[22] Sir Francis Page's, "Character," by Savage, thus gibbets him to public detestation:
"Fair Truth, in courts where Justice should preside,
Alike the Judge and Advocate would guide;
And these would vie each dubious point to clear,
To stop the widow's and the orphan's tear;
Were all, like Yorke,[A] of delicate address,
Strength to discern, and sweetness to express,
Learn'd, just, polite, born every heart to gain,
Like Comyns[B] mild; like Fortescue[C] humane,
All-eloquent of truth, divinely known,
So deep, so clear, all Science is his own.
"Of heart impure, and impotent of head,
In history, rhetoric, ethics, law, unread;
How far unlike such worthies, once a drudge,
From floundering in low cases, rose a Judge.
Form'd to make pleaders laugh, his nonsense thunders,
And on low juries breathes contagious blunders.
His brothers blush, because no blush he knows,
Nor e'er 'one uncorrupted finger shows.'[D]
See, drunk with power, the circuit-lord exprest!
Full, in his eye, his betters stand confest;
Whose wealth, birth, virtue, from a tongue so loose,
'Scape not provincial, vile, buffoon abuse.
Still to what circuit is assigned his name,
There, swift before him, flies the warner—Fame.
Contest stops short, Consent yields every cause
To Cost; Delay endures them, and withdraws.
But how 'scape prisoners? To their trial chain'd,
All, all shall stand condemn'd, who stand arraign'd,
Dire guilt, which else would detestation cause,
Prejudg'd with insult, wondrous pity draws.
But 'scapes e'en Innocence his harsh harangue?
Alas!—e'en Innocence itself must hang;
Must hang to please him, when of spleen possest,
Must hang to bring forth an abortive jest.
"Why liv'd he not ere Star-chambers had fail'd,
When fine, tax, censure, all but law prevail'd;
Or law, subservient to some murderous will,
Became a precedent to murder still?
Yet e'en when portraits did for traitors bleed,
Was e'er the jobb to such a slave decreed,
Whose savage mind wants sophist-art to draw,
O'er murder'd virtue, specious veils of law?
"Why, Student, when the bench your youth admits,
Where, though the worst, with the best rank'd he sits;
Where sound opinions you attentive write,
As once a Raymond, now a Lee to cite,
Why pause you scornful when he dins the court?
Note well his cruel quirks, and well report.
Let his own words against himself point clear,
Satire more sharp than verse when most severe."
Nor was Savage less severe in his prose. On the trial of this unfortunate poet, for the murder of James Sinclair in 1727, Judge Page, who was then on the bench, treated him with his usual insolence and severity; and, when he had summed up the evidence, endeavoured to exasperate the jury, as Mr. Savage used to relate it, with this eloquent harangue: "Gentlemen of the Jury, you are to consider that Mr. Savage is a very great man, a much greater man than you or I, gentlemen of the jury; that he wears very fine cloaths, much finer cloaths than you or I, gentlemen of the jury; that he has abundance of money in his pocket, much more money than you or I, gentlemen of the jury: but, gentlemen of the jury, is it not a very hard case, gentlemen of the jury, that Mr. Savage should therefore kill you or me, gentlemen of the jury?"
Pope also, Horace, B. II. Sat. r, has the following line:
"Hard words or hanging, if your judge be Page."
And Fielding, in Tom Jones, makes Partridge say, with great naiveté, after premising that judge Page was a very brave man, and a man of great wit, "It is indeed charming sport to hear trials on life and death!"
[A] Sir Philip Yorke, chief justice of the King's Bench, afterwards lord-chancellor and earl Hardwicke.
[B] Sir John Comyns, chief baron of the Exchequer.
[C] Hon. William Fortescue, then one of the justices of the court of Common Pleas, afterwards master of the Rolls.
[D] "When Page one uncorrupted finger shows." D. of Wharton.