Nations

is born after matrimony, all the bishops answered that they

would not ugonot

Wa Against On S

not nor could not make answer to that writ, because it the of the church, and all

realm

-97

the bishops instanted the lords that they would consent that all such as were born afore matrimony should be legitimate, Bas they that be born within momon festo as to the succession to inheritance, forasmuch as the church accepteth such as legitimate. And all the earls and barons with one voice answered that they would not change the laws of the hich had which had hitherto been used and and approved," We strongly recommend mend any of our readers who take an interest in this question to read the learned judge's address at length. He will find in it much learning and great histogical research. He concludes in the following words: "It therefore appears to be the just conclusion from these preSolfese mises, that the rule of descent to English land is, that the heir must be born after actual marriage of his father and mother in order to enable him to inherit; and that this is a rule of a Positive inflexible nature, applying to and inherent in the land jtself, which is the subject of descent, of the same nature and character as that rule which prohibited the descent of land to any but those who were of the whole blood to the last taker, or like the custom of gayel-kind or borough English, which cause the land to descend in the one case to an all the sons together, in the other to the younger son alone upadure oda alone,'

b87 C&F 934.) See cases of Nuns v. Saunders, 6 Bii967141 Sheddon. [Patrick and Bowes v Strathmore, 7, Cl. & Find 8991; 9 Bli. 75, ;96: Bli, 473.58({s To qui ford ed of bowolls of tonnes. Hɔ-ti brel odt of zow tasmislo odt or [To be continued.] wel out vd b›duzil. autote Iono-19q eid movog of bowolls od ysia dɔndw bas „mod to ytimos gift to humorg bozoqque set noqu „vocmitigol of en

ART. III-LORD SOMERS.

WHEN We reviewed Mr. Townshend's History of the House of Commons, we thought his chapter on Lord Somers (34 pages) too long and too important for an incidental notice. We, therefore, reserved it for a separate one, and now propose to bring together the most remarkable passages in that great lawyer's life. We make no pretensions to research, and shall rest satisfied with the materials supplied by Mr. Townshend, Mr. Roscoe, and Mr. Cooksey, who, we believe, have left little for succeeding biographers to glean.

Swift, who after he had become the ally of Harley and St. John, took to abusing all the former objects of his praise, says that Somers's successor in the cabinet was not descended from the dregs of the people, which has generally been understood to mean that Somers was; and the same reproach (for in an aristocratic country it is a reproach) was perseveringly repeated by those of his cotemporaries who sought to lower him. The truth is, he was very respectably descended. We find White Ladies, an old house of considerable extent in which Somers was born, in the possession of his great grandfather nearly a hundred years before; and if his family did not quite rank among the aristocracy of their county (Worcestershire), they clearly stood high among the middle class. They had also been for a considerable period proprietors of an estate at Severnstoke in Gloucestershire.

His father was an attorney, and Swift says a great rogue; but every thing we know about him leads us to suppose that this is another of the Dean's gratuitous calumnies. In his later years, the bare fact of a man's having fought on the side of the Commonwealth would have been deemed sufficient to justify the epithet, and Somers's father had commanded a troop of horse under Cromwell. Mr. Cooksey gives a curious instance of his zeal. When the clergyman of Severnstoke persevered, in spite of repeated remonstrances, in advocating the royal cause from the pulpit, Captain Somers silenced him by firing a pistol over his head, the ball of which lodged in the soundingboard. Somers was born in 1651. "That prodigies might not be wanting (says Mr. Cooksey) as omens presaging his future eminence, it was affirmed, and believed by the super

stitious people in the neighbourhood, that the good lady, his aunt Blurton, walking with him in her hand, when a child, amongst her poultry, a beautiful roost-cock flew upon his head, and crowed three times with peculiar energy. This idle tradition comes well attested to me from the Rev. Mr. Pixall, who derived it from his grandmother, who lived at the time in intimacy with the family, and had no doubt of the fact."

Mr. Townshend says that he was educated at a private school in Staffordshire; but Mr. Cooksey gives the honour to the college school of Worcester, and says that his master was Mr. or Dr. Bright, a man " eminent in every branch of classical education, and of the highest reputation in his profession." Somers's character at this period has fortunately been recorded by a cotemporary. "The account of his behaviour at school I had many years ago from a school-fellow. I think Walsall was the place; they learned their grammar together; I remember very well his account of Johnny Somers being a weakly boy, wearing a black cap, and never so much as looking on when they were at play."

The same gravity of deportment distinguished him at a later period. His father, we are told, was accustomed to visit London during the Terms, and, on his way, usually left his horse at the George Inn, at Acton, where he often mentioned his hopeful son at the Temple. The landlord one day, in reply to these panegyrics, said, why don't you let us see him, sir?' and accordingly Mr. Somers requested his son to accompany him as far as Acton, on his return home; but on his arrival at the George, taking the landlord aside, he said, 'I have brought him, Cobbet; but you must not talk to him as you do to me: he will not suffer such fellows as you in his company.'

After leaving school, Somers resided for several years at White Ladies, and it has been surmised that he was originally intended for his father's profession of an attorney. But events occurred to inspire him and his family with more ambitious views; among which an intimacy formed with the young Earl (afterwards Duke) of Shrewsbury, was probably the most influential. This nobleman must have been singularly precocious, for he could not have been above thirteen or fourteen

1

when he first arrived at White Ladies on a visit to Somers's father, the steward of his estates, and became the constant and confidential companion of the son, then nineteen or twenty years of age. Mr. Cooksey says that Somers delayed entering at the University in order to remain with his young friend, and it is certain that he did not enter till considerably after the usual period. Probably the high estimate of his talents and acquirements formed by the circle in which he lived, including the earl, was the sole cause of his entering at all. Mr. Townshend says he took up his residence as gentlemancommoner at Trinity College, Oxford, at the late age of twenty-one; Mr. Cooksey, that he was induced to delay his removal to the University, for which and the bar he had been always intended, till the year 1674, when he was twentytwo years of age; Mr. Roscoe, that he entered in 1675, being then in his twenty-fourth year. The precise date might have been ascertained with little difficulty, and it is to be regretted that the example of the gentleman who went or sent to Lynn to ascertain the precise date of Madame D'Arblay's birth, is not more generally followed by biographers.

Nothing memorable is recorded of Somers during his residence at Oxford except the donation of 54, towards the repair of the chapel, which, as Mr. Cooksey remarks, is a proof of the liberality with which his father supported him there. He neither took a degree nor aspired to academical distinctions1 of any kind, yet he did not quit Oxford till 1682; a circumstance which it is difficult to reconcile with an original resolution to practise the profession of the barsat b392

The dates of his entering at the Temple and call to the bar are left in the same uncertainty as the date of his entry at the University. Mr. Cooksey says, that he entered at the Middle Temple in 1676; Mr. Roscoe, that he was called to the bar on the 5th May, 1676; Mr. Townshend is silent on the point. It is clear that he resided at the University till he was past thirty, and that he had acquired considerable celebrity as a man of taste and a writer, before he became known in Westminster Hall. His friend the earl introduced him to the opposition leaders of that day Shaftesbury, Russell, Sidney-and it was in support of their opinions that his first literary proThis is Mr. Cooksey's statement; Mr. Roscoe says he took the degree of bachelor of arts.

Lord Somers.

305

ductions were put forth. His first publication was the report of the Onslow Election Case, tried in 1681. This was soon followed by A Brief History of the Succession, &c. in which the authority of parliament to alter the succession to the crown was maintained, with peculiar reference to the measure then pending for the exclusion of the Duke of York (afterwards James the Second) from the throne. ndy from the throne. The failure of this measure inspired the prerogative party with a more than ordinary degree of confidence, and by way of following up bustervel their victory, a royal declaration, framed North, was issued, vehemently impugning the conduct and motives of their adversaries. An answer soon appeared under the title of A Just and Modest Vindication of the two last Parliaments. Mr. Townshend says the greater part was composed by Somers. Mr. Roscoe goes more into particulars. des m "It does not appear with whom the idea of this publication originated; but it has been supposed that more than one pen was employed in its production. We are told by Burnet, that the tract was originally penned by Sidney, and that a new draught was made by Somers, which was corrected by Sir William Jones. The fact mentioned by Lord Hardwicke, that a copy of this work, in the hand-writing of Lord

Somers, was amongst the MSS. which were destroved in the

4

fire at the chambers of the Honourable C. York, can hardly be considered as disproving Burnet's account." Though the work was at the time generally attributed to Jones, yet there is sufficient internal evidence to prove that Somers mainly assisted in the composition of it."zotorq oilt seitoung of moind

of Mr.

We are indebted to the same authority for the most accurate account of Somers's next tract. The active pen Somers was in the course of the same year again resumed in defence of the political rights of his countrymen. The production which he now gave to the world was entitled The Security of Englishmen's Lives; or the Trust, Power, and Duty of the Grand Juries of England explained, according to the Fundamentals of the English Government, and the Decla ration of the same made in Parliament by many Statutes! published for the Prevention of Popish Designs against the Lives of many Protestant Lords and Commoners who stand firm to the Religion and ancient Government of England.

VOL. XXXIV.-NO. LXIV.

X