Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 24.djvu/36

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

who showed it to Tillotson. Both advised condensation, for which Hale never found leisure. The first part was published after his death as 'The Primitive Origination of Mankind considered and examined according to the Light of Nature.' In this very curious treatise Hale in the first place attempts to show that the world must have had a beginning; next, with lawyer-like caution, that if by possibility this were not so, the human race at any rate cannot have existed from eternity; then passes in review certain 'opinions of the more learned part of mankind, philosophers and other writers, touching man's origination,' and finally defends the Mosaic account of the matter as most consonant with reason. The book was translated for Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg, the great elector, by Dr. Schmettau in 1683. The other parts have never been published. A copy of the treatise on the 'Secondary Origination of Mankind,' made for Sir Robert Southwell in 1691, exists in Addit. MS. 9001. '3. Of Policy in Matters of Religion, fol. 4. De Anima to Mr. B. fol. 5. De Anima, transactions between him and Mr. B. (probably Baxter) fol. 6. Tentamina de ortu, natura, et immortalitate Animae, fol. 7. Magnetismus Magneticus, fol. 8. Magnetismus Physicus, fol. 9. Magnetismus Divinus' (an edificatory discourse published as 'Magnetismus Magnus; or Metaphysical and Divine Contemplations on the Magnet or Loadstone,' London, 1695, 8vo). '10. De Generatione Animalium et Vegetabilium, fol. Lat. 11. Of the Law of Nature, fol.' (Hargrave MS. 485: a copy of this treatise, made from the original for Sir Robert Southwell in 1693, is in Addit. MS. 18235, and another transcript in Harl. MS. 7159). '12. A Letter of Advice to his grandchildren, 4to : ' a transcript of this manuscript exists in Harl. MS. 4009; it was first printed in 1816. '13. Placita Coronae, 7 vols. fol:' the following minute in the journals of the House of Commons relates to this manuscript, of which only a transcript (Hargrave MSS. 258-264) appears to be now extant: 'Ordered, that the executors 01 Sir Matthew Hale, late Lord Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench, be desired to print his MSS. relating to the Crown Law, and that a Committee be appointed to take care in the printing thereof.' The editio princeps, however, is that by Sollom Emlyn, published as 'Historia Placitorum Coronae; The History of the Pleas of the Crown, by Sir Matthew Hale, Knight, sometime Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench,' London, 1736, 2 vols. fol. A new edition by Dogherty appeared in 1800, 2 vols. roy. 8vo. '14. Preparatory Notes touching the Rights of the Crown, fol.' Cap. viii. of this manuscript, dealing with the royal prerogative in ecclesiastical matters, was printed for private circulation by leave of the benchers of Lincoln's Inn in 1884. The treatise itself is, with occasional breaks, consecutive and complete. '15. Incepta de Juribus Coronae, fol.' (a mere collection of materials). '16 . De Praerogativa Regis, fol.' (a fragment, of which Hargrave MS. 94 is a transcript) : transcripts of 14, 15, and 16, made partly by and partly under the direction of Hargrave, are in Lincoln's Inn Library. A work entitled 'Jura Coronae: His Majesty's Prerogative asserted against Papal Usurpations and all other Antimonarchical Attempts and Practices, collected out of the Body of the Municipal Laws of England,' appeared in 1680, 8vo, and is probably a garbled version of or compilation from one or other or all of these treatises. '17. Preparatory Notes touching Parliamentary Proceedings, 2 vols. 4to.' (Hargrave MS. 95). '18. Of the Jurisdiction of the House of Lords, 4to ' (among the Hargrave MSS. in British Museum Library, together with a transcript by Hargrave, by whom it was printed for the first time in 1796 under the title 'The Jurisdiction of the Lords' House in Parliament considered according to Ancient Records '). '19. Of the Jurisdiction of the Admiralty' (Hargrave MSS. 93, 137). 20. Touching Ports and Customs, fol. 21. Of the Right of the Sea and the Arms thereof and Customs, fol.: ' transcripts of this manuscript, entitled ' De Jure Maris,' are in Hargrave MS. 97, and Addit. MS. 30228. No. 19, with the transcripts of 20 and 21, now in the Hargrave collection, came in the last century into the possession of George Hardinge [q. v.], solicitor-general to the queen of George III, who gave them to Francis Hargrave, by whom the transcripts were published in 1787 in a volume entitled 'A Collection of Tracts relative to the Law of England, from MSS. now first edited.' There they appear as 'A Treatise in three parts: Pars Prima, "De Jure Maris et Brachiorum ejusdem; "Pars Secunda," De Portibus Maris; " Pars Tertia," Concerning the Customs of Goods imported and exported." ' It has since been reprinted in 'A History of the Foreshore,' by Stuart A. Moore, 1888, where also will be found the original draft of the same treatise, printed for the first time from Hargrave MS. 98. The treatise was ascribed by Hargrave unhesitatingly to Hale. Its authenticity has been questioned, but on unsubstantial grounds. The titles correspond with those given by Burnet, and the style is that of Hale. For a discussion of the question see Hall 'On the Rights of the Crown in