THE HOUSE OF YORKE.* THE first Lord Hardwicke held the
Great Seal for eighteen years (1737-1755), and left his mark on the administration of Equity. In the next generation the fortunes of the house were darkened by a tragedy. Charles Yorke, the first. Earl's second son, died two days after being sworn in as Lord Chancellor. The common story is that he committed suicide; Lady Biddulph prints a document, his wife's narrative, which attributes his death to natural causes, if the agonising dis- traction of mind which the appointment brought with it can be called natural. Charles Yorke's second son succeeded to the title as third Earl. He was the first Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland after the Union, and died, after a career of no little distinction, in 1834, being succeeded by the son of his half-brother, Admiral Sir Joseph Yorke. The Admiral had been drowned three years before by a boat accident at Spit- head. (His wraith was seen by a relative at a concert in London at the hour of his death.) Charles Philip Yorke was then in his thirty-fifth year, and had seen some service in his father's profession. He was born too late for the European ware, but he had the good fortune to be a Midshipman in the flag-ship ' Queen Charlotte' when Lord Exmouth bombarded Algiers, and even to have command of a tender which took an active part in the fray. It was no bloodless fight, for the British fleet lost between eight and nine hundred in killed and wounded. He then spent five years on the North American Station, and eight years, off and on, in the Mediterranean, with a holiday in between in Sweden. Seven years after his succession to the title he was appointed by Sir Robert Peel to be a Lord-in-Waiting. This brought with it various Court employments, as attend- ances on Kings and Emperors and the like. When Peel declared for a repeal of the Corn-laws Lord Hardwicke resigned his office. In 1849 he went to sea again, and had special employment at Genoa, where he helped to keep some restless patriots in order. His services were approved at home, but with no great heartiness; indeed, when a few years later he applied for employment in the Baltic Fleet, the Genoese business was used against him. Meanwhile he had
• Charles Philp Yorks Fourth Earl of Hardwick,. By his Daughter, Lady Biddulph of Ledbury, London: Smith, Elder, and Co. [7s, 6d. net.] entered Lord Derby's first Cabinet as Postmaster-General, and served in the second as Lord Privy Seal. In the interval he had acted as Chairman of a Commission appointed to report on the question of manning the Navy. Lady Biddulph rightly, tells us very little about his political life, but she gives us a pleasing picture of Lord Hardwicke as the father of a family, the head of a great house, and the owner of a great estate.
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