MORE, Sir TnomAs, lord chancellor, and one of England's worthiest sons, was b. in More, Sir TnomAs, lord chancellor, and one of England's worthiest sons, was b. in Milk street, London, in 1478, son of sir John More, justice of the queen's bench. lie was educated at St. Anthony's school, Threadneedle street; and in his fifteenth year was placed in tire house of cardinal Morton, archbishop of Canterbury, who used to say of him: " This child here waiting at the table, whosoever shall live to see it, will prove a marvelous loan." Dean ColeCtoo, was wont to sv: " There was but one wit in Eng land, and that was young Thomas More." In 1497 More went to Oxford, where he made the friendship of Erasmus. He then applied himself to the law, and studied first at New Inn, and afterwards at Lincoln's Inn. He was appointed reader at Furnival's Inn, where he lectured for three years. At the accession of Henry VIII., his profes sionat practice was considerable, and he also held the office of judge of the Sheriff's court in the city—his income from these sources being equivalent to £4,000 or 4:5,000 of our present money. He went on several missions abroad for the king, and in 1516 was made a privy-councilor. His public life now began. He became so great a favorite with Henry VIII., that, in the words of Erasmus, "the king would scarcely ever suffer the philosopher to quit him." Henry visited him uninvited at Chelsea, and walked with him by the hour in his garden, ' holding his arm about his neck." Yet More bud a true insight into Henry's character, for being congratulated on the king's favor by his son-in law, Roper, he replied: "If my head would win him a castle in France, when there was war between us, it should not fail to go." More is the first person in British history distinguished by the faculty of public speaking, and remarkable for the successful employment of it in parliament against a lavish grant of money to the crown. Being elected speaker of the house of commons in 1523, be vindicated the ancient liberties and privileges of the house against cardinal Wolsey, who rather feared than liked him. In 1529, when the prosecution was opened against Wolsey, the king delivered the great seal to More at Greenwich, constituting him lord chancellor, a dignity that had generally been held by ecclesiastics, and bad never yet been filled by a common lawyer. When he was seated in his court of chancery, his father, sir John More, who was nearly ninety, was the oldest judge of tire King's bench. It was a beautiful spectacle to "see the sou
ask the blessing of the father every day upon his knees, before he sat upon his own seat." Unlike the haughty Wolsey, whom no suitor would approach without offerings, More sat daily in an open hall, that he might receive in persons the petitions of the poor. He dispatched the causes so speedily and diligently, that on asking for the next, he was told that none remained. Henry in vain endeavored to obtain More's authority for his divorce with Catharine of Aragon, and his marriage with Anne Boleyn. upon which he had set his heart. As soon as the progress of tire marriage was so fur advanced that the active co-operation of a chancellor was required, More obtained leave to resign the great seal. When the king no gentleness could win him," his favor turned to fury. More refused to take an oath which pledged him to the lawfulness of tire king's marriage with Anne Boleyn. He was committed to the Tower, where he remained thirteen months. On May 6, 1535, he was brought to trial at Westminster. It has been truly said that "no such culprit had stood at any European bar for 'a thousand years." He was convicted by the roost flagrant perjury and injustice, and sentenced to the savage punishment for high treason. Ile suffered death in the Tower, July 6, 1535. In the words of Addison: The innocent mirth which bad been so conspicuous in his life did not forsake him to .the last." When. Iris hekti kiittdmicti lik'desired the execu Honer to wait until he had removed his beard, " for that had never offended his high ness." his head was placed on London bridge, but was taken down and preserved by his favorite daughter, the admirable Margaret Roper, the story of whose tenderness and devotion will live as long as the English language endues. liis Utopia is the conception of an imaginary commonwealth, in which opinions are expressed of great boldness and originality, and especially favorable to freedom of inquiry, even in religion. He, how ever, wrote against the Lutherans, and corrected the MS. of Henry's answer to Luther. The terseness and liveliness of his sayings, his sweet temper and affectionate disposition, his blameless life, his learning and probity, combine to make a union of perfect simplicity with moral and intellectual greatness, which will for ever endear his memory to his countrymen of every sect and party.