ginally on the firm ground of similarity in political sentiments, ripened into personal affection, which nothing but death could have dissolved or impaired. Whether in his ministerial station he might not suffer a few prejudices insensibly to creep on his mind, as the best men have suffered because they were men, may admit of a doubt; but if ever prejudiced, he was never uncandid, and though pertinacious in all his opinions, he had great indulgence for such as differed from him.

His sense of honour was lofty and heroic; his integrity stern and inflexible; and though he had a strong inclination for splendour of life, with a taste for all the elegancies of society, yet no love of dignity, of wealth, or of pleasure, could have tempted him to deviate, in a single instance, from the straight line of truth and honesty. He carried his democratical principles even into social life, where he claimed no more of the conversation than his just share, and was always candidly attentive, when it was his turn to be hearer. His enmities were strong, yet placable; but his friendships were eternal; and if his affections ever subdued his judgment, it must have been in cases where the fame or interest of a friend was nearly concerned. The veneration with which he constantly treated his father, whom his fortunes and reputation had made the happiest of mortals, could be equalled only by the amiable tenderness

which he shewed as a parent. He used to speak with wonder and abhorrence of Swift, who was not ashamed to leave a written declaration, that he could never be fond of children,' and with applause of the Caliph, who, on the eve of a decisive battle, which was won by his valour and wisdom, amused himself in his tent with seeing his children ride on his scymitar, and play with his turban, and dismissed a general, as unlikely to treat the army with lenity, who durst reprove him for so natural and innocent a recreation,

"For some months before his death, the nursery had been his chief delight, and gave him more pleasure than the cabinet could have afforded; but this parental affection, which had been the source of so much felicity, was, probably, a cause of his fatal illness. He had lost one son, and expected to lose the other, when the author of this painful tribute to his memory parted from him, with tears in his eyes, little hoping to see him again in a perishable state. As he perceives, without affectation, that his tears now steal from him, and begin to moisten the paper on which he writes, he reluctantly leaves a subject, which he could not soon have exhausted, and when he also shall resign his life to the great Giver of it, he desires no other decoration of his humble gravestone, than this honourable truth:

"With none to flatter, none to recommend, DUNNING approved, and marked him as a friend."

ON THE USE OF TORTURE IN JUDICIAL

PROCEEDINGS.*

Some highly curious facts relative to this subject, are contained in Mr. Ellis's recent publication of Original Letters. We there find " a War. rant from Queen Elizabeth to Sir Thomas Smith and Dr. Wilson, for putting two of the Duke of Norfolk's servants to the rack."

"ELIZABETH, R. By the Queene. "Right trusty and well-beloved, we grete you well, and fyndyng in the traytorous attempts lately discovered, that neither Barker nor Bannister, the Duke of Norfolk's men, have bettered their knolledg, neither will discover the same without torture; forasmuch as the knolledg hereof concerneth our suerty and estate, and that they have untruely allredy answered, We will, and by warrant hereof, authorise you to procede to the furder examynation of them uppon all poynts that you can thynk by your discretions mete for knolledg of the truth, and they shall not seme to you to confess playnly their knolledg, then We warrant you to cause them both, or ether of them, to be brought to the rack; and first to move them with feare thereof to deale playnly in their answers, and if that shall not move them,

VOL. II.

Continued from vol. i. p. 160.
N

then you shall cause them to be putt to the rack, and to find the tast thereof, untill they shall deale more playnly, or untill you shall think mete. And so we remitt the whole proceedyng to your furder discretion, requiryng you to use speed herein, and to require the assistance of our Lieutenant of the Toure. Gyven under our Signet, the xvth of Septemb. 1571.

"To our trustie and right well beloved Counsellors, Sr. Thomas

-yth, Kt. and to our -tie and well-beloved Doctor -son, one of the Masters of our Requestes."

66

The body of this Warrant is stated by Mr. Ellis to be in the hand-writing of Lord Burleigh,. of whose favourable dealings," with regard to the use of torture, we have already given some account. (Ante, vol. i. p. 616. See also Miss Aikin's Memoirs of the Court of Elizabeth, vol. ii. p. 133.)

Two days subsequent to the date of the above letter, Sir Thomas Smith writes thus to Lord Burleigh:

"I suppose we have gotten so much as at this time is like to be had; yet, to-morrow do we intend to bring a couple of them to the rack, not in the hopes to get any thing worthy that pain or fear, but because it is so earnestly commanded to

as.

As for Barker, I thynk he hath and will confess so much as his wit will serve him; and yet, as it appeareth, hath been the most doer between the Duke and other foreign practisers. Bannister is somewhat obstinate; but little he knoweth. We send you his, Barker's, Hegford's, and Charles's examinations, more than you have had already. I pray you trust, that to-morrow we will do what we can. (Murdin's State Papers, p. 95.)

It is singular, that a writer of Mr. Rose's historical knowledge, should have fallen into so palpable an error as to assert, that the only attempt to exercise torture in England, was a proposition made in Council by Laud, to have Felton put to the rack, (except when a design was laid to introduce the Civil Law, in the reign of Henry VI.)" (Observations on Fox's Historical Work, p. 181.) An error which he has very imperfectly corrected in a note, where he says, that it afterwards occurred to him, that mention is made in our history of persons having been put to the rack, in order to extort confessions in cases of treason, in Queen Mary's time. How much more general the practice was, the reader has seen.

LORD THURLOW AND SIR THOMAS DAVENPORT.

The late Sir Thomas Davenport, then Mr. Davenport, had been in habits of intimacy with Lord/ Chancellor Thurlow, and had flattered himself