A.D. 1767.

HIS RESIGNATION.

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thrown, as they were last year, upon one person not in the least responsible for them. When every information is obtained, I am certain your Grace's penetration anticipates the difficulties to be encountered, from the civil constitution of that province, composed of French received under a capitulation incorporated with English entitled to a legislation at some time, and who have been encouraged to call for it, by the proclamation, the King's commission, and other excitements. To this as great a difficulty succeeds with regard to a Popish hierarchy, and, of course, a Protestant one; both of which are, in my opinion, delicate subjects: loads too heavy to be sustained by any strength less than that of a concurring administration. I have all along been of this opinion in different administrations, and have been willing to lend my aid to this difficult task. I hope to be able to be in London in about ten days, though I am very indifferent still." q

Lord Northington accordingly came to town and remained there a few days; but from a fresh access of his disorder he was soon again obliged to retire to the Grange, where he experienced a little respite from his sufferings.

At last, on the 23rd of December, 1767, at his earnest entreaty, his resignation was accepted, and Granville Earl Gower was appointed President of the Council in his stead."

Being relieved from the anxieties of office, he rallied considerably, although it had been thought that his last hour was at hand. In the course of the following year he was so much better that an effort was made to induce him to re-enter the cabinet. The Duke of Grafton says, in his Journal:'Hoping that Lord Northington might have considered himself still equal in health to the business of the Privy Seal, his Majesty, in the first instance, made the offer to his Lordship, but which he declined on reasons which were very satisfactory to the King."

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The Premier still continued to consult him on public affairs. The following is the last letter of his in my possession, and expresses his sentiments characteristically on the subject of the Middlesex election, which now intensely agitated the public mind:

9 It has been said, that this letter proves "that a good Chancellor and great lawyer could write in the language, and with the eloquence, as well as propriety, which might better become a common housemaid."-Law Review, No. 4. It is marvellous, to be sure,

to observe his utter disregard of the common rules of composition.

Lord Henley represents that Lord Northington finally retired in June, 1767 (Life, 54); but I have fixed the date by a reference to the books of the Privy Council.

"My Lord,

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"Grainge, 10 Dec. 1769.

"I had the honour of your Grace's by last Sunday's post. I was that day attacked by the gout, and not able to write till now. I am not surprised your Grace expresseth so strong a feeling of the distraction of the times. I have long entertained the same opinion of it, and of its tendency so dangerous to the vitals of this valuable constitution. But, my Lord, the distraction hath so long raged, hath been so much fomented, and in its attack of the supreme power of the nation (the Parliament I mean) so much neglected (wisely I must suppose), that it is scarce decent or safe now for an individual to open his sentiments on the subject. Yet it is now come to that pass that it seems totally impossible for the P. to meet and not vindicate its own honour. Doth it want power? Doth it want advice? Thank God the contest is there. Your Grace supposeth I have no idea of the backwardness and lukewarmness of some from whom the K. might expect advice and assistance in his difficulties. I assure your Grace I have long had an adequate one, and very just sentiments of the persons. In this situation your Grace wishes that I would spend the winter in London and give my assistance in the House of Lords. My Lord, I have but one answer, I cannot-my health will not enable me to live there this winter, nor if I were there to attend the House. But, my Lord, were I able, could I? What a figure should I, after the offices I have passed, make, prating on subjects to which I am a total stranger, and on measures in which I do not concur, and about doctrines I know not how adopted! Passive obedience to-a mob! I should, so circumstanced, hurt the service that I have a zeal for,-embarrass your Grace, whom I really honour. Believe me, my Lord, there is nothing to debate upon,-OPORTET AGERE.

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Indeed, my dear Lord, I am advanced in years—my constitution so impaired, that unless I can acquire more strength, must be content to remain the retired, unimportant thing I am.

"In whatever condition, I profess myself to be with equal truth and respect,

"My dear Lord," &c.

During his intervals of ease from his terrible enemy, the gout, he amused himself with making deputy lieutenants,

A.D. 1769-72.

HIS DEATH AND CHARACTER.

347

militia officers, and justices of the peace, and getting his old friends round him,-whom he entertained with old port and old stories.

Dec. 10, 1769.

—, with

He sunk gradually under his infirmities. When near his end he was reminded of the propriety of his receiving the consolations of religion, and he readily agreed that a divine should be sent for; but when the Right Rev. Dr. whom he had formerly been intimate, was proposed, he said, "No! that won't do. I cannot well confess to him, for the greatest sin I shall have to answer for was making him a Bishop!" The clergyman of the parish was substituted, and the dying ex-Chancellor joined in the ceremonies prescribed by the Church for such a solemn occasion with edifying humility and devotion. Having, in characteristic language, tenderly taken leave of his weeping daughters, he expired on the 14th of January, 1772, in the 64th year of his age. His remains were interred in the church at Northington, where is to be seen a monument,

"Sacred to the Memory of

ROBERT HENLEY, first Earl of Northington;

JANE, Countess of Northington, his Wife;

And of ROBERT, Earl of Northington, their only surviving Son."

The inscription, after warmly praising the virtues of all the three, thus concludes :

"This monument is erected, as a tribute of respect and affection to their parents and their brother, by the R. H. Lady Bridget Tollemache, the R. H. Lady Jane Aston, Mary Viscountess Wentworth, and the R. H. Lady Elizabeth Eden."

His children may well be excused for piously recording their opinion of the "consummate ability as well as "inflexible integrity" with which he discharged the duties of all the offices which he filled, but the impartial biographer is obliged to form a more discriminating estimate of his merit.

Endowed with good natural abilities, and possessing very amiable qualities, he was a mere lawyer, seeking only his own advancement, and, though unstained by crimes,-unembellished by genius or by liberal accomplishments-nor very solicitous about the public welfare or even his own fame.

Much praise has been bestowed upon him for consistency as a politician. He certainly was always very faithful to Leicester House, and to the clique called the "King's Friends," which sprang out of that connection. But it is difficult to say what the principles were by which he is supposed to have been

guided. He seems never to have originated any of the measures of his political associates, but to have been always ready in a very zealous manner to defend such as they favoured. He turned out a strong Tory and coercionist, but I apprehend that he would have been as strong a Whig and reconciliationist if the liberal side had been taken by Lord Bute and George III. During the Rockingham administration he could only be considered a spy in the enemy's camp.

He is much more respectable as a Judge. He was not only above all suspicion of corruption or partiality, but, though by no means a profound jurist, his mind was well imbued with the principles of our municipal law; he disposed very satisfactorily of the routine business of his Court, and he could do considerable justice to any important question which arose before him. His judgments are at least remarkably clear, and if they have not the depth they are free from the verbosity and tortuosity of Lord Eldon's, which, dwelling so minutely upon the peculiarities of each case, often leave us in doubt how he has disposed of the points argued before him, and what general rule he means to establish. I do not think that the number of decrees reversed on appeal can be adopted as a criterion of the merits of a Chancellor; and had Lord Northington been raised to the peerage when he received the Great Seal, and had he, like Lord Hardwicke, been the only law Lord, he might possibly have received the same character for infallibility. But, independently of the decisions of the House of Lords against him, the printed reports confirm the tradition, that his boldness in declaring his opinion was not quite equalled by his care and caution in forming it. He may, perhaps, be advantageously contrasted with judges we have read of, who, desperately afraid of committing themselves, that they may keep out of scrapes, defer giving judgment till both parties are ruined.

I am sorry that I can say nothing for him as a law reformer. But, although he never dreamed of making any attempt to render proceedings in the Court of Chancery cheaper or more expeditious, or to improve any of our institutions, no peculiar blame is to be imputed to him, for he lived at a time when the system of optimism, graced by the inimitable Commentaries of Blackstone, prevailed in Westminster Hall; and half a century elapsed before it was doubted that appearance to a subpœna in Chancery must necessarily be enforced by a commission of rebellion,-that, by the eternal constitution of things, com

CHAP. CXLI.

HIS CHARACTER.

349

mon-law actions must be commenced by latitat, capias, or quo minus,- —or that fraud and trifling violations of property must be checked by the multiplication of capital punishments.

Lord Northington is said to have kept up his acquaintance with the Greek and Latin classics, and to have shown some knowledge of Hebrew. He was singularly unskilled in the composition of English. Indeed, I can discover in him no love of literature, and I should conjecture that when he had got through his official labours he devoted himself to convivial enjoyment or the common gossip of vulgar life. He not only never aimed at authorship, but I do not find that, like Camden, Thurlow, or Wedderburn, he associated with literary men or with artists.

His great delight was to find himself in a circle of lawyers, or common-place politicians, and to indulge in boisterous mirth and coarse jocularity. He himself seems to have possessed a rich fund of humour. Many of his sayings and stories used to be repeated by young students, when

""Twas merry in the hall,

And beards wagged all,"

but would not be found suited to the more refined taste of the present age. He likewise indulged in a bad habit which seems to have been formerly very general, and which I recollect when it was expiring,—of interlarding conversation with oaths and imprecations as intensitives-even without any anger or excitement.

But in spite of these faults, into which he was led by the fashion of the times, he was a strictly moral, and even a religious man. He continued to live on terms of the utmost affection and harmony with his wife, and he composed two beautiful prayers for her use-one soon after their marriage, and the other on the birth of their second child-proofs of his piety and tenderness, which she regarded with enthusiasm till the last hour of her existence. In all the domestic relations he deserves high commendation. He was particularly attached to his daughter-Lady Bridget, who, with the most perfect feminine delicacy, inherited his powers of humour, and was celebrated for sprightliness of repartee, as well as for her beauty. She was in the habit of reading for her father, and it is said that she could even extract amusement, for the gay

I cannot even relate his compliment to the capacity of Lady Northington, or to the bright eyes of his daughter Lady Bridget.