XLVII. His mode of conduct trials. prominent part in conducting state prosecutions, and all the CHAP. business of the Crown; for, though inferior in rank, he was superior in eloquence and address to the Queen's Serjeants and the Attorney General. Conforming to the practice of the times, when prosecuting for high treason, he put questions ing state to the prisoner, and stated facts of which he offered no proof beyond his own assertion. For example, on the trial of Tilney, charged with being concerned in a conspiracy along with Babington and Ballard to assassinate the Queen, the prisoner having answered, "As for Ballard's coming to me, I do confess it; but it was in such public manner as no man in the world could judge his coming for any such intent as treason: he came openly in the day-time, and undisguised;"— this retort is made by the Solicitor General: -"Tilney, you say true; he came not disguised, but I will tell you how he came; being a popish priest, he came in a grey cloak laid on with gold lace, in velvet hose, a cut satin doublet, a fair hat of the newest fashion, the band being set with silver buttons.* He frames Scots. When the unfortunate Mary was to be tried before her pro- A. D. 1586. secutors, Egerton was particularly consulted as to the desig- the indictnation by which she ought to be indicted. There was a ment great scruple about calling her "Queen of Scots," because against Mary many thought a Sovereign Prince could not lawfully be Queen of tried before any earthly tribunal; therefore he recommended that she should be named "Maria, filia et hæres Jacobi Quinti, nuper Regis Scotorum, communiter vocata Regina Scotorum, et Dotaria Franciæ." The indictment being framed, he went special, with Gaudie and Popham, to Fotheringay, to conduct the prosecution. He summed up at the conclusion of the second day, putting the Commissioners in mind what would become of them, their honours, estates, and posterity, if the kingdom were to be transferred from her present Majesty to a Popish successor. † The Lord Treasurer, though the directing Judge, followed on the same side before he asked the royal prisoner for her defence; when 1 St. Tr. 1150. "Solicitator Delegatos submonuit quid de illis et eorum honoribus fortunis et posteris fieret si regnum ita transferretur.". Camd. Eliz. vol. i. 430. 1 St. Tr. 1188. - See СНАР. XLVII. Counsel against Earl of she begged to be admitted to the presence of Elizabeth, and to be heard before a full parliament. Mr. Solicitor was particularly severe as Counsel against the Earl of Arundel, arguing that, because it was proved he had said he would be ruled by Cardinal Allen in any thing that A. D. 1589. should concern the Catholic cause, "My Lord must needs be culpable for all the treasons Allen hath practised or procured. When the Spanish fleet was upon our coast, and news was brought to the Tower (where he was confined) that the Spaniards sped well, then the Earl would be merry, and when news came that the English fleet sped well, the Earl would be sorry. When the Spanish fleet was upon the coast of Kent, my Lord said, it is a great wood, and a puissant fleet; we shall have lusty play shortly, and I hope we shall plague them that have plagued us.”* On such overt acts of treason, so proved, was the head of the house of Norfolk convicted; but Elizabeth wished only to daunt him and his adherents, and she suspended the execution of the sentence till, after a long imprisonment, he died a natural death. Egerton Prays judgment Perrot. On the 2d of June, 1592, Egerton succeeded Popham as Attorney General, and had for his new colleague, as Solicitor, the famous Sir Edward Coke, who had already fixed the attention of the public by his extraordinary vigour of intellect, his profound knowledge of the common law, and his unexampled arrogance. The only official act of Mr. Attorney General Egerton on Sir John which has come down to us is his praying for judgment against Sir John Perrot, late Lord-Deputy of Ireland, who had been previously convicted of treason for using some discourteous language respecting the Queen. Mr. Attorney now complained much that "Sir John protested his innocency to seduce and deceive the audience to think him innocent, whereas it was most manifest that he was most justly condemned of most heinous treasons, and that in his trial he Camden's account of this proceeding agrees substantially with that in the State Trials. "Egertonus Solicitator, sive procurator secundarius, his summatim repetitis, Majestatem læsisse arguit ex triplice temporis distinctione, scilicet priusquam classis Hispanica adveneret, cum advenerit, cum fugeret," &c. - Camd. Eliz. vol. ii. 6.; 1 St. Tr. 1249. received most favourable hearing." Whereunto Sir John Perrot replied, and said, "Mr. Attorney, you do me wrong now, as you did me before."- "I never did you wrong," said Mr. Attorney." You did me wrong," said Sir John.—“ Instance wherein I did you wrong," said Mr. Attorney." You did me wrong," said Sir John.-"I never did you wrong," said Mr. Attorney. All these speeches were spoken with great vehemency, each to the other.* But notwithstanding this unseemly altercation, Egerton was a man of mild demeanour, and was never known to be betrayed into such invective and vituperation as his successor indulged in upon the trials of the Earl of Essex and Sir Walter Raleigh. CHAP. XLVII. A. D. 1593. He now reached the honour of knighthood, which was in Knighted. that age highly esteemed, and conferred only as the reward of long service. + lain of While Attorney General he was appointed Chamberlain Chamber of the County Palatine of Chester, an office of considerable power and dignity. ‡ Chester. the Rolls. On the 10th of April, 1594, he was made Master of the Master of Rolls, as successor to Sir Gilbert Gerrard. In this new office, ably disposing of certain suits which were referred to him, and occasionally assisting the Lord Keeper, he speedily showed the highest qualifications as an Equity Judge, and the Great Seal was considered his on the next vacancy. During this interval, having comparative leisure, he exercised his pen, and, amongst other things, wrote a little treatise, which we should have found a great curiosity if it had been preserved to us, "On the Duties of the Office of Solicitor General.” This was dedicated to young Francis Bacon, who was then impatiently expecting the office, whom he always patronised, and whose claims he thought he might thus strengthen. § 1 St. Tr. 1329. † I have observed various instances during the Tudor reigns of men being knighted after having been long in the office of Attorney or Solicitor General, Chancellor of the Exchequer, or Speaker of the House of Commons. Eg. Pap. 192. § Sir Robert Cecil thanked Egerton in a letter, in which he says, "I have understood, by my cousin Bacon, what a friendly and kind offer you have made CHAP. XLVII. Mode of him Lord Keeper. * On the sudden death of Lord Keeper Puckering, Egerton was immediately hailed as his successor. The Queen having made up her mind in his favour, he was sent for to the Court appointing at Greenwich. On the landing at the top of the stair, Lords Cobham and Buckhurst and Sir Robert Cecil were ready to receive him. They conducted him into the Queen's outer private room, where her Majesty was standing upon a piece of embroidered carpet, Lord Burghley, the Lord Treasuier, attending her. Him alone, on account of his age and infirmity, she desired to be seated, and she begged him to lean his back against the tapestry. Egerton having then knelt down on his right knee, the Queen made a speech, magnifying his fame and fitness for high judicial dignity; and, taking the Great Seal with both her hands, she delivered it into his keeping. He, remaining on his knee, made a suitable reply, acknowledging his insufficiency, and comparing himself disparagingly with his predecessors. Her Majesty placed both her hands on his shoulders, and offered to raise him from the ground.† He was then sworn of the Privy Council; and, having sealed a writ, and gone through the usual forms, he gave the Seal to his purse-bearer to be borne before him. After which it pleased her Majesty to hold a private conversation with him for near half an hour, and then very graciously to permit him to walk off with the Great Seal. ‡ As a special mark of her Majesty's favour, Egerton still him, the better to arm him with your observations (for the exercise of solicitorship), which otherwise may be got with time. I will study to let you know how great an obligation any man's kindness to him doth throw upon me.' But as we shall see hereafter, the Cecils were jealous of their kinsman, and tried to depress him. The Close Roll, after stating that Egerton was sent for to Greenwich, thus proceeds: "Et eo ubi ventum est inter horas quintam et sextam ejusdem diei in mesaula juxta cacumen gradus honoratissimi Dns Cobham Dns Buckhurste et Robertus Cecil miles aderant quando omnes tres dem Thomam Egerton militem Serenissime Dne Regine presentabant que adtunc in exteriore privata camera insimul aderat ibique stetit super polymitam Phrigiam infra peristroma Regale honoratissimo Dno Burghley Magno Thesaurario Anglie illam attenden. quem ob ætatem inferm et imbecillem Regina sedere jussit et dorsum suum ad aulea attallica declinare." "Dna Regina utrisque suis manibus super humeros ejus impositis modo quodam illam ab humo quasi obtulit sublevare." "Serenitati sue visum est secum per dimidiatam fere horam colloqui et tunc cum magno sigill. graciosissime abire permisit."— Cl. R. 38 Eliz. XLVII. continues continued Master of the Rolls; and he held this office, along CHAP with the Great Seal, during the remainder of the present reign. He was so familiarly acquainted with the practice of While Lord the Court, and so devoted to the discharge of his judicial Keeper, he duties, that he could easily get through the business of Chan- Master of cery without any assistance, and the suitors never had such the Rolls. cause to be satisfied since the time of Sir Thomas More, although there had been at the same time both a Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper and a Master of the Rolls to act as his assistant or deputy. Lord His appointment to the Great Seal seems to have given General joy on his universal satisfaction. "The Master of the Rolls," says appointReynolds, in a letter to the Earl of Essex, "has changed his ment as style, and is made Lord Keeper-only by her Majesty's Keeper. gracious favour and her own choice. I think no man ever came to this dignity with more applause than this worthy gentleman."* So Anthony Bacon, the elder brother of Francis, writing at this time to a friend at Venice, after mentioning the death of Lord Keeper Puckering, thus proceeds, "into whose place, with an extraordinary speed, her Majesty hath, ex proprio motu et speciali gratia, advanced Sir Thomas Egerton, with a general applause both of court, city, and country, for the reputation he hath of integrity, law, knowledge, and courage. It was his good hap to come to the place freely, without competition or mediator.”† Camden's testimony, though more moderate, is more valuable. "Successit Thomas Egertonus, primarius Regis Procurator, magna expectatione et integritatis opinione." + a consum High as the expectations of the public were of the new He proves Lord Keeper, they were by no means disappointed. Having mate taken his seat in the Court of Chancery in Easter term with Judge. as little parade as possible, he immediately proceeded to the despatch of business, and from the beginning he afforded the example of a consummate Judge. He was not only courteous in his manner, but quiet, patient, and attentive - waiting |