a good deal of difficulty, that he was prevailed upon to be Sir Matthew Hale. He afterwards became chief justice of the King's Bench. This office he held until his health began to fail him, and he resigned the post only a year before his death.

Now the reason I have told you all this about Sir Matthew Hale is, that I wish you to learn two or three things from his character and example, for your own benefit; for that is, after all, the grand point to be attended to in reading the histories of great and good men. There are many things for which Hale is distinguished, but I will mention only three. ---The first is his diligence. You may suppose what a busy man he must have been; occupying as he did such an important place in the country, and with so many public affairs to occupy him day after day. And yet, notwithstanding, he continued to carry on a variety of other pursuits and studies; and wrote several books, which are still useful in the world, though he himself has long since passed away. You may wonder how he found time for this. One grand secret of his accomplishing so much was, that he never wasted his minutes, as many people do, in mere idleness. He rose early too, and spent no time in useless conversation, and very little in his necessary meals; and he even found opportunity for reading and

study when he was travelling from place to place to pursue his duties as judge. No wonder then that he accomplished so much both for himself and others.

The second thing I want you to remember in Sir Matthew Hale is his integrity, his love of truth, and his strict justice. He used to say, that he was entrusted with the administration of justice for God, for his king, and for his country; and therefore he must perform his duty uprightly, deliberately, and resolutely. And accordingly he never would allow himself to be biassed by compassion for the poor, or favour to the rich; and such was his dread of any thing approaching to bribery, that he insisted upon paying even for the presents which he received from those with whom he was engaged in the course of his profession. Sometimes he gave great offence by acting in this way; but he had the testimony of his own conscience to assure him that he was doing right, a conscience which he always tried to regulate by the word of God. He cared very little what men might think; but he was most anxious to act in accordance with the directions of Him who once said, by the pen of Solomon, "A gift perverteth the ways of judgment." "I rest not," he would say, upon my own understanding and strength, but implore and act upon the direction and

strength of God." No wonder then, that Sir Matthew Hale was enabled, in a remarkable manner, to execute justice in the true and strictest sense of the word.

The third thing I will mention in Sir Matthew Hale's character, is his strict attendance to religious duties, and particularly his observance of the Sabbath. Many public men, engaged as he was during the week, with such pressing business, might have been tempted to employ a portion of Sunday in work not quite in accordance with the sacredness of the day, under the plea that it was necessary or useful, -for the benefit of others, and therefore excusable, or even right. But Hale never thought or acted thus. Sunday was to him a true day of rest; and he was firmly persuaded that sabbaths spent, as he loved to spend his, in public worship in God's house, and in religious reading and conversation at home, not only ensure present enjoyment, but bring a blessing even upon the worldly occupations of the following week. And he was right. God has said, "Them that honour me, I will honour;" and He has promised an especial blessing to those who honour Him by keeping holy His day. "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt

honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Hale received much earthly renown, and thus he might have been said to experience the truth of this promise, and to "ride upon the high places of the earth," in the honour which he enjoyed amongst men. And he received too the other and better part of the promise, in the "delight" which he felt in thus keeping holy that sacred day, and in the peace of mind which he enjoyed, that foretaste of the eternal sabbath which remains for the people of God.

But it is time for us to take our leave of this great and good man, and we will do so, and conclude this long chapter, with a few lines in his praise by the poet Cowper ;

Immortal Hale ! for deep discernment prais'd,
And sound integrity, no more than fam'd
For sanctity of manners undefiled.

XXXIV. THE ERA OF CIVIL AND

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.

A.D. 1688-1702.

'Tis liberty alone that gives the flower
Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume ;
And we are weeds without it. All constraint,
Except what wisdom lays on evil men,
Is evil; hurts the faculties, impedes
Their progress in the road of science; blinds
The eyesight of Discovery; and begets,
In those that suffer it, a sordid mind,
Bestial, a meagre intellect, unfit

To be the tenant of man's noble form.

COWPER.

THOUGH there was so much to encourage William III in the commencement of his reign, he was not firmly fixed in his new kingdom without some difficulty, and some fighting and blood-shed too. Let us go once more to Ireland, and see what was the state of affairs there just at this time.

The government had been entrusted to a man named Tyrconnel, who at first appeared favourably disposed towards William, and