preserved a specimen. "I remember a saying," writes the poet, "of King Charles II. on Sir Matthew Hale (who was, doubtless, an uncorrupted and upright man), that his servants were sure to be cast on any trial which was heard before him; not that he thought the judge was possibly to be bribed, but that his integrity might be too scrupulous; and that the causes of the Crown were always suspicious when the privileges of subjects were concerned."[1] The wisdom of the remark as respects Sir Matthew Hale, is confirmed by Roger North: "If one party was a courtier," says North, "and well dressed, and the other a sort of puritan, with a black cap and plain clothes, Hale insensibly thought the justice of the cause with the latter."[2] Nor has it passed without the censure of Johnson: "A judge," said the great Doctor, "may be partial otherwise than to the Crown; we have seen judges partial to the populace."[3]
His easy, gentlemanlike way of expressing disapprobation is exemplified in a saying to which I have already had occasion to refer: "Is that like me?" he asked Riley the painter, to whom he had sat for his portrait—"then, odds fish! I am an ugly fellow."[4]
