delivering his judgment, said, "The fountain of wisdom, hath set this glorious work of the world in the order and beauty wherein it stands, and hath appointed princes, magistrates, and judges, to hear the causes of the people. It is fitting, therefore, to protect them from the slanders of wicked men, that shall speak evil of magistrates and men in authority, blaspheming them. And therefore, since Wraynham hath blasphemed and spoken evil, and slandered a chief magistrate, it remaineth, that in honour to God, and in duty to the king and kingdom, he should receive severe punishment." (a)

Common Pleas, and Exchequer, the Secretary of State, and other statesmen; of the Bishops of Ely and London, and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

(a) See in Hooker the following noble passage: "Since the time that God did first proclaim the edicts of his law upon the world, heaven and earth have hearkened unto his voice, and their labour hath been to do his will. He made a law for the rain; he gave his decree unto the sea, that the waters should not pass his commandment. Now, if nature should intermit her course, and leave altogether, though it were for a while, the observation of her own laws: if those principal and mother elements of the world, whereof all things in this lower world are made, should lose the qualities which now they have; if the frame of that heavenly arch erected over our heads should loosen and dissolve itself; if celestial spheres should forget their wonted motions, and by irregular volubility turn themselves any way as it might happen; if the prince of the lights of heaven, which now, as a giant, doth run his unwearied course, should as it were, through a languishing faintness, begin to stand, and to rest himself; if the moon should wander from her beaten way, the times and seasons of the year blend themselves by disordered and confused mixture, the winds breathe out their last gasp, the clouds yield no rain, the earth be defeated of heavenly influence, the fruits of the earth pine away, as children at the withered breasts of their mother, no longer able to yield them relief; what would become of man himself, whom these things do now all serve? See we not plainly, that obedience of creatures unto the law of nature is the stay of the whole world?

"Of law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God; her voice the harmony of the world: all things in heaven and earth do her homage; the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest

According to the custom of the times, a suit of hangings for furniture, worth about £160, was presented to the Lord Chancellor, on behalf of Fisher, by Mr. Shute, who, with Sir Henry Yelverton, was one of his counsel in the cause. (a)

This present was not peculiar to the cause of Wraynham and Fisher, but presents on behalf of the respective suitors were publicly made by the counsel in the cause, and were offered by the most virtuous members of the community, without their having, or being supposed to have any influence upon the judgment of the court.

ton.

In the cause of Rowland Egerton and Edward Egerton Egerton £400 was presented before the award was made, on behalf and Egerof Edward, by the counsel in the cause, Sir Richard Young and Sir George Hastings, who was also a member of the House of Commons, but the Lord Keeper decided against him: (b) and £300 was presented on behalf of Rowland,

as not exempted from her power. Both angels and men, and creatures of what condition soever, though each in different sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent, admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy."

(a) This appears in the charge of bribery, afterwards preferred against the Chancellor.-To the eighth article of the charge, "In the cause between Fisher and Wrenham, the Lord Chancellor, after the decree passed, received a suit of hangings worth one hundred and threescore pounds and better, which Fisher gave him by advice of Mr. Shute:" I confess and declare, that some time after the decree passed, I being at that time upon remove to York House, I did receive a suit of hangings of the value, I think, mentioned in the charge, by Mr. Shute, as from Sir Edward Fisher, towards the furnishing of my house, as some others, that were no ways suitors, did present me with the like about that time.

(b) The second article of the charge, namely, "In the same cause he received from Edward Egerton £400:” I confess and declare, that soon after my first coming to the seal, being a time when I was presented by many, the £400 mentioned in the said charge, was delivered unto me in a purse, and, as I now call to mind, from Mr. Edward Egerton; but as far as I can recollect, it was expressed by them that brought it to be for favours past, and not in respect of favours to come.

Awbrey and Bronker.

Grocers

and Apothecaries.

after the award was made in his favour by the Chancellor and Lord Hobart; (a) and in the cause of Awbrey and Bronker £100 was presented on behalf of Awbrey, before the decree, by his counsel, Sir George Hastings, and a severe decree was made against Awbrey. (b)

In a reference between the company of Grocers and Apothecaries, the Grocers presented £200, and the Apothecaries a taster of gold, and a present of ambergris. (c)

(a) To the first article of the charge, namely, " In the cause between Sir Rowland Egerton and Edward Egerton, the Lord Chancellor received £300 on the part of Sir Rowland Egerton, before he had decreed the cause:" I do confess and declare, that upon a reference from his majesty of all suits and controversies between Sir Rowland Egerton and Edward Egerton, both parties submitted themselves to my award by recognizances reciprocal in ten thousand marks apiece; thereupon, after divers hearings, I made my award with the advice and consent of my Lord Hobart; the award was perfected and published to the parties, which was in February. Then some days after, the £300, mentioned in the charge, was delivered unto me. Afterwards Mr. Edward Egerton fled off from the award; then in Midsummer term following a suit was begun in Chancery by Sir Rowland to have the award confirmed, and upon that suit was the decree made mentioned in the article.

(b) To the sixteenth article of the charge, namely, "In a cause between Sir William Bronker and Awbrey, the Lord Chancellor received from Awbrey £100:" I do confess and declare that the sum was given and received, but the manner of it I leave to witnesses.-See in note GGG the proceedings of 17th March, where it appears that "a killing order was made against Awbrey."

(c) To the twenty-fourth, twenty-fifth, twenty-sixth articles of the charge, namely, the twenty-fourth, "There being a reference from his majesty to his lordship of a business between the Grocers and the Apothecaries, the Lord Chancellor received of the Grocers £200." The twenty-fifth article, "In the same cause, he received of the Apothecaries, that stood with the Grocers, a taster of gold worth between £400 and £500, and a present of ambergrease." And the twenty-sixth article, " He received of a new company of Apothecaries, that stood against the Grocers, £100:" To these I confess and declare, that the several sums from the three parties were received; and for that it was no judicial business, but a concord of composition between the parties, and that as I thought all had received good, and they were all three common purses, I thought it the less matter to receive

In the cause of Hody and Hody, which was for a great Hody and inheritance, a present of gold buttons, worth about £50, Hody.

was given by Sir Thomas Perrot, one of the counsel in the cause, (a) after the suit was ended.

This slander of Wraynham's was not the only evil to

which he was exposed.

On the 12th of November, 1616, John Bertram, a suitor Lord Clif

in Chancery, being displeased with a report made by Sir John Tindal, one of the masters of the court, shot him dead as he was alighting from his carriage, and, upon his committal to prison, he destroyed himself. An account of this murder was published under the superintendence of Sir Francis, to counteract the erroneous opinions which had been circulated through the country, and the false commiseration which the misery of this wretched offender had excited, (b) in times, when the community was alive. to hear any slander against the administration of justice.

that which they voluntarily presented; for if I had taken it in the nature of a corrupt bribe, I knew it could not be concealed, because it must needs be put to account to the three several companies.

(a) The article of the charge, namely, " In the cause between Hody and Hody, he received a dozen of buttons value £50, about a fortnight after the cause was ended:" I confess and declare, that as it is laid in the charge, about a fortnight after the cause was ended, it being a suit for a great inheritance, there was gold buttons about the value of £50, as is mentioned in the charge, presented unto me, as I remember, by Sir Thomas Perrott and the party himself.

(b) In a letter to the King, dated 21st November, at ten at night, 1616, vol. xii. p. 311, he says, "For this wretched murderer Bertram, now gone to his place, I have, perceiving your majesty's good liking of what I propounded, taken order that there shall be a declaration concerning the cause in the King's Bench, by occasion of punishment of the offence of his keeper; and another in Chancery, upon the occasion of moving for an order, according to his just and righteous report. And yet withal, I have set on work a good pen* (and myself will overlook it) for making some little pamphlet fit to fly abroad in the country."

* Birch, p. 104, says it was Mr. Trott.

ton.

When the morbid feeling of insane minds is awakened, there is always some chance of a repetition of its out

The tract, containing some miserable wood-cuts of the murder, and of the murderer hanging against the wall, is entitled, "A true Relation of a most desperate Murder, committed upon the Body of Sir John Tindall, Knighte, one of the Maisters of the Chancery, who with a pistoll charged with 3 bulletts, was slaine going into his chamber within Lincolnes Inne, the 12 day of November, by one John Bartram, Gent. which Bartram afterwards hanged himselfe in the Kinges-Bench in Southewark, on Sunday, being the 17th day following, 1616."-It contains the following passage: "Two several daies (with two or three keepers at least waiting on him,) was he sent for by the judges to be examined. At the first going, he was called to the barre, and an inditement read to him for the murther aforesaid, to which he pleaded not guilty. At his passing along the streets, his presence so full of age, and his face so full of sorrowes, together with the rumour of his wrongfull undoing, which quickly spread it selfe amongst the people, moved them to such commiseration, that they shed tears to see what misery he was falne into; they prayed for him, and cursed the other. Upon the Saturday, before the Sunday in the which he cast away himselfe, did he thus goe abroad, and returning about foure of the clocke in the evening, with a slowe and dull pace, fitting to his yeeres. He seemed in his chamber rather vexed than dejected. His thoughts appeared and made shew, to be troubled than tormented. And rather because hee did expect within a day or two at the most, to be fetched to his tryall and the next day after to be sent to execution. Which as some say, hee fearing that it should have beene to hang alive in chaynes, strucke so strong impression unto him, that to avoid that shame, and that torture, he purposed to lay violent hands upon himselfe, if he could meet opportunity."

Annexed to the tract is another tract, entitled, "A true Relation of the Ground, Occasion, and Circumstances, of that horrible Murther committed by John Bartram, Gent. upon the body of Sir John Tyndal, of Lincolns Inne, Knight, one of the Masters of the Honorable Court of Chancery, the twelfth day of this instant Novemb. Written by way of Letter from a Gentleman to his Country friend. Together with the Examination of the said Bartram, taken before the right Honourable Sir Fra. Bacon, Knight, his Maiesties Atturney Generall, and Sir Henry Yelverton, Knight, his Maiesties Solliciter General, according to speciall directions given by his Maiestie in that behalfe. London, printed by John Beale. 1616."—As John Beale printed for Bacon, it is probable that it was under his superintendence.