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"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 was mingled with that of the Campbells and the have been a very difficult task to select such 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 him with preceding and with succeeding Chancelyer to become in a great measure his own lors, who started by making themselves formidabiographer, 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 He was, from previously almost unpublished, as was the boy to old man, a sound Whig; loving our mogreater part of the official correspondence. narchical 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. 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 triffing drawbacks must be looked age in very interesting times, and he acted an im

portant 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 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.

his ears had been split with cries of Sacheverell

house of parliament; he had filled various im

portant offices with singular ability, he had held It has been the custom with previous bithe 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 advised for crushing a dangerous rebellion raised important and lucrative office; in addition 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

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 journal,

own

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. Harris well observes, they "

serve to convey an

impression that he had the highest opinion of his late pupil's talents, but very considerable doubts of his industry and assiduity; that he felt persuaded he was capable of attaining distinction, but that he entertained very extensive misgivings as to whether he would really exert himself to gain it."

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

were

engaged

Brooke Street, Holborn,
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 for-
tunes of the house of Roden; Strange,
afterwards Sir John Strange, and Master
of the Rolls in England; Parker, who be-
came Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer
in England; and Yorke, the subject of the
present memoir."

This arrangement with Mr. Salkeld seems to have been brought about through the intervention 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

without any premium. For this assertion, however, there appears to be no foundation. In nei

ther of Mr. Yorke's letters does he mention Mr. Salkeld, or any desire to get his son into an office without paying a premium for him, which he of 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.

expressed it."

However desirous Mr. Yorke might be 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 project with considerable vehemence, declaring that she wished Philip to be put apprentice to some 'honester trade,' as she Her husband, nevertheless, carried his point, and Philip was articled to Mr. Salkeld, in whose office we are told "he applied himself to business with great diligence, and gained the entire good will and esteem of his master;" though his mistress seems to have thought the clerk ought to be made useful in a domestic as well as a professional capacity. Mr. Harris 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 :

"Mrs. Salkeld, who considered herself as his mistress, and who was a notable woman, thinking 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 his accounts with his master, there frequently occurred coach-hire for roots of celery and turnips 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 clerk's dexterity and spirit in freeing himself from her attempted dominion. Mr. Salkeld observing 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

to perform menial offices of this nature. In the latter event, he would have been somewhat restrained from any active resistance to the petty tyranny of Mrs. Salkeld, by which her ire might

have been roused to a degree dangerous to a dependant on her husband's generosity or favor."_

p. 32.

Those disposed to foretell future events from present occurrences, may look upon the carrots and turnips borne in the coach with young Yorke, as foreshadowing the mace and seals which were to occupy a similar position in after life.

Mr. Harris gives a letter from the Wimpole MSS., written by Mr. Charles Yorke, the Chancellor's second son, in which the fact, of his father's having been articled to Mr. Salkeld at all is doubted. The writer states explicitly that his father resided in that gentleman's house, and under his care, until he was twenty years of age, when he was entered a student of the Middle Temple; but that he always understood "he was never articled to him as a clerk, nor acted in that capacity." The question of the clerkship is, after all, one of no importance; it seems, at all events, certain, that Mr. Salkeld was so well pleased with young Yorke's application, and so persuaded of his abilities, as to have advised his entering the Temple with a view to practising

at the bar.

Mr. Yorke continued to reside at Mr. Salkeld's, even after he had entered the Temple, up to the year 1710, when he took chambers in Pump-court. Here he is supposed to have written the paper in the Spectator' of April 28, 1712, bearing the signature of Philip Homebred, which is generally attributed to him.

It has generally been stated that Mr. Yorke's first start on his successful career was due to an intimacy formed with Mr. G. Parker, only son of Lord Chief Justice Macclesfield, who was a fellow student of the same inn of court as Yorke. Mr. Harris supposes this to be an error, and thinks it more probable that Yorke was introduced to his Lordship's notice by Mr. Thomas Parker, nephew to Lord Macclesfield, and a colleague with Yorke at Mr. Salkeld's. With this gentleman Mr. Yorke maintained a strict intimacy through life, and promoted him in acknowledgment of the favors he had previously received from his uncle. It has been said in Campbell's 'Lives of the Chancellors,' and other works, that Mr. Yorke was recommended to Lord Macclesfield by Mr. Salkeld, as a fit person to di

rect the law studies of his Lordship's sons; as, however, he had but one son, who never followed the law as a profession, this statement seems very doubtful. It is, nevertheless, certain, that an acquaintance was

about this time formed between Lord Macclesfield and Mr. Yorke, which resulted in a firm and life-long friendship, and proved a most fortunate circumstance for the young lawyer.

On the 27th of May, 1715, Mr. Yorke was called to the bar, being then in his twenty-fifth year. On commencing practice, one of the earliest causes in which he was engaged was that of the King against Dorrell and others, for endeavoring to raise the Pretender's standard at Oxford and Bath; in this cause he was employed by the Crown as junior counsel, and the indictment was drawn by him. From this time his practice and reputation rapidly increased, so as to excite the jealousy of the older barristers, and give rise to various tales turning upon the undue favor shown for his protégé by Lord Macclesfield. Mr. Harris observes that it has been asserted

"That Yorke was at first so far dependent on the countenance of Lord Macclesfield, that when the latter was promoted to the Chancellorship, the former abandoned his practice in the King's Bench and removed into the Court of Chancery. Perhaps the correctness of both these stories, which have been reiterated by Lord Campbell in his Lives of the Chancellors,' may te best judged of by the fact, which appears on reference to the reports before cited, that though Mr. Yorke's name does not once occur in the cases tried in the King's Bench while Lord Macclesfield presided there, yet the very term that his Lordship was promoted to the Chancellorship, Mr. Yorke is mentioned as being engaged in the Court of King's Bench in the first case in which the name of the counsel con

ducting it is recorded, being that of Drake v. Taylor, already alluded to, as also in the two following cases; and from that period his practice in the King's Bench was evidently large and increasing." -p. 77.

Mr. Salkeld's extensive connexion and practice were undoubtedly instrumental in advancing the progress of Mr. Yorke; but, as Mr. Harris justly observes, neither the advantages to be derived from that gentleman's friendship, nor the favor of Lord Macclesfield, could do more than present opportunities for distinguishing himself, which would have been of no avail had Mr. Yorke been deficient in ability to take advantage of them. And in continuation :--

"The grand turning point in a barrister's professional career, the real change which occurs in his condition,-is that which takes place when, from being employed because his client would be the young barrister seems to have led the useful to him, he is now employed because he is Government of the day to secure his able thought useful to his client. From a dependent support in the House of Commons, and the on others, he at length rises, not only into an

in

dependent man, but henceforward he sees others expenses of his election are said to have dependent upon him. To the attainment of this been defrayed by them. The electors of all must look forward who desire success in their the borough, however, seem to have been

career, Until this grand point is gained, no certainty can exist of ultimate triumph, or even of further advancement.

"Not only did Yorke take due care to qualify himself by hard reading and extensive research before his call to the bar, for the successful pursuit of'his profession, but when he commenced practice, he appears to have attended all the different courts, both law and equity, and to have taken very elaborate notes of their proceedings. Among his papers are several note-books, containing very full reports of the judgments on matters of leading importance which were delivered by the different courts at that time, comprising several by Lord Chief Justice Parker, Lord Chancellor King, Lord Macclesfield, and Sir Joseph Jekyll."-p. 81.

And herein, doubtless, consisted the secret of Mr. Yorke's success. By his own natural ability and industry he was well qualified to avail himself, to the utmost, of the opportunities for distinction which now rapidly poured in upon him; and, such being the case, we need not feel surprise at the rapidity of his rise in the profession he had chosen, and which excited the envy of those of his fellows who were less assiduous or less gifted by nature.

" Yorke's success," says his biographer, "now appears to have exceeded even the fondest expec

well satisfied with their new representative, since among the MSS. at Wimpole is preserved the following address to the Duke of Newcastle, the patron of the borough.

"To his Grace, the Duke of. Newcastle, "Lord Chamberlaine of His Majesty's household, "May it please your Grace,

"Wee whose names are hereunto subscribed, the constables and inhabitants of the borough of Lewes, having heard your Grace's letter publickly read, doe not only herein return your Grace our hearty thanks for the honour you have done us in recommending soe fitt a person as Mr. Yorke to serve as one of our representatives in Parliament for this town for the present vacancy, butt alsoe beg leave to assure your Grace that wee doe unanimously and entirely approve of him, and shall be ready on all occasions to shew the regard wee have to the favour your Grace has pleased to lay upon us.

"Your Grace's most obliged and obedient humble servants."-р. 91.

In the House of Commons, Mr. Yorke seems to have been far more successful, as a debater, than the generality of members of his profession. He has been placed in a very moderate rank, as an orator, by Lord Campbell and other biographers; but, as Mr. Harris justly observes, from the attention which his speeches commanded, and the care with which they were replied to by leading members of the House, it is evident

tations of his friends; and Mr. Morland's doubts as to his diligence must by this time have been entirely dissipated. His early struggles in his youth, his witnessing the poverty which we are that his merits as a debater and an orator told prevailed at home, and the feeling that he were of no ordinary description, especially was himself so far dependent on the liberality of at a period when the House of Commons others, would no doubt have a powerful effect in "abounded with men of great talents and stimulating him to exertion, however indolent he distinguished acquirements." might naturally have been. This would operate as much to drive him on, as ambitious feelings On the 16th of May, 1719, a fortnight would to encourage him in his career. Many of after his election for Lewes, Mr. Yorke, the most successful lawyers have in their earliest then considered to be one of the handsomdays felt the pressure of poverty and not a few, est men of his time, was married to the perhaps, have been largely indebted to this circum- young and beautiful widow of Mr. William stance. Lord Thurlow's advice to the friends of Lygon. This young lady was the daughter

a young barrister of indolent habits, was to let him spend all he had, then marry, and Jun through his wife's fortune, after which (when no resources remained but from his profession), he might hope for high success."-p. 86.

of Mr. Charles Cocks, of Worcester, who is described as "a highly respectable, though somewhat eccentric magistrate and country gentleman, who had married Mary, the eldest sister of Lord Chancellor Somers." The old gentleman is said to have demurred, on finding that the claimant for

In the year 1719, four years after his call to the bar, we find that "Philip Yorke, Esq., counsellor-at law, is chosen a repre- his daughter's hand had neither rental nor sentative of the borough of Lewes, in Sus- writings to show; and before he would sex, in the room of John Morley Trevor, consent to the match, made further inquiEsq., deceased." The rising reputation of fries of his brother-in-law, Sir Joseph

Jekyll, as to the position and prospects of ly entered upon that course of prosperity the suitor. He little suspected that within which scarcely ever failed him to the close a century from the time the then ennobled of his lengthened career. house of Hardwicke would return the com- About this time was discovered a conspipliment, by furnishing a bride for one of racy to overturn the government, in which his own descendants.* several persons of distinction were impli

In the summer of 1718, Mr. Yorke went cated. The discovery seems to have caused the Western circuit, in which he is reported an extraordinary degree of excitement to have had his full share of business, al- throughout the country, and strong meathough the first time he had practised out sures were adopted for the suppression of of London. In the spring of the year 1720, an apprehended insurrection. Among other he had proceeded as far as Dorchester, on persons taken into custody on suspicion of the same circuit, when he was recalled to being concerned in the movement, were Dr. London by the Lord Chancellor Parker, Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, Lord North who had bestowed on him the office of So- and Grey, and the Duke of Norfolk; but licitor-General, in the room of Sir William the prime mover and originator of the conThompson. He was sworn in on the 22nd spiracy seems to have been a barrister-atof March, 1720. On this appointment law, named Layer, who was executed at Mr. Harris has the following remarks :- Tyburn on the 18th of May, 1723, for the

offence. The Bishop of Rochester was de

"Great dissatisfaction is said to have been prived of his preferments and banished. In evinced, and not unjustly so, it must be allowed, the trials of the conspirators Sir Philip at the promotion of so young a man over the Yorke, as Solicitor-General, was, of course, heads of many of his seniors well able to fill the actively engaged; and in 1722 he was ocexcited against the Chancellor, as well as against cupied in a legal inquiry into the conduct Yorke himself; but which the latter, by his kind of Dr. Wilson, bishop of Sodor and Man, demeanor and good bearing, managed soon to who had been imprisoned and fined by the

office; and considerable odium was in consequence

overcome.

governor of the Isle of Man for forbidding the governor's lady to partake of the holy sacrament. The bishop appealed to the English government against these measures: a report of his case was drawn up by Sir Robert Raymond and Sir P. Yorke, and laid before the council. The treatment of the bishop was declared unjust, and the the first importance, Sergeant Pengelly, and the On the 31st of January, 1724, Sir P. other leaders at the bar, ought not, in fairness, on Yorke was promoted to the office of Ataccount of his youth, to have been deprived of those rewards, to his desert of which his youth torney-General, in consequence of certain had formed no impediment. The appointment legal promotions and appointments which was legally and constitutionally vested in the then took place. Thus in less than nine

"It cannot, however, be denied that Mr. Yorke's extraordinary ability and rapidly increasing practice ractice afforded afforded, to a certain extent, an apology for the Chancellor's preference of him on this occasion; and that his subsequent distinguished success in this office supplied an ample excuse for this proceeding. He who, although a mere novice in his profession, was not only able to contend with, but to overcome, in arguments of fine remitted.

Chancellor, who alone was answerable for its being properly disposed of; and no one could say that the choice was either a bad or a corrupt one." p. 99.

years from his entering the profession, Sir Philip found himself at its head.

Soon after his promotion, the new Attorney-General was engaged in the prosecution of the notorious Jack Sheppard, and

On the 2nd of April, 1720, Mr. Yorke the no less notorious Jonathan Wild. Nuwas re-elected member for Lewes; he soon merous extracts from the public journals of afterwards received the honor of knighthood, the day relating to these celebrated characand was chosen a bencher of the Middle ters are given, and, together with others Temple. Some time previously he had relating to the lawless outrages in the mebeen elected Recorder of Dover, " a piece tropolis and various parts of the country, of preferment which he prized highly, and afford a curious picture of the times. But retained through life."

He may now be considered as having fair

* The present Countess Somers being the great grand-daughter of the first Earl of Hardwicke; and the present Earl Somers a descendant of "old

Master Cocks," of Worcester.

the most extraordinary of the criminal proceedings instituted at this period, were those adopted against Sir P. Yorke's early friend, the Earl of Macclesfield, Lord High Chancellor, relative to his connivance at "certain venal practices touching the sale

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