tinued in favour, the royal passions were confined within certain bounds; the moment his influence was extinguished, they burst through every restraint, and by their caprice and violence alarmed his subjects and astonished the other nations of Europe."

Yet, notwithstanding these undoubted claims to our admiration, there is something about Wolsey's character that precludes the possibility of regarding it with entire respect. There was too much of state-craft in his policy, too great an absence of straightforward dealing and too little regard for the sacred obligation of an oath in the treaties he negotiated. His personal vanity and pompous assumption, his greediness in accumulating wealth, his delight in the obsequiousness of those around him, the arrogance of his demeanour, and his fondness for parade and ostentatious display, all exhibit a littleness of mind which it is very distasteful to contemplate. He was too proud in his prosperity, too abject when misfortune overtook him. During his long career there is a total absence of any striking personal incident or noble act on which we can delight to dwell, all the transactions in which he was engaged seeming to be tinged with an attempt to glorify and benefit himself. Even his magnificent erection of Hampton Court palace, and the foundation of his two colleges at Oxford and Ipswich, are disfigured by marks of vain-glory and a disregard to the property of others.

It is a remark of Bacon, that "prosperity doth best discover vice, and adversity doth best discover virtue." The truth of this apophthegm is exemplified in Wolsey's career. If his faults and frailties clouded the day of his success, his excellences shone the more brightly in the evening of his downfall. The only part of his life in which an undivided interest can be felt for him, are the six months of his exile in the North. His whole conduct in those his last days was

so exemplary that he becomes the object of our commiseration, and we cannot but exclaim with our poet, —

"Nothing in his life

Became him like the leaving it."

WORCESTER, CHANCELLOR OF. See T. HANNIBAL.

WOTTON, WILLIAM.

B. E. 1521.

OF William Wotton, like too many of the barons of the Exchequer of this period, little more is to be found except that he was admitted a member of Lincoln's Inn in July, 1493; that he was appointed to read there in autumn, 1508, 23 Henry VII., but did not do so on account of the pestilence; and that he was selected for the same duty in autumn, 1509, 1 Henry VIII. His name appears among the governors of the house as late as 1527. He succeeded Bartholomew Westby as second baron on July 10, 15213; and in November, 1523, he acted as collector of the anticipation of the subsidy assessed on the judges and barons, his own property being valued at 2007. He is not reported as sitting on the bench later than 1527.

WRIOTHESLEY, THOMAS, LORD WRIOTHESLEY.

LORD KEEPER 1544. LORD CHANC. 1544.

See under the Reign of Edward VI.

YONGE, JOHN, DEAN OF YORK.

M. R. 1509.

See under the Reign of Henry VII.

FULLER in his "Worthies " has mistaken this John Yonge for a John Young who was made Bishop of Callipolis in Thrace

Black Book, ii. 22. b.

* Dugdale's Chron. Series

' Dugdale's Orig. 250. 259.

13 Report Pub. Rec., App ii. 62.

in 1517, a year after the death of the other. The blunder may be excused when it is known that on the foundation of New College alone there were no less than ten fellows of that name, on which the author jokingly remarks that "seeing that the college was always new, well may many fellows be young therein."

This John Yonge is believed to have been born at Rye in Sussex, and to have received his education first at Wykeham's college at Winchester, and then at New College, Oxford. He graduated as doctor in both laws, and practised as an advocate in the ecclesiastical courts, taking, as was then usual, holy orders also. In March, 1502, he was presented to the church of St. Stephen Walbrook; in March, 1504, to that of St. Mary le Bow, and in July, 1513, to that of Cherfield in the archdeaconry of Huntingdon, the latter of which was given to him by Cardinal Wolsey, whom he succeeded on May 17 in the following year as Dean of York, when he resigned his other preferments.

The first mention of him in connection with politics is on May 16, 1503, as a witness to the enrolment of the bull relating to the chapel of Windsor. In the following August he was at the head of the commissioners to negotiate a mercantile treaty with Philip, Duke of Burgundy; and in May, 1505, he was employed to treat for the marriage of the king with Margaret, Duchess of Savoy',- an object which was subsequently relinquished. Yonge's exertions were not overlooked; and on the elevation of Christopher Bainbridge to the Bishoprick of Durham, the office of master of the Rolls. was given to him on January 22, 1508, 23 Henry VII.

On the accession of Henry VIII. Dr. Yonge's appointment was renewed; and his diplomatic services were afterwards occasionally demanded. He retained the mastership of the Rolls till his death, which happened on April 25, 1516, Lingard, vi. 9.

Rymer, xiii. 61. 105. 128.

2

two years after he had become Dean of York. On his monument in the Rolls' chapel, the work of Pietro Torregiano a very eminent Florentine, he is represented in a scarlet robe with a four-cornered cap.

Besides the favour of Wolsey, he has the credit of having been the friend of Dean Colet, and the patron of Erasmus.'

YORK, ARCHBISHOP OF. See T. WOLSEY.

YORK, DEANS OF.

See T. WOLSEY, J. YONGE.

Wood's Athen. ii. 727.; Dugdale's Orig. 335., and Chron. Ser.

277

EDWARD VI.

Reigned 6 years, 5 months, and 9 days; from January 28, 1547,
to July 6, 1553.

SURVEY OF THE REIGN.

ALTHOUGH no other conviction of a judge for corruption in his office is recorded under the reign of Edward VI., than that of John Beaumont the master of the Rolls, there is too much reason to believe that the course of justice at this period was defiled by many impurities. The seizure of the monastic possessions, and their distribution among greedy applicants by grants to favourites, rewards for pretended services, and sales for inadequate considerations, had stimulated the avaricious propensities of mankind, and, by quickening the invention of colourable pretexts, had deadened those feelings which usually regulate honourable minds. The contest for power during Edward's reign added to the evil, by leaving the administrators of the law too much to themselves in ordinary proceedings, and controlling them by threats and intimidation where public questions were concerned. Thus the slavish subserviency manifest in criminal trials renders it too probable that other influences not less degrading were allowed to operate in private litigation. Bishop Latimer alludes to the subject in terms of strong indignation, asserting that "money is heard everywhere," and boldly charging the judges with being " afraid to hear a poor man against the rich, insomuch they will either pronounce against him, or so drive the poor man's suit that he