to hear the evidence. It appeared that the Attorney General's clerk had been rather eager to make joint stock companies "pay handsomely,” but there did not rest even a passing shadow of suspicion on his master; whereupon it was unanimously resolved, "that the informations of Sir William Thompson were malicious, scandalous, and false, and that the Right Honourable Nicholas Lechmere had discharged his trust in the matters referred to him with honour and integrity." Thompson was immediately dismissed from his office of Solicitor General.* Lechmere tried to procure the appointment for an attached friend of his own, that he might no more be exposed to such squabbles; but the Lord Chancellor claimed the appointment as his patronage, and he was at this time all powerful, both with the King and the minister. Philip Yorke had joined the Western Circuit during this controversy, little thinking that he had any personal interest in it, but [A. D. 1720.] while he was attending the assizes at Dorchester he received the two following letters. The first was from the Lord Chancellor, and was directed to "Philip Yorke, Esq., Counsellor at Law, M.P., at the Assizes at Dorchester :" "Sir, "The King having declared it to be his pleasure that you be his Solicitor General in the room of Sir Wm. Thompson, who is already removed from the office, I with great pleasure obey his Majesty's commands, to require you to hasten to town immediately upon receipt hereof, in order to take that office upon you. I heartily congratulate you upon this first instance of his Majesty's favour, and am with great sincerity, "Sir, "Your faithful and obedient servant, The second was from Mr. Secretary Craggs: "Dear Sir, "You will be informed from other hands of what has happened between the Attorney and Solicitor General. In the squabble the latter has lost his employment, and the first, I believe, will not succeed in his recommendation of Mr. Denton to be his successor, for I believe the King has resolved to appoint you, which I am glad of, for his service, and for my particular satisfaction: Who am entirely, "Your most faithful servant, "J. CRAGGS. "Cockpit, March 17, 1719 [1720]." Mr. Yorke, on reading these letters, after receiving the hearty congratulations of his brother circuiteers, who rejoiced sincerely in the elevation of such a formidable competitor, returned his briefs, and set off post for London. On the 22d of March he was sworn in Solicitor General before Lord Macclesfield, and a few days after, on being presented by him to the King, he received the honour of knighthood. * However, he was afterwards made Recorder of London and a Baron of the Exchequer. With the exception of the members of the Western Circuit, the profession considered Sir Philip's appointment a very arbitrary act. He was only twenty-nine years of age, and had been little more than four years at the bar. He had displayed great talents, but Wearg and Talbot, who were considerably his seniors, and had always deserved well of the Whig party, were men of distinguished reputation, and qualified to do credit to any office in the law, however exalted. Others of inferior merit were disappointed, and the blame being all laid on the Lord Chancellor, the resentment which he had before excited by his partiality for the tutor of his sons was greatly exasperated. It is said that even the attorneys and solicitors looked askance at the new law officer, though disposed to be proud of the elevation of a gentleman so closely connected with them. Very much run after as a junior, he as yet had not got into any leading business, and they were alarmed by seeing him with so little experience suddenly put over the heads of the gentlemen with silk gowns, whom they had been accustomed to employ. When Easter Term came round and he took his place within the bar in the Court of Chancery, he was left out of most of the new causes which came on to be heard, and some of his discontented rivals were sanguine enough to hope that his premature elevation had ruined him for ever. But by the exertions of his personal friends among the solicitors, by being supposed to have "the ear of the Court," by his own great talents, by his indefatigable industry, by the gentleness of his manners, and by the insinuating complacency of his address, he rapidly overcame these prejudices, and was retained in every suit.* His acceptance of office having, under the recent statute, vacated his seat in the House of Commons, he was re-elected for Lewes without opposition. He afterwards sat for Seaford, being always returned without trouble or expense,-which was considered by some of his contemporaries as an instance of his luck, and by others as a proof of his management, in having so effectually insinuated himself into the good graces, first of Lord Macclesfield, and then of the Duke of Newcastle. But for some years to come his name is never mentioned in printed parliamentary debates, and we are left in great doubt as to the part he acted in the House of Commons. It happened in little more than a year, that Lechmere retiring from the bar with a peerage, there was a vacancy in the office of Attorney General, and some supposed that the Chancellor would recklessly thrust his juvenile favourite into it, although only thirty years of age; but prudence prevailed, and it was filled up with the experienced Sir Robert Raymond, afterwards Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench.† Sir Philip Yorke continuing Solicitor General, first gained great public applause on the trial of Christopher Layer for high treason in conspiring * One account of his debut as Solicitor General says, "The storm which was raised by his premature promotion fell wholly on his patron."-Cooksey, 73. †There is extant a curious joint opinion given by them, "that the King might lawfully grant a pardon to a malefactor under sentence of death, on condition that he would suffer himself to be inoculated for the small-pox." to bring in the Pretender. The prisoner, after being ably defended by counsel, himself spoke so clearly and ingeniously in his own defence as to make a considerable impression on the jury, and to endanger the conviction-then considered of the last consequence, not only to the safety of the ministry, but of the family on the throne. The Solicitor General rose to reply when it was late at night, and delivered a speech between two and three hours long, which, during the whole of that time, riveted the attention of all who heard it, and was most rapturously praised as a fine specimen of juridical eloquence. Certainly it is what is technically termed a "hanging speech"-very quiet and dispassionate; seemingly candid, and even kind to the accused; but in the most subtle manner bringing forward all the salient points of the evidence against him-and, by insinuation and allusion, taking advantage of the prepossessions of the Jury. He thus concluded: : "It has been said, indeed, that he is but an inconsiderable man—of no rank or fortune fit to sustain such an undertaking. That observation may be true; but since it is plain that he did engage in it, this with other things clearly proves that he was set on work and supported by persons of more influence. And, gentlemen, this is the most affecting consideration of all. But I would not even in this cause, so important to the King and to the State, say any thing to excite your passions: I choose rather to appeal to your judgments; and to these I submit the strength and consequence of the evidence you have heard. My Lord, I ask pardon for having taken up so much of your time. I have only farther to beg, for the sake of the King, for the sake of the prisoner at the bar, and for the sake of myself, that if, through mistake or inadvertency, I have omitted or misrepresented any thing, or laid a greater weight on any part of the evidence than it will properly bear, your Lordship will be pleased to take notice of it, so that the whole case may come before the Jury in its just and true light." The conviction was certainly according to law; and if Layer's head had been immediately placed on Temple Bar, his execution, though lamentable, might have been thought a necessary severity: but all concerned in the prosecution and the punishment incurred and deserved obloquy-by the delay interposed with a view to elicit from the prisoner the accusation of others, and by his execution long after the verdict, when he had disappointed the hope of further disclosures.* *16 St. Tr. 319. CHAPTER CXXX. CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF LORD HARDWICKE TILL HE WAS APPOINTED LORD CHANCELLOR. F On the 31st of January, 1723, Sir Robert Raymond being promoted to be Chief Justice of the King's Bench, Sir Philip Yorke, with general applause, succeeded him as Attorney [A. D. 1723.] General. This situation he held above thirteen years, exhibiting a model of perfection to future law officers of the crown. He was punctual and conscientious in the discharge of his public duty, never neglecting it that he might undertake private causes, although fees were supposed to be particularly sweet to him, and, having felt the ills of penury, he was, from the commencement to the close of his professional career, eager to accumulate wealth. Considering this propensity, he had likewise great merit in resisting the temptation to which others have yielded, of accepting briefs in private causes, when he could not be present at the hearing of them, or could not do fair justice to the client who hoped to have the benefit of his assistance. I may likewise mention that, although he was afterwards supposed to have become stiff and formal in his manners, while he remained at the bar he was affable and unassuming, courteous to his brethren of longer standing, making himself popular with the juniors, and trying to soften the envy excited by his elevation. In parliament he never displayed any impatience to gain distinction, but he was regular in his attendance, and he was always ready to render fair assistance to the government, and to give his opinion on any legal or constitutional question for the guidance of the House. Without being a "prerogative lawyer," he stood up for the just powers of the crown; and, without being a "patriot," he was a steady defender of the rights and privileges of the people. As public prosecutor in Revenue cases in the Exchequer, he is universally lauded. "Though advocate for the Crown, he spoke," says one contemporary, "with the veracity of a witness, and the impartiality of a judge." When defending Walpole's Excise scheme against the misrepresentations of its opponents, he not ungracefully appealed to his own practice in prosecuting those who attempted to defraud the revenue and to injure the fair dealer; pronouncing a eulogy upon himself to which, we are told, "the whole House assented with universal applause." He was not so fortunate in his prosecutions for libel. In his time sprang up the controversy respecting the rights of juries, which was not settled till the close of the eighteenth century. He contended for the doctrine, that the jury were only to decide upon the sufficiency of the evidence of publication, and upon innuendoes; i. e., whether particular words or abbreviations in the alleged libel had the meaning imputed to them by the indictment or information, as, whether "the K- -g" meant "6 our Sovereign Lord the King;" "but that the lawfulness or criminality of the writing prosecuted was pure matter of law for the opinion of the Court. The Judges coincided with him in their directions, but juries were sometimes rebellious. The obnoxious journal of that day was the "Craftsman," conducted by Bolingbroke, Pulteney, and the principal leaders of the opposition to Sir Robert Walpole. Sir Philip Yorke succeeded in obtaining a conviction in the case of the famous Hague letter, written by Bolingbroke ;* but he was foiled in his prosecution of a subsequent violent attack upon the Government, supposed to be from the pen of Chesterfield, for though the Chief Justice laid down the same law, and there could be no doubt about publication or innuendoes, the jury, very much approving of the sentiments of the supposed libel, and thinking them not only innocent but laudable, found a general verdict of not guilty. It was then that Pulteney composed his famous ballad, with the oft-quoted stanza,— "For Sir Philip well knows, That his innuendoes Will serve him no longer In verse or in prose: For twelve honest men have decided the cause, Who are judges alike of the facts and the laws."+ But considering how the law of libel had been laid down by Lord Holt and other Judges deemed constitutional, I believe that Sir Philip is to be deemed forbearing in instituting prosecutions against the press, and mild in conducting them. While Attorney General, he was not entirely absorbed in the routine of official and professional business. He contrived to have leisure, not only to attend to the literature of the day, but, when occasion required, to investigate thoroughly, by a reference to rare books and ancient *17 St. Tr. 625: and see a very amusing account of this trial by Lord Mansfield, 21 St. Tr. 1037. "There was a great concourse of people: it was a matter of great expectation, and many persons of high rank were present to countenance the defendant." The last two lines were misrepresented in the Dean of St. Asaph's case by Lord Mansfield; who to suit his purpose, or from lapse of memory, said Pulteney had admitted that "libel or no libel?" was a question only for the Court, by saying in his ballad "For twelve honest men have decided the cause, -2 St. Tr. 1037. Who are judges of fact, though not judges of laws." Lord Chesterfield thus speaks of him as a law officer of the Crown: "Though he was Solicitor and Attorney General, he was by no means what is called a prerogative lawyer. He loved the constitution, and maintained the just prerogative of the Crown; but without stretching it to the oppression of the people. He was naturally humane, moderate, and decent; and when by his employments, he was obliged to prosecute state criminals, he discharged that duty in a very dif ferent manner from most of his predecessors, who were too justly called the bloodhounds of the Crown." |