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HALE, SIR MATTHEW. 



HAI.FORD, SIR 11KNI1V 



arranging the numerous letter* written by the missionaries of the 

 society from various iru of Uio world. This employment furnished 

 him with materialt for U>e collection ttyled Lettres Ediftantes et 

 Curiouaea,' which he edited, and which contain much interesting and 

 valuable mtU>r. He alto compiled from the report* of the Jesuit 

 missionaries and their trantlations of Chinese works, a full and well 

 difeeted description of that empire, which was the first published in 

 Europe : Description Historique, Oeographique et Physique, do 

 1' Empire de la Chino et de la Tartarie Chinoise,' 4 Tola, fol., with an 

 atlas, ParU, 17S5, reprinted soon after at the Hague, in 4 Tola. 4 to, 

 ami translated into Engliah by R. Brookes, 4 Tola. STO, London, 1736. 

 Du Halde made a conacientioas use of the best material/I which be 

 could get at the time from hU brethren of the Chinese missions, and 

 his authorities must answer for the charge brought by some against 

 his work, that it is too faTourable to the Chinese and their social 

 system, and that be U too credulous as to the account* of the Chinese 

 concerning the prodigioua amount of their population, the size of 

 their town*. 4c. A clerer, though sarcutical and somewhat desultory 

 notice of Du Halde' > work appeared in England not long after its 

 publication, under the title, ' An Irregular Dissertation occasioned by 

 reading Father Du 1 {aide's Description of China,' London, 1740. 



Du Halde was at one time secretary to Father lo Tellier, confessor 

 of Louia XIV. He died at ParU in 1743. 



HALE, SIR MATTHEW, was born on the 1st of November 1609, 

 at Alderley, in the county of Gloucester. His father had been 

 educated for the bar, but he abandoned the practice of the law 

 because he could not understand the reason of giving colour in plead- 

 ing, which as be thought was to tell a lio. Both bis parents having 

 died while he was yet an infant, Matthew Halo was educated, under 

 the directions of a near relation on his mother's side, by a clergyman 

 professing Puritanical principles. At the age of seventeen he was 

 removed to Magdalen Hall, Oxford, where he speedily got rid of his 

 Puritanical notions, and plunged into dissipation with a looseness pro- 

 portioned to his former austerity. At this period ho was upon the 

 point of becoming a soldier in the army of the Prince of Orange, then 

 engaged in the Low Countries. Accidental circumstances however 

 introduced him to the notice of Serjeant Olanvil, who, perceiving the 

 valuable qualities which the young man possessed, persuaded him to 

 apply himself to the study of the law. Acting under this advice, he 

 was admitted a student of Lincoln's Inn on the 8th of November 1629, 

 and immediately commenced a course of arduous study. One of his 

 companions in a debauch having been taken suddenly and dangerously 

 ill, Hale was so struck with remorse that he gave up bis intemperate 

 habits. After having studied with great diligence the laws of Kngluiid 

 and the civil law, and also several other branches of learning, he was 

 called to the bar some time previous to the commencement of the 

 citil war. He resolved not to take any port in the political dissensions 

 and contests which then agitated the country, and he steadily kept his 

 resolution. This part of his conduct is mentioned by some of his 

 biographers with commendation, whereas in reality it arose from a 

 weakness in his character which showed itself on several subsequent 

 occv ions. Indeed he seems to have been aware at a later period of 

 bis life that it U not the part of a good citizen during times of political 

 agitation, when the liberties of his country are at stake, to prefer his 

 own individual ease and quiet to the general good. His neutrality was 

 highly favourable to his interest as an advocate ; he was engaged as 

 counsel for the court party in a number of the most important state 

 trials, and was notwithstanding held in such esteem by the parlia- 

 mentary party that he was constituted counsel to the couiuiia-i-ii.-r.- 

 deputed by parliament to treat with the royal commissioners as to the 

 reduction of Oxford. 



After the execution of Charles L, Hale took the engagement to be 

 true and faithful to the commonwealth, and accepted the appointment 

 of one of the commissioners for reforming the law. In 1653, after 

 having shown some hesitation as to accepting the dignity, he was 

 made one of the judges of the Common Bench ; resolving, after 

 diacuaiing bis doubts with lawyers and divines, " that as it was abso- 

 lutely necessary to have justice and property kept up at all times, it 

 was no tin to accept a commission from usurpers." To this his 

 biographer Iturnet goes on to add, "if he made no declaration 

 acknowledging their authority, which he never did." This addition 

 has given rise to much of the odium which has attached to Halo's 

 memory in consequence of this apparent insincerity ; but credit con 

 hardly be given to the statement, for it it impossible to suppose that 

 Hale, who was unquestionably an honest and sincere man, though 

 perhaps weak in matters of conscience, could have been guilty of the 

 pitiful and shallow attempt to evade the evident conclusion, that 

 acting as a judge under his commission was the most effectual and 

 formal declaration he could make of his submission to Cromwell's 

 authority. Some colour however is Riven to Buruet's imputation by 

 Halo's subsequent conduct. After having discharged the duties of 

 his office with consummate skill and strict impartiality, he suddenly, 

 and without any apparent cause, affected to feel scruples of conscience 

 at acting as judge in criminal cases, and refused to preside in the 

 crown courts, though he ttill continued to administer the law in civil 

 aases. This conduct was directly contrary to bis reason for accepting 

 the office of judge, and appears to be founded on no just view. On 

 the death of Cromwell, Halo refused to act under a commission from 



the protector Richard, alleging that he could no longer ait under such 

 authority. He was a member of the parliament which recalled 

 Charles II., and was made chief baron of the exchequer in 1660, and 

 knighted. In 1671 he was raised to the chief-justiceship of the King's 

 Bench, where he presided with honour to himself and advantage to 

 the public till 1675, when from tho state of his health he resigned his 

 office. He suffered considerably from repeated attacks of asthma, and 

 died from dropsy on Christmas-day 1676. 



As a lawyer Hole's reputation is high, and bis integrity is unim- 

 peached ; indeed his punctilious feelings were carried to a fantastical 

 excess, as many anecdotes related by his different biographers show. 



The only spot upon his memory as a criminal judge U the notorious 

 fact of his having condemned two wretched women for witchcraft, 

 at the assizes at Bury St. Edmunds, in the year 1665. Hale in the 

 course of the trial avowed himself a believer in witchcraft, and the 

 jury found the prisoners guilty, notwithstanding many impartial 

 bystanders declared that they disbelieved the charge. No reprieve 

 was granted, and the prisoners were executed. An anecdote is 

 mentioned by his biographers of his having hastened the execution of 

 a soldier found guilty of murder, for fear he should be reprieved ; but 

 in so doing he certainly overstepped the bounds of his duty as a 

 judge. 



Sir Mathew Hale was a voluminous writer, though none of his pro- 

 ductions were printed during his life. His 'Pleas of the Crown,' 

 ' History of the Common Law,' and some other treatises connected 

 with the law, have been published since his death, and also several 

 others upon scientific and religious subjects. His manuscripts, which 

 he had collected at a very considerable expense, he bequeathed to 

 the Society of Lincoln's Inn, and he directed that they should not be 

 lent out or printed, sayiug, "As they are a treasure not fit for every 

 man's view, nor is every man capable of making use of them, I would 

 have nothing of these books printed ; " and he also directed that any 

 of his posterity, members of that society, might, on giving security, 

 have one book at a time lent out to them by the society. 



A catalogue of the manuscripts was contained in his ill, and a full 

 account and catalogue of all his works is printed in I'r. \Villi:ims's 

 ' Life of Hale.' Ilia life has also been written by liurnet and Roscoe, 

 and many anecdotes relating to him are detailed by that amusing 

 gossip Roger North, in his ' Life of Lori-Keeper Quildford,' though it 

 should be observed that the author does not write in a very friendly 

 spirit towards Hale. 



Sir Mathew Hale was twice married : first to Ann, daughter of Sir 

 Henry Moore, by whom he ha 1 ten children ; and secondly, late in 

 life, to one of his own domestic servants. 



HALES, STEPHEN, D.D., was born at Beokesbouru, in Kent, 

 September 7, 1677, entered of Benet College, Cambridge, in 1696, was 

 elected Fellow in 1 702 ; and having taken holy orders, was presented 

 about 1710 to the perpetual curacy of Teddington, near Twickenham, 

 where, though he obtained other church preferment, he resided to the 

 end of his life. He was elected F.R.S. in 1717, and in 1753 was 

 admitted a foreign associate of the Acaddaiie de* Sciences in place of 

 Sir Hans Sloane. He died in 1701. 



During his residence at Cambridge he applied himself diligently 

 to physical researches, which continued to be his favourite pursuit 

 through life. His first important publication was ' Vegetal le Statics, 

 or an Account of some Statical Experiments on the Sap in Vegetables, 

 ic. ; ' and he has the honour of having made the first essays towards 

 the modern discoveries in vegetable physiology. This work, which is 

 fctill referred to for excellent evidence concerning many facts in vege- 

 table physiology, obtained for him a foreign reputation, being trans- 

 lated into French, Italian, Dutch, and German. ' Urcmastatics,' a 

 similar treatise on the circulation of the blood, followed in 1733. 

 Dr. Hales' s genius was of a very practical turn : most of his numerous 

 inventions and writings refer to some direct application of science to 

 daily use. They comprehend anatomical and surgical treatises, 

 analyses of medicines, experiments on the preservation of provisions 

 during long voyages, the distillation of salt water, and the like ; with 

 several sermons. Of all these labours the most brilliantly successful 

 was hit plan of ventilating prisons, the holds of ships, and other close 

 and unhealthy places. Having bestowed great pains on this object, 

 he procured, in 1749, the erection of one of his machines in the 

 Savoy prison ; and the benefit obtained is stated by Mr. Collinson to 

 have been so great, " that though 50 or 100 in a year often died of 

 the gaol distemper before, yet from 1749 to 1752 inclusive no more 

 than four persons died, though in 1750 tho number of prisoners was 

 240." By the introduction of hi* system into the old jail of Newgate 

 the mortality was reduced iu tho proportion of seven to sixteen. 

 In France it was extensively adopted with similar beneficial result 

 in prisons, hospitals, ships of war, the preservation of corn iu granaries, 

 &c. Numerous papers of Dr. Hale* are printed in the ' Phil. Trans.' 

 A list of his works will be found iu \Vittl ' ' Bibl. llriUun.' 



(Memoir, by Peter Collinson, in the ' Ann. Reg.,' 1764.) 



llAI.Fullfi, SIR HI'.NRV, was born ou the 2nd of October 1706, 

 and was the son of Dr. James Vaugban, physician to the Infirmary 

 at Leicester, and author of ' Observations on Hydrophobia, on tho 

 Cxsarean Section, and on the KQecta of Cautharidcs in I'.nalytie 

 Allrctioim.' He received his early education at Rugby, and wiih 

 ward* admitted at Christ Church, Oxford ; ho graduated iu medicine 



