Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/712

 698 V. BENCH AND BAR King's Bench. Coke bitterly reproached Bacon, who rephed : " Ah, my Lord, you have grown all this while in breadth ; you must needs grow in height, or else you would be a monster." Coke on the bench was fully as brutal as at the bar. In one case he told the jury that the defendant, Mrs. Turner, had the seven deadly sins, — that she was a whore, a bawd, a sorcerer, a witch, a papist, a felon and a murderer. At last Coke engaged in his famous controversy with Lord Chancellor Ellesmere, over the power of the Chancery to enjoin proceedings at law, and drew forth the masterly opinion in the famous case of the Earl of Oxford.^ Coke threatened to imprison everybody concerned ; but Bacon per- suaded the King that Coke was in the wrong, and the King's Bench submitted. Bacon finally caused Coke to be suspended from office, and to be ordered to correct his book of reports, down and published for positive and good law." Bacon now succeeded Ellesmere as Lord Chancellor. But Coke, at the age of sixty-six, was not yet defeated. He had a young and pretty daughter ; her he offered as a bride to Sir John Villiers, the brother of Buckingham. Coke's wife fled with her child; but Coke pursued her, tore the child from her mother's arms, and carried her off to London. Bacon was unable to help Lady Hatton. The mother in prison was compelled to submit, and the child, after a splendid marriage, was handed over to Sir John Villiers. The mar- riage turned out as might have been expected. The young wife eloped with Sir Robert Howard. Her only son was declared illegitimate, and did not receive the name of Villiers. Coke received no reward for his unexampled baseness. He tried to make his peace with the King by a number of dis- graceful judgments in the Star Chamber. But when his efforts met no return, he had himself returned to Parliament as a patriot. Dr. Johnson must have had Coke in mind when he made his famous definition of patriotism as " the last refuge of a scoundrel." Thirsting for revenge on Bacon, Coke caused his impeachment and ruin. Coke lived on to be a very old man. Lady Hatton lent humor to the situation by » 2 White and Tudor Lead. Cas. Equity 601.
 * wherein be many extravagant and exorbitant opinions set