so made elevation and extinction contemporaneous ! and whose prematureness of This effort of an industrious black-letter conveyancer at fine writing was thus justly satirised in "The Pursuits of Literature: " "With HARGRAVE to the Peers approach with awe, And sense and grammar seek in Yorke and law.' There is a disparaging character of Charles Yorke by Horace Walpole, to which, from the author's prejudices against all the Yorkes, little weight can be given: "Yorke's speeches in parliament had for some time, though not so soon as they ought, fallen into disesteem. At the bar his practice had declined from a habit of gluttony and intemperance, as I have mentioned. Yet as a lawyer his opinion had been in so high repute, that he was reported to have received 100,000 guineas in fees. In truth his chief practice had flourished while his father was not only Lord Chancellor, but a very powerful minister. Yorke's parts were by no means shining. His manner was precise, yet diffuse; and his matter more sententious than instructive. His conduct was timid, irresolute, often influenced by his profession, oftener by interest. He sacrificed his character to his ambition of the Great Seal, and his life to his repentance of having attained it."-Mem. Geo. III., iv. 53. CHAP. 'CHAPTER CLII. CHAP. from the rise of men of medio crity. elevation of LIFE OF LORD CHANCELLOR BATHURST FROM HIS BIRTH TILL HE COMPENSATION is sometimes made for a scanty share of natural abilities by great success in the world. Thus, justice Advantages is done to the individual, while the pride of rewarded genius is tempered, and a balm is applied to the wounded self-complacency of those who have been unfortunate. For such wise purposes, Henry Bathurst, little qualified for any intellectual pursuit,-became a Member of the House of Commons, one of the twelve Judges, a Commissioner of the Great Seal, Lord Chancellor, Lord President of the Council, and an Earl, and when he had been raised to the first magistracy in the kingdom, he retained that situation for a much longer period than More, Bacon, Clarendon, or Somers. Wonderful To his credit be it remembered, that he reached such a height Lord Chan without a dishonourable action. The portion of plain common sense bestowed upon him was unmixed with any vicious propensity, and his career, if it was without brilliancy, was without reproach. The proximate causes of his success may be considered harmless manners, sober habits, family interest, and the mediocrity of his parts, which, preventing envy and jealousy, made him to be regarded with favour by men in power, and to be preferred to others who might have given trouble by entertaining an independent opinion, and who might from dependants have risen into rivals. It should likewise be borne in mind that, as far as the public could observe, he performed almost decently the duties of the offices in which to the surprise of mankind he was placed,affording a memorable example of what may be accomplished by dull discretion. * cellor Bathurst. "Have you not observed," writes Swift to Bolingbroke,—" that there is a lower kind of discretion and regularity, which seldom fails of raising men to СНАР. CLII. The subject of this memoir was the second son of Allen, Lord Bathurst, who acted a distinguished part in public life during four reigns, and is celebrated in prosaic verses by His family. Pope, and in poetical prose by Burke. The family are said to have come from Germany, and to have resided at "Batters," near Luneburg, from which originally they took their name. In coming to England they had a grant of a tract of forest. land in Sussex, which was at first called "Batters Hurst," and then "Bathurst." Their castle here was demolished, and they lost almost the whole of their property during the wars of the Roses, so that for some generations they fell into obscurity. But they were revived by commerce, and Sir Benjamin Bathurst, their chief in the reign of William III., rose to be Governor of the East India Company, and treasurer of the household to Princess Anne of Denmark. Lord Ba Allen, the long-lived, his son, having studied at His father Trinity College, Cambridge, under the then Master, Dean the first Bathurst, his uncle, was returned to parliament, when hardly thurst. of age, for the borough of Cirencester, and became a partizan of the Tories. As a reward for his services, he was raised to the peerage, - being one of the batch of twelve, made in 1711, to support the peace of Utrecht, who, when they were introduced into the House of Lords, were asked in legal phraseology addressed to a jury, "if they would speak by their foreman?" He continued an active debater in that House above half a century,-almost invariably in opposition to the successive Whig administrations formed under the first two princes of the House of Brunswick. But he lived to see better times, when Tory ascendency was to be restored. In 1757, he was appointed treasurer to George III., then Prince of Wales, and when that Sovereign came to the throne, although the venerable Tory Peer declined office on account of his infirmities, he had a pension granted to him of 2000l. a year, and he was in due time advanced to an a the highest stations in the court, the church, and the law? Did you never observe one of your clerks cutting his paper with a blunt ivory knife? Did you ever know the knife to fail going the true way? Whereas if he had used razor or a penknife, he had odds against himself of spoiling a whole sheet. I have twenty times compared the notion of that ivory implement to those talents that thrive best at court." CHAP. CLII. His father's introduc tion to Stern. Pope's lines Earldom. He was spared to behold his son well stricken in years, sitting on the woolsack as Lord High Chancellor, being the only individual, except the father of Sir Thomas More, on whom such a felicity was ever conferred. But he was less distinguished as a statesman than as the intimate associate of Swift, Prior, Rowe, Congreve, Arbuthnot, Gay, Addison, and Pope,—still keeping up an intimate acquaintance with the most distinguished of the succeeding generation of men of letters. I We have an interesting relation of the manner in which he became acquainted with the author of Tristram Shandy :"He came up to me one day," says that lively writer, as was at the Prince of Wales's court; I want to know you, Mr. Sterne, but it is fit that you should know also who it is that wishes that pleasure. You have heard of an old Lord Bathurst, of whom your Popes and Swifts have sung and spoken so much. I have lived my life with geniuses of that cast, but have survived them; and despairing ever to find their equals, it is some years since I have cleared my accounts and shut up my books, with thought of never opening them again. But you have kindled a desire in me of opening them once more before I die, which now I do; so go home and dine with me.' This nobleman, I say, is a prodigy; for at eighty-five he has all the wit and promptitude of a man of thirty; a disposition to be pleased, and a power to please others, beyond whatever I knew,- added to which, a man of learning, courtesy, and feeling." The aged peer had indeed the most elegant tastes, and the most jovial manners, offering a striking contrast to Henry, who was rather abstemious and sullen;-insomuch that when, after supper, the son had retired, the father would rub his hands, and say to the company, "Now that the old gentleman is gone to bed, let us be merry, and enjoy ourselves." To him was inscribed Pope's epistle "On the Use of Riches," in which he is thus addressed: "The sense to value riches, with the art The ora CHAP. Lord Bathurst. lusion to him. But a more striking tribute to his memory is to be found Burke's alin the famous speech delivered, a few months before his death, by Burke, on Reconciliation with America.* tor, with the imagination of a true poet, having drawn the attention of the House to the rapid growth of the colonies, and the respect with which, on account of their wealth and population, they ought to be treated, thus proceeded: "Mr. Speaker, I cannot prevail upon myself to hurry over this great consideration. It is good for us to be here. We stand where we have a vast view of what is and what is past. Clouds, indeed, and darkness rest upon the future. Let us, however, before we descend from this noble eminence, reflect that this growth of our national prosperity has happened within the short period of the life of man. It has happened within sixty-eight years. There are those alive whose memory might touch the two extremities. For instance, my Lord Bathurst might remember all the stages of the progress. He was in 1704 of an age at least to be made to comprehend such things. He was then old enough acta parentum jam legere, et quæ sit poterit cognoscere virtus. Suppose, sir, that the angel of this auspicious youth, foreseeing the many virtues which made him one of the most amiable, as he is one of the most fortunate men of his age, had opened to him in vision that when in the fourth generation, the third prince of the House of Brunswick had sat twelve years on the throne of that nation which (by the happy issue of moderate and healing councils) was to be made Great Britain, he should see his son, Lord Chancellor of England, turn back the current of hereditary dignity to its fountain, and raise him to an higher rank of peerage, whilst he enriched the family with a new one - If amidst these bright and happy scenes of domestic honour and prosperity, This speech was delivered on the 22d of March, 1775, and he died the 15th of September following. |