His lordship is introduced here as the assigned author of some polished and well-known verses, entitled "THE FAIR THIEF. "Before the urchin well could go "Still, to reveal her artful wiles, "These were her infant spoils, a store "Apollo's wit was next her prey; "Great Jove approv'd her crimes and art; If lovers, Cupid, are thy care, And let her prison be my arms."3] 3 European Magazine, vol. iii. p. 63. Churchill has intro duced this peer into his poem of The Candidate, with most caustic irony. PHILIP YORKE, FIRST EARL OF HARDWICKE. ["In the most conspicuous rank of illustrious characters," says a skilful modern biographer and historian, "stands the earl of Hardwicke. Whether we consider him as an example of early maturity, vigorous genius, and successful application; as a statesman, endowed with the most liberal feelings and the most correct judgment; as a lawyer, uniting the greatest facility of perceiving and decreeing justice; or as an individual, exerting his splendid talents for the benefit of mankind, or condescending with amiable compassion to their infirmities and their faults; in any of these views he presents equal claims to applause, esteem, and veneration.” 2 Philip, son of Philip Yorke, gent. of Dover, and Jane Gibbon, was born in 1690, and received a classical education under Mr. Morland of Bethnal Green.3 His proficiency in polite literature was evinced by his contributions to the Spectator, at the age of twenty-two. He was entered of the Middle Temple, and applied with so much ability and perseverance to the study of the law, that at the age of twenty-nine he was made solicitor-general. In 1720 he was re 2 Adolphus's British Cabinet, whence this account is chiefly taken. 9 Drake's Biog. and Crit. Sketches, vol. iii. p. 318. turned to parliament for Lewes, and in the same year received the honour of knighthood. In 1723-4 he was made attorney-general, and continued in that office till 1733, when he was, by letters patent of George the second, made chief-justice of the king's bench, and a peer of Great Britain, by the title of lord Hardwicke, baron of Hardwicke in the county of Gloucester. From the office of lord chief-justice he was removed, on the death of lord Talbot in 1737, to the more exalted and important station of lordchancellor. This appointment, says Mr. Adolphus", forms an æra in the annals of jurisprudence. The dicta of lord Hardwicke are still quoted as the most sane and conclusive to be found in the whole system; and his urbanity, rectitude, and dispatch, procured him a degree of respect bordering on veneration. The king entertained a proper estimation of his exalted character and talents, and nominated him six 4 "The seat of equity, so Brunswick wills, Welsted's Summum Bonum.. So equitable were lord Hardwicke's decrees, says Mr. Stephen Jones, that in the course of twenty years that he held the seals, few appeals were made from him, and scarcely any of them were reversed. Biog. Dict. Andrew Stuart, in his letters to lord Mansfield, has paid high compliments to the integrity and judicial talents of lord Hardwicke. Edwards addressed a plausive sonnet to him in the Canons of Criticism: and Savage poetically complimented him. 5 British Cabinet, ut sup. times to be one of the lords justices for the administration of his majesty's government during his absence. 6 In 1746 he was appointed lord-high steward of England for the trial of the rebel lords, and in 1749 was unanimously chosen high-steward of the university of Cambridge. In 1754 the king added to his lordship's titles those of viscount Royston, and earl of Hardwicke. In 1756 he resigned the seals, and though political disputes were then carried to a great height, his resignation excited general regret. From this period lord Hardwicke enjoyed no public situation; but, in spite of indisposition, continued to serve the public with unabated vigour of mind, till his honourable and useful career was terminated on the 6th of March 1764.7 His private virtues, graceful manners, and variety of knowledge, were as much esteemed and admired by those who had the honour of his acquaintance, as his superior abilities were by the nation in general. In his public character, wisdom, experience, probity, temper, candour, and moderation, were so happily united, that his death was reckoned a loss to his coun 6 Soame Jenyns addressed an imitation of Horace to lord Hardwicke in 1748, which affirmed, "With such unrivall'd eminence you shine, The seat of justice in no former reign Was e'er so greatly fill'd, nor ever can again.” 7 Dr. Drake has printed some affectionate lines by bishop Green, suggested by the visibly approaching fate of lord Hardwicke, in his Sketches, ut sup. |