honestest statesman, as a master-orator, a genius of the finest taste, and as a patriot of the noblest and most extensive views; as a man who dispensed blessings by his life, and planned them for posterity." He was a very great patron of men of parts and learning, and particularly of Mr. Addison, who has drawn his character at large in one of his "Freeholders," in that of May 4, 1716, where he has chosen his lordship's motto for that of his paper, "Prodesse quam conspici.' Lord Somers was one of those

who first redeemed Milton's" Paradise Lost" from that obscurity in which party-prejudice and hatred had suffered it long to lie neglected, and who pointed out the merits of that noble poem. The most unfavourable character of lord Somers is that drawn by Swift, once his friend, as appears by the dedication of the "Tale of a Tub," if that be Swift's; and here we may notice that lord Somers's biographer, Mr. Cooksey, offers some arguments, and combines some facts, to prove that this satire was the production of his lordship, and of his gay young friend lord Shrewsbury. The characters of Peter, Jack, and Martin, are said to have been sketched from living persons, and these sketches of character, after many years remaining in MS. and passing through the hands of lord Shaftesbury and sir William Temple, are said to have been published by dean Swift. That this work was the sportive production of Mr. Somers, "I have no doubt," says Mr. Cooksey, "from the private tradition of the family, and drawn by him from real life, and originals within his own observation." Blurton, the uncle of Mr. Somers, a good and pious man, furnished, it is said, the portrait of the church of England