COKE. 



727 



Coke. learning and ability, Mr Coke does 'not appear to 



' have courted admission to the presence of his sovereign, 



or to have solicited those honours and dignities to which 

 his talents might have entitled him to aspire, with that 

 avidity and impatience which are so usual among men 

 who enter upon the career of public life. Upon the 22d 

 of May 1603, however, when King James entertained 

 the principal persons of the kingdom at Greenwich, on 

 account of his quiet accession to the throne of England ; 

 Mr Coke, together with the Mayor and Recorder of 

 London, received the honour of knighthood. 



But higher dignities now flowed fast upon him. In 

 consequence of his extraordinary exertions during the 

 prosecutions above mentioned, he was called to the de- 

 gree of a Serjeant, on the 20th of June 1606 ; and on 

 the last day of the same month, he was advanced to the 

 situation of Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. This 

 office Sir Edward filled, during several years, with abi- 

 lity and uprightness, and seemed desirous of retaining it ; 

 but, in consequence, it is believed, of some court in- 

 trigues, he was removed to the situation of Chief Justice 

 of the King's Bench. Although, in this capacity, he 

 evinced no great partiality for the unlimited prerogative 

 of the crown ; yet such was the favour he enjoyed 

 from the king, and the expectations which were form- 

 ed of the great services he was capable of rendering to 

 the state, that, in the month of November 1613, he was 

 sworn of his Majesty's Privy Council. 



At this period, Bacon, the celebrated philosopher, 

 was engaged in the pursuit of the same public honours, 

 which the talents of Coke had already enabled him to 

 attain. But the conduct of these two great rivals on the 

 arena of public life was widely different. The upright 

 mind of Coke disdained to employ any of those petty ar- 

 tifices, or to engage in any of those political intrigues, 

 which are but too often resorted to as the most effectu- 

 al means of advancement; and, trusting to his learning 

 and abilities alone for distinction, it was his boast to have 

 obtained the various offices, which he successively filled, 

 " without either Legging or bribing." Bacon, on the 

 contrary, less impressed with a sense of the true dignity 

 of human nature, than his scientific attainments might 

 have led us to presume,' did not hesitate to stoop to any 

 means, however base and unjustifiable, by which he might 

 raise himself to that station, which his genius and learn- 

 ing, had he relied solely upon them, would probably 

 have procured for him in a more honourable manner. 

 The avowed rival of Coke, he neglected no opportunity 

 that occurred of attempting to diminish the respect which 

 was universally paid to the talents and integrity of that 

 great man, and to supplant him in the favour of those, 

 in whom were the fountains of honour and reward. It 

 affords an humiliating instance of the weakness of hu- 

 man nature, to behold genius and talents, which were 

 calculated to grasp and embody the most important 

 truths of science, thus prostituted to the meanest and 

 most selfish purposes of personal elevation, to see the 

 mind of a Bacon exhausting and misapplying its energies 

 on the paltry arts of political rivalry and court intrigue. 



The pliant servility of Bacon prevailed over the in- 

 genuous and manly virtue of Coke. Having succeeded, 

 at length, in gaining entirely the ear of the king, he 

 eiid'not find much difficulty in procuring an opportunity 

 of humbling his antagonist. In the course of the prose- 



cutions which were carried on against the Earl and 

 Countess of Somerset, and the other persons who were 

 accessaries to the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, the 

 conduct of the Chief Justice, which appears to have 

 been able, upright, and honourable, was misrepresented 

 to the king and the people ; the part which he took in 

 the crown's cause of Commendams, * and in the discus- 

 sion regarding the privileges of the Court of Chancery ; 

 and, above all, his unbending demeanour towards the fa- 

 vourite, Villiers, contributed gradually to deprive him 

 of the royal favour ; and the ultimate consequence was, 

 that Sir Edward was suspended from the execution of 

 his office, on the 30th of June 1616. 



The talents of this able man, however, were too ser- 

 viceable to the state to be long dispensed with ; and 

 accordingly we find that, a short while thereafter, he 

 was restored, in some measure, to the favour of the 

 king, and re-instated in his place as a privy-counsellor. 

 It would appear, too, that the animosity of Bacon against 

 him had at length relaxed ; probably because he consi- 

 dered the friendship of Sir Edward as a necessary means 

 of furthering his own ambitious views of aggrandise- 

 ment. 



From this period he was engaged in many important 

 affairs of state, and the greatest deference was paid to 

 his opinion upon every measure of policy which the 

 crown proposed to adopt. In the year 1620, the king's 

 affairs appeared to be in such a state of embarrassment, 

 as absolutely required the calling of a parliament ; at 

 least, this measure was strongly advised by the Lord 

 Chancellor Bacon, after consulting with Sir Edward 

 Coke. The conduct of Sir Edward, however, proved 

 very different from what the court and the favourite, 

 Buckingham, had expected ; and, instead of becoming 

 a mere tool in the hands of the ministry, he shewed him- 

 self, upon every occasion, to be a steady and patriotic 

 friend to the liberties of his country. In consequence 

 of the freedom and boldness with which he opposed the 

 illegal pretensions of the crown in Parliament ; he was, 

 on the 27th December 1621, committed to the Tower ; 

 while, at the same time, his chambers in the Temple 

 were broken open, and his papers taken out and deliver- 

 ed to certain persons to be examined. On the 6th of 

 January, 1622, Sir Edward was charged before the 

 council with having concealed some true examinations, in 

 the great cause of the Earl of Somerset, and substituting 

 false ones in their place. This charge, however, was 

 not followed up by any proceedings against him, and 

 does not, indeed, appear to have had any real founda- 

 tion ; for he was soon afterwards released from confine- 

 ment ; but the king thought proper, for the second 

 time, to strike him off the list of privy counsellors. To- 

 wards the close of the year 1623, we find his name joined 

 with several others, in a commission issued by the king 

 relative to the affairs of Ireland ; but this might be con- 

 sidered rather as a species of honourable banishment, than 

 as a mark of the royal favour and confidence ; and it 

 does not appear that he ever left the kingdom. 



During the remainder of King James's reign, Sir Ed- 

 ward continued to adhere firmly to his principles and 

 opinions ; nor is there any appearance of his having 

 again attempted a reconciliation with the court. In the 

 parliament which was held in the year 1628, he was 

 chosen knight of the shire for the county of Bucks, and 



Coke. 



* The question was put to the judges : " Whether, in a can where tie king believed hit prerogative or intercut concerned, and re- 

 quire* Ike judge* to attend him for their advice; whether, in inch a cute, they ought not to >tay proceeding! till hit Majesty hat consulted 

 them ?" 



All the judges submitted to the affirmative side of the question, excepting Coke, chief justice of the King's Bench, who said, " Ttel 

 when the cote happened, he would do kit duty." 



