milar benefactions
formed almost the sole resource of the sick and needy.

In this year lord-chancellor Bromley died: and it should appear that
there was at the time no other lawyer of eminence who had the good
fortune to stand high in the favor of the queen and her counsellors, for
we are told that she had it in contemplation to appoint as his successor
the earl of Rutland; a nobleman in the thirtieth year of his age,
distinguished indeed among the courtiers for his proficiency in elegant
literature and his knowledge of the laws of his country, but known to
the public only in the capacity of a colonel of foot in the bloodless
campaign of the earl of Sussex against the Northern rebels.

How far this young man might have been qualified to do honor to so
extraordinary a choice, remains matter of conjecture; his lordship being
carried off by a sudden illness within a week of Bromley himself, after
which her majesty thought proper to invest with this high office sir
Christopher Hatton her vice-chamberlain.

This was a nomination scarcely less mortifying to lawyers than that of
the earl of Rutland. Hatton's abode at one of the inns of court had been
so short as scarcely to entitle him to a professional character; and
since his fine dancing had recommended him to the favor of her majesty,
he had entirely abandoned his legal pursuits for the life and the hopes
of a courtier. It is asserted that his enemies promoted his appointment
with more zeal than his friends, in the confident expectation of seeing
him disgrace himself: what may be regarded as more certain is, that he
was so disquieted by intimations of the queen's repenting of her choice,
that he tendered to her his resignation before he entered on the duties
of his office; and that in the beginning of his career the serjeants
refused to plead before him. But he soon found means both to vanquish
their repugnance and to establish in the public mind an opinion of his
integrity and sufficiency, which served to redeem his sovereign from the
censure or ridicule to which this extraordinary choice seemed likely to
expose her. He had the wisdom to avail himself, in all cases of peculiar
difficulty, of the advice of two learned serjeants;--in other matters he
might reasonably regard his own prudence and good sense as competent
guides. In fact, it was only since the reformation that this great
office had begun to be filled by common-law lawyers: before this period
it was usally ex