“ But amidst the confusion Hale steered a middle course, rising in reputation, and an object of solicitation from both parties. Taking Pomponius Atticus as his political model, he was persuaded that a man, a lawyer and a judge could best serve his country and benefit his countrymen by holding aloof from partisanship and its violent prejudices, which are so apt to distort and confuse the judgment. ”

“ HALE, SIR MATTHEW (1609–1676) , lord chief justice of England, was born on the 1st of November 1609 at Alderley in Gloucestershire, where his father, a retired barrister, had a small estate. His paternal grandfather was a rich clothier of Wotton-under-Edge; on his mother’s side he was connected with the noble family of the Poyntzes of Acton. Left an orphan when five years old, he was placed by his guardian under the care of the Puritan vicar of Wotton-under-Edge, with whom he remained till he attained his sixteenth year, when he entered Magdalen Hall, Oxford. ”

“ Consistently with his desire to remain neutral, Hale took the engagement to the Commonwealth as he had done to the king, and in 1653, already serjeant, he became a judge in the court of common pleas. Two years afterwards he sat in Cromwell’s parliament as one of the members for Gloucestershire. After the death of the protector, however, he declined to act as a judge under Richard Cromwell, although he represented Oxford in Richard’s parliament. ”