Charles Philip Yorke, Fourth Earl of Hardwicke, Vice-Admiral R.N., A Memoir | Page 5

my brother should accept than he did at the first interview, and pressed his seeing the King before he took a final resolution. I saw him again in Montague House garden, on Monday the 15th, and he then seemed determined to decline, said a particular friend of his in the law, Mr. W. had rather discouraged him, and that nothing affected him with concern but the uneasiness which it might give to Mrs. Yorke.
'On Tuesday forenoon the 16th, he called upon me in great agitation and talked of accepting. He changed his mind again by the evening when he saw the King at the Queen's Palace, and finally declined. He told me just after the audience that the King had not pressed him so strongly as he had expected, that he had not held forth much prospect of stability in administration, and that he had not talked so well to him as he did when he accepted the office of Attorney-General in 1765; his Majesty however ended the conversation very humanely and prettily, that "after what he had said to excuse himself, it would be cruelty to press his acceptance." I must here solemnly declare that my brother was all along in such agitation of mind that he never told me all the particulars which passed in the different conversations, and many material things may have been said to him which I am ignorant of. He left me soon after to call on Mr. Anson and Lord Rockingham, authorising me to acquaint everybody that he had absolutely declined, adding discontentedly that "It was the confusion of the times which occasioned his having taken that resolution." He appeared to me very much ruffled and disturbed, but I made myself easy on being informed that he would be quiet next day and take physic. He wanted both that and bleeding, for his spirits were in a fever.'
Up to this point Mrs. Yorke's account, written apparently to explain and vindicate her own share in the transaction, tallies with that of her brother-in-law, except that she states that Lord Hardwicke had been much more favourable to the idea of Charles Yorke's acceptance than the above narrative leads one to suppose; according to her the family felt 'it was too great a thing to refuse.' Lord Hardwicke's wife, the Marchioness Grey, indeed, had called upon Mrs. Yorke to urge it, saying among other things that 'the great office to which Mr. Yorke was invited was in the line of his profession, that though it was intimately connected with state affairs, yet it had not that absolute and servile dependance on the Court which the other ministerial offices had; that Mr. Yorke had already seen how vain it was to depend on the friendship of Lord Rockingham and his party; that the part he had acted had always been separate and uninfluenced, and therefore she thought he was quite at liberty to make choice for himself, and by taking the seals he would perhaps have it in his power to reconcile the different views of people and form an administration which might be permanent and lasting; that if he now refused the seals they would probably never be offered a second time ... and that these were Lord Hardwicke's sentiments as well as her own.'
Lord Mansfield's advice had been more emphatic still. 'He had no doubt of the propriety of his accepting the Great Seal, indeed was so positive that Mr. Yorke told me he would hear no reason against it.' Mrs. Yorke herself was at first opposed to the idea; but influenced by such opinions and by her husband's extreme dejection after refusing the offer, she ended by strongly urging him to accept, and was afterwards blamed for having encouraged his fatal ambition. Lord Rockingham alone, who had been greatly dependent upon the advice and assistance of Mr. Yorke, 'to whom,' as Mrs. Yorke remarks, 'he could apply every moment,' and 'without whom he would have made no figure at all in his administration,' put the strongest pressure on him to decline, for selfish reasons as appears from Mrs. Yorke's story. It was therefore against the advice of his own family and 'the generality of his friends,' including Lord Chief Justice Wilmot, that Charles Yorke, in obedience to his own high sense of political honour, at first refused the dazzling promotion, and this fact must be recorded to his credit.
The decision, however, brought no peace to his mind, and ambition immediately began to resume its sway. He passed a restless night, and said in the morning to his wife 'that he would not think of it, for he found whenever he was inclined to consent he could get no rest, and want of rest would kill him.' But after another day, Tuesday, spent in conference