CHAP. CXXIV. Aug. 31. 1717. But no satisfactory answer was received, and the rumour gained ground that a dependent of Lord Sunderland was to be returned. Thereupon Sir Robert penned the following irresistibly persuasive epistle, applying himself, with most inimitable dexterity, to all the motives which, upon such an occasion, could influence the mind of the man he was addressing :-- "I hope you will forgive me if I write to you upon this occasion with some freedom and a little importunity. I am not at all insensible what applications will be made to you, and how acceptable it will be to some to give us this disappointment; but I flatter myself that I do not stand in that light with you, being not conscious that I have done any thing that should make it a pleasure to you to put such a slight upon me. Experience teaches every body how little of the regard that he meets with from the multitude is to be ascribed to himself, and how much is owing to his power only; but as I never could look upon you in that view, I cannot persuade myself but friendship, old acquaintance, and a long knowledge of me in my public capacity, was my chief recommendation to you. It is not to be supposed that Sir Francis Drake and yourself may have other friends that deserve as well or better of you than we can pretend to, and that you may have an equal inclination to serve; which, were this a common case, and upon the election of a new parliament, I must admit, would be a reasonable answer; but you will consider that a refusal now is an absolute exclusion of my brother, and should you oblige any body else, it must be done at our expence; and I verily believe you will meet no solicitations that will not be more out of a desire to offer an indignity to me, than to oblige any body else. I will not tire your patience with more arguments. You know the world too well not to be sensible how grievous, to speak plainly, this disappointment must be to me at this juncture, to have my enemies gain this triumph over me. The satisfaction or advantage they can have by it, unless in crossing my expectations, can be no ways equal to the dissatisfaction and concern that, I very freely confess, it would give me. To others, your answer is plain and ready — upon pre-engage - CHAP. ments and present possession. To me, I know but onethat you think me no longer worth obliging. After I have CXXIV. expressed myself thus plainly and earnestly to you, I can add nothing but to tell you, that as I am sure this depends upon you alone, to you alone I will ever own the obligation, which, you may plainly see, I do really think as great as you can possibly confer upon me; and if, after this, I should ever be wanting to show you a just sense of it, I should be worthy of the last reproach. I must beg one thing more, that you will give me a direct reply, which, if it is to be in favour of my brother, will be an answer to all other solicitations. I am, very much, your most faithful humble servant, "R. WALPOLE." King's dis tion mat It is possible that such a service, at such a pinch, was Lord Chief remembered by Walpole, become sole ruler of the King and Justice kingdom, when, upon the impeachment of Lord Macclesfield, interestedthe Great Seal was suddenly to be disposed of. But I must ness in elecdo Sir Peter King the justice to say, that in all the elec- ters. tioneering affairs in which he was engaged, he seems to have acted with honour and disinterestedness. He makes no corrupt bargain for others, and he had no ambitious views for himself. His great object was to support the Whig party and the Revolution settlement. CHAPTER CXXV. СНАР. CXXV. His unex motion to the wool sack. CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF LORD KING TILL THE DEATH OF ON what strange chances and vicissitudes does official promotion depend! When Sir Peter King had been ten years Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, he and his friends pected pro- thought only of his terminating his honourable, but comparatively obscure, career in this office, leaving a name only to be found in musty black letter law Reports, or in chronological tables of the twelve Judges. But a madness seized the nation, during the South Sea Bubble, unknown before or since, till the coming up of railways; the Masters in Chancery caught the infection, and, losing large sums of suitors' money intrusted to them, became defaulters, and attracted public notice to the manner in which they were appointed, and to the abuses in their department of the Court. Suddenly a storm of indignation arose against the Lord Chancellor, who had only been a little more rapacious than most of his predecessors; he who, a few weeks before, had been in the plenitude of power and popularity, was driven to resign; there being no one who could conveniently be at that moment appointed to succeed him, the Great Seal was put into commission; the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, having more leisure than the Chiefs of the other Courts in Westminster Hall, Sir Peter King, was appointed Speaker of the House of Lords; there he conducted himself with such dignity and propriety during an impeachment, that he was made Lord Chancellor and a Peer; so he became a character in English history, and is regarded as the founder of a distinguished family in the nobility of England. He is Sir Joseph Jekyll, and his brother Commissioners, being Speaker of appointed on the 7th of January, 1725,-in obedience to the royal admonition*, applied themselves diligently to business, the House of Lords. *Ante, p. 535. CXXV. but found the concerns of the suitors in a state of deplorable CHAP. confusion from the deficiencies of the Masters, and were greatly perplexed and divided in opinion with respect to the remedies which ought to be applied. Sitting daily during Hilary and Easter Terms, and in the intervening vacation, their time was almost wholly occupied with motions respecting the abstraction, the replacing and the securing of trust money. 1725. Lord Meanwhile the trial of the Earl of Macclesfield proceeded. Jan. 21. When parliament assembled after the Christmas recess, Sir ImpeachPeter King took his place on the woolsack as Speaker of the ment of House of Lords, leaving his puisnies to do the ordinary Macciesbusiness of the Court of Common Pleas, and questions of field. difficulty being reserved for his advice. On the 13th of February a message from the Commons was announced, and Sir Peter King having put on his hat, Sir George Oxenden, attended by many members, "in the name of all the Commons of England, impeached Thomas Earl of Macclesfield of high crimes and misdemeanours, declaring that the House of Commons would, in due time, exhibit particular articles against him, and make good the same." Sir Peter, not being a Peer, of course had no deliberative voice, but during the trial, as the organ of the House of Peers, he regulated the procedure without any special vote, intimating to the managers and to the counsel for the defendant when they were to speak, and to adduce their evidence. After the verdict of Guilty, he ordered the Black Rod to produce his prisoner at the bar, and the Speaker of the House of Commons having demanded judgment, he, in good taste, abstaining from making any comment, dryly, but solemnly and impressively, pronounced the sentence which the House had agreed upon. Disposition of the Great Lord Mac The Lords Commissioners were still going on very indifferently, and complaints becoming loud against their inefficiency, Walpole felt that, to secure the popularity which he had justly acquired by sacrificing the late Chancellor to conviction. the public indignation, another enjoying the public confidence 16 St. Tr. 801. 938. 1080. 1258. 1265. 1330.; ante, p. 553. clesfield's Lord King takes his should be appointed. Sir Philip Yorke, the Attorney General, who had made such a brilliant start, was not much turned of thirty; and a head of the law, and keeper of the King's conscience so youthful, would have been the subject of gibes instead of reverence. Sir Clement Wearg, the Solicitor, had distinguished himself much in supporting the bill for the banishment of Atterbury, and as manager of the House of Commons in conducting the impeachment of Macclesfield; but though considerably senior in age, and in standing at the bar, he was considered of inferior ability, and there were strong objections to putting him over the head of the Attorney General.* The Serjeants and King's counsel offered no better choice. Sir Joseph Jekyll, the Master of the Rolls, had rather lost reputation by acting as a Commissioner of the Great Seal. A selection was to be made therefore of a common law Judge, and none could have a higher character than Chief Justice King, whose conduct during the impeachment both parties had concurred in praising. Accordingly he was fixed upon, and it was agreed that he should at once be declared Lord Chancellor without being Lord Keeper; that he should simultaneously be raised to the Peerage (likewise an unusual rapidity of honour), and that he should receive a salary of 60001. a year payable out of the post office, and 1200l. a year payable out of the Hanaper office, in consideration of the sale of offices in the Court of Chancery being adjudged to be illegal. I have now the advantage of a Diary which Lord Chancellor King on his new appointment began to keep in short hand, without any view to authorship, and which has been recently printed by his family for private circulation. From this I shall occasionally make extracts, and at other times I shall refer to it as the authority for my narrative. Thus he commences: "1725. Tuesday, June 1. Monday, the 31st May, beseat in the ing the last day of the sitting of Parliament, I was introduced into the House of Lords, as Lord King, Baron of Ockham, in House of Peers. * Life of Sir Clement Wearg, by Duke, 1843. |