The Gallery of Portraits: with Memoirs. Volume 2 (of 7)Malkin, Arthur Thomas
History
The Gallery of Portraits: with Memoirs. Volume 2 (of 7)
Malkin, Arthur Thomas
Biography
It is impossible to ascertain with precision the particular services
rendered by Somers in the accomplishment of this great measure. There
was perhaps no individual at that moment in existence who was so well
qualified to lend important aid in conducting his country with safety
through the difficulties and dangers of a change of government, and in
placing the interests of the nation upon a secure and solid foundation.
Fortunate was it for the people of England and their posterity that the
services of a man of his industry and settled principles, of his sound
constitutional information, and his rational and enlightened views of
the relative rights and duties of kings and subjects, were at that
critical juncture available to his country; and that, at the instant of
the occurrence of this momentous revolution, his character was
sufficiently known and appreciated to render those services fully
effective.
Shortly after the accession of William and Mary, Somers was appointed
Solicitor-General, and received the honour of knighthood. Bishop Burnet
says, that in the warm debates which took place in Parliament on the
bill respecting the recognition of the King and Queen, and the validity
of the new settlement of the government, it was strongly objected by the
Tories that the convention, not being summoned by the King’s writ, had
no legal sanction; and that Somers distinguished himself by the spirited
and able manner in which he answered the objection. “He spoke,” says
Burnet, “with such zeal and such an ascendant of authority that none
were prepared to answer it; so that the bill passed without more
opposition. This was a great service done in a very critical time, and
contributed not a little to raise Somers’s character.”
In April, 1692, Sir John Somers became Attorney-General, and in the
month of March following was appointed Lord-Keeper of the Great Seal.
While he presided in the Court of Chancery as Lord-Keeper, he delivered
his celebrated judgment in the Bankers’ case, which Mr. Hargrave
describes as “one of the most elaborate arguments ever delivered in
Westminster Hall.” It is said that Lord Somers expended several hundred
pounds in collecting books and pamphlets for this argument. In 1697 he
was appointed Lord Chancellor, and raised to the peerage, with the title
of Baron Somers of Evesham.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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