SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

BIOGRAPHY,

The Life of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke ; with Selections from his Correspondence, Diaries, Speeches, and Judgments. By George Harris, Esq., of the Middle Temple, Barrister-at-law. In three volumes Moron. STATISTICS,

Australia Felix; or a Historical and Descriptive Account of the Settlement of Port Phillip, New South Wales : including full particulars of the Manners and Condition of the Aboriginal Natives, with Observations on Emigration, on the system of Transportation, and Colonial Policy. By William Westgarth.

Poem-, Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh. The Princess ; a Medley. By Alfred Tennyson Afoxon.

HARRIS'S LIFE OF LORD HARDWICHE.

Or all the men who filled the office of Chancellor, Lord Hardwicke had perhaps the best claim to the title by which Chesterfield characterized him, that of a "great magistrate." In this country a great advocate is generally an unscrupulous adventurer, indifferent to right or wrong, to truth or falsehood, to consistency or shame, in pursuit of his objects— money and advancement ; a great lawyer is merely a walking repository of positive rules and hair-splitting casuistry ; even a great judge is too often a servile interpreter of precedents, scared at the principles on which those precedents were founded. The early success at the bar and rapid promotion of Philip Yorke, Lord Hardwicke, show that in the technical and practical parts of his profession he was able to cope with any rival that might be produced ; the manner in which he completed the edifice of equity that Ellesmere and Nottingham had founded, proves his knowledge of the principles of jurisprudence as well as of rules of law ; and his Marriage Act is one of the largest applica- tions of a legislative remedy to a pervading social evil which we can show in modern times. Yet these traits, however rare and remark- able, do not form the essential character of Hardwicke. Law seemed in his mind to be regarded as a means to an end ; he looked be- yond law to the persons it affected, and to society at large. Though living in times when real dangers threatened the established Government, to which Pitt's apprehensions of the Jacobins was nothing, and when factious virulence ran higher than anything John Scott or 'Weary Gibbs had to deal with, he exercised the powers of a Crown lawyer with a moderation and a fairness of which he had no example, and scarcely any imitation till the present day : yet he did not shrink from his task as a public prosecutor when the case required an example to be made. Lord Campbell's picture of him in the judgment-seat seems like an assemblage of all possible excellences rather than a portrait; but still it is chiefly confined to demeanour and practice, and Lord Hardwicke had pro- founder merits. Without displaying a justice beyond the law, he never shrank from a principle, or scrupled to let equity speak when law was silent. As -a politician, he did not permit his interest to stifle his con- victions; but a little less of party in his Parliamentary speeches if not in his conduct, and still more in his mind, might be necessary to the con- ception of the perfect "magistrate," such as the mind conceives perso- nating Roman power and majesty. His country may be pleaded as an ex- cuse for this drawback : in England a public man can hardly act by himself. A better excuse is to be found in his times. To a man born in 1690, whose boyhood was indoctrinated with the terrors of the am- bition of Louis the Fourteenth, who knew the numbers of the Jacobites, and who had witnessed two rebellions in favour of the Stuarts, our "glo- rious Revolution" and "the principles of civil and religious liberty" were something more than tavern toasts and party trap-words. A Whig, under the early Brunswick, was really contending for the principles his successors talked about ; and a something of party and even of prejudice might be permitted to men who were "keeping out" the Stuarts and Popery as well as "the Tories." Besides his great merits, Lord Hardwicke was one of the most fortu- nate of Chancellors, if not of men; his luck surpassed that of Becket or Wolsey. Without means or family influence, or connexion save what he made, he not only rose but rose rapidly. Philip Yorke was called to the bar at twenty-six ; he was a Member of Parliament at twenty-nine, made Solicitor-General at thirty, Attorney-General at thirty-four, a Peer and Lord Chief Justice at forty-three, and Chancellor before forty-seven ; and all these at a period when years were more regarded as an essential in professional advancement than they are now. Mr. Yorke, the father of Philip, was an attorney at Dover, and, according to tradition, (which the family have not the means of distinctly disproving,) in nar- row circumstances, sometimes bordering on distress; though he managed to place his son at a celebrated boarding-school in Bethnal Green. On leaving this seminary, with a stock of Latin, but probably not more of Greek than Shakspere carried away from Stratford free school, young Philip was put to a London attorney, with a view to succeed Ins father in business and the Town-Clerkship of Dover. By some means which are not known, (for his father appears to have thought of another person,) Master Yorke was placed with one of the most re- spectable practitioners of the day, Mr. Salkeld of Brooke Street, Holborn, which was then a fashionable neighbourhood. His abilities, and doubt- less the regularity of his conduct, were so remarkable, that Mr. Salkeld advised the Town-Clerk of Dover, to allow his son to study for the bar ; and in 1708 Philip Yorke was entered as a student of the Middle Temple. Over this part of his life there is a greater obscurity than attaches to his school days ; for some epistles shed a darkness visible over that period. It is not known whom he read with in studying for the bar ; but proofs have been preserved of his industry and self-training at a time when there was no Blackstone or still more popular compendiums to make "barristers though not lawyers." "Some information as to the mode in which Yorke pursued his early profes- sional studies may be gleaned from the papers and manuscripts which belonged to him at this period, and which are still in the Hardwicke collection. A great many cases and opinions were at this time copied by him, as also several judgments of the different courts on important points. He also appears to have been very fond of collecting old law works in manuscript, as several of these are among his law p9ers, and which, from the date written under his name, must have been oh- tamed during the period of his studentship. There is an ancient treatise on the Court of Chancery, by Sir It. Cotton, ia manuscript, with the name W. Salkeld" written in the titkpage. I also find a printed copy of Coke's Abridgment, in Norman French, the date of which is 1640: it is in size a small octavo; and the leaves of it have been cut out and pasted in a large quarto blank volume, so as to afford room for notes and comments: which have been very amply supplied, both in French and English, and which contain references to various decisions and au- thorities bearing upon the different points in the teat. The manuscript thus added is very _similar to if not really in the handwriting of Yorke, as evinced in the letters already quoted and his early style in general, though the words are somewhat rounder, as would probably be the case in a juvenile hand. Some of the letters, indeed, in the peculiarity of their formation and turns, appear precisely to correspond with those in his epistles. There is no doubt of the book having belonged to Yorke while he was a student; and every circumstance seems to fa- vour the supposition that the annotations in question formed a portion of his la- bours at this period, and probably largely contributed to store his mind with that knowledge of the older writers and authorities, and that acute perception of the first principles of the science, for the possession of which throughout his career he was so preeminently distinguished. There GTO also several note-books and trea- tises on different branches of professional knowledge and practice, some of which are evidently in Yorke's own handwriting. Among these, is one entitled Rules of Practice of the Court of King's Bench, which, with a copious index, is entirely in his hand. There are a good many volumes of manuscript reports of cases, some of which are denominated 3 Cases ex relatione Amicortun: These, it may be sup- posed, he was permitted to have copied from his friends' reports of them; and on the fly-leaf of one of these volumes is written, Paid for writing to fo. 145 inclu- sive, 11. 58. 9d.' Certain of these manuscript reports are in several different hand- writings, though every here and there we find some of Yorke's, in the correction of a passage, or supplying the title to a case, or an explanatory note, which shows the care and attention that he bestowed on them.

"A manuscript treatise, contained ins thin quarto volume, bound in parchment, is headed in Yorke's handwriting, 'Of Pardons in Cases of Impeachments, writ- ten in ye year 1717; which was after his call to the bar. "It is a point of considerable interest whether Yorke ever studied the civil law with any one, with the principles of which he appears to have become very early familiar, and to which he constantly referred1 both in his arguments while at the bar and in his decisions as a judge, and which he also strongly recommended to the study of others. His principal instructors here, however, were probably the different treatises of the leading authorities on the subject, with whose profound and masterly productions his mind was fully imbued."

During this time, he must in some way have procured the patronage of Lord Macclesfield, afterwards impeached for corruption as Chancellor. Accounts are contradictory as to the manner ; but it seems likely that the tradition is correct which represents Yorke acting as a sort of legal tutor to Macclesfield's sons. At all events, the fortunes of the Hardwickes are to be ascribed to Mr. Salkeld and the Earl of Macclesfield. The attorney was the means of sending Yorke to the bar, and no doubt assisted him with briefs : the Peer probably contributed to place him in the House of Commons, so early as four years after his call ; as he made him Solicitor- General, to the great anger of the profession, at a time when neither his years, his standing, nor, it would seem, the extent of his business, justi- fied the promotion. As he has been accused of ingratitude, it is proper to add, that Yorke declined acting against Macclesfield as Attorney- General in the impeachment, and defended him as an individual member in the House of Commons. The first act of patronage of Lord Chief Jus- tice Hardwicke was to appoint his old master, Mr. Salkeld, to the office of Clerk of Errors in the Court of King's Bench.

Philip Yorke was as fortunate in private and domestic as in public) life. In youth he was one of the handsomest men of his day ; and he allowed his person to lose nothing for want of dress and behaviour. By these means, and what Napoleon would have called "his star," he impressed a handsome, wealthy, young widow, niece to the celebrated Lord Somers, and the Master of the Rolls, Sir Joseph Jekyll, the

"odd old Whig, Who never changed his principles, or wig."

Sir Joseph, indeed, had formed so favourable an opinion of Mr. Yorke, that he overcame all paternal objections to the match, and extorted a consent from the squire, puzzled at the counsellor with little more than prospects.

It was, however, "a fortunate match"; and, judging from the cor- respondence in the volume before us, the Ilardwickes were a well. ordered and happy family. There seems to have been good manage. ment, great respect to the head yet with perfect freedom, much affection on the part of Lady Hardwicke, and sufficient on the part of the Chancellor. His seven children, too, were lucky. The eldest son married a granddaughter of the Duke of Kent, with a large fortune. The second, Charles, the genius of the race, succeeded at the bar, passed through the highest offices, became Lord Chancellor like his father, to die suddenly, it has been supposed by suicide ; but this was the fault of his weakness not of his star. The third son, Colonel afterwards Sir Joseph Yorke, was a favourite officer of the Duke of Cumberland, thought highly of by the King, and successful as a diplomatist. The fourth son, John, was made comfortable in some legal places ; and the fifth accomplished several translations, in the only way in which, accord. ing to Chesterfield, translations do not fail. James Yorke was successively Bishop of St. David's, Gloucester, and Ely. The eldest daughter was married to the first Lord Anson ; the second to the heir of a landed family, whose possessions Pope commemorated—" Heatlicotc bimsel4 and such large-aered men." Even the laws of nature were softened in the case of Philip Yorke. He says himself that it was his lot " nigra veste senescere," and Lady Hardwicke and Lady Anson died before him: but he scarcely felt the " quam continnis, et quantis longa senectns Plena malls" of the satirist he quoted. In 1756, he willingly resigned the Chancel- lorship, having held it nearly twenty years: but he retained the favour of his Sovereign, and the influence of a great reputation, for he seems afterwards to have been consulted rather unconstitutionally. He enjoyed life during his retirement; he witnessed the settlement of his children, and the promising prospects of perhaps his favourite son Charles. He did not lose his faculties ; and though his health began to fail as be ap. proached seventy, his old age seems to have been free from suffering ;

and his death was easy. It took place on the 6th of March 1764, in his seventy-fourth year.

In the life of such a man there must have been, of course, much pru- dence and management, with quickness to take advantage of the occa- sion, and a good knowledge of the arts of living. But Fortune must have had a large share both in giving Philip Yorke a happy nature and in forming those conjunctures of circumstances that we call luck. "Felix " or "Faustus" should have been his epitaph ; and would have made a better family motto than "Nec copies nec manes " ; for the " nec cupias" was a rule of conduct the first Hardwickes did not follow. The great abilities, the high moral character, the moderate and merci- fid temper, (where Jacobites were out of the question,) and the spotless integrity Of Lord Hardwicke, were admitted by all his contemporaries except Horace Walpole. The accusations against the Chancellor were, neglect of early friends, ambition, and avarice. As 'nerds the first, it must be said that in the two instances of known obligation, Lord Hardwicke is entitled to an acquittal ; and before we pronounce upon a general charge of this kind, we should know the circumstances—what sort of " friends " they were, and what kind of claims they had. As for advancing himself and his family, ills ambition never prompted him to the sacrifice of principle or the compromise of personal respect. The charge of loving money—of "avarice "—was universal, even by men who admit that so craving a passion never tempted Lord Hardwicke to do an improper thing. Traits of close economy are visible in his family letters ; but the best proof is the fortune he accumulated, which has been estimated at nearly a million notwithstanding a large expendi- ture upon the dignity of his office. An amount much short of this could only have been amassed by the strictest economy and attention : for Lord Hardwicke was only eighteen years at the bar altogether; of that time he was but three years in the most profitable position, and the legal in- comes that we hear of now were not made upwards of a century ago.

The three bulky volumes, in which Mr. Harris narrates the life and times of Lord Hardwicke, are a rather ponderous and inartistieal affair, deriving their value from the papers that have been furnished by the family. These consist of the correspondence of the first Lord and his family ; the note-books in which he was accustomed to analyze law-cases and the subject of his speeches ; the diary in which he used to record im- portant circumstances, it would seem as fully as Malmesbury, if without his elegance of style ; a similar manuscript book of the second Lord Hardwicke, besides a variety of family and other manuscripts. Mr. Harris has also, and very properly, had recourse to the journals of the time for accounts of his hero's public appearances on different occa- sions, and drawn upon the Law and Parliamentary records for his speeches and judgments. The _new matter ,is important and interesting, though rather overdone hi 'the Skeleton extiacts ; for as they are only specimens of J•Ord Hardwicke's labours and method, a few would have answered the -purpose : the Parliamentary speeches belong to the works ' rather thin the life of Lord Hardwicke. The mere superabundance of matter, however, would have been of little consequence had that matter been better arranged, and Mr. Harris confined himself to biography proper ; but such is not the case. He overlays his narrative with every kind of digression and disquisition. When his hero enters the Temple, he prints an essay on legal education including the pros and cons of a sojourn at the University ; when Yorke is elected a Member of Parliament, there is a dis- cussion about the senatorial oratory of lawyers ; when he is raised to the bench, there is another essay upon the difference between judges and ad- vocates; on George the Second's death, his character is drawn ; when Pitt resigns and takes a pension for himself and a peerage for his wife, Mr. Harris is ready for the "Great Commoner" and his doings. As Johnson was not pensioned under Lord Hardwicke's regime, there is a discussion as to whether he ought to have been pensioned at all ; Mr. Harris rather inclining to the negative. The reader who likes an old friend with the same face, will find one where the biographer discusses the often-discussed question, what would have happened had the Pretender marched on from Derby in 1745? Jack Shepherd was hanged while Yorke was Attorney-General, and there is an account of that eminent person's escapes and recaptures. A still greater " Worthy " than Jack— no less a malefactor, indeed, than Jonathan Wild—underwent the same fate, and is equally recorded. And so the biographer goes on, suspending his biography for nearly every striking public man or public event with which his hero came in contact.

As little art is often displayed in the use of the new materials from the family archives at Wimpole. Letters written by some member of the family, but with little or no bearing on Lord Hardwicke's life, are in- serted in the middle of its stream ; and trivial epistles that have little bearing upon anything, take the same place. In speaking thus, we do not mean to depreciate the original papers ; for they are often of great interest or value. Colonel Yorke's letter from Culloden is the best ac- count of the battle that we have seen. Miss Yorke, afterwards Lady Anson, writes with great vivacity in describing contemporary events. Charles Yorke chiefly touches on literature, and anecdotes of great names are in his pages. Indeed, the whole family exhibit a trained ability ; and many eminent statesmen poured their secrets into Lord Hardwicke's ear. The Duke of Newcastle's letters especially, are full of interest, if they do not absolutely furnish us whit much new information. The diaries of Lord Hardwicke himself—relating as they do to secret matters, and being told fully—are of great value, especially for their indications of character and Ministerial management; though they do not seem to be fully published. Indeed, the Hardwicke Papers should be done again, either upon the model of Lord Sheffield's Life of Gibbon, where the auto- biographical matter is kept distinct and the miscellaneous correspondence published afterwards, the whole being connected by the text or notes of the editor ; or Lord Malmesbury's Despatches and Correspondence might be taken as a model, and each class of documents printed according to their chronology and kind. One of the first extracts from the Diary refers to the Chancellorship; a

bargain for which, the world is not often admitted to. It is curious also for the readiness with which Walpole seizes upon the germ of a job, when be saw he had listed his man and the question was about smart- money.

" On Monday, ye 14th of Feb, [1736-7] abt five in ye morning, died Charles Lord Talbot, Lord High Chaner of Great Britain. The same forenoon, being at the sittings in Westminster Hall, I received a letter from Sir Robt Walpole, desir- ing to speak with me an the event of that morning, & wishing that I would dine with him that day in private. I went accordingly; & after dinner he proposed the Great Seal to me in the King's name. Thereupon, I took occasion to btate to him the progress of what related to yt affair since ye session of Pant, which ended in 1733; that I was now in a quiet situation, which by practice was become easy to me; that I had no ambition to go higher; & tho' I had the most dutiful & grate- ful sense of his Majtre goodness, desired to be left where I was. " He grew more pressing, & talked in ye civil strain familiar to Ministers on such occasions- after which I told him I would come to no resolution then, but would consideT!of it. At ye same time, I acquainted him with the near prospect of the office of Chief Clerk of the King's Bench soon falls into my disposition, which I niight grant for two lives for the benefit of my family, & therefore (if I shod at last determine to accept the Great Seal) common prudence required that I shod have some equivalent. Sir Robert entered into this with earnestness; said it was not only reasoeable bet necessary; & at first hinted at some treaty with Mr. Ventris for a surrender of the office, & letting in a new life for ye benefit of my family, or taking one of the additional 1,0001. pr ann. from the office of Chief Justice of the King's Bench, & restoring it to the Chancellor's office. " I explicitly, & without hesitation, declared that I would do neither; for I would not lessen the place I left to the prejudice of my successor, to augment that which I should be going into; & I compared it to ye case of a bishop who was about to be translated, calling in his tenants to fill up leases at an undervalue. I told him further, that if I shod happen to accept ye Great Seal, ye most proper equivalent to my family seemed to be yt of ye office of Teller of ye Exchequer to my eldest son in reversion for life, for I was determined to take no sum of money, nor any augmentation of salary. "He readily declared this to be very reasonable; but as the King had a dislike to reversionary grants, especially those for life, this point must be reserved for his Majesty's pleasure, as the principal one was for my deliberation. After a few days, I was made acquainted that the King persisted in his in- tention to put ye Great Seal into my hands, 8c was willing to grant the Teller's place in the manner which had been suggested; whereupon I resolved humbly to submit myself to his Royal pleasure by taking on ins this arduous and burthen- some station."

About this time the world was scandalizedand the Ministry troubled by those dissensions between the King and the heir-apparent which, by a strange fatality, took place under each reign of the first three Georges. Frederick Prince of Wales quarrelled with his father and mother; took Chesterfield to his counsels; and was supported by Pope, Thom- son and Mallet, and the Opposition in general, to the vehement anger of George the Second. The first business the new Chancellor had to do was to carry a disagreeable Royal message to the Prince. He had gone to CoOti-luid the 'gossip Naveslitle had niet him with—an nitunation that he would not be called upon to interfere. " Whilst I was waiting in the room next the bedchamber, with my Lord Pre- sident, the Dukes of Argyle & Newcastle, and several other Lords, Sir Robert Walpole came out of the King's closet, in a great hurry, with a paper in his hand; & calling all the Lords of the Cabinet then present about him at the upper end of the room' acquainted them that it was the King's pleasure that the mes- sage, of which he then read over a draught in his (Sir Robs W.'s) own hand- writing, should be forthwith.carried to the Prince by the Lord Chanc. Ld Presi- dent, Ld Steward, & Ld chamberlain. I own, after what I had been told, the naming of me did not a little surprise me, and made me expostulate with Sir Ro- bert aside, on the hardship of make each a disagreeable errand to the Prince my first act of office. He assured me that he had hinted this to the King, as far as he darst venture in so nice a case; but his Majesty's answer was—my Chancellor shall goe. "'Twas impossible further to dispute the King's first command, especially on an occasion so liable to jealousy; but my expostulation brot about this variation in point of form, that, instead of the four officers before mentioned, the whole Cabinet Council were ordered to go with ye message. This affair was transacted with such precipitation, of which several lords complained, that there was no op- portunity to consider the penning of ye message as it deserv'd. Indeed, ye time pressed extremely; & ye place was highly improper for such a consultation, for ye company of ye levee filled ye room, & I venly believe, heard many of ye things which passed, whereof no doubt was made amongst us but H. R. H. was immediately informed. "However, I hazarded an objection to an expression in ye draught, as too rough and harsh. The draught had these words—the undutiful measures which his Majesty is informed your R. H. intends to pursue. It was answered that the King woe not hear of parting with the word undutiful, & that it was with much difficulty he was induced not to add severer epithets. Therefore, the ut- most I could prevail for was, to change the word intends, into hath been advised to pursue, as it now appears in ye Votes of ye House of Commons."

Sir Robert left the Palace on the plea of " business of moment" at the House of Gammons' "and Lord Ilay went to the House of Lords on pretence of hearing the Duke of Athes claim of the Barony of Strange"; leaving the Chancellor and his fellows to their disagreeable task. How it came off is narrated at length, with several other scenes of a similar kind; Hardwicke's prudence in council being frequently exhibited in reference to other messages. The Chancellor suspected Walpole of not soothing the King ; the rashness of the Prince, in carrying off the Princess on the eve of her confinement, &c. having given an advantage to the Crown over the Opposition, which the Minister was determined to use without much care for Royal family jars' and Hardwicke tried to moderate. "On Friday the 9th Sept', the Cabinet Council met. • • • Sr R. W. opened the occasion of the meeting, & by the Kg's command, acquainted the Lords with the several causes of displeasure which his Majesty had conceived eget the Prince. That for these reasons his Majesty was of apiiv, that the families must or shod] be separated, desired their .L'dships' advice as to the method of doing It. That his Majesty had ordered him to prepare a clet of a message to be sent to his R. H. for this purpose, w'ch he had showed the King the day before, & his Majesty had approved of; but Sr R. took care to let the Lords know that the King thot the style of the drat fall gentle enough. Then he read the several letters from the Prince to the King, and also those to the Queen, and remarked upon ye differences bet. ye sevl sects of ye fact, web the Prince gave to the Queen, as well as to my Ld Harrington and himself the morning after the la - hour (which last he read from some minutes, wherein both he & La Harrington agreed) & the narrative contd in his first letter to the King. He laid mach stress on these letters, being only specious empty words, without any assurances of an alteration of conduct, & on the variances bete the letters to the King and those to the Queen; particularly that in the two last to her Majesty, the words Your

Majesty were never used, but Madame and Vous only. Lastly, he read the drt of the message.

"It appeared by the looks & expressions of all the Lords present, that they understood this as they had reason, to be a communication of the King's deter- mined resolution & pleasure, who was undoubtedly master of his family; &, as be bad been highly offended, was to judge for himself how far he would forgive or resent. They took it, according to the expression before mentioned, that their advice was asked as to the method, not the measure, & therefore set themselves to consider the draught, to which some few exceptions were taken. Two were made by myself, viz, in the first paragraph, to the words I cannot suffer myself to be imposed upon by them, which seemed to me too harsh, & not adequate to the dignity of the persons concerned; & to the word rendezvous, towards the end, as being too low & coarse. In the room of the first, I had before proposed to in- sert, I cannot consist& with my own honour and authority, suffer them to have any weight with me; but in this I could not prevail: as to the term rendezvous, all the Lords concurring with me, it was left out, and the word resort was per-. mitted to stand alone. The words, you shall not reside in my palace, were in- serted on the proposal of the Archb p, in the room whereof my Lord Godolphin offered, I think it not fit that you should reside in my palace; of which I declared my approbation, as expressing the King's opinion, & properly introductive of his subsequent command to leave St. James's. But Sr R. W. assured us these words would not be thought strong enough."

The following is curious as another historical mystery.

"Thin day, Sir R. W. informed me of certain passages between the King & him- self & the Queen & the Prince, of too high 86 secret a nature even to be trusted to this narrative; but from thence I found great reason to think that this un- happy difference between the King & the Queen & his Ft. 11 turned upon some points of a more interesting & important nature than have hitherto appeared."

There is a highly interesting account from the Diary of the second Lord Hardwieke, of the manner in which the King forced the Chancellor- ship on his brother Charles Yorke ; of the vacillating behaviour of Charles through the business ; and the indifference of the King as soon as he was removed from life. There are also many other passages indicative of the family character, illustrative of the polities of the period, or descriptive of the times : but we have exhausted our space, and must stop.