the trial, in which he pleaded the King's dispensing power, for having neglected to take the Sacrament after receiving a military commission. A mock action was brought against him by one Godden, his servant, to recover a penalty of £500, and Sir Edward being convicted at Rochester Assizes, moved the case into the King's Bench, and a majority of the judges, eleven to one, decided that the King might for reasons of State lawfully dispense with penal statutes in particular cases. For a full and particular account of this case I may refer to Lord Macaulay's History and also to Evelyn's Diary.
   He continued to advance in Royal favour, and was appointed Lieutenant of the Tower, a Lord of the Admiralty, and a Privy Councillor, and was in constant attendance on King James II. When that monarch visited Oxford, in 1687, particular notice was taken of his eldest son, Edward Hales, Gentleman Commoner of 

University College, fuller details of which will be found in Antony a Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses.
   This young man, who seems to have been of unusual promise, was afterwards killed at the Battle of the Boyne.
   The connection of Sir Edward Hales with King Jame's flight and abdication is well known. He brought a hackney coach and went away with James, when that monarch flung the Great Seal into the Thames, and so travelled with him to Elmley Ferry, near Sheerness, where a hoy was waiting. Had they sailed immediately they might have got safely across the Channel, but the master of the vessel refused to weigh without more ballast, and thus a tide was lost and the vessel could not float before midnight.
By this time the news of the King's flight had