spoken
by the Earls of Danby and Nottingham. Though more than eight years had
elapsed since Danby had fallen from power, his name was still great
among the old Cavaliers of England; and many even of those Whigs who had
formerly persecuted him were now disposed to admit that he had suffered
for faults not his own, and that his zeal for the prerogative, though
it had often misled him, had been tempered by two feelings which did him
honour, zeal for the established religion, and zeal for the dignity and
independence of his country. He was also highly esteemed at the Hague,
where it was never forgotten that he was the person who, in spite of the
influence of France and of the Papists, had induced Charles to bestow
the hand of the Lady Mary on her cousin.

Daniel Finch, Earl of Nottingham, a nobleman whose name will frequently
recur in the history of three eventful reigns, sprang from a family of
unrivalled forensic eminence. One of his kinsmen had borne the seal of
Charles the First, had prostituted eminent parts and learning to evil
purposes, and had been pursued by the vengeance of the Commons of
England with Falkland at their head. A more honourable renown had in the
succeeding generation been obtained by Heneage Finch. He had immediately
after the Restoration been appointed Solicitor General. He had
subsequently risen to be Attorney General, Lord Keeper, Lord Chancellor,
Baron Finch, and Earl of Nottingham. Through this prosperous career
he had always held the prerogative as high as he honestly or decently
could; but he had never been concerned in any machinations against the
fundamental laws of the realm. In the midst of a corrupt court he had
kept his personal integrity unsullied. He had enjoyed high fame as an
orator, though his diction, formed on models anterior to the civil wars,
was, towards the close of his life, pronounced stiff and pedantic by the
wits of the rising generation. In Westminster Hall he is still mentioned
with respect as the man who first educed out of the chaos anciently
called by the name of equity a new system of jurisprudence, as regular
and complete as that which is administered by the judges of the Common
Law. [267] A considerable part of the moral and intellectual character
of this great magistrate had descended with the title of Nottingham to
his eldest son. This son, Earl Daniel, was an honourable and virtuous
man. Though enslaved by some absurd prejudices, and though liable to
strange fi