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LIVES

OF THE

LORD CHANCELLORS OF ENGLAND.

CHAPTER CXXIX.

LIFE OF LORD CHANCELLOR HARDWICKE, FROM HIS BIRTH TILL HE WAS APPOINTED ATTORNEY-GENERAL.

We now come to the man universally and deservedly considered the most consummate judge who ever sat in the Court of Chancery-being distinguished not only for his rapid and satisfactory decision of the causes which came before him, but for the profound and enlightened principles which he laid down, and for perfecting English Equity into a symmetrical science. He is at the same time to be honoured as a considerable statesman, co-operating powerfully for some years with the shrewdest minister this country produced during the eighteenth century, and after the fall of that chief, being the principal support of his feeble successors in times perilous to the national independence, and to the reigning dynasty.

Yet the task of his biographer is by no means easy. Though he never said or did a foolish thing, he is not to be regarded with unmixed admiration. There were shades on his reputation which ought to be delineated. Personally, he does not much excite our interest or our sympathy. His career is not checkered by any youthful indiscretions or generous errors. He ever had a keen and steady eye to his own advantage, as well as to the public good. Amidst the aristocratic connections which he formed, he forgot the companions of his youth; and his regard for the middle classes of society from which he sprung, cooled down to indifference. He became jealous of all who could be his rivals for power, and contracting a certain degree of selfishness and hardness of character, he excited much envy and ill-will amidst the flatteries which surrounded him. To do justice to the qualities and actions of so

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extraordinary a person, would require powers of discrimination and delineation, which I greatly fear I do not possess. However, after bespeaking the indulgence of my readers, I proceed,-resolved not to be sparing of praise, nor to shrink from censure, when I think one or the other is deserved.

It is curious to observe, that the three greatest Chancellors after the Revolution, were the sons of attorneys, and that two of them had not the advantage of a university education. The illustrious Earl of Hardwicke was the son of a small attorney at Dover, of respectable character, but in very narrow circumstances. The family, though much reduced in the seventeenth century, is said anciently to have held considerable possessions in Wiltshire, of which county Thomas Yorke was thrice High Sheriff in the reign of Henry VIII. Philip, the father, was married to Elizabeth, daughter and co-heir of Richard Gibbon of Rolvenden, in Kent. They had three children who grew up-two daughters and a son. They were glad to marry one daughter to a dissenting minister, and the other to a tradesman in a country town.

Philip the son, the subject of this memoir, was born at Dover, on the first day of December, 1690. He never was at any [A. D. 1690.] school, except a private one, kept at Bethnal Green by a Dissenter, of the name of Samuel Morland, who is said to have been an excellent teacher. Here he won the good opinion of this worthy pedagogue, by displaying the quickness of parts, and steady application which afterwards distinguished him through life.

* Gibbon, the historian, being of this family, has given us a very pompous account of it-showing how, being settled in the great forest of Anderida," now the Weald of Kent, they, in 1326, possessed lands which still belong to them; that one of them was "Marmorarius," or architect to Edward III.; that they had for arms "a lion rampant gardant, between three schallop-shells, argent on a field azure;" and that they were allied to Jack Cade's Lord Say and Seale, "who had most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a grammar-school, who had caused printing to be used, and, contrary to the King, his crown, and dignity, had built a paper-mill,-talking of a noun and a verb, and such abominable words as no Christian can endure to hear."-Misc. Works, i. 4. Lord Hardwicke, when Chancellor, erected a monument to his father and mother, with the arms of Yorke and of Gibbon impaled upon it, and with the following simple inscription, which he composed:

"Here lieth the body of PHILIP YORKE, Gent.,

who married Elizabeth, the only child
of Richard Gibbon, Gent.
They had issue

three sons and six daughters,

of whom one son and two daughters are surviving.
The other six are buried near this place.

He died June 18th, 1721, in the 70th year of his age.
Here lieth also the body of the said ELIZABETH,
Wife of the above mentioned Philip Yorke,

who died October 17th, 1727, in the 69th year of her age.

QUOS AMOR IN VITA CONJUNXIT

NON IPSA MORS DIVISIT,"

The Gibbon arms are quartered in the Chancellor's shield in Temple Hall, and in Charles Yorke's in Lincoln's Inn Hall.

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When he had reached the age of fourteen, being noticed as a "cute lad," the father desired that he should be bred to his own profession of an attorney; but the mother, who was a [A. D. 1704.] rigid Presbyterian, very much opposed this plan. She expressed a strong wish" that Philip should be put apprentice to some honester trade;" and sometimes she declared her ambition to be that, breeding him a parson in her own religious persuasion, "she might see his head wag in the pulpit." However, her consent to Philip's legal destination was at last obtained, on an offer being received from Mr. Salkeld, a very eminent London attorney, who had been many years Mr. Yorke's town agent, to take the boy as articled clerk, without a fee.*

Philip Yorke, when transferred to the metropolis, exhibited a rare instance of great natural abilities, joined with an early resolution to rise in the world, supported by acquired good habits, and aided by singular good luck. A desk being assigned to him in Mr. Salkeld's office, in Brooke Street, Holborn, he applied to business with the most extraordinary assiduity, and, at the same time, he employed every leisure moment in endeavoring to supply the defects of his limited education. All lawyers' clerks were then obliged in a certain

degree to understand Latin, in which many law [A. D. 1705-1706.] proceedings were carried on; but he, not contented with being able to construe the "Chirograph of a fine," or to draw a "Nar," took delight in perusing Virgil and Cicero, and made himself well acquainted with the other more popular Roman classics, though he never mastered the minutiae of Latin prosody, and, for fear of a false quantity, ventured with fear and trembling on a Latin quotation. Greek, he hardly affected to be acquainted with.

"By these means he gained the entire goodwill and esteem of his master; who, observing in him abilities and application that prognosticated his future eminence, entered him as a student in the Temple,§ and suffered him to dine in the Hall during the terms. But his mistress, a notable woman, thinking she might take such liberties with a gratis clerk, used frequently to send him from his business on family errands, and to fetch in little necessaries from Covent Garden and other markets. This, when he became a favorite with his master, and intrusted with

*The "Biographia Britannica" confounds this Mr. Salkeld with Serjeant Salkeld, author of the well-known "Reports," and erroneously supposes that Philip Yorke was sent to the Sergeant as a pupil when destined for the bar.

†The record of a fictitious suit, resorted to for the purpose of docking estates tail and quieting the title to lands.

Familiar contraction of "Narratio," the "Declaration," or statement of the plaintiff's grievance or cause of action.

"Novembris 29°. 1708°,
die et anno prdict.

Mr. Philippus Yorke filius et heres apparens Philipi Yorke de villa et port de Dover in Com. Kant. gen. admissus est in Socie

tatem Medij Templi spealiter et obligatur una cum

04.00.00

Et dat

-Books of Middle Temple.

fine

his busines and cash, he thought an indignity, and got rid of it by a stratagem, which prevented complaints or expostulation. In his accounts with his master, there frequently occurred, 'coach-hire for roots of celery and turnips from Covent Garden, and a barrel of oysters from the fishmonger's, &c.,' which Mr. Salkeld observing, and urging on his wife the impropriety and ill housewifery of such a practice, put an end to it."* There were at the same time in Mr. Salkeld's office several young [A. D. 1705-1706.] had been sent there to be initiated in the pracgentlemen of good family and connections, who tical part of the law-Mr. Parker, afterwards Chief Baron of the Exchequer, Mr. Jocelyn, afterwards Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and Mr. Strange, afterwards Sir John Strange, Master of the Rolls. With these Philip Yorke, though an articled clerk, associated on terms of perfect equality, and they had the merit of discovering and encouraging his good qualities.

He now received from time to time Latin letters from his former preceptor, to encourage him in his career, and to give him the news of Bethnal Green. In one of these, Morland, after dwelling with complacency on the talents of his pupil, confidently predicts the youth's future celebrity, and pronounces that to have been the most auspicious day of his life when the cultivation of so happy a genius was first committed to his charge:-"Non mirandum est si futuram tui nominis celebritatem meus præsagiat animus. Quas tantopere olim vices meas dolui, eas hodie gratulor mihi plurimum, cui tale tandem contigerit ingenium excolendum. Nullum unquam diem gratiorem mihi illuxisse in perpetuum reputabo, quàm quo te pater tuus mihi tradidit in disciplinam."+

*Letter to Cooksey from "an old man of the law, who knew him well."Cooksey, p. 71.

There are two of Morland's Letters to Yorke preserved in the British Museum, and I think they are worthy of being copied at length.

"Juveni Præstantissimo PHILIPPO YORKIO, S. P. D.
SAMUEL MORLANDUS.

"CUM non alia potior se mihi sisteret ratio, qua demonstrarem tibi, quantis me perfuderint gaudiis, et intima quasi pertentârint Præcordia jucundissimæ tuæ, quibus me nupar beâsti Literæ, quam si celeriter rescriberem; Vix lecto egressus Calamum in manus arripui, quem nulla ingruentium Curarum vi et impetu prius excutiendum statui, quam responsum tibi quale, quale exaravero: Quas tantopere olim vices meas dolui, eas hodie gratulor mihi plurimum, cui tale tandem contigerit ingenium excolendum. Nullum unquam diem gratiorem mihi illuxisse in perpetuum reputabo, quam quo te Pater tuus mihi tradidit in Disciplinam. Cui quanta insit Virtutis Indoles, quam inexplebilis bonarum Literarum sitis, quantum Ingenii acumen, cum Nemini magis perspectum sit quam mihi, non mirandum est, si futuram tui nominis celebritatem, meus præsagiat animus; nec fieri potest, quin tam raras optimi Adolescentis dotes depeream. Tum demum mihi placere videor, cum dulcissimam Dierum illorum memoriam revoco, quibus Musis, et Apolline multo, (quippe qui à Latere tuo nunquam se divelli patientur,) studia liberaliora, et amœniora simul tractavimus, iisque artibus et Disciplinis instruendas mentes curavimus, quibus instructi paratiores habilioresque ad res tum Privatas administrandas accedimus. Adest tamen mihi

But the young man still had to struggle with many difficulties, and he probably would have been obliged from penury to go upon the roll of attorneys, rising only to be clerk to [A. D. 1706.] the magistrates at petty sessions, or perhaps to the dignity of town clerk of Dover, had it not been for his accidental introduction to Lord Chief Justice Parker, which was the foundation of all his prosperity and Voluptas nec minus viridis, cum ad ea Tempora præsensione quâdam provolat Animus, quibus eos honores.consecutus fueris, et ad ea Munia admotus, quibus certissimum aditum merita tua aperient munientque; quibus nos etiam feremur inter eos fuisse, qui pro Mediocritate nostrâ contulimus aliquid, vel contulisse voluimus ad Juventutem tuam elegantioribus Literis imbuendam. Hæc non ita accepta velim, ut non amplius tibi studiis operam dandam credas, quæ jam acrius certe urgenda impellendaque existimo, si ad Lucem, et famam hominum profluere satagis. Caveas, oportet, ne remissis parum tempestive Laboribus, ex ipso, quem jam tenebas quasi portu, in altum rejectus pereas; ne flavescentibus ad Messem Campis, Torpore correptus, abjectâque, quæ sola restat, demetendi et in Horreum colligendi curâ, nullos tandem Lucubrationum tuarum fructus percipias. Ita comparatum est, ut in Ædificiis extruendis, ita etiam in studiis excolendis, ut quæ nondum perfecta et sarta tecta, ut ita dicam, relinquis, sponte dilabantur quotidie, et in pejus ruant. Quanto minimo, demum, citra Portum Intervallo consistas, præcipue cum adverso flumine nitaris, ad Locum, ex quo solvisti, statim referere; nec Portum attingere licebit, priusquam spatia omnia illa, affectis jam Viribus, et convulsis forsitan navigii compagibus, remensus fueris.

“Jampridem vides, Juvenis præstantissime, de Veniâ illa, quam narras, impetrandâ, non amplius tibi laborandum esse. Quantæcunque demum fuissent animi nostri offensiones, quæ nulla quidem fuerunt, eas omnes detersisset lepidissima tua Epistola, quam quoties lego (lego autem sæpissime) toties accensas, et in majus auctas sentio amoris illius flammas, quo te semper prosecutus sum; toties affectuum tuorum, quibus me complecti dignaris, fervoribus admotus, refici mihi, et mirificè levari videor.

"De rebus Publicis nihil accepi dignum quod tecum communicarem. Hagdonia, proba illa vitula, quam noveras, ante octiduum ad plures ivit. Robertsii, vicini nostri, Filiam natu maximam Vinculis matrimonialibus intra breve illigandam ferunt. Non est e Pygmæorum Gente ille, quem Maritum sibi adscire voluit Puella illa primaria, licet nondum ad novempedalem altitudinem se extendat statura, qualem Nummulo parvulo à spectatore singulo solvendo ostendi dicunt his Diebus Londini. Robertsiæ Procus Faringdon appellatur, Mortonii uxoris Frater.

Cum

"Nondum mihi contigit videre, quam peritum se, et strenuum oratorem præstiterit Oxoniensis ille, qui Malburij Laudes e Rostris primum apud suos pronuntiatas jam Typis evulgavit. Sed nisi madida sit mihi memoria, læva quædam ominata est mea mens, cum Titulum legerem in Diurnis exscriptum. primum accuratius excussero, te imprimis participem faciam mei Judicii, et literis exponam, quantum insit farinæ purioris, quantum furfuris Chartulis istis inspersum sit, ex nostrâ sententiâ.

"Vides quam amicè tecum agam, quamque te mihi unicum amicum, et habeam, et gratulor, qui mullum tecum loquendi finem faciam. Hoc verissime dixero me nunquam tantum Latini sermonis unâ vice, et currente calamo de totâ meâ vitâ illusisse chartis. Sed eo libentius indulsi et dextræ meæ et pennæ sua sponte properantibus, ut exemplo meo te hortarer, et excitarem ad crebras literas, et longas etiam ad me mittendas (ut prolixæ sint non timendum eet, cum id nec per me nec per te quidem licebit).

"Ashleius, Papilio, Johnidius, dulcissima capita, tuis vestigiis insistentes, et ad altiora semper aspirantis, te officiosissime resalutant. Nihil restat, nisi scias velim, me Deum quotidie venerari suppliciter et flexis genibus, ut te ab omni tum corporis, tum mentis Labe sospitem præstet et tueatur; ut studiorum tuorum in

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