SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

BIOGRAPHY,

The Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of England, from the Earliest Times till the Reign of George the Fourth. By John Lord Campbell, A.M., F.R.S.E. (Second Series, from the Revolution of 1688 to the death of Lord Chancellor Thurlow, in 1806.) Murray. VOTAGES AND TRAVELS, Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand being an Artist's Impres- sions of Countries and People at the Antipodes. With numerous Illustrations. By George French Angas, Author of " The New Zealanders illustrated," " A Ramble

in Malta and Sicily," &c. In two volumes *Rah and Minn.

Noznini In Egypt and Syria Longman and CO.

LORD CAMPBELL'S SECOND SERIES OF THE LIVES OF THE CHANCELLORS.

THE continuation of Lord Campbell's great work embraces the Chancel- lors and Keepers from the time when the Revolution deprived Jeffreys of the great seal, till Death set his seal upon as great a bully and as self- seeking a man as Jeffreys himself, in the person of Edward Lord Thur- low. The most eminent men in the century and more that intervenes between these two periods, were Somers, Cowper, Harcourt, and Camden, as politicians ; Macclesfield, Talbot, and Hardwicke, as Chancellors; King as a great lawyer, though not an Equity lawyer; and Charles Yorke, justly celebrated in his day for his various acquirements and accomplish- ments, though now better known, where remembered, for the mysterious death which followed his acceptance of the Chancellorship. Lords Northing- ton and Bathurst, though intriguing politicians, attained the woolsack rather for the convenience of Ministers than from any exertions of their own, in law, politics, or intrigue. The other subjects of the Lives were only Commissioners ; and two of them, Wright and Trevor, but little known. The third, Maynard, is distinguished for his extensive and thorough know- ledge of the law, and perhaps as being the last of that race of profound law- yers, and nothing else, of which Coke was the head. He was still more sin- gular for his advanced age and experience. Born in 1602, and surviving till 1690, he lived through one of the most memorable centuries in English history : called to the bar "on account of his extraordinary proficiency before the usual curriculum of study at his inn of court had expired,' and returned to the House of Commons in the first Parliament of Charles. the First, he was an actor in all the great public events with which he was contemporary, both in the Senate and the Law-courts ; and, though not without the time-serving disposition, the cruelty, and want of prin- ciple, which distinguished the lawyers of his day, he was on the whole consistent to his party and his cause. His legal reputation was so estab- lished that he swayed the Judges, and was sometimes suspected of in- venting law to mislead them.

"Chief Justice Pemberton having ruled a point according to a case which the Sergeant cited from memory and which never could be found, afterwards com- plained of having been bamboozled by him, saying, My brother Maynard might as well have tossed his cap into the air, or have laughed in my face.' Yet such was his reputation for law, that even Judge Jeffreys was sometimes afraid to over- rule him. This ermined ruffian having on one occasion almost annihilated Mr. Ward, a ,junior barrister who argued a point before him, and severely rebuked

him, saying, Do not make such discourses ad caplanduta populum with your flourishes; I will none of your enamel nor your garniture,' the Sergeant, whe was

his leader, having got in his word, quietly stated how the law really stood and so clearly demonstrated his position to the satisfaction of all the bar and all the bystanders, that the Chief Justice was for once shamed out of his insolence, and acquiesced."

Lord Campbell states that Maynard's vision was very contracted be. yond the precincts of the law ; and this is undoubtedly true, for he had never exercised it in any other direction. In those days, however, law had a greater elevation and breadth than it has in ours ; when, indeed, it has sunk to little better than a common trade. Questions which are now argued on the principles of philosophy or common sense, were con- sidered by our ancestors more as questions of authority, constitutional custom, or law ; so that the lawyers were called upon to deal with larger subjects. Witness, for example, Maynard's argument as one of the managers for the Commons in conference with the Lords, after James had left the kingdom, and it was a point whether he had "deserted" or "abdicated" the throne.

" This dispute between the two Houses leading to a free conference' in the Painted Chamber, Maynard was appointed one of the managers to conduct it on the part of the Commons; and he boldly combated the high Tory doctrines of doe Earl of Nottingham and the managers for the Lords. When there is,' said be, a present defect of one to exercise the administration of the government, I con- ceive the declaring a vacancy, and provision for a supply for it, can never make the crown elective. The Commons apprehend that there is such a defect now; and by consequence, a present necessity for the supply of the government. My Lords, the constitution, notwithstanding the vacancy, is the same; but if there i be an irreparable breach of the constitution, that is an abdication, and an abdica- tion infers a vacancy. It is not that the Commons do say the crown of England is always and perpetually elective; but it is necessary there be a supply where there is a defect, and the doing of that will be no alteration of the monarchy from hereditary to elective. As to the pretended Prince of Wales succeeding rightfully as heir, I say no man can now be called heir of James It. We have a maxim in law as certain as any other, Nemo eat hares viventi.e. His heir is now is =bi- ke. What shall we do till he is dead ? The crown cannot descend till then.'

" The Earl of Pembroke tried to answer this technical reasoning by saying, I. cannot directly name him that bath the immediate right; but it is enough to prevent a vacancy that there is, and must be, an heir or successor, let he be who- he wilL' Maynard—' But your Lordship will neither agree that it is vacant, nor

i

tell us how it is full. Is James King? Then obey him. But you allow that he is not to be obeyed. Then he is not King. Tell us, then, who is King, if King James be not. But if there be now no King, the throne is vacant.' Pembroke— Sure, Mr. Sergeant, you agree, that notwithstanding Charles II. was abroad at his father's death, and did not actually exercise the government, yet in law he was not the less heir for that; nor was the throne vacant.' Maynard—' That is not like this case, because there the descent was legally immediate; but there can be no hereditary descent during King James's life. Therefore, unless we declare and fill up the vacancy, there must be an everlasting war entailed upon us.; his title continuing, and we opposing his return to the exercise of his prerogatives. Pray, my Lords, consider the condition of the nation till there be a government: no law can be executed, no debts can be compelled to be paid, no offences can be punished, no one can tell what to do to obtain his right or defend himself from wrong. You still say the throne is not void, and yet you will not tell us who fills it. If once you will agree that the throne is vacant, it will then come orderly in debate how it should, according to our law, be filled. If our law is silent, then we must look to the law of nature, (above all human laws,) and provide for the public weal in such an exigency as this.'

"The two parties separated, probably without any change of private opinion among them; but the Lords, frightened by the horrors of anarchy which Maynard had painted, next day resiled, and sent a message that they agreed to the resolu- tion of the Commons without any amendment"

There is legal acumen and great reach of thought in this argument, with clearness and cloeeness of style, remarkable in themselves, still more remarkable in a man of eighty-six. There is also an aptness of illustra- tion and a readiness of resource, which indicate habitual dexterity in reply; though only two repartees of Maynard have been preserved, and both, from their excellence, are rather hacknied. On his introduction to the Prince of Orange, William noticed his great age, and observed that he must have outlived all the lawyers of his time. "Had not your High- ness,", said Maynard, "come over to our aid, I should have outlived the law itself." The other, less happy and less courtly, was a retort upon Jeffreys ; who remarked :in his brutal way, that Maynard hid got so old that he hat forgotten his law. "True, Sir George," replied the veteran, "I have forgotten more law than you ever learned." With this relic of the Elizabethan age, and living witness of the early Stuarts and the Great Rebellion, the last memorial of the feudal and baronial times passed away. Lord Campbell not only enters upon another genera- tion, but another race, more various in study and social accomplishments, more humanized by the spirit of their age, with manners softened by the influence of the "liberales artes," even when the particular law lord might not have learned them thoroughly, if at all : but there were no giants in these days. The rude yet stately grandeur of the prelatic and militant Chancellors of our earlier story—the unblemished integrity, the specula- tive political philosophy, the primitive simplicity, and the unbending firm- ness of the martyr More—the grandeur and magnificence of Wolsey, with the halo which poetry has cast around his fortune and his fall—the all- embracing intellect of Bacon—the various life and the literature of Cla- rendon—the intrigues and faction of Shaftesbury—and even the coarse- ness, bloodthirstiness, and unscrupulous villany of the Crown lawyers of the later Stuarts—are exchanged for a race free of crime, and perhaps with fewer vices, but without the strength of lineament and stately port, the heroic character and picturesque costume, which marked the subjects of Lord Campbell's three first volumes. Neither have the latter men so much of freshness. The biographer has reached an age of pamphleteers, reporters, and anecdote-mongers ; and the comparative readiness of access to their Materials has induced writers to give some account of many of the men who occupy Lord Campbell's attention, from the passing notice to the for- mal biography. It is possible, too, that the fulness of the materials may have tempted Lord Campbell to a little expansion. There is no mere stuffing in the volumes ; but perhaps, like a lawyer with a case, the bio- grapher may sometimes think more of availing himself of all the materials within reach than of critically considering their absolute value. This, however, is often excusable, for he has had access to the family archives of the greater part of the Chancellors who form the subject of his volumes. The only exception to this family liberality has been in the case of Lord Dynevor, the heir-general of Lord Chancellor Talbot, and possessor of his papers : for some unassigned reason, Lord Dynevor "declines to allow any use to be made of them." "Difficile est proprie communia dicere." The novelty of what is rare, the lineaments of what is striking and distinct, impress the mind at once, and save the artist the trouble of selection, or the vain task of attempting to, improve nature by the effects of art. It requires a discriminating perception improved by exercise, and considerable powers of judgment and execution, to give a marked and appropriate character to persons which are both familiar and smoothed down by the working of a sickly civilization. Indeed, as the highest effort of art is to reflect nature, more than nature contains cannot be presented—it is not only difficult to give distinctness and force to what is level and common, but in a comparative sense impossible. Hence, less of richness and pic- turesque effect were naturally to be expected in the continuation of these lives ; and perhaps Lord Campbell is a little tempted by this difficulty, and the greater fulness of collateral materials, to fall into the modern manner of expanding a biography by notices of subjects in which the party was engaged in common with others, or by quotations from speeches and writings, not always strictly biographical. These, however, are slight failings. The Lives of the Lord Chancellors will take its rank among the first collections of English literature, for interest and variety of subject, for the inherent strength of character in the persons and their worldly success, as well as for the spirit and action which their connexion with the events of life and history impart. Nor is the workmanship unworthy of the matter. We may desiderate the dramatic nicety of exhibition and development which in its more limited field is as necessary for the biographer as the poet ; we may miss the grace and strength of the thoroughly trained artist, who exemplifies the principle of " ara celare artem" ; and, in a critical sense, Lord Campbell too often appears before the reader both as author and individual. But great industry and research have been displayed in the gathering of the materials, much judgment exercised in their collection ; and they are presented to the reader with a perfect clearness both of arrangement and of style—we follow the case without trouble from beginning to end. It cannot, however, be denied that the conclusions are often unsound ; and it may be questioned whether haste or undue reliance has not led into errors in matters of fact. We could give some curious instances of both these failings, were it our custom to deal extensively in details. One considerable merit Lord Campbell possesses, which is not always found in biographies. He never loses sight of his subject : the reader always remembers that he is perusing the lives of lawyers. This is noted not only in their education and rise, but in their advancement. Whenever the reports or any other legal sources furnish the materials, Lord Camp- bell presents those judgments which most distinctly characterize the legal mind of his hero, when they are susceptible of popular apprehension ; together with his own criticism upon the decision. As an example of the manner, we may quote a summing up of Lord King, when be was Chief Justice. - The case was that of two men designing to commit murder and leaving their victim for dead : as he recovered, they were indicted under the Coventry Act for maiming; and they claimed an acquittal on the ground that they intended murder. Lord King, however, swept them into the toils upon an extension of the legal principle that an act not contemplated becomes partaker of the original intent which has wide- signedly led to it.

Lord Chief Justice King ruled, that if the prisoners maliciously iufficted a wound which amounted to a slitting of the nose, and which disfigured the prose- cutor, the case was within the act, although the real object was to murder, not to disfigure; saying, There are cases in which an unlawful or felonious intent to do one act may be carried over to another act done in prosecution thereof, and such other act will be felony, because done in prosecution of an unlawful or felonious intent. As, if a man shoots at wild fowl wherein no one hath any property, and by such shooting happens unawares to kill a man; this homicide is not felony, but only a misadventure or chance-medley, because it was an accident in the doing of a lawful act: but if this man had shot at a tame fowl wherein another had property, but not with intention to steal it, and by such shooting had acci- dentally killed a man, he would then have been guilty of manslaughter, because done in prosecution of an unlawful act, viz. committing a trespass upon another's property; but if he had had an intention of stealing this tame fowl, then such accidental killing of a man would have been murder, because done in proiecution of a felonious intent, viz. an intent to steal. Here, although the ultimate inten- tion was to murder, there might be an intermediate intention to disfigure, and one might take effect Aile the other did not. An intention to kill does not exclude an intention to disfigure. The instrument made use of in this attempt was a bill or hedging-hook, which, in its own nature, is proper for cutting, mauninr„ and

ri

disfigung. The means made use of to effect the murder must be considered; and the jury will say whether every blow and cut, and the consequences thereof,' were not intended, as well as the end for which it is alleged those blows and cuts were .ven.'—The prisoners were convicted and executed: but the case may be regarded as a pendant to that before Lord Chief Justice Sir James Mansfield, where a man who gave a horse a draught for the purpose of fraudulently winning a wager on a race; was hanged for killing the horse out of malice to the owner,' whose name he did not know."

Notwithstanding this opinion of Lord Campbell, we suspect the last ruling at all events is sound law. There cannot be the slightest doubt but that knowledge of a man is not necessary to establish malice; other- wise, a person unknown might be murdered with impunity. Lord Camp- bell does not mean this : it is a defect of expression.

The most elaborate lives in the volumes are those of Somers, Cowper Hardwicke, and Thurlow. Somers has perhaps been indebted to his political' reputation for the length at which he is exhibited; but, as is the case with- some other Whig celebrities, the person who inquires into his merits will be: at some loss to find on what his great fame is founded. The life of Lord, Cowper has been extended in consequence of the family manuscripts placed at.the disposal of Lord Campbell : these consist of letters, a diary of the Chancellor, and a journal of his second wife, that for ease, sprighiwi' liners, and good-tempered satire, in the parts quoted, appears to justify Lord Campbell's remark that it should be printed entire. The character of Thurlow—as bold, massy, broad, vigorous, and unscrupulously im- pudent, as any Stuart lawyer, and only saved from their bloody crimes by the accident of a later birth—renders his life the most attractive if not the most interesting in the series ; to which the almost contemporary nature of the incidents may doubtless contribute. In a critical sense Lord Hardwicke's is the most complete, from the legal eminence of Philip Yorke as the founder of modern Equity ; which renders the matter more appropriate to the subject, and furnishes ampler materials. The follow- ing description of him as Chancellor is one of the best pieces of painting in the work.

" Lord Hardwicke, having bestowed unremitting pains in qualifying himself for the discharge of his high duties, when occupying the judgment-seat exhibited a pattern of all judicial excellence. Spotless purity—not only an abstinence from bribery and corruption, but freedom from undue influence, and an earnest desire to do justice—may at that time, and ever afterwards, be considered as belonging to all English judges. But I must specially mention of this Chancellor, that he was not only a patient but an eager listener, conscious that he could beat learn the facts of the case from those who had been studying it; and that, notwith- standing his own great stores of professional learning, he might be instructed by a junior counsel who for days and nights had been ransacking all that could be found scattered in the books on a particular topic, actuated by a desire to serve his client and to enhance his own reputation. While the bearing was going on, the cause had the Chancellor's undivided and devoted attention. Not only was he undistracted by the frivolous engagements of common life, but during a po- litical crisis, when there were to be important changes in the Cabinet, when MS own continuance in office was in peril, he was, as usual, calm and collected; and he seemed to think of nothing but whether the injunction should be continued or dissolved, and whether the bill should be dismissal with or without costs ? Some said that he was at times acting a part; and that he was considering how he should conduct a political iutrigne, or how he should answer an opponent in de- bate, when he pretended to be listening to a thrice-told tale: Lut so much is certain, that no argument ever escaped him, and that in taking notes it was observed that ' his pen always moved at the right time.' He used to declare that he did not take his place upon that bench to write letters to his corre- spondents,or to read the newspaper.' His voluminous note-books are still extant, containing at great length the material proceedings of the Court during each day,—the statement of the case, the evidence, and the arguments of counsel,— with the answers to be given to them enclosed within brackets. When he teak time to consider, he generally wrote his judgments either in his note-books or on separate papers, to which his note-books refer. Unlike some judges deservedly of high reputation, whose impression on hearing a case stated was never known to vary, he appears not unfrequently, upon further argument and maturer con- sideration, finally to have arrived at an opinion quite different from that which he had at first entertained, and even expressed; and he certainly well merited the character he gave of himself in this respect, when he said, These are the reasons which incline me to alter my opinion; and I am not ashamed of doing it, for I always thought it a much greater reproach to a judge to continue in his error than to retract it. He never interrupted, to show his quickness, by guessing at facts, or anticipating authorities which he expected to be cited. Not ignorant that the Chancellor can always convulse the bar with counterfeited glee,' he abstained from ill-timed jocularity, and he did not level sarcasms at those who he knew could not retort upon him. He had a complete control over his temper • and, from the uniform urbanity and decorum of his own demeanour, he repressed the petu- lance and angry passions of those who practised before him; insomuch that it was remarked, that not only was he never himself led into any unbecoming altercation, but that he taught the rival leaders to behave to each other with candour and courtesy. It is likewise stated to his credit, that although in society he was sup- posed rather to be supercilious, presuming too much upon his acquired dignity, he

i was in court uniformly affable to the solicitors; remembering that they were the class to which he expected himself to have belonged, and to whose kindness he had been greatly indebted for his advancement.

" The arguments being finished, if the case seemed clear, and did not involve any new question, he immediately disposed of it; but wherever his decision was likely to be quoted as regulating the doctrine of the Court,' he took time for consideration; and, having perused his notes and referred to the authorities cited, he came with a prepared and often a written judgment. On such occasions he was likened to the personification of Wisdom distributing justice and delivering instruction.' "

The life of the son, Charles Yorke, is chiefly interesting for the memory of his death ; as he seems to have had the vices of his father---especially the ambition—without the firmness of purpose which gave to him success and the appearance of consistency. In the narrative of the catastrophe Lord Campbell exhibits a prevailing fault in these volumes, of exemplify- ing the proverb that "muds may be said on both sides." The suicide of this unhappy victim to royal blandishments and his own weakness is as well known as anything can be where all proof is shut out by those who possess it ; but if any doubt remained, the manuscript journal of the Duke of Grafton, which has been placed at Lord Campbell's disposal, is conclu- sive upon the subject. After giving an account of the retirement of Lord Camden, the Duke's application to Yorke by the King's order, and their first interview, he continues.

" On his return to me the next day, I found him a quite altered man; for his mind was then made up to decline the offer from his Majesty, and that so de- cidedly that I did not attempt to say anything farther on the subject. He ex- pressed, however, a wish to be allowed an audience of his Majesty. This was granted; and at the conclusion of it, the King, with the utmost concern, wrote to acquaint me that Mr. Yorke had declined the seal. On his appearing soon after at the levie, his Majesty called him into his closet immediately after it was over. What passed there I know not; but nothing could exceed my astonishment when Lord'Hillsborough came into my dressing-room in order to tell me that Mr. Yorke was in my parlour, and that he was Lord Chancellor, through the persuasion of the King himself in his closet. Mr. Yorke corroborated to me what I had heard from Lord Hillsborough; and I received the same account from his Majesty as soon as I could get down to St. James's. "Mr. Yorke staid but a little time with me, but his language gave me new hopes that an Administration might shortly be produced which the nation would approve. How soon did this plausible hope vanish into a visionary ex- pectation' only from the death of Mr. Yorke before he became Lord Morden, or we could have any preliminary discourses on the measure he earnestly desired to forward! I had long been acquainted with Mr. Yorke, and held him in high esteem. He certainly appeared less easy and communicative with me from tree time of his acceptance to his death than I might expect; but it was natural to imagine that he would be more agitated than usual when arduous and intricate business was rushing at once upon him. I had not the least conception of any degree of agitation that could bring him to his sad and tragical end. Nor will Icnme to conjecture what motives in his own breast, or anger in that of had driven him to repent of theistep he had j ust taken. By his own ap- pointnient, *went to his house about nine o'clock in the evening, two days, as I believe, after Mr. Yorke had been sworn in at a Council board summoned for that at the Queen's house. Being shown into his library below, I waited a founrsPerse ti me than I supposed Mr. Yorke would have kept me without some extra- ordinary cause. After above half an hour waiting, Dr. Watson, his physician, into nto the room: he appeared somewhat confused—sat himself down for a few moments, letting me know that Mr. Yorke was much indisposed with an attack of colic. Dr. Watson soon retired; and I was ruminating on the untowardness of the circumstance—never suspecting the fatal event which bad occurred, nor the still more lamentable cause ascribed for it by the world, and, as I fear, upon too jet ground. "1 rung the bell, and acquainted one of the servants that Mr. Yorke was pro- bably too ill to see me, and that I should postpone the business on which I came to a more favourable moment. Mr. Yorke, I believe, was a religions man: it is rare to hear of such a person being guilty of an action so highly criminal. It must therefore have been in him a degree of passionate phrensy bearing down every atom of his reason. You will not wonder that I cannot think on the subject without horror still."

We will conclude our very general notice of these volumes by some miscellaneous anecdotes ; drawing first from the Cowper diaries. Here is a sketch of a dinner at Harley's, and of Harley himself, by Lord Cowper.

" He furnishes ns with an amusing account of a dinner given about this time by Harley, who still remained in office, though discontented and plotting against his colleagues. I believed, when I see the company, this to be a meeting to re- concile Somers and Halifax with Harley; which was confirmed to me when, after Lord Treasurer was gone, (who first went,) the Secretary took a glass, and drank to Love and Friendship and everlasting Union, and wished we had more Tokay to drink it in,' (we had drank two bottles, good but thick.) I replied, His white Lisbon was best to drink it in, being very clear.' I suppose he apprehended it (as I observed most of the company did) to relate to that humour of his, which was never to deal clearly or openly, but always with reserve if not dissimulation, or rather simulation, and to love tricks even where not necessary, but from an inward satisfaction he took in applauding his own cunning. If any man was ever born ander a necessity of being a knave, he was.' "

When Cowper was appointed Chancellor, he abolished the New-year's gifts from his officers and the Chancery counsel; which Lady Cowper notices in her diary, with a clever trait of Nottingham.

" January 17, 15-16. This month used to be ushered in with New-year's gifts from the lawyers, which used to come to near 3,0001. to the Chancellor. The original of this custom was from presents of wine and provisions, which used to be sent to the Chancellor by the people who practised in his court; but in pro- cess of time a covetous Chancellor insinuated to them that gold would be more acceptable: so it was changed into gold, and continued so till the first time my Lord had the seals; everybody having blamed it that ever had the seals, but none forbidding it. The Earl of Nottingham, when Chancellor, used to receive them standing by a table; and at the same time he took the money to lay it upon the table, he used to cry out, Oh, tyrant cathtom !' (for he lisped)."

THURLOW ON HIS FAMILY.

He had ajust contempt for the vanity of new men pretending that they are of ancient blood; and some one attempting to flatter him by trying to make out that he was descended from Thurloe, Cromwell's Secretary, who was a Suffolk man, "Sir," said he, "there were two Thurlows in that part of the country, who flourished about the same time, Thurloe the Secretary and Thurlow the carrier: I am descended from the last."

SARCASM ON A SOLICITOR.

He often treated the bar with great rudeness, and his demeanour to the other branch of the profession sometimes awakened recollections of Jeffreys. A solici- tor once had to prove a death before him, and being told upon every statement he made, "Sir, that is no proof," at last exclaimed, much vexed, "My Lord it is very hard that you will not believe me: I knew him well to his last hour ; I saw him dead and in his coffin, my Lord. My Lord, he was my client." Lord Chan cellar—" Good God, Sir ! Why did you not tell me that before ? I should not have doubted the fact one moment; for I think nothing can be so likely to kill a man as to have you for his attorney." • • • This jest, which was probably thought innocuous by the author of it, is said to have ruined the reputation and the business of the unfortunate victim.

RECTOR AND CURATE.

On one occasion a considerable living fell vacant in the Chancellor's gift, which was solicited by Queen Charlotte, and promised to her protégé. The curate, who had served in the parish some years, hearing who was likely to succeed, modestly applied for the Chancellor's intercession, that on account of his large family he might be continued in the curacy. The expectant rector calling to return thanks, Tharlow introduced the case of the curate, which he represented with great strength and pathos; but the answer was "I should be much pleased to oblige your Lordship, but unfortunately I have promised it to a friend." Thurlow- " Sir, I cannot make this gentleman your curate, it is true; but I can make him the rector; and, by G—d, he shall have the living as he cannot have the curacy." He instantly called in his secretary, and ordered the presentation to be made out in favour of the curate; who was inducted, and enjoyed the living many years.

THURLOW ON PITT.

Happening to be at the British Museum viewing the Townley marbles when a person came in and announced the death of Mr. Pitt, Thurlow was heard to say, "A d—d good band at turning a period 1 " and no more.

MORALS OF THURLOW AND HIS AGE.

Thurlow was early in life honourably attached to an accomplished young lady— Miss Gooch—of a respectable family in Norfolk; "but she would not have him, for she was positively afraid of him. He seems then to have foresworn matri- mony. It is with great reluctance that I proceed; but I should give a very imperfect sketch of the individual and of the manners of the age, if I were to try to conceal that of which he was not ashamed, and which in his lifetime, with very slight censure, was known to all the world. Not only while he was at the bar, but after he became Lord Chancellor, he lived openly with a mistress, and had a family by her, whom he recognized, and without any disguise brought out in so- ciety as tf they had been his legitimate children. In like manner as when I touched upon the irregularities of Cardinal Weise'', I must remind the reader that every man is charitably to be judged by the standard of morality which pre- vailed in the age in which he lived. Although Mrs. Hervey is sometimes satiri- cally named in the Rolliad and other contemporary publications, her liaison with the Lord Chancellor seems to have caused little scandal; In spite of it be was a prime favourite not only with George III., but with Queen Charlotte, both sup- posed to be very strict in their notions of chastity; and his house was not only frequented by his brother the Bishop, but by ecclesiastics of all degrees, who cele- brated the orthodoxy of the head of the law, his love of the Established Church, and his hatred of Dissenters. It should likewise be stated in mitigation, that he was an affectionate parent, and took great pains with the education and breeding of his offspring. A son of his is said to have died at Cambridge when about to reach the highest honours of the university. His three daughters accompanied him in all the tours he made after his retirement from office, and were in good society.

It may be observed, that throughout the work Lord Campbell has a ten- der feeling towards gay vices; which may perhaps arise from the state of legal morals when he was first acquainted with the law. " When I first knew the profession," says he, "it would not have been endured that any one in a judicial situation should have had such a domestic establishment as Thurlow's ; but a majority of the Judges had married their mis- tresses. The understanding then was, that a man elevated to the bench, if he had a mistress, must either marry her or put her away." If such was the conduct of the sages of the law, we may infer that of the young bloods.