"The Lord Somers may very deservedly be reputed the head and oracle of that party. He has raised himself, by the concurrence of many circumstances, to the greatest employments of the State, without the least support from birth or fortune; he has constantly, and with great steadiness, cultivated those principles under which he grew. That accident which first produced him to the world, of pleading for the bishops whom King James had sent to the Tower, might have proved a piece of merit as honourable as it was fortunate; but the old republican spirit, which the Revolution had restored, began to teach other lessons that since we had accepted a new king from a Calvinistical commonwealth, we must also admit new maxims in religion and government. But since the nobility and gentry would probably adhere to the Established Church, and to the right of monarchy as delivered down from their ancestors, it was the practice of these politicians to introduce such men as were perfectly indifferent to any or no religion, and who were not likely to inherit much loyalty from those to whom they owed their birth. Of this number was the person I am now describing. I have hardly known any man with talents more proper to acquire and preserve the favour of a prince; never offending in word or gesture, in the highest degree courteous and complaisant, wherein he set an excellent example to his colleagues, which they did not think fit to follow."

Swift proceeds to speak of two reasons as assigned for this extreme civility: first, that from the consciousness of his humble origin, he kept all familiarity at the utmost distance, lest it should become intrusive; and second, that sensible how subject he was to excitant passions, he avoided all incitement to them, by teaching those he conversed with, from his own example, to keep well within the bounds of decency and respect—a reason, if true, which we are bound to admire. "No man," adds Swift, "is more apt to take fire upon the least

appearance of provocation, which temper he strives to subdue with the utmost violence upon himself, so that his breast has been seen to heave and his eyes to sparkle with rage in those very moments when his words and the cadence of his voice were in the humblest and softest manner."

A very fine character of Somers is drawn by his friend Addison in The Freeholder. Its length prevents us from quoting it in full. He speaks of him-with justice-as wearing himself out in such studies as made him useful or ornamental to the world, in concerting schemes for the welfare of his country, and in prosecuting such measures as were necessary for making those schemes effectual; but all this was done with a view to the public good that should rise of these generous endeavours, and not to the fame that should accrue to himself. Let the reputation of the action fall where it would, he was satisfied so long as his country reaped the benefit.

"As he was admitted into the secret and most retired thoughts and counsels of his royal master, King William, a great share in the plan of the Protestant succession is universally ascribed to him. And if he did not entirely project the union of the two kingdoms, and the Bill of Regency, which seem to have been the only methods in human policy for securing to us so inestimable a blessing, there is none who will deny him to have been the chief conductor in both these glorious works. For posterity was obliged to allow him that praise after his death which he industriously declined while he was living.

"His life was, in every part of it, set off with that graceful modesty and reserve which made his virtues more beautiful the more they were cast in such agreeable shades.

"His religion was sincere, not ostentatious, and such as inspired him with a universal benevolence towards all his fellow-subjects, not with bitterness against any part of them.

He showed his firm adherence to it as modelled by our national constitution, and was constant to its offices of devotion, both in public and in his family. He appeared a champion for it, with great reputation, in the cause of the seven bishops, at a time when the Church was really in danger. To which we may add, that he held a short friendship and correspondence with the great Archbishop Tillotson, being actuated by the same spirit of candour and moderation, and moved rather with pity than indignation towards the persons of those who differed from him in the unessential parts of Christianity.

"His great humanity appeared in the animated circumstances of his conversations. You found it in the benevolence of his aspect, the complacency of his behaviour, and the tone of his voice. . . . He joined the greatest delicacy of good-breeding to the greatest strength of reason. By approving the sentiments of a person with whom he conversed, in such particulars as were just, he won him over from those points in which he was mistaken; and had so agreeable a way of conveying knowledge, that whoever conferred with him grew the wiser, without perceiving that he had been instructed."

Addison goes on to say that Somers was not more distinguished as a patriot and statesman, than as a person of universal knowledge and learning. As by a just division of his time between public affairs and private retirement, he took care to keep up both "the great and good man; so did he, by the same means, accomplish and perfect himself not only in the knowledge of men and things, but in the skill of the most refined arts and sciences.

"That unwearied diligence which followed him through all the stages of his life, gave him such a thorough insight into the laws of the land, that he passed for one of the greatest masters of his profession at his first appearance in it. . . .

...

"He enjoyed, in the highest perfection, two talents which do not often meet in the same person-the greatest strength of

good sense, and the most exquisite taste of politeness. Without the first learning is but an incumbrance, and without the last is ungraceful. My Lord Somers was master of these two qualifications in so eminent a degree, that all the parts of knowledge appeared in him with such an additional strength and beauty, as they want in the possession of others. If he delivered his opinion of a piece of poetry, a statue, or a picture, there was something so just and delicate in his observations as naturally produced pleasure and assent in those who heard him.

"His solidity and eloquence, improved by the reading of the finest authors, both of the learned and modern languages, discovered itself in all his productions. His oratory was masculine and persuasive, free from everything trivial and affected. His style in writing was chaste and pure, but at the same time full of spirit and politeness, and fit to convey the most intricate business to the understanding of the reader with the utmost clearness and perspicuity. And here it is to be lamented that this extraordinary person, out of his natural aversion to vainglory, wrote several pieces, as well as performed several actions, which he did not assume the honour of."

The critic concludes with the remark that Somers will undoubtedly make one of the most distinguished figures in the history of his age, though his merit will not appear in all its fulness, because he wrote much to which he did not attach his name; gave privately many excellent counsels; did numerous offices of friendship to persons who never knew their benefactor; performed great services to his country, of which others reaped the glory; and, in a word, made it his endeavour to do worthy actions rather than gain an illustrious character.

Bishop Burnet says of this great man, that he was very learned in his profession, with a great deal more

*

Bishop Burnet, "History of Our Own Times," ii. 107.

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.

*

Horace Walpole generally infuses a flavour of the cynical into his criticisms, but there is neither arrière pensée nor insinuation in his character of Somers, whom he calls 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 a patriot of the noblest and most extensive views; as a man who dispensed blessings by his life, and planned them for posterity."

We may sum up these testimonies in the brilliant portrait of the great lawyer-statesman, drawn by Lord Macaulay:

:

"He was equally eminent as a jurist and as a politician, as an orator and a writer. His speeches have perished, but his State papers remain, and are models of terse, luminous, and dignified eloquence. He united all the qualities of a great judge-in intellect comprehensive, quick and acute, diligence, integrity, patience, suavity. In council, the calm wisdom which he possessed in a measure rarely found among men of parts so quick and of opinions so decided as his, acquired for him the authority of an oracle. The superiority of his powers appeared not less clearly in private circles. The charm of his conversation was heightened by the frankness with which he poured out

Horace Walpole, "Royal and Noble Authors," Works, i. 430.