NOTE Z Z. 



.Sir Thomas More. 

 Life of Sir Thomas More. 



His integrity in his office was sufficiently proved by the reduced state of his 

 circumstances when he resigned the seals ; but there are two or three anecdotes 

 which will serve to illustrate this part of his character. 



After his fall, the Earl of Wiltshire, the father of Anne Boleyne, preferred a 

 complaint against him to the council for having taken a bribe from one Vaughan. 

 Sir Thomas confessed that he had received the cup from the hands of Vaughan s 

 wife, but immediately ordering the butler to fill it with wine, he drank to her, 

 and when she had pledged him, says he, &quot; as freely as your husband hath 

 given this cup to me, even so freely give I the same to you again, to give to 

 your husband for his new year s gift.&quot; 



At another time one Gresham having a cause depending in Chancery, sent 

 Sir Thomas a fair gilt cup, the fashion of which pleased him so well, that he 

 caused one of his own, of more value to be delivered to the messenger for his 

 master, nor would he receive it on any other condition. 



Being presented by a lady with a pair of gloves, and forty pounds in angels 

 in them, he said to her, &quot; Mistress, since it were against good manners to refuse 

 your new year s gift, I am content to take your gloves, but as for the lining, I 

 utterly refuse it.&quot; 



The following anecdote of More is given by Lord Bacon in his Essays : 

 A person who had a suit in Chancery sent him two silver flagons, not doubting 

 of the agreeableness of the present. On receiving them, More called one of his 

 servants, and told him to fill those two vessels with the best wine in his cellar ; 

 and turning round to the servant who had presented them, &quot; Tell your master,&quot; 

 replied the inflexible magistrate, &quot; that if he approves my wine, I beg he would 

 not spare it.&quot; 



Presents made temp. Jac. 

 Sir Augustine Nicholls. 



Before the time of Lord Bacon. In Lloyd s life of Sir Augustine Nicholls, 

 who was one of the judges in the time of James the First, he says, &quot; He had 

 exemplary integrity even to the rejection of gratuities after judgment given, and 

 a charge to his followers that they came to their places clear handed, and that 

 they should not meddle with any motions to him that he might be secured from 

 all appearance of corruption. 



When the charge was made against Lord Bacon, the following observation 

 was made in the House of Commons, as appears in the Journals of Lunae 26 

 Martii, 19 Jacobi . A If or d. That the Chancery hindereth commerce at home. 

 Many things propounded about the Lord Chancellor. Thinketh he took gra 

 tuities ; and the Lord Chancellor before, and others before him. Hath a ledger- 

 book, where 30s. given to a secretary, and 101. to a Lord Chancellor, for his 

 pains in hearing a cause. Will proceed from Chancellor to Chancery : will 

 offer heads, to be considered by a committee. The Chancery to be confined to 

 breach of trust, covin, and accident. Not to have our wills, or gift of lands, 

 questioned, where no fraud. 



That before the time of Lord Bacon it was customary to make presents to the 

 Chancellor may, as it seems, be collected from the nature of the charges made 

 against Lord Bacon, from which it appears that presents were made to him 

 within a few hours after he was entrusted with the seals ; that they were made 

 publicly, and as a matter of course, by men of eminence who were counsel in 

 the cause, and were made generally after the cause was decided, and by both 

 parties to the suit, and had not any influence upon the judgment. Now as 

 Lord Bacon held the great seals only four years, it is scarcely possible to sup 

 pose that such a custom could, during this short interval, have originated, and 

 thus extensively and deeply pervaded the profession. 



That they were made openly appears from the following facts. 



