his thoughts. His good temper and his good-breeding never failed. His gesture, his look, his tones were expressive of benevolence. His humanity was the more remarkable, because he had received from nature a body such as is generally found united with a peevish and irritable mind. His life was one long malady: his nerves were weak; his complexion was livid; his face was prematurely wrinkled; yet his enemies could not picture that he had ever once, during a long and troubled public life, been goaded, even by sudden provocation, into vehemence inconsistent with the mild dignity of his character."

They asserted, therefore, that by nature he was a man of very strong passions, which he kept under only by the exercise of a very rigid self-control-an assertion which in itself was a panegyric.

"The most accomplished men of those times have told us, that there was scarcely any subject on which Somers was not competent to instruct or delight. He had never travelled, and in that age an Englishman who had not travelled was generally thought unqualified to give an opinion on works of art; but connoisseurs, familiar with the masterpieces of the Vatican and of the Florentine Gallery, allowed that the taste of Somers in painting and sculpture was exquisite. Philology was one of his favourite pursuits. He had learned the whole vast range of polite literature, ancient and modern. He was at once a munificent and a severely judicious patron of genius and learning. Locke owed opulence to Somers. By Somers, Addison was drawn forth from a cell in a college. In distant countries the name of Somers was mentioned with respect and gratitude by great scholars and poets who had never seen his face."

He was the benefactor of Leclerc, and the friend of Filicaja, as he was also the patron of Hickes and Vertue.

"His powers of mind and his acquirements were not denied even by his detractors. The most acrimonious Tories were

forced to admit, with an ungracious snarl which increased the value of their praise, that he had all the intellectual qualities of a great man, and that in him alone among his contemporaries brilliant eloquence and wit were to be found associated with the quiet and steady prudence which ensures success in life. It is a remarkable fact, that in the foulest of all the many libels which were published against him he was slandered under the name of Cicero. As his abilities could not be questioned, he was charged with irreligion and immorality. That he was heterodox all the country vicars and foxhunting squires firmly believed; but as to the nature and extent of his heterodoxy there were many different opinions. He seems to have been a Low Churchman of the school of Tillotson, whom he always loved and honoured; and he was, like Tillotson, called by bigots a Presbyterian, an Arian, a Socinian, a Deist, and an Atheist.

"The private life of this great statesman and magistrate was malignantly scrutinised; and tales were told about his libertinism, which went on growing till they became too absurd for the credulity even of party spirit. . . . There is, however, reason to believe that there was a small nucleus of truth round which this great mass of fiction gathered, and that the wisdom and self-command which Somers never wanted in the senate, on the judgment seat, at the council board, or in the society of wits, scholars, and philosophers, was not always proof against female attractions."*

John Somers was born, as is supposed, about the 9th of March, 1650, in the ancient mansion of White Ladies, which had formerly been a monastery, in the city of Worcester. He came of a respectable family, which had long been possessed of the manor of Clifton, in the parish of Swanstoke, Gloucestershire, and counted among its kinsmen the celebrated navigator, Sir George

* Lord Macaulay, "History of England." chap xx.

Somers, the discoverer of the "still-vext Bermoothes," or Somers Islands. His father, John Somers, was a lawyer-the most eminent in Worcestershire when the great Civil War broke out. Espousing the cause of the Parliament, he levied a troop of horse, rode away to the war, and fought gallantly under Cromwell. Such was

his zeal that once, when quartered in the neighbourhood, having vainly sought to persuade the vicar of Swanstoke from delivering harangues in favour of the king, he fired a pistol over his head to check the torrent of his eloquence, as men at sea fire at a water-spout to limit the area of its operations. The mark of the bullet is still shown in the sounding-board.

The mother of Lord Somers was Catherine Ceavern, a lady belonging to a Shropshire family.

His early years were chiefly spent under the charge of an aunt, with whom he resided until he was removed to the University. He received his education at the Worcester College School, where he was well taught in Latin and Greek, and imbibed from his master, Dr. Bright, his enduring love of polite letters. He seems to have been a weakly boy, with no turn for out-of-door sports, but a great passion for reading. When sixteen years old, he was admitted to Trinity College, Oxford; but he appears to have been quickly recalled hence, and placed in his father's office to learn an attorney's business, with the view of becoming his father's successor. It was soon seen that the drudgery of the desk was uncongenial to him; and every leisure hour he could command he spent in severe application to his beloved literary pursuits. The room in which he pored over his books night and day was long afterwards known as Somers's Study. In 1672, he was fortunate enough to

form the acquaintance of the Earl of Shrewsbury, who resided for some time at White Ladies; and he also drew upon himself the attention of the great lawyer, Sir Francis Winnington, afterwards Solicitor-General, by whose advice he went to London, and on the 24th of March, 1669, was entered a student of the Middle Temple.

In the following year he began to keep his terms, and, through his friend, the Earl of Shrewsbury, was introduced to Dryden and other literary notabilities. But a brief experience of their society forced upon him a knowledge of his own deficiencies, and to complete his scholastic education he resolved upon returning to the University. In 1674 he resumed his studies at Trinity College. There, says Cooksey, he lived as other students lived; his exercises were no wise remarkable; and nothing is recorded of him, except that in 1675 he gave £5 towards the repair of the chapel—“ a proof of the liberality with which his father supported him, few students being in those times enabled to spare a donation, small as this may seem, out of the usual allowance to young men of his rank,”—and a proof, may it not be considered, of his ready munificence ?

Most men with a brilliant University career rise to eminence in after-life; but it is also true that many of our English worthies have never worn University honours. At Trinity, Somers does not seem to have distinguished himself by extraordinary scholarship or ability. There is some evidence, however, that his force of character had made itself known and felt. His father, we are told, was accustomed to visit London during the terms, and, on his way, generally left his horse at the George Inn, Acton, where, over his glass, he often boasted of "his hopeful son at the Temple" (Somers continued

to keep his terms while studying at Trinity). One day, on a repetition of the usual vaunt, the landlord rejoined, "Why don't you let us see him, sir?" Accordingly, Mr. Somers requested his son to travel with him as far as Acton on his homeward journey; but on their arrival at the George, he took the landlord aside and said, "I have brought him, Cobbett; but you must not talk to him as you do to me; he will not suffer such fellows as you in his company.'

On the 5th of May, 1676, he was called to the bar, having completed his seven years' apprenticeship, but he continued his residence at the University for some four or five years longer. He thus attained to a singularly wide knowledge of modern languages and literature. He was familiar not only with the great French writers, but with those of Italy, from Petrarca to his own contemporary Filicaja, for whom he cherished a very warm admiration ; and in all, could speak, read, and write in seven languages. His acquaintance with the civil law was profound. Nor did he fail to devote a considerable portion of his time to the constitutional history of his country. His studies in this direction led him to embrace the political principles of the Whig party, whose leadersShaftesbury, Algernon Sydney, and Lord William Russell -eagerly welcomed this young and brilliant recruit. He quickly demonstrated the value of his adhesion. The great question which then engaged public attention was that of the exclusion of James, Duke of York, from the succession to the Crown, on the ground that he was a Papist. The Whigst contended for the authority of * "Life of Lord Somers" (ed. 1716), p. 11.

+ These party names now first came into use; one (Whig) was of Scotch, the other of Irish origin.