greatness. This distinguished Judge had a high opinion of Mr. Salkeld, who was respected by all ranks of the profession, and asked him one day, if he could tell him of a decent and intelligent person who might serve as a sort of law tutor for his sons,-to assist and direct them in their professional studies. The attorney eagerly recommended his clerk, Philip Yorke, who was immediately retained [A. D. 1707-1712.] in that capacity, and, giving the highest satsifaction by his assiduity and his obliging manners, gained the warm friendship of ceptorumque omnium Ducem Auspicemque se præstare dignetur. Vale et uè ayanan diαtére. Dat. ex Edibus Blinbeggarians III. Non. Febr. Anno à Nato Xto. MDCCVI.

"Salutem dicas velim Patri Matrique optimis. Sphalmata, leviora illa quidem, quæ tibi inopinanti excidisse videntur, proximis meis indicabo, quæ nisi per te steterit, non diu morabuntur."

"PHILIPPO YORKIO suo S. P. D. SAMUEL Morlandus.

"CUM nullas à Nobis feriantibus nuper, et ab Herculeis plane, quibus cæteroquoin distendor laboribus interquiescentibus literas acceperis; vix recusandum est, quin me in amicis colendis parum diligentem habeas. Quinetiam Falsi me reum peragis, idque Syngraphâ etiam, cum manu meâ scriptum possides, quo mecum apud Judicem agas, et omnes mei defendendi rationes extorqueas. Missâ ergo criminis diluendi curâ, et repudiato negotiorum Patrocinio, ad Humanitatem tuam tanquam ad Asylum confugio. Nec ab illâ tamen, nisi eximiam esse scirem, et cæterorum Hominum modulum supergressam, me Veniam consecuturum sperarem. Nescio certe, an recriminando effecturus sim, ut te mihi æquiorem Judicem præstes. Sed cum non solum centis Viminibus, sed asperrimis etiam senticetis manum injiciunt, quibus demergendis non alia enatandi spes ostensa est; ego etiam ad conquerendas injurias me confero. Scias ergo velim me graviter tulisse, quod Rus te furtim subduxisti, præcipuè vero, quod effigie tuâ manu Periti alicujus expressâ, non prius impertire dignatus es, ut quoties eam usurparem oculis, mentem meam non minus tui Desiderio, quam densis Curarum agminibus acerbatam solarer aut lenirem.

"Ineptire tibi forsan videbor, si pigriores nos factos ad scribendi officia Carriani operis expectatione dicam, et ab usu Latini sermonis abstinuisse, ut quam paucissima essent à nobis profecta Aristarchi illius Obelis confodienda. Quicquid id est, tantæ hujus Libri editionem moræ tenuere, quantæ celebratam apud Gallos Comoediam, cui Titulus Puella, de quâ post diuturnam moram editâ hoc Disticho lusit aliquis, qui ingenio inter eos id temporis emicuit:

'Illa Capellani dudum expectata Puella

Jam post longa tamen Tempora venit Anus.'

Sed si nondum editur, certo certius appropinquat ut edatur Liber ille, quo Literatum orbem collustraturum, non tam jactat, quam minatur Autor Doctissimus; quoque errabundos Literatores ad rectas Latinitatis semitas revocaturum promittit, diligentissimus certè in Notationibus Verborum indagandis, utinam citra superstitionem. Quem tamen cum nondum videre licuit, orationem nostram quamvis incomptam non respues, castigetissimam futuram, cum Limæ istius Dentes subierit. Vix alius occurris, qui de se, suisque scriptis, et acumine, magis honorificè sentire videtur quam Cl. Carrius, nisi Gronovius Filius, cujus Vocem arrogantem, et præfidentem pace tuâ adjungam. 'Absit,' inquit, ut non alius sit fructus tot Laborum, qui ad Linguas Illustrandas impensi sunt, nisi ut dici possit hanc vel illam hujus vel illius Vocis videri esse significationem; et non certo adfirmare possimus hanc esse, non illam.' Qui Gronovius, ut apud Doctos constat, humani aliquid non semel passus est.

"Sed de Musis plus satis, quibus tantopere obstrepunt Belli et armorum

the sons, and the weighty, persevering, and unscrupulous patronage of the father. He now bade adieu to the smoky office in Brooke street, Holborn,* and he had a commodious chamber assigned him in the Chief Justice's house in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Released from the drudgery not only of going to Covent Garden market, but of attending captions and serving process, he devoted himself with fresh vigour to the abstruse parts of the law and to his more liberal studies. Farther, he took great pains to acquire the habit of correct composition in English-generally so much neglected by English lawyers that many of the most eminent of them will be found, in their written "opinions," violating the rules of grammar, and without the least remorse constructing their sentences in a slovenly manner, for which a schoolboy would be whipped.† The "Tatler" had done much to inspire a literary taste into all ranks. This periodical had ceased, but being now succeeded by the "Spectator," Philip Yorke "gave his days and nights to the papers of Addison."

Although he never approached the excellence of his model, he was so far pleased with his own proficiency that he aspired to the honour of fragores, ut ad Cantilenas eorum aures plane obsurduerint. Nec de Minervæ amplius, sed Insularum Arcibus expugnandis solliciti sunt omnium animi, quibus nisi brevi potiti fuerimus, multum de Laudibus, et existimatione Eugenii decedet apud Imperitum Vulgus, licet ii, quibus acrius Judicium, non videre possint quid ex vitio vertendum sit. Lætum tamen hujus obsidionis exitum speramus. Sin minus, concoquenda sunt hæc et magis luctuosa etiam, si Deo ita visam fuerit. Id præcipue optandum est, ut Dosides jam à multus annis Germanos felix aliquis casus ad spes novas erigat, et ad bellum fortius capessendum, ne totam Molem Belli, et virium Flandriam convertant Hostes.

"Jucundissimus Palmerius literis suis me haud ita pridem compellavit, adeo doctis et elegantibus, ut tantum non præripuerit spem omnem imitandi, et Latine Scriptionis usu nobis interdixerit. Nos interim Studiorum suorum Adjutores advocat. Nescio autem quis operæ meæ usus sit in bonæ mentis palæstrâ tam feliciter desudantibus, nisi ut bene currentes voce insuper instigem. Ægrè tandem et invitus manum à Tabula retraho. Sed iniquæ Chartæ Limites monent, ut desistam. Parentibus tuis optimis obseqnia mea vice tuâ ut deferas, rogo, et properatis literis certiorem facias, eum me Lccum, non quem merui, sed magnopere cupio in affectibus tuis tenere. Data ex Ædibus Blinbeggarianis Iv. Iduum Octobris anno Salutis MDCCVIII°."

These letters are directed

"Juveni præstantissimo
PHILIPPO YORKIO,

at Mr. Salkeld's,

Brook Street,

near Holborn Bars, London."

-Birch, MS. Additional, 4235, p. 112.

"Three years he sat bis smoky room in,

Pens, paper, ink, and pounce consumin'."

†This undoubted fact shows strikingly the difference between speaking and writing; for some of those who did not at all know the division of a discourse into sentences, or the grammatical construction of a sentence, have been listened to with great and just admiration when addressing a jury,-without their inaccuracies and inelegancies being discovered. Erskine could compose with accuracy and elegance, but this could be said of very few of his contemporaries.

writing a "Spectator." Accordingly, with great pains, he composed the well-known Letter, signed "PHILIP HOMEBRED," and dropped it into the Lion's mouth. To his inexpressible delight, on Monday, April 12, 1712, it came out as No. 364, with the motto added by Steele :

"Navibus atque

Quadrigis petimus bene vivere."

As a lawyer desirous of upholding our craft by all fair means, I should have been proud to have warmly praised this performance, but I am sorry to acknowledge that I cannot honestly object to the terms in which it was "villipended" by Dr. Johnson.* I will, however, select one or two of the best passages, in the hope that the reader may form a more favourable judgment of it. Having described a foolish mother, who is persuaded that "to chain her son down to the ordinary methods of education with others of his age, would be to cramp his faculties, and do an irreparable injury to his wonderful capacity," Mr. Philip Homebred, trying to imitate the manner of Addison, thus proceeds :-"I happened to visit at the house last week, and missing the young gentleman at the tea-table, where he seldom fails to officiate, could not, upon so extraordinary a circumstance, avoid inquiring after him. My Lady told me that he was gone with his woman, in order to make some preparations for their equipage; for that she intended very speedily to carry him to travel. The oddness of the expression shocked me a little; however, I soon recovered myself enough to let her know that all I was willing to understand by it was, that she designed this summer to show her son his estate in a distant county in which he had never yet been. But she soon took care to rob me of that agreeable mistake, and let me into the whole affair." "When I came to reflect at night, as my custom is, upon the circumstances of the day, I could not but believe that this humour of carrying a boy to travel in his mother's lap, and that upon pretence of learning men and things, is a case of an extraordinary nature, and carries on it a particular stamp of folly. I did not remember to have met with its parallel within the compass of my observation, though I could call to mind some not extremely unlike it. From hence my thoughts took occasion to ramble into the general notion of travelling, as it is now made a part of education. Nothing is more frequent than to take a lad from grammar and taw, and under the tuition of some poor scholar, who is willing to be banished for thirty pounds a year and a little victuals, send him crying and snivelling into foreign countries. Thus he spends his time as children do at puppet-shows, and with much the same advantage, in staring and gaping at an amazing variety of strange things; strange, indeed, to one who is not prepared to comprehend the reasons and meaning of them; whilst he should be laying the solid foundations of knowledge in his mind, and

* "He would not allow that the paper (No. 364,) on carrying a boy to travel, signed Philip Homebred, which was reported to be written by the Ld. Ch. Hardwicke, had merit. He said, 'it was quite vulgar, and had nothing in it luminous. .'"-Boswell's Life of Johnson, vol. vi. p. 152.

furnishing it with just rules to direct his future progress in life, under some skilful master of the art of instruction." Here we have good sense and grammatical language, but does the writer give us "thoughts that breathe, and words that burn?"-has he succeeded in attaining "an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious?" Had he taken to literature as a trade, he would have had poor encouragement from Lintot and Cave, and he would hardly have risen to the distinction of being one of the heroes of the Dunciad. I fear me it will be said that a great lawyer is made ex quovis ligno, and that he who would starve in Grub street from his dulness,-if he takes to Westminster Hall, may become "the most illustrious of Chancellors."

This paper, though not of the highest excellence, is said to have gained for the writer the notice of Lord Somers; and there is now at Wimple a pocket Virgil on [A. D. 1712-1715.] the fly-leaf of which are the following words, in the handwriting of Lord Somers, "Sum Johannis Dryden, 1685,"—supposed to have been given to him by the great poet, and on this occasion presented to Mr. Yorke as an incentive to literary exertion. It was rumored that our law student wrote another, which was published in a subsequent volume, but it probably had less applause, for he did not distinctly own it, and his family could never identify it. He wisely adhered to juridical studies, and laboured more and more assiduously to qualify himself for his profession.

He now regularly attended the courts in term time, taking notes of the arguments and judgments,-which in the evening he revised and digested. He likewise attended to oratory, and acquired that close and self-possessed manner of speaking before the public by which he was afterwards distinguished. I do not find anything expressly said about his politics n early life, but, from his father's connection with the Dissenters, he was probably bred in the Low Church party. He, no doubt, was a zealous Whig when patronised by Lord Parker; and I do not find any charge of inconsistency ever brought against him.

The house of Brunswick was actually on the throne prior to his appearance in public life. He was called to the bar in Easter Term, 1715, being then in his twenty-third year."

His progress was more rapid than that of any other débutant in the annals of our profession. He was immediately pushed by old Salkeld,

"Parliament tent. 6o die Maij. 1715.—Mr Simpson T. proposed by Mr Jauncey, Mr Yorke P. proposed by Mr Mulso. Mr fforster J. proposed by Mr Harcourt, Mr Newton J. proposed by Mr Offley, Mr Idle J. proposed by Mr Avery, Mr Brabant H. proposed Sr William Whitelock, and Mr Sherwood J. proposed by Mr Attorny Genall, for the degree of the Utter Barr."

On the 20th of the same month Mr. Philip Yorke was admitted to a set of chambers.

The following is the only other entry relating to him in the Books of the Middle Temple :

"Ad Parliament. tent. 10mo ffebi, 1720mo.-It is ordered-That Sr Philip Yorke, Knt, his Majties Soll Generall, be called up to the Bench of this Society in order to his Reading."

who himself had many briefs to dispose of, and who had great influence among his brother attorneys. Several young men with whom he had formed an intimacy while in his clerkship, now being "upon the roll," were perhaps of still greater use to him.

He began his practice in the Court of King's Bench, where he enjoyed the marked favour of Lord Chief Justice Parker. It soon happened that he had to argue a special case upon an important and intricate point of law. The judgment of the Court was with his client, and he received high compliments from the Chief Justice for the research, learning, and ability which he had displayed."* From that day forth he was much employed in the "special argument line," although it was some years before he acquired the reputation of a "leader."

By Mr. Salkeld's advice, he chose the Western Circuit, where, although he had no natural connection,-by means which must have excited some jealousy and distrust, but which could not be proved to be incorrect, he was suddenly in good junior business at every assize town.† About two years after his start, Mr. Justice Powys, who had been eminent in his profession, but was now bending under the weight of years, went the Western Circuit, and, surprised to see so young a man in every cause, was anxious to know how he had got on so rapidly. It has been said since, that early success on the Circuit must arise from "sessions, a book, or a miracle." The practice of barristers practising at Quarter Sessions had not then begun, and, miracles having ceased, Powys thought that young Yorke must have written some law book, which had brought him into notice. The bar dining with the Judges at the last place on the Circuit, and the party being small on account of so many having taken their departure for London, before the toast of "Pros[A. D. 1717.] perity to the Western Circuit," and "Quinden Pasch." were given, there was a pause in the conversation, and Mr. Justice Powys, addressing the flourishing junior, who was sitting nearly opposite to him, said, "Mr. Yorke, I cannot well account for your having so much business, considering how short a time you have been at the bar: I humbly conceive you must have published something; for, look you, do you see, there is scarcely a cause before the Court, but you are employed in it, on one side or other. I should,

We are not told how he received these compliments. He was probably pleased and grateful; but I once heard a young barrister, who entertained a very high, and perhaps somewhat excessive opinion of his own merits, say, under similar circumstances, "I think the Judges use a very great liberty in presuming to praise me for my argument."

He afterwards had the satisfaction of rewarding Mr. Salkeld for all his kindness by appointing him Clerk of the Errors in the Court of King's Bench.

It would appear that the present custom then prevailed of the Judges, when the barristers dine with them, giving as a toast, when the party is to break up, "Prosperity to the O. Circuit," except that, at the last place on the Spring Circuit, they afterwards give "Quinden. Pasch." being the first return of Easter Term; and on the Summer Circuit," Cras. Animarum," being the first return of Michaelmas Term; which is as much as to say, "To our next merry meeting in Westminster Hall."