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HENRY MONTAGU,

EARL OF MANCHESTER,

WAS grandson of sir Edward Montagu, lord chief justice of the King's-bench in the reign of Edward the sixth, and was father of the lord Kimbolton, who, with five members of the house of commons, were so remarkably accused by king Charles the first. Earl Henry was bred a lawyer, and rose swiftly through most of the ranks of that profession to some of the greatest honours of the state and peerage. His preferments are thus enumerated by Lloyd in his State Worthies3: serjeant at law, knight, recorder of London, lord chief justice of the King'sbench, lord treasurer of England 4, baron of

[In the Middle Temple, says Lloyd, where he attained to great learning: but he was first at Christ's college, Cambridge. See Fuller's Worthies of Northamptonshire, p. 289.]

› Page 1027.

[Howell says, he bought his treasurer's staff of the countess of Buckingham for £20,000; yet was removed within the year. He was asked, on his return to London, "whether he did not find wood extremely dear at Newmarket?"—for it was there he had received his white wand. See Letters, sect. 3. p. 116. Lloyd adds, that being asked what his treasurership might be worth per annum, he made answer: "It might be some thousands of pounds to him who after death would go YA

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Kimbolton, viscount Mandeville, president of the council, earl of Manchester, and lord privy seal 5. Lord Clarendon has drawn his character. He lived to a very great age, and wrote a book called

"Manchester al Mondo, Contemplatio Mortis et Immortalitatis: or, Meditations on Life and Death." Lond. 1636, 12mo. third edit.

[A short extract from this book may convey its general complexion, which is learned and sensible, serious and devout, philosophical and metaphysical.

"Man," says the noble writer, "was not made for contemplation onely; his part is to doe, as well as understand: in earthly things to be an actor, of heavenly things to be a spectator. Therefore his felicitie consists neither in rest nor action, but in a fit mixture of both.

"The counsellor saith, a statesman should be thus repartited his will, to God; his love, to his master;

instantly to heaven; twice as much to him who would go to purgatory; and a nemo scit to him who would adventure to a worse place." Obs. on Statesmen, &c. p. 800.]

5 [When lord privy-seal, he brought the court of requests into such repute, that what formerly was called the almsbasket of the chancery, had in his time well nigh as much meat in, and guests about it, as the chancery itself. Fuller, ut sup.] • Vol. i. p. 54, 55.

his heart, to his countrey; his secret, to his friend; his time, to businesse. It is true, retirednesse is more safe than businesse; periclitatur enim anima in negotiis: and yet the lesse you doe, the more you suffer. So a publike man should not alwayes bee shut up in thoughts, pleasing his life in the sweetnesse of thinking.

"True contemplation hates idle speculation. To bee alwayes or never alone, is idlenesse.

"In the courses of my life, I have had interchanges; the world itself stands upon vicissitudes: adversis et prosperis contexuit Deus vitam meam. When I first took me to a gown, I put on this thought -fortunam ut togam appeto, non longam sed concinnam, fit for my condition: finding, by others, that a contented kind of obscuritie kept a man free from envie: although any kind of superioritie be a marke of envie. Yet not to be so high as to provoke an ill eye, nor so low as to be trodden on, was the height of my ambition. But I must confesse, I have since had a greater portion of the world's favour, than I looked for; attamen ego nunquam fortuna credidi, etiam si videretur pacem agere. To checke repining at those above mee, I alwayes looked at those below me; nor did any preferments so delight me, as to make me neglect preparing for my dying day,"

Lord Clarendon describes the earl of Manchester as a wise man, of an excellent temper, of great industry and sagacity in business, which he delighted in exceedingly; and preserved so great a vigour of mind, even to his death (when he was very near eighty years

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