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FOREIGN LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.

SEPTEMBER, 1848.

From the Westminster and Foreign Quarterly Review.

THE LIFE OF LORD CHANCELLOR HARDWICKE.

1. 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. 3 vols. London: Edward Moxon, Dover Street.

1847.

2. The Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of England. By John Lord Campbell. Second Series. Vol. V. Life of Lord Hardwicke. London: Murray, Albemarle Street. 1846.

FEW public men have been so much misre- consulted for some special purpose; but presented as Lord Hardwicke. By partial Mr. Harris seems to have been the first to friends, even his faults have been eulogized; refer to them with the view of gaining a and by enemies his good deeds have clearer insight into the character of the been attributed to the basest motives. Un-founder of that house; and even with this fortunately for his fame, Horace Walpole advantage there yet remain some doubtful and Cooksey, the representatives of the points, which, from the lapse of time and latter class, have hitherto been the chief the absence of collateral testimony, Lord authorities whence the biographers of Lord Hardwicke's latest biographer has been unHardwicke have derived the principal por- able to clear up. tion of their materials; but though Walpole's hatred of the Chancellor, from whatever source it sprang, is now well understood, and Cooksey's accuracy, as in the case of Lord Somers, is considered more than doubtful, even Lord Campbell, with every wish to do full justice to the subject of his memoir, and aware that implicit reliance could not be placed upon his authorities, did not possess the means of correcting their errors. It is indeed not a little extraerdinary that almost the only means of clearing away much of the uncertainty enveloping the character of this great man, should not have been earlier resorted to. The archives of the house of Hardwicke have often been advantageously VOL. XV. No. I.

1

The materials from which Mr. Harris has drawn up the life of Lord Hardwicke, consist of his extensive correspondence, both official and general, with the leading personages of his day, as well as with the members of his own family and his personal friends; his diaries; manuscripts of various kinds, including the notes of his speeches and judgments, both as Lord Chief Justice and Lord Chancellor; reports of the state trials; and the diary of his eldest son, the second Lord Hardwicke; besides numerous other documents and records of the highest value and interest: the whole of these have been unreservedly, and with the greatest liberality, placed at Mr. Harris's disposal by the present Earl,

"unfettered by any restrictions or condi- and almost the author of the great code of equity tions as to the mode of their application." to which his name might justly be attached; Amidst this embarras des richesses it must though of low degree, in his own lifetime his blood have been a very difficult task to select such was mingled with that of the Campbells and the Greys, and he established one of the most potent portions as were most suited to the object families in the nobility of Britain. Unceasing in view but on the whole Mr. Harris has good luck attended him throughout life; but along performed his task in a satisfactory man- with that luck such results required lofty aspiraner; and has produced a work no less in- tions, great ability, consummate prudence, thorough teresting to the general reader than to those control of temper, rigid self-denial, and unwearied who may consult it for its historical value. industry. His chief glory is, that, as a public He has judiciously allowed the great law-man, he was ever consistent and upright. Compare yer to become in a great measure his own lors, who started by making themselves formidahim with preceding and with succeeding Chancelbiographer, by printing a considerable por- ble as the ultra-zealous champions of freedom, tion of his private correspondence with his and who rose by renouncing and by persecuting own family and personal friends; this was the.principles which they professed. He was, from previously almost unpublished, as was the boy to old man, a sound Whig; loving our mogreater part of the official correspondence. parchical form of government, but believing that Lord Hardwicke commenced his official it exists for the good of the people, and that for the good of the people the prerogatives of the career while still young, being only in his crown are to be restricted, and are to be preserved. twenty-ninth year when he was made So- The heaviest charges I find brought against him licitor-general, after practising at the bar by impartial writers, are love of money, and arrofour years; from this time almost to the gance of manner in common society. He was end of his lengthened life he continued to undoubtedly an excellent Chancellor,' says Lord take an active part in the government of Waldegrave, and might have been thought a the country. Lord Campbell gives an elo- great man, had he been less avaricious, less proud, less unlike a gentleman.' ”—p. 163. quent and impartial summary of his career, which may appropriately be here quoted.

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There is ground for the belief that had Lord Campbell enjoyed the advantages so Notwithstanding his failings, and the censure liberally bestowed on Mr. Harris, he would to which some parts of his conduct may be liable, have seen reason to withhold, or at least to he is certainly to be considered a very eminent and mitigate, the charges conveyed in the few very meritorious personage in English history. last lines of the above quotation, which with Entering public life very early, he lived to a great these trifling drawbacks must be looked age in very interesting times, and he acted an important part in many of the events which distin- upon as praise of the highest description. guished the century in which he flourished. He had Numerous documents in the Hardwicke colheard speeches delivered from the throne by William lection go far to clear the Chancellor from III. and George III.; he had seen the reins of gov- all suspicion of an undue pursuit of riches, ernment in the hands of Godolphin and in the hands while they establish his character for geneof Pitt; he had witnessed the rejoicings for the vic-rosity and liberality. The charge of pride tory of Blenheim and for the capture of Quebec; and an arrogant demeanor in society rest his ears had been split with cries of Sacheverell and High Church and with cries of Wilkes and chiefly upon the authority of Cooksey, who, Liberty! He had been acquainted with Boling- although a relative and an obliged one, broke and with Burke; he had marked the earli- seems to have imbibed certain illiberal preest burst of admiration called forth by the poetry judices against the Chancellor and his lady, of Pope and by the poetry of Churchill; he him- which more impartial testimony tends to self had been fifty years a member of the legisla- allay. Both these charges we shall have ture, holding a most distinguished station in either occasion to notice hereafter. house of parliament; he had filled various imIt has been the custom with previous biportant offices with singular ability, he had held the highest civil office in the kingdom longer than ographers of Lord Hardwicke, to represent any of his predecessors (one excepted) since the his family, at the period of his birth, as foundation of the monarchy, and with greater ap- being in very needy circumstances; for this plause than any of his predecessors had ever opinion, however, there seems to be but a gained, or any successor could hope for; he had slight foundation. His father, at that been mainly instrumental in keeping the reigning time, was town-clerk of Dover, of itself an dynasty on the throne, by the measures which he important and lucrative office; in addition advised for crushing a dangerous rebellion raised to restore the legitimate line; he was the great to which he appears to have been in extenlegislator for Scotland, freeing that country from sive practice as an attorney; his connexions the baronial tyranny by which it had been imme- were evidently influential and numerous, morially oppressed; in England he was the finisher and all circumstances seem to warrant the

without any premium. For this assertion, however, there appears to be no foundation. In neither of Mr. Yorke's letters does he mention Mr. without paying a premium for him, which he of Salkeld, or any desire to get his son into an office course could not expect to do if he was articled to one who was an entire stranger to him. His only request to Mr. Meller is, to find out for him a solicitor of eminence and respectability, who was a householder, who would take his son. If Mr. Salkeld had been previously well known to him, or had acted as his agent, all these inquiries would have been unnecessary."-vol. i., p. 30.

to get his son qualified to succeed him in his own practice and appointment, his wife seems not to have approved of the step, since she is said to have "opposed the pro

However desirous Mr. Yorke might be

conclusion that the home of the young Philip Yorke was one at least of comfort if not of affluence. The future chancellor, as appears from an entry in his own journal, was "born at Dover, the 1st day of December, 1690, and baptized the 9th day of the same month." At an early age he was placed under the tuition of Mr. Samuel Morland, a personal friend of Dr. Samuel Clarke, and who then kept a school of some note at Bethnal Green. Mr. Morland is described as "a man of learning, taste, and great classical acquirements," and from him his pupil derived that love for classical study which he ever after retained. Two Latin letters from this gentleman to his pupil, after the latter had left his establishment, show the esteem entertained for him by his former instructor; and, as Mr. Har-ject with considerable vehemence, declaring that she wished Philip to be put apris well observes, they serve to convey an impression that he had the highest opinion prentice to some 'honester trade,' as she expressed it." Her husband, nevertheless, of his late pupil's talents, but very considerable doubts of his industry and assi- carried his point, and Philip was articled to Mr. Salkeld, in whose office we are told duity; that he felt persuaded he was capa-"he applied himself to business with great ble of attaining distinction, but that he diligence, and gained the entire good will entertained very extensive misgivings as to and esteem of his master;" though his whether he would really exert himself to mistress seems to have thought the clerk gain it." well as a professional capacity. Mr. Harris ought to be made useful in a domestic as thus repeats an amusing anecdote related by Cooksey, and founds upon it an argument against the received opinion that no premium was paid with young Yorke :

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When rather more than sixteen years old, Philip Yorke left Mr. Morland's school, and was articled to Mr. Salkeld, a solicitor of eminence, in whose office, in Brooke Street, Holborn, were engaged about the same period "two future lord chancellors, a future master of the rolls, and a future chief baron. Of these were Jocelyn, subsequently Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and founder of the titles and fortunes of the house of Roden; Strange, afterwards Sir John Strange, and Master of the Rolls in England; Parker, who became Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer in England; and Yorke, the subject of the present memoir."

mistress, and who was a notable woman, thinking "Mrs. Salkeld, who considered herself as his she might take such liberties with a clerk with whom the writer says no premium had been received, 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 was entrusted with his business and cash, he thought an indignity, and got rid of by a stratagem which prevented complaints or expostulation. In This arrangement with Mr. Salkeld seems his accounts with his master, there frequently octo have been brought about through the in-curred coach-hire for roots of celery and turnips tervention of a Mr. Meller, a relative of the Yorke family, to whom Philip Yorke the elder applied for information and assistance in getting his son placed "with an eminent attorney in the Common Pleas for three years, that by the practice of the law, he may be better qualified for the study of it." Mr. Harris thus refutes a common opinion in regard to this transaction with Mr. Salkeld :

"It has been erroneously stated that Mr. Salkeld was an intimate friend and the agent of old Mr. Yorke, and that he was induced to take his son

from Covent Garden, or a barrel of oysters from the fishmonger's, and other sundries for the carriage of similar dainties, indicative alike of Mrs. Salkeld's love of good cheer and the young her attempted dominion. Mr. Salkeld observing clerk's dexterity and spirit in freeing himself from this, urged on his spouse the impropriety and illhousewifery of such a practice, and thus Yorke's device for its discontinuance proved completely successful. From this circumstance, however, it may surely be rather inferred that Yorke paid a handsome premium for being articled to Mr. Salkeld, than that he was a 'gratis' clerk; as, in the former case, he might consider that an unwarrantable liberty had been taken with him in requesting him

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