CHAP. He is dis contented, and medi tates leav this good thing in the family as long as possible. Disappointed at not sooner obtaining the real honours of the proA. D. 1756. fession, Charles now talked of leaving it altogether, and taking entirely to the political line, in which he flattered himself he might rise to be Prime Minister. It appears that he had infused his discontented notions into his friends. ing the profession Warburton writes to Hurd, "Yorke, who has spent the holidays with me, has just now left me to return to the bar, whose nature, virtue, and superior science, in any age but this would have conducted their favourite pupil to the bench." of the law. At last an opening appeared to have arisen. On the 25th of May, 1756, died Sir Dudley Ryder, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, the day before he was to have kissed hands on being raised to the peerage, and it was expected that this would make an immediate move in the law. But the assis tance of Murray, the Attorney General, was so essentially necessary to the Duke of Newcastle's government in the House of Commons, that, although he demanded the Chief Justiceship as of right, the office was kept vacant six months, in the hopes of bribing him to forego his claim. In the mean while, the Chancellor being supposed to have all the law appointments at his disposal, his son earnestly pressed that now some arrangement might be made whereby he might be promoted. On the 2d of June, 1756, thus wrote Mr. Potter, the son of the Archbishop, to Mr. Pitt: "Charles Yorke who has long had a wish to quit the profession, has taken advantage of this opportunity, and has sternly insisted with his father, that, unless he makes him Solicitor General now, he will immediately pull of his gown. The Chancellor yields, and has promised either to make him Solicitor, or to consent that he shall quit the profession and be a Lord of the Admiralty. I think I know which side of the alternative the Chancellor will take. On Murray's leaving the bar, and Charles Yorke becoming Solicitor General, he would get at least 4000l. per annum. The Chancellor will compute how much that exceeds the salary of a Lord of * Warb. Corresp. CL. the Admiralty, and the vices of the family will probably CHAP. operate, so as to keep poor Charles in the only train in which he can be of any consequence." On the proMurray to be Chief the King's motion of Justice of Murray having at length obtained the Chief Justiceship by the threat of withdrawing from public life, the administration was subverted, and Lord Hardwicke resigned the Great Seal. But he contrived that the desired promotion should be bestowed upon his son, who, on the 6th of November, 1756, Ber was sworn in Solicitor General. * Chatham Correspondence, i. 160. Bench, Charles made Soli citor Gene ral. CLI. Charles ceremony of Lord Mansfield Inn, when Justice of Bench. CHAPTER CLI. CONCLUSION OF THE LIFE OF LORD CHANCELLOR CHARLES YORKE. CHAP. THE first public duty cast upon Charles Yorke after his promotion, was to make a complimentary speech on the elevation of a rival. Murray, the Chief-Justice-elect, was to take Yorke pre- leave of the Society of Lincoln's Inn previous to going sides at the through the preliminary form of being made a Serjeant at Law, that he might thereby be qualified to become a Judge. Mr. Solicitor, being then the Treasurer or head of the Inn, taking leave of Lincoln's according to ancient usage, presented the departing member about to be with a purse of gold as a retaining fee, and addressed him in made Chief a flowing oration, extolling his eloquence, his learning, and the King's his qualifications for the high judicial office which he was about to fill. The very words of the answer are preserved, from which we may judge of the talent and the courtesy exhibited on both sides: "I am too sensible, Sir, of my being undeserving of the praises which you have so elegantly bestowed upon me, to suffer commendations so delicate as yours to insinuate themselves into my mind; but I have pleasure in that kind partiality which is the occasion of them. To deserve such praises is a worthy object of ambition; and from such a tongue, flattery itself is pleasing. If I have had in any measure success in my profession, it is owing to the great man who has presided in our highest Court of judicature the whole time I attended the bar. It was impossible daily to come into his presence without catching some beams from his light. The disciples of Socrates, whom I will take the liberty to call the great lawyer of antiquity, since the first principles of law are derived from his philosophy, owe their reputation to their having been the reporters of the sayings of their master. If we can arrogate nothing to ourselves, we may boast the school we were brought up in; the scholar may glory in his master, and we may challenge past ages to show CLI. us his equal. My Lord Bacon had the same extent of thought, CHAP. and the same strength of language and expression, but his life had a stain. My Lord Clarendon had the same abilities, and the same zeal for the constitution of his country; but the civil war prevented his laying deep the foundations of law, and the avocations of politics interrupted the business of the Chancellor. My Lord Somers came the nearest to his character; but his time was short, and envy and faction sullied the lustre of his glory. It is the peculiar felicity of the great man I am speaking of, to have presided near twenty years, and to have shone with a splendour that has risen superior to faction, and that has subdued envy. I did not intend to have said so much upon this occasion; but with all that hear me, what I say must carry the weight of testimony rather than appear the voice of panegyric. For you, Sir, you have given great pledges to your country, and large are the expectations of the public concerning you. I dare to say you will answer them." coln's Inn. For us Lincoln's Inn men, this was, indeed, a proud day. Proud day The greatest of common law Judges, on his own inau- for Linguration, spoke so eloquently of the greatest of Equity Judges now in retirement, after a judicial career of unequalled length and brilliancy,—and held out seemingly well-founded anticipations that the son who was addressed, would rival his father's glory. All three were members of Lincoln's Inn, and the scene was acted in Lincoln's Inn Hall, amidst a crowd of barristers and students, many of whom, if fortune had been propitious to a display of their talents, would have been hardly less distinguished. Yorke dis In the following year, the Solicitor General expected Charles further promotion, but was doomed to a severe disappoint- appointed ment. After some months of anarchy which followed the by Pratt being made resignation of the Duke of Newcastle and Lord Hardwicke, Attorney during which the Great Seal was in commission, and there General. was a perpetual shifting of the principal offices of state, the Court was obliged to surrender at discretion to Mr. Pitt, who then formed his famous administration. He bore no July, 1757. good will to the House of Yorke, and although he would not dismiss Charles from the office held by him, he insisted CHAP. Quiet times at home Pitt's ad on making his old school-fellow, Pratt, Attorney General. This was most highly distasteful to Mr. Solicitor; but after consulting his father and his friends, he consented to swallow the bitter pill presented to him. Pratt was his senior at the bar, and had now risen into high reputation, so that it was no degradation to serve under him. They acted with apparent cordiality, though it was said that Yorke never forgot the affront, and was actuated by the recollection of it in his intrigue against Lord Camden, when he was himself to have become Chancellor under Charles Townshend, and in the negotiation which closed his own career, when, in an evil hour, he actually received the Great Seal, that Lord Camden might be cashiered. Opposition being now annihilated, the Attorney and Soliduring Mr. citor General had very light work in the House of Commons, and their official duty chiefly consisted in advising the government (which they did most admirably) upon numerous questions of international law, arising during the prosecution of the war. ministration. June 12. 1758. Charles Yorke Counsel on Dr. Hen sey. The first great occasion when they appeared together in public, was on the trial of Dr. Hensey, at the King's Bench bar, for high treason, in carrying on a correspondence with the trial of the French, and inviting them to invade the realm. It was the part of the Solicitor General to sum up the evidence for the Crown, but he declined to do so, reserving himself for the general reply on the whole case, a course which Lord Mansfield and the whole Court held he was entitled to pursue. His reply was distinguished by great moderation and mildness of tone, as well as perspicuity and force of reasoning. The prisoner was convicted, but on account of attenuating circumstances, he was afterwards pardoned.* His cele in Lord Ferrers's case. The only other state prosecution in which Pratt and brated reply Charles Yorke were jointly engaged, was that of Lord Ferrers, before the House of Peers, for the murder of his steward, of which I have given an account in the Life of Lord Northington, who then presided as Lord High Steward. The Solicitor General's reply on this occasion is one of the finest forensic displays in our language, containing, Ib. 945.; ante, p. 194. " 19 St. Tr. 1342-1382 |