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CHAP.
XCV.

A. D. 1682.

sheriff's on

Midsummer-day. Chief Jus

tice North

attends.

for the election of their successors, according to ancient usage, on Midsummer day, when Lord Chief Justice North had the extreme meanness, at the King's request, to go into the city Election of and take post in a house near Guildhall, belonging to Sir George Jeffreys, "who had no small share in the conduct of this affair, to the end that if any incident required immediate advice, or if the spirits of the Lord Mayor should droop, which in outward appearance were but faint, there might be a ready recourse." It is true, the opposite faction had the Lord Grey de Werke and other leaders from the west end of the town, to advise and countenance them; but this could be no excuse for a Judge so degrading himself. The poll going for the popular candidates, the Lord Mayor, by Chief Justice North's advice, under pretence of a riot, attempted to adjourn the election; but the sheriffs required that the polling should continue, and declared Papillon and Dubois duly elected.*

Lord

Mayor summoned before the council.

This causing great consternation at Whitehall, a council was called, to which the Lord Mayor and Aldermen were summoned. Lord Chief Justice North by the King's command, addressed them, saying, "That the proceedings of the Sheriffs at the Common Hall after the adjournment were not only utterly null and void, but the persons were guilty of an audacious riot and contempt of lawful authority, for which by due course of law they would be severely punished; but in the mean time it was the Lord Mayor's duty, and his Majesty's pleasure, that they should go back to the city and summon the Common Hall, and make election of Sheriffs for the year ensuing." The Lord Mayor, having been told that the courtiers would bamboozle him and leave him in the lurch, when North had concluded, said, "My Lord, will your Lordship be pleased to give me this under your hand ?” The King and all the councillors were much tickled to see the wily Chief Justice thus nailed, "expecting some turn of wit to fetch himself off, and thinking to have sport in seeing how woodenly he would excuse himself." But to their utter astonishment, for once in his life Francis North was bold and

* Life, i. 359.

CHAP.

XCV.

Chief Jus

straightforward, and cheating them all, he answered, without any hesitation," Yes, and you shall have it presently." Then seizing a pen, he wrote, "I am of opinion, that it is in the Solitary Lord Mayor's power to call, adjourn, and dissolve the Common instance of Hall at his pleasure, and that all acts done there, as of the tice North Common Hall, during such adjournment, are mere nullities, and have no legal effect." This he signed, and handed to the Lord Mayor, who then promised obedience.*

Accordingly, another Common Hall was called, at which it was pretended that Sir Dudley North and Rich were elected, and they were actually installed in the office of Sheriff. By the contrivance of the Chief Justice North, the office of Lord Mayor for the ensuing year was likewise filled by a thorough passive-obedience tool of the Court. Gould, the liberal candidate, had a majority of legal votes on the poll, but under a pretended scrutiny, Pritchard was declared duly elected, and Sir John More the renegade Mayor, willingly transferred to him the insignia of Chief Magistrate, so that the King had now the city authorities completely at his devotion. Shaftesbury fled to Holland; and it was for the Court to determine when the blow should be struck against the popular leaders who remained.

-

Such were the services of Lord Chief Justice North, which all plainly saw would e'er long be rewarded by higher promotion. The health of Lord Nottingham, the Chancellor, was rapidly declining, and the Court had already designated his successor. Lord Craven, famous for wishing to appear intimate with rising men, in the circle at Whitehall now seized Lord Chief Justice North by the arm and whispered in his ear; and the foreign ambassadors so distinctly saw the shadow of the coming event, that they treated him with as great respect as if he had been prime minister, "and when any of them looked towards him and thought he perceived it, they very formally bowed."

acting

boldly and openly.

Nov. 1682. Illegal appointment of Mayor

and She

riffs.

The King

absolute in

the city.

North expected to

hold the

Great Seal.

We are told, that in many things North acted as "Co- Lord Nottingham Chancellor" with Nottingham; and for the first time the and he for office of Chancellor seems to have been like that of Sheriff of some time Co-Chancellors.

* Life, i. 360.

CHAP.
XCV.

Middlesex, one in its nature, but filled by two officers of equal authority. It is said, that "the aspirant dealt with all imaA.D. 1682. ginable kindness and candour to the declinant, and that never were predecessor and successor such cordial friends to each other, and in every respect mutually assistant, as those

The King intimates

to North

that he is

to have the

two were.

Such hopes on an expected vacancy of the Great Seal are sometimes disappointed, but here there were very solid reasons for entertaining them. While the Lord Chancellor was Great Seal. languishing, the Chief Justice being at Windsor, the King plainly intimated to him, that when the fatal event, which must be shortly looked for, had taken place, the Great Seal would be put into his hands. He modestly represented himself to his Majesty as unfit for the place, and affected by all his art and skill to decline it. In truth, he really wished to convey to the King's mind the impression that he did not desire it, although he had been working so foully for it, -as he knew it would be pressed upon him, there being no competitor so knowing and so pliant, and he had an important stipulation to make for a pension before he would accept it. When he came back to London, and confidentially mentioned what had passed between him and the King, he pretended to be annoyed, and said, "that if the Seal were offered to him he was determined to refuse it ;" but it is quite clear that he was highly gratified to see himself so near the great object of his ambition, and that his only anxiety now was, that he might drive a good bargain when he should consent to give up "the cushion of the Common Pleas."

North's wish to

bargain for a pension.

North summoned to accept the Great Seal.

Lord Nottingham having died about four o'clock in the afternoon of Monday, the 18th of December, 1682 †, the Great Seal was carried next morning, from his house in Great Queen Street, to the King at Windsor. The following day his Majesty brought it with him to Whitehall, and in the evening sent for the Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, to offer it to him. When North arrived he found Lord Rochester, the Treasurer, and several other ministers, closeted with Charles. At that time, there being no civil

*Life, ii. 64, 65.

1 Vernon, 115.

XCV.

He declines it without a

pension.

list, and generally no distinction between the funds to be CHAP. applied to the King's private expences and to the public service; and the Exchequer being now very empty, and the resolution being taken never more to summon a parliament for supplies, it was considered an object that the Keeper of the Great Seal should be contented with the fees of his office, without any allowance or pension from the Crown. Charles himself was careless about such matters, but the Treasurer had inculcated upon him the importance of this piece of economy. As soon as North entered, his Majesty offered him the Seal, and the ministers began to congratulate the new Lord Keeper; but, with many acknowledgments for his Majesty's gracious intentions, he begged leave to suggest the necessity, for his Majesty's honour, that a pension should be assigned to him, as it had been to his predecessor, for otherwise the dignity of this high office could not be supported. Rochester interposed, pointing out the necessity, in times like these, for all his Majesty's servants to be ready to make some sacrifices; that the emoluments of the Great Seal were considerable; and that it would be more becoming to trust to his Majesty's bounty than to seek to drive a hard bargain with him. But Sir George Jeffreys being yet only a bustling city officer, who could not with any decency have been put at the head of the law; the Attorney and Solicitor General not being considered men of mark or likelihood; Sir Harbottle Grimston, the Master of the Rolls, being at death's door, and no other common-law Judge besides himself being produceable, the little gentleman was firm, and positively declared that he would not touch the Great Seal without a pension. After much haggling, a compromise took place, by Pension which he was to have 2000l. a-year instead of the 40007. a-year assigned to his predecessor. The King then lifted up the purse containing the Seal, and, putting it into his hand, said, "Here, my Lord, take it; you will find it heavy." ominous Thus," says Roger North, "his Majesty acted the prophet putting the as well as the King; for, shortly before his Lordship's death, he declared that, since he had the Seal, he had not enjoyed one easy and contented minute.'

66

VOL. III.

*Life, ii. 68, 69. Crown Off. Min. fol. 108.
H H

settled.

Dec. 20. 1682.

King's

speech in

Great Seal hands.

into his

CHAPTER XCVI.

CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF LORD GUILFORD TILL THE DEATH
OF CHARLES II.

CHAP.
XCVI.

Dec. 20. 1683. Dissatis

faction of

the Lord

Keeper.

Dec. 21. 1682. Jan. 23.

A. D. 1683.

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WHEN the new Lord Keeper came home, at night, from Whitehall to his house in Chancery Lane, bringing the Great Seal with him, and attended by the officers of the Court of Chancery, instead of appearing much gratified, as was expected by his brother and his friends, who were waiting to welcome him, he was in a great rage, - disappointed that he had not been able to make a better bargain, and, perhaps, a little mortified that he had only the title of "Lord Keeper instead of the more sounding one of "Lord Chancellor." Recriminating on those with whom he had been so keenly acting the chapman, he exclaimed, "To be haggled with about a pension*, as at the purchase of a horse or an ox! After I had declared that I would not accept without a pension, to think I was so frivolous as to insist and desist all in a moment! As if I were to be wheedled and charmed by their insignificant tropes! To think me worthy of so great a trust, and withal so little and mean as to endure such usage! It is disobliging, inconsistent, and unsufferable. What have I done that may give them cause to think me of so poor a spirit as to be thus trifled with?" It might have been answered, that, though the King and the courtiers made use of him for their own ends, they had seen his actions, understood his character, and had no great respect for him. Till Jeffreys was a little further advanced, they could not run the risk of breaking with him ;-but then he was subjected to all sorts of mortifications and insults.

The day after his appointment "he kept a private seal for writs at his house in Chancery Lane ‡," and on the first day

By this word "pension," I conceive we are to understand salary while the Lord Keeper was in office, and not, as might be supposed, an allowance on his retirement.

† Life, i. 415.

1 Vernon, 115.

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