ATTORNEY GENERAL. civ 



and without any fear that he would be injured by the 

 dangerous authority with which he was entrusted. Al 

 though power has, upon ordinary minds, a tendency to 

 shape and deprave the possessor, upon intelligence it tends 

 more to humble than to elevate. When Cromwell, indig 

 nant that Sir Matthew Hale had dismissed a jury because 

 he was convinced that it had been partially selected, said 

 to this venerable magistrate, &quot; You are not fit to be a 

 judge,&quot; Sir Matthew answered, &quot; It is very true.&quot; When 

 Alexander received letters out of Greece of some fights 

 and services there, which were commonly for a passage 

 or a fort, or some walled town at the most, he said, &quot; It 

 seemed to him, that he was advertised of the battle of 

 the frogs and the mice, that the old tales went of: so cer 

 tainly, if a man meditate much upon the universal frame 

 of nature, the earth with men upon it, the divineness of 

 souls except, will not seem much other than an ant-hill, 

 where as some ants carry corn, and some carry their 

 young, and some go empty, and all to and fro a little heap 

 of dust.&quot; (0) 



With the duties of the office he was well acquainted. 

 As a politician he never omitted an opportunity to amelio 

 rate the condition of society, and exerted himself in all the 

 usual House of Commons questions : thus dilating and 

 contracting his sight and too readily giving up to party 

 what was meant for mankind. As public prosecutor, he 

 did not suffer the arm of justice to be weakened either by 

 improper lenity or severity at variance with public feeling, (b) 



(a) Advancement of Learning, vol. ii. p. 81. 



(6) See his advice to Villiers, vol. vi. p. 419, in which he says, &quot; A 

 word more, if you please to give me leave, for the true rules of moderation 

 of justice on the King s part. The execution of justice is committed to his 

 judges, which seemeth to be the severer part; but the milder part, which 



