[220] Serjeant Whitaker was also counsel against Wilkes in the action against Lord Halifax tried in the Common Pleas in the following November. His speech, on that occasion, is reported in the London Museum for 1769. It possessed sufficient interest at the time to cause his style of speaking to be burlesqued in Foote’s Comedy of the “Lame Lover.” His name does not often occur in the reports. He had been made King’s Serjeant in 1759, and afterwards became Treasurer of his Inn. He died of apoplexy in 1779.—E.
[221] Afterwards the Right Hon. Sir James Graham, one of the Barons of the Exchequer. He died in 1836, at the great age of ninety-two. He believed himself to belong to the Montrose family. It is more certain that he was the son of a schoolmaster at Hackney. His personal accomplishments and amiability made him a general favourite throughout life, which perhaps prevented his attaining any considerable reputation as a lawyer.—E.
[222] The ability displayed by Serjeant Adair on this occasion obtained him the patronage of the Duke of Portland, who afterwards brought him into Parliament. He spoke there occasionally, and distinguished himself in the debates on the slave-trade. He was without any vivacity of manner or expression, but had the reputation of being a sound lawyer, and it may be perceived by the reports that his business in the Common Pleas was considerable. He was a staunch Whig; it therefore became a subject of the deepest mortification to him that Mr. Erskine should have been brought from the King’s Bench to lead in the great case of Mr. Fox against the High Bailiff of Westminster. Mr. Fox, who highly esteemed him, perhaps was not less distressed, but the matter was too important to be ruled by personal feelings. The Mr. Adair whose name appears in the reports of the trial as the junior counsel, was not the Serjeant, but a young barrister, who has since obtained a place in history, by his eminence in diplomacy and his friendship with Mr. Fox—the Right Hon. Sir Robert Adair, G.C.B. The Serjeant died suddenly in 1798. His daughter married the late Judge Wilson. He succeeded Glynn as Recorder, and held that office for ten years.—E.
[223] John Lee, or, as he was usually termed, “honest Jack Lee,” was a sound lawyer, and for many years had the lead on the Northern Circuit, where his practice was very considerable. He excelled, Lord Eldon has recorded, in cross-examination. A brief blunt way of expressing himself, much originality, and frequent sallies of a wit, which, though not of an elevated character, was very amusing, gave him a short-lived celebrity. He was appointed Solicitor-General by the Coalition. In the great debate of the 17th Feb. 1783, on Lord Shelburne’s Peace, he took a prominent and not very judicious part. He succeeded Wallace as Attorney-General in the March following; and in April 1793, he died at Staindrop, in the county of Durham—leaving, it was said, a great estate.—E.
[224] Mr. Grenville cited from Blackstone’s Commentaries B. C. the passage enumerating the nine cases of disqualification (of which cases expulsion was not one), and ending—“but subject to the standing restrictions and disqualifications, every subject is eligible of common right.” In the editions, subsequent to Wilkes’s case, the sentence goes on, “though there are instances where persons, in particular circumstances, have forfeited that common right and been declared ineligible for that Parliament by a vote of the House of Commons, or for ever by an Act of the Legislature.” (Commons’ Journal, 17th Feb. 1769.)—This difference in the two editions, led to the favourite toast at political meetings of “The first edition of Doctor Blackstone’s Commentaries.” Mr. Grenville’s speech is given by Cavendish, vol. i., where, however, it is not so severe or powerful as the accounts of it in Walpole and Junius (Letter xviii.) would lead one to expect.—E.
[225] The Cardinal was drawn from the obscurity in which he had lived since his disgrace in 1758, for the purpose of this mission. He continued Ambassador at Rome until his death, in 1794, in his eighty-fifth year. A memoir of him, by the Abbé Feletz, of the French Academy, forms one of the best-written articles in the Biographie Universelle. It would be more valuable if it were less of an éloge. The Cardinal judged wisely in opposing the Austrian alliance: but like other French statesmen, he took care to make his opposition subservient to his interest. Indeed there is little either in his moral or political conduct to deserve commendation until he was securely settled at Rome. He owed his elevation entirely to Madame de Pompadour, whose favour he had earned by betraying to her the King’s intrigue with Madame de Choiseul—a secret with which that lady had imprudently intrusted him.—(See more of him in the Memoires de Duclos, vol. ii. p. 172; Lacretelle’s Histoire de France, vol. iii. p. 161.)—E.
[226] The disapprobation with which Ganganelli was known to regard the policy of the Jesuits procured him the support of France and Austria, and consequently his election. It was not, however, until the year 1773 that he issued the brief for the extinction of the order. The troubles in which this step involved him shortened his life. His advanced age, for he was sixty-nine years old, the cares of Government, and his sedentary studious habits, were held insufficient causes for his death, without adding it to the catalogue of the crimes of the Jesuits; and volumes were written to support and to repel the charge.—E.
[227] The Count du Châtelet, afterwards Duc, has been mentioned with respect by the French historians of the day, and his name is associated with more important transactions than this miserable affair. The King’s esteem raised him to the command of the guards on the death of the Duc de Biron. In common with other enlightened men attached to the Court, he supported the reforms best calculated to ameliorate the condition of the people. His popularity caused him to be fixed on as a successor to Brienne in the Presidentship of the Council,—a dangerous honour, which he wisely declined. He was, however, one of the early victims of the Reign of Terror, and after a fruitless attempt to commit suicide, perished by the guillotine on the 13th of December, 1793. His wife soon followed him to the scaffold.—E.
[228] It was believed that he had acted under secret instructions from the Empress; although, in conformity with the practice of the Russian Court, he was left to bear the blame of failure. On his return to St. Petersburg he was placed at the head of the marine department, and held that post during several years, with a very poor reputation. He escaped dismissal only because Catherine made it a principle to change as seldom as possible either her Ministers or Ambassadors.—(Tooke’s Life of Catherine the Second, vol. i. p. 304; vol ii. p. 46.)—E.
[229] Circulars were addressed by Lord Rochford to the British Ministers at foreign Courts with an account of this transaction.—(See letter to Sir A. Mitchell, in Ellis’s Original Letters, vol. iv. p. 521.)—E.