CHAP. XXVII. Fashion neither of them had it; so we may be sure the world is not yet near its end.' 66 "I am, my dearest, "D. R." The next letter, remarkable for its lively gossip, was written in an evening sitting of the Court of Chancery, during the hearing of a cause, after Sir Dudley had dined with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and had (I suspect) partaken very copiously of his claret. These evening sittings were continued till the beginning of the reign of George III., when they were abolished with the consent of that sovereign, on the avowed reason that the Chancellor himself was apt to appear at them not "as sober as a judge" ought to be.* "Lincoln's Inn Hall, Nov. 3. 1742. My Dear, I have received your letter, and must answer it able gossip. now or not at all to-night. I have been to pay my compliments at the Prince's court. Miss Fazackerley appeared there for the first time, and kissed hands. Mrs. Campbell inquired there after your health. She looks like a ghost, - not at all improved by Tonbridge. I to-day dined, by invitation, at the Chancellor of the Exchequer's. It was in the same house where I used to see Lord Orford. How different now from what it was!- not more in the nakedness of the walls than the abilities and disposition of its owner. The Earl of Bath has just had a great windfall by the death of one Mrs. Smith. She was mistress to the late Earl of Bradford, who had settled upon her and her son an estate of about 8000l. a year, and in case of the son's death without issue the disposition of it was given to her. The son became a lunatic, and is now under the care of the Court of Chancery without any probability of recovery. The Earl of Bath had assisted the mother as a friend to the Earl of Bradford. She in recompence has given him, in case of her son's death, the bulk of the estate. She has a husband, who had so nice a sense of honour, that he would not only have nothing to do with her while she was in that criminal correspondence, but since would not meddle with the wages of iniquity, and so left her and every thing to her own conduct. Perils of a married lawyer when living en garçon. 66 "I would have you make haste to town and keep me out of bad hands, for I am in great danger of growing a rake whilst left to myself, for I have been no less than twice at the play in a week's * See Lives of the Chancellors, vol. v. ch. cxl. XXVII. time. It's true the immediate temptation was to see Garrick, but СНАР. how soon I may recover my youthful taste for diversion I can't say. I'm glad the Bishop is coming to town. The following letter, written next day, ingeniously assigns a very innocent origin to a headache with which Sir Dudley was then afflicted. But we cannot place exactly the same confidence in these effusions as in Pepys's Diary, which was never meant to meet even the eye of a wife, and therefore conceals nothing that she ought not to know. The headache might perhaps have been traced to a second bottle at the Chancellor of the Exchequer's, in which the preceding letter indicates that Mr. Attorney had indulged, although he was afterwards to plead before the Chancellor : "Nov. 4. 1742. "My Dear, The Bishop is come very well, after a pleasant journey. I wish I had seen you come in at the same time; but I must wait. I can't easily believe that the excess of joy on our meeting will make amends for the uneasiness I feel by your absence. I'll bear it, however, as well as I can. But you have not yet told me the utmost period of your stay. Let me know it, that I may be able to see to the end of my sorrow, and have the daily pleasure of counting the end of its approach. How a lawyer may ac count for a headache got by too much "You bid me tell you every post how my health stands, which is of more moment to me as you are interested in it. I am obliged, therefore, to let you know that I have had the headache all day. You'll expect, I know, an account how it came. I believe it was owing to my quitting my full-bottom and gown, without an equi- taking valent, at the Chancellor of the Exchequer's. I am sorry to give you the trouble of hearing this; but I am bound to be ingenuous and make a true confession. I fear I shall not be completely careful of myself till you come and give that cheerfulness to my spirits which makes me think it worth while to be well, as I hardly do while you are absent. "Adieu, thou best of women, "D. R." The next letter accompanied the coach and four heavy blacks by which she was to be conveyed to London. The vehicle was to be four days in going to Bath, and four days coming back, and there was yet no quicker transit for a wine. XXVII. CHAP. family; post saddle-horses were provided on the principal routes for cavaliers, but those who travelled in their own coaches were, for years after, obliged to perform the whole journey with their own cattle. Departure of the family coach for Lady Sir Dudley's joy at her approach. 66 Tuesday.* My Dear, The coach goes to-morrow morning. I am impatient till it returns. We have never been separated so long. How do you like it? It is a solitude very different from that which I had before we were united, when I did not know the happiness of such a union. "I am just come from the House. The great attack was not made to-day. I understand our enemies can't yet agree about it. We, however, expect it soon, but without fear. Their strength is tried to-day, though in a lesser matter. A Tory petition against the sitting Member for Derby was presented to-day. They would have brought it to the bar of the House, which was debated about an hour, and we rejected it by a majority of 235 against 190. We look upon this as a stronger question against us than any they can make on their intended motion.† "My dear, I have the greatest satisfaction in the thought of seeing you so soon. Think of me, and believe that I am and always shall be, with the greatest tenderness, "Your affectionate husband, "D.R. "P. S. Your thoughts about not dining on the road and making four days of it, fall in with what I wrote to you yesterday." I close my specimens of this conjugal correspondence with an extract from the last letter he wrote to her during this separation, which would be received by her as she stopped for the night on her approach to London : "Friday, Dec. 3. "My heart leaps for joy at the thought of the time of your return being so near. I can hardly think of anything else, except when business calls me off. We had another attack to-day by a motion for a Place Bill. It seems principally calculated to abuse Sandys and his companions, the new comers, by forcing them to eat their own words of the last session. However, they can digest *Indorsed "Nov. 30. 1742." It was on election petitions, the merits of which were not at all regarded that the strength of parties was chiefly tried. A few months before, Sir Robert Walpole had been turned out by an unfavourable division on the petition complaining of an undue election for Chippenham. (Jan. 28. 1742.) them with their places. We carried it in the negative by 221 to 196. This you will say is not a great majority. The truth is, some people are hard put to it to distinguish between this session and the last; others are afraid of their boroughs; others think it is a popular thing, and have a mind to seem patriots. So that many who are with us in other things deserted us here." The amiable lady to whom these letters were addressed was deeply afflicted by the loss of her husband, the Chief Justice; but the disappointment in never wearing the coronet upon which she had received so many congratulations was no aggravation of her sufferings. Her exemplary piety triumphed over her grief for her bereavement, and she survived her husband many years. CHAP. XXVII. I have already told how their son was at last ennobled. His deHis son Dudley, by a daughter of Terrick, Bishop of Lon- scendants. don, was a most distinguished statesman and orator, — filled high offices in the reigns of George III. and George IV., A.D. 1809. was created Viscount Sandon and Earl of Harrowby, and might have been Prime Minister if he had pleased. The Chief Justice is worthily represented by the present Earl, his great grandson, who, after having long served in the House of Commons as member for the important commercial constituency of Liverpool, is adding in the other House of Parliament to the splendour of the name he bears -so that old Sir Dudley must now rejoice over the entire fulfilment of his grandfather's prophecy. CHAPTER XXVIII. LIFE OF CHIEF JUSTICE WILLES. CHAP. XXVIII. Justices BEFORE devoting myself to my last and most illustrious Chief Justice of the King's Bench, Lord Mansfield, I must Two Chief beg leave to introduce two Chief Justices of the Common Pleas, each of whom refused the great seal of Great Britain, the one being the most ambitious lawyer of the 18th century, and the other the least ambitious of all the lawyers recorded in our juridical annals, CHIEF JUSTICE WILLES, and CHIEF JUSTICE WILMOT. of the Common Pleas. I have no respect for the former, and I shall dispatch him very rapidly. Although a man of splendid abilities, he was selfish, arrogant, and licentious; and, although at one time. there was a strong probability that he would play a very important part in public life (in which case an interest would have been cast upon his early career), he died disappointed and despised. Among the bright legal constellations he twinkles a star of the tenth magnitude, and he does not deserve to be long examined by the telescope of the biographer. Origin of The Chief Justice himself affected to derive his name from the Willes's. VELLUS or VILLUS, and tried to connect his ancestor with the ARGONAUTS who carried off the GOLDEN FLEECE; — while his detractors preferred the etymology of VILIS or VILLICUS, and insisted that if the individual of his race who first bore a surname was not a villein, he was not higher than the bailiff of the lord of a manor. In sober truth, the Willes's were a respectable family of small estate, long seated in the county of Warwick. For centuries they had been contented to plough their paternal acres, occasionally sending off a younger son to be an attorney or a country parson; but they suddenly rose into distinction, for while the "Head of the |