as a martyr; and his head being stuck upon Temple Bar, it was carried off, and long preserved as a relic.'

I am not aware of Pratt coming upon the political stage on any other occasion, except when he was consulted with the other Judges upon the questicns which arose out of the disputes between George I. and the Prince of Wales (afterwards George II.) respecting the power of the reigning King, by his prerogative, to regulate the education and marriages of his grandchildren. He spoke immediately after Baron Montagu, who had no better reasons to give in favor of the King than the discipline among the patriarchs, who educated and governed all their grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and that the King is called "parens patriæ et custos regni et pater familias totus regni." Pratt tried to fortify himself by modern precedents:

"The regulation of marriages in the royal family," said he, "is an undoubted prerogative of the Crown, proved by all the arguments the nature of the thing is capable of, constantly claimed, enjoyed, and submitted to, the contrary being ever taken to be a great offense, and sometimes thought high treason. The Countess of Shrewsbury's case, 12 Rep. 94, is very strong. The Duke of Suffolk's attempt was held high treason, proving that, at all events, it is an offense of magnitude. The case of the Princess of Orange, in Charles II.'s time, is very material. The King made the match, and the Duke of York her father was against it. The Princess of Modena wished to prevent it; but the King's answer was, 'it is by my consent, and none may gainsay it.' Here is the claim of prerogative against the opinion and wishes of the father. Now as to the education of the children and grandchildren of the royal family, that is a natural and necessary consequence,-if the Crown has the marriage of the royal family, it hath the care of their education. If not educated well, they cannot be married well. The King having the end, should have the means; he must take care of their persons that they may not be disposed of to the prejudice of the nation. This prerogative never was disputed by any of the royal family, and many have been prosecuted for the breach of it. Not a few

116 St. Tr. 94-324.

of the distractions and confusions which attended the differences between the Houses of York and Lancaster, arose from the marriages and education of the children of the blood royal not being regulated by the sovereign on the throne.'

When Lord Macclesfield, on his impeachment for corruption, was deprived of the great seal, there was a general expectation that it would have been transferred to the Chief Justice of the King's Bench, who, without being an intriguer, like his predecessor, was well esteemed both by the King and the Prime Minister, and probably would have been preferred by them to Sir Peter King, the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas; but, while the impeachment was pending, Sir John Pratt was struck with a mortal disorder, of which he died at his house in Ormond Street, on Wednesday, the 24th of February, 1725.

If he was not very eminent for his talents or public services, it should be known to his credit that no graver charge was ever brought against him than that, "being the proprietor of Begeham Priory, in Kent, he dismantled the church, the roof of which was still standing, and laid out the site of it in a pleasure-garden, with flowers and gravel walks.'

Having had an immense number of children by two wives, and having been careless about his pecuniary affairs, he left his family nearly destitute; but if he had been favored with a glimpse into futurity he might have seen a son of his Lord High Chancellor, and his grandson and great-grandson marquesses and knights of the garter.

Sir John Pratt was succeeded in the office of Chief Justice of the King's Bench by a man very distinguished in his day, who was himself raised to the peerage, and was looked upon as the founder of a patrician house, but whose line soon became extinct, and who is now little known beyond the precincts of Westminster Hall.

Although LORD RAYMOND was said to be descended from the Crusader of his name celebrated by Tasso, his branch of the family had fallen into great decay, and his 15 Tr. 1216. Halsted's Kent, ii. p. 380.

grandfather was a trader in the City of London. His father, however, studied the law, had considerable success at the bar, and in the reign of Charles II., by the combination of extraordinary learning and extraordinary servility, was made a Puisne Judge, first of the Common Pleas, and then of the King's Bench. This unprincipled Judge showed peculiar zeal in the famous QUO WARRANTO prosecution for subverting the liberties of the City of London. Chief Justice Saunders being then at death's door, Sir Thomas Raymond loudly declared that "the Court was unanimously in favor of the Crown on all the points which had been discussed;" and he might probably have succeeded in his object if he had not been rivaled by Jeffreys, whose splendor of infamy dimmed every lesser noxious light which might otherwise have attracted the execrations of mankind. The aspiring Puisne himself died (some said from vexation at his disappointment) while still a young man. If he had survived, he no doubt would have been tried in the capacity of Chief Justice by James II., and, if there had been no limit to his servility, he might have continued to preside till the King's power to dispense with all statutes, and to enforce martial law in time of peace, after being established by judicial decision, was upset by physical force. He left behind him a high reputation as a lawyer, although a very bad one as a politician; and a volume of Reports compiled by him proves that he was a complete master of all the wiles of his profession.'

At his death, this only son Robert, the subject of this little memoir, was only ten years old, and so escaped the contamination of his training. The lad naturally called himself a Tory, and he continued inclined to high prerogative notions till he saw reason to change his side; but through life he maintained a fair character for honor and independence.

I find no more authentic account of his education than the inscription on his tomb, which represents him as having been early imbued with a love of classical learning, and as having devoted himself with extraordinary assiduity and success to a scientific study of jurisprudence.

He died while on the circuit in the spring of 1583, in the 50th year of his age.

He was called to the bar in the year 1694, being then an accomplished lawyer, and he soon got into extensive practice.

His professional prosperity he himself ascribed to his habit of reporting. He was determined to rival, and he greatly excelled, the fame of his father in this line. Not only when he was a student, but when called to the bar, when Attorney General, and when Chief Justice, he wrote an account of all the most remarkable decisions in the Court of King's Bench, giving the arguments of counsel and the opinions of the judges with admirable point, vigor, and exactness.'

The first considerable case in which he appeared as counsel was the prosecution, before Lord Holt, of Hathaway the impostor, who pretended that, being bewitched, and having fasted forty days, he vomited pins, and who, under pretense of disenchanting himself, had assaulted and drawn blood from the supposed witch. Mr. Raymond was mainly instrumental in obtaining the conviction of this miscreant, which opened the eyes of the public to the frauds and follies of witchcraft, although, during the seventeenth century they had strangely grown with advancing knowledge, to the unspeakable disgrace of legislation and of the administration of criminal justice in England."

1 His published Reports extend from Easter, 6 Will. & Mary, to Trinity, 5 & 6 Geo. II.

The severest statutes against witchcraft were passed after Lord Bacon had published the most valuable of his immortal works, and they were blindly acted upon in the age of Milton and Dryden. Mr. Raymond had drawn the indictment against Hathway. A specimen of his legal Latinity taken from it may amuse the reader:-"Quod quidem Richardus Hathway nuper, &c., laborer, existens persona maler' nomenis et famæ et impostor, et machinans et malitiose intendens quandam Saram Morduck ux' cujusdam Edwardi Murdock, Waterman, foeminam per totum vitæ suæ tempus existen' honestam et piam, et non Sagam (Anglice, a witch), nec Magiam (Anglice, witchcraft), Incantamentum (Anglice, enchantment), Fascinationem (Anglice, sorcery), unquam exercen', in periculo vitæ suæ amissionis inducere II die Febr. &c. in presentia et auditu diversorum personarum, falso, militiose, diobolice et scient', et ut falsus, impostor, prætenebat et asserebat seipsum per eand' Saram fuisse fascinatum (Anglice, bewitched) es occasione fascination' illius non posse edere et per magnum tempus scil per tempus decem septeminar' jejunasse, ac diversis morbis affici, et quod ipse per ipsius Richardi extractionem sanguinis ejusd' Saræ per sculpationem a prætens' fascinatione præd' liberat' foret; quodque prædict' Richardus vi et armis eandem Saram scalpsit, et sanguinem ipsius Sare per scalption

He likewise assisted in prosecuting the famous Beau Fielding for bigamy in marrying the Duchess of Cleveland, his former wife being then living. The case turned chiefly upon the validity of the first marriage by a Roman Catholic priest in a private room, and Mr. Raymond's argument to prove its validity prevailed.'

Being much connected with the Jacobites, he was employed as counsel for David Lindsay, member of a distinguished family in Scotland, who, having gone from that country to France, in the service of the exiled James II., had come into England without having obtained permission under the privy seal to do so, and was now indicted on an act of the English parliament which made it treason for any of the King's subjects who were abroad when it passed, to come into England, without the King's permission under the privy seal first had and obtained. The facts were not disputed, and the case resolved itself into a question of law, "whether a native of Scotland was bound by this statute?" Mr. Raymond powerfully argued that, Scotland and England remaining separated and independent, the Parliament of England could not legislate for Scotland or Scotchmen: but, in answer, the Attorney General cited Calvin's case, which was intended for the benefit of Scotland, and by which it was decided that all Scotchmen born since the union of crowns by the accession of James I. were to be considered entitled to the same privileges as native-born Englishmen. Mr. Raymond, in reply, without impeach

ill' extraxit, &c., ubi revera et in facto præd. Richard' nunquam fascinatus fuit et nunquam jejunasset per spatium præd' nec per aliquod magnum tempus," &c. &c.

The sentence will give pleasure. After saying that he is to pay a fine of 100 marks, it thus proceeds :-" Et quod stabit in et super pilloriam Die Sabbati proximo in magis publico et aperto loco in Southwarke, inter horam decimam et horam tertiam ejusdem diei per spatium duarum horarum cum papiro super caput ejus denotante offensam suam," &c. The same ceremony is to be repeated before the Royal Exchange, and again at Temple Bar. Then he was to be committed to the House of Correction :-"Et flagelletur die proximo post adventum suum in Domum Correctionis prædict' et quod custos prædict' custodiat eum quotidie ad duram laborem per spatium dimidii unius anni."-14 St. Tr. 639.

1 14 St. Tr. 1327. Secus if the clergyman had been a Presbyterian minister. This compliment to the Church of Rome became necessary from the Anglican Church acknowledging the sufficiency of Popish orders, so as to keep up its own descent from the Apostles.