GREAT ANNIVERSARIES
IN FEBRUARY.
By the Rev. A. R. Buckland, M.A., Morning Preacher at the Foundling Hospital.
THE MARQUIS OF SALISBURY.
(Photo: J. Phillips, Belfast.)
In this democratic age the birthday of Sir Edward Coke (February 1st, 1551-2) can hardly be passed over. We remember him, not so much as the rival of Bacon and the prosecutor of Raleigh, as for his share in drawing up the Petition of Rights. Of his works, one part of his "Institutes of the Laws of England," long known as "Coke upon Littleton," has a place amongst the few classical law books which are familiar by name to the general public. Coke married for his second wife a daughter of Lord Burghley and grand-daughter of the great Cecil, who, in this same month, was raised to the peerage by Elizabeth on the suppression of the northern rebellion. His descendant, the present Marquis of Salisbury, belongs also to this month, for he was born on February 3rd, 1830. This is not the place in which to discuss a living statesman: let us pass to other names.
SIR ROBERT PEEL
(After the Portrait by sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A.)