oppose the king and overthrow his favourites. Though the triumphant struggle for liberty upon which he now entered was conducted from motives of high political virtue, it cannot be questioned that coincident circumstances gave to that struggle peculiar charms. Hitherto Sir Edward Coke had professed high-church principles; now he put himself at the head of the puritans. In the first session he carried an amendment "that supply and grievances should be referred to a committee of the whole house." He succeeded in overthrowing monopolies. He inveighed against the attempt of the king to force the adjournment of the house, opposed the negotiations for the proposed match of the prince with the infanta of Spain, vindicated the privileges of parliament, and drew up a "protestation" against the attempted infraction of its liberties and rights. But a revenge, sweeter than the humiliation of a king, was waiting him in the downfall of a subject. A committee was appointed to inquire into the abuses of the courts of justice, and it was soon noised abroad that the lord-chancellor had been guilty of grave delinquencies. Coke, out of decency, declined to be chairman, but superintended all the proceedings. After refusing to refer the case to a royal commission, the house voted the impeachment, and Sir Edward Coke was appointed to conduct it. But the chancellor having made a full confession, and put himself upon "the gracious mercy" of his peers, deprived Coke of that gratification. After this event Bacon never again appeared in public life, but devoted himself to the pleasures of literature and philosophy, while Coke remained a champion in the arena of politics until he carried the famous "petition of rights." The leaders of the opposition had now become so obnoxious to the king that Coke, together with Selden and Prynne, were sent to the Tower. Against Coke several frivolous charges were preferred—that he had concealed some depositions taken against the earl of Somerset—that he had made arrogant speeches when chief-justice, and had compared himself to the prophet Samuel, &c. But his conduct in parliament was the true ground of his imprisonment. By the intercession of Prince Charles, after eight months' imprisonment, he was set at liberty, under an order to retire to his country house, and not to appear at court without express license from the king. In that age expulsion from the court was no trifling matter. It was political death added to the highest public disgrace. But in this instance the victim lost but little of his popularity, and the king was in constant fear lest he should be returned to parliament. To get him out of the way he was appointed on the commission in 1623 to inquire into the Irish church establishment. His exclusion from the second parliament of Charles in 1625, when returned for Norfolk, was substantially managed by the artifice of appointing him sheriff of Buckinghamshire. In 1628, when the impending war with France left the king no alternative but to summon parliament, the attempt to exclude Coke was not renewed. Such were the apprehensions of the people regarding the impending struggle between absolutism and liberty, and such the high value set upon the sternness and integrity of Coke, that he was returned for two counties, Suffolk and Buckinghamshire. Taking his seat for the latter, he proved himself in this parliament the champion of freedom and able expounder of the constitutional rights of Englishmen. Following the footsteps of his father, Charles had already alarmed the country by successive despotic acts, which, though not altogether new, had never before presented such a bold front. He raised money by forced loans and benevolences; he violated the liberty of the subject by imprisoning suspected offenders without specifying the offence in the warrant; he commanded different sea-ports to furnish ships for his service at their own expense; and grossly tampered with the administrators of justice. The commons having initiated the business of the session with solemn fasting and taking the sacrament, addressed themselves in earnest to these grievances, and embodied them in the famous "petition of rights," which Sir Edward Coke was appointed to draw up. His vast legal knowledge, great popularity in the house, and undaunted spirit, qualified him pre-eminently to take the lead on that occasion. Had our ancestors flinched in that hour of trial, we might have been born to the heritage of bondsmen—the slaves of kings, and the drudges of their flatterers. But bravely and well did the commons of England resist the wavering lords, and defy the insolence and pride of the royalists, until they finally wrung from the king his reluctant assent to an enactment which is veritably a second magna charta.
Having conducted this struggle to so happy an issue, and won for himself a high place among distinguished patriots. Sir Edward Coke never again appeared in public life, but devoted his few remaining years to the peaceful occupations of an author. On the 3d of May, 1632, riding one morning to Stoke, his horse fell upon him. The internal injury sustained by this accident was the cause of his death, which happened two years after, on the 3rd of September, 1634, in the eighty-third year of his age. Perhaps Sir Edward Coke is better known as an author than as a statesman or a judge. His great works are—the "Reports" and the "Institutes;" the former, of more interest to the professional lawyer than to the general student of history; the latter, of much value to both. The "Reports"—thirteen in number—are histories of several cases, containing the arguments on both sides, the questions decided, with the reasons given by court for its judgment. The "Institutes" appeared in four volumes. The first is a comment of great length upon a little treatise on tenures, compiled by Judge Littleton in the reign of Edward IV., and is quoted and referred to by modern lawyers under the brief designation of "Coke Littleton." On all questions relating to the common law, this volume contains materials of the highest authority, collected from the ancient reports and year-books. The second "Institute" contains an exposition of magna charta and other statutes; the third of the criminal law; and the fourth of the jurisdiction of the various courts. On account of subsequent changes in the law, the two "Institutes" last-mentioned, have lost much of their original value and interest. In addition to these works, upon which the fame of Coke as an author chiefly rests, he also wrote a treatise on "Bail and Mainprize;" "The Complete Copyholder;" a book of "Entries, or Legal Precedents;" and a book entitled "A Reading on Fines and Recoveries."—G. H. P.
COKE, Thomas, LL.D., a divine of the church of England, and afterwards the coadjutor of the Rev. John Wesley in his multifarious labours, was born at Brecon in South Wales, 9th September, 1747. His family was influential and wealthy; and being intended for the church, he was educated at the university of Oxford, where he narrowly escaped the contamination of infidelity. In 1772 he served his fellow-townsmen in the office of mayor, and soon after having received orders, he was appointed to the curacy of South Petherton, where his zeal provoked some degree of opposition, and caused him to be dismissed from his post in 1776. Soon after this he became formally acquainted with Mr. Wesley, was by him cordially received, and from time to time appointed by him to visit the Wesleyan societies in Ireland and elsewhere. In 1784 he was deputed by Mr. Wesley to visit the Wesleyan societies in America, and arrange for their future government. On his second voyage to America he was driven by stress of weather to Antigua, one of the West Indian islands, December 25th, 1786, a circumstance which led to the establishment of the Wesleyan mission to the negroes in these colonies. He was specially identified with the mission work of Wesleyan methodism in America, the West Indies, and Western Africa, and his whole life was devoted to journeys beyond the Atlantic, or to exertions at home for raising the pecuniary means necessary for their support. He had long set his heart upon a mission to India, and succeeded at length in inducing the Wesleyan conference to countenance the undertaking; he himself advancing a large sum of money towards defraying its expenses. He set sail in December with six missionaries, but died suddenly at sea, 3rd May, 1814, aged 66. Dr. Coke published—"A Commentary on the Bible," 6 vols. 4to, a very useful compilation; "A History of the West Indies," 3 vols. 8vo; and sundry other treatises and sermons of minor importance. His name will be ever had in reverence by the Wesleyan churches as the founder of their missions, for which, "he stooped to the very drudgery of charity, and gratuitously pleaded the cause of a perishing world from door to door."—(Minute of Conference, 1815.)—W. B. B.
COKE, William, Earl of Leicester, born in 1752, was the eldest son of Wenman Roberts, Esq., who assumed the surname and arms of Coke on inheriting the estates of his maternal uncle, Thomas Coke, earl of Leicester. Mr. Coke succeeded to his father's estates in 1796, and from that period down to 1832 he represented, almost uninterruptedly, the county of Norfolk in parliament. He was throughout his career a consistent and zealous member of the whig party, and cordially supported all their leading measures. It is as an agriculturist, however,
