Charles Philip Yorke, Fourth Earl of Hardwicke, Vice-Admiral R.N., A Memoir | Page 2

of the incidents of his career
and of those of his immediate successors and descendants.
Philip Yorke was called to the bar in 1715, became Solicitor-General
only five years later, and was promoted to be Attorney-General in 1723.
In 1733 he was appointed Lord Chief Justice of England, and received
the Great Seal as Lord Chancellor in 1737, and when his life closed his
political career had extended over a period of fifty years.
Lord Campbell, the author of the 'Lives of the Chancellors,' 'that
extraordinary work which was held to have added a new terror to death,

and a fear of which was said to have kept at least one Lord Chancellor
alive,' claimed to lay bare the shortcomings of the subjects of his
memoirs with the same impartiality with which he pointed out their
excellences. He mentions only two failings of Lord Chancellor
Hardwicke: one, that he was fond of acquiring wealth, the other, that he
was of an overweening pride to those whom he considered beneath him.
Neither of these is a very serious charge, and as both are insufficiently
corroborated, one may let them pass. He acquired immense wealth in
the course of his professional career, but in an age of corruption he was
remarked for his integrity, and was never suspected or accused of
prostituting his public position for private ends. In his capacity of
Attorney-General Lord Campbell remarks of him:
'This situation he held above thirteen years, exhibiting a model of
perfection to other law officers of the Crown. He was punctual and
conscientious in the discharge of his public duty, never neglecting it
that he might undertake private causes, although fees were supposed to
be particularly sweet to him.'
But it was as a judge that he won imperishable fame, and one of his
biographers observes: [Footnote: See Dictionary of National
Biography.] 'It is hardly too much to say that during his prolonged
tenure of the Great Seal (from 1737 to 1755) he transformed equity
from a chaos of precedents into a scientific system.' Lord Campbell
states that 'his decisions have been, and ever will continue to be,
appealed to as fixing the limits and establishing the principles of that
great juridical system called Equity, which now, not only in this
country and in our colonies, but over the whole extent of the United
States of America, regulates property and personal rights more than
ancient Common Law.'
He had a 'passion to do justice, and displayed the strictest impartiality;
and his chancellorship' is 'looked back upon as the golden age of
equity.' The Chancellor is said to have been one of the handsomest men
of his day, and 'his personal advantages, which included a musical
voice, enhanced the effect of his eloquence, which by its stately
character was peculiarly adapted to the House of Lords.' [Footnote:

Ibid.]
This is not the place for an estimate of Lord Hardwicke's political
career, which extended over the whole period from the reign of Queen
Anne to that of George III, and brought him into intimate association
with all the statesmen of his age. It was more especially as the
supporter of the Pelham interest and the confidant and mentor of the
Duke of Newcastle that he exercised for many years a predominant
influence on the course of national affairs both at home and abroad.
During the absence of George II from the realm in 1740 and
subsequently he was a member, and by no means the least important
member, of the Council of Regency. 'He was,' writes Campbell, 'mainly
instrumental in keeping the reigning dynasty of the Brunswicks on the
throne'; he was the adviser of the measures for suppressing the Jacobite
rebellion in 1745, he presided as Lord High Steward with judicial
impartiality at the famous trial of the rebel Lords, and was chiefly
responsible for the means taken in the pacification of Scotland, the
most questionable of which was the suppression of the tartan! Good
fortune, as is usually the case when a man rises to great eminence,
played its part in his career. He had friends who early recognised his
ability and gave him the opportunities of which he was quick to avail
himself. He took the tide at its flood and was led on to fortune; but, as
Campbell justly observes, 'along with that good luck such results
required lofty aspirations, great ability, consummate prudence, rigid
self-denial, and unwearied industry.' His rise in his profession had
undoubtedly been facilitated by his marriage to Margaret Cocks, a
favourite niece of Lord Chancellor Somers, himself one of the greatest
of England's lawyer- statesmen. There is a story that when asked by
Lord Somers what settlement he could make on his wife, he answered
proudly, 'Nothing but the foot of ground I stand on in Westminster
Hall.'