Of the eloquence of Lord Thurlow, and of his manner in debate, Mr.
Butler has given a striking account:--"At times Lord Thurlow was
superlatively great. It was the good fortune of the Reminiscent to
hear his celebrated reply to the Duke of Grafton, during the inquiry
into Lord Sandwich's administration of Greenwich Hospital. His Grace's
action and delivery, when he addressed the house, were singularly
dignified and graceful; but his matter was not equal to his manner. He
reproached Lord Thurlow with his plebeian extraction, and his recent
admission into the peerage: particular circumstances caused Lord
Thurlow's reply to make a deep impression on the Reminiscent. His
lordship had spoken too often, and began to be heard with a civil but
visible impatience. Under these circumstances he was attacked in the
manner we have mentioned. He rose from the woolsack, and advanced
slowly to the place from which the chancellor generally addresses the
house; then fixing on the duke the look of Jove when he grasps the
thunder, 'I am amazed,' he said, in a level tone of voice, 'at the
attack the noble duke has made on me. Yes, my lords,' considerably
raising his voice, 'I am amazed at his grace's speech. The noble duke
cannot look before him, behind him, or on either side of him, without
seeing some noble peer who owes his seat in this house to his
successful exertions in the profession to which I belong. Does he not
feel that it is as honourable to owe it to these, as to being the
accident of an accident? To all these noble lords the language of the
noble duke is applicable and as insulting as it is to myself. But I
don't fear to meet it single and alone. No one venerates the peerage
more than I do;--but, my lords, I must say that the peerage solicited
me, not I the peerage;--nay, more, I can say, and will say, that as a
peer of parliament, as speaker of this right honourable house, as
keeper of the great seal, as guardian of his majesty's conscience, as
lord high chancellor of England, nay, even in that character alone in
which the noble duke would think it an affront to be considered--as a
_Man_, I am at this moment as respectable--I beg leave to add, I am at
this time as much respected, as the proudest peer I now look down
upon.' The effect of this speech, both within the walls of parliament
and out of them, was prodigious. It gave Lord Thurlow an ascendancy in
the house which no chancellor had ever possessed: it invested him, in
public opinion, with a character of independence and honour; and this,
though he was ever on the unpopular side in politics, made him always
popular with the people."
The legal talents and acquirements of Lord Thurlow have been the
subject of frequent panegyric; but it may, perhaps, be questioned,
whether in all cases those eulogiums were just. It has been said--but
with what truth it is difficult to form an opinion--that his lordship
was much indebted to Mr. Hargrave, for the learning by which his
judgments were sometimes distinguished, and that Mr. Hargrave received
a handsome remuneration for these services. "As lord chancellor," says
a writer who was personally acquainted with his lordship, "from a
well-placed confidence in Mr. Hargrave, who was indefatigable in his
service, he had occasion to give himself less trouble than any other
man in that high station. An old free-speaking companion of his, well
known at Lincoln's Inn, would sometimes say to me, 'I met the great
law lion this morning going to Westminster; but he was so busily
reading in the coach what his provider had supplied him with, that he
took no notice of me.'"
The ardent zeal with which Lord Thurlow contested the great question
of the regency, led him, if we may credit the narrative of one who was
a party to the debate, to be guilty of an act of great disingenuousness.
Dr. Watson, the Bishop of Llandaff, in the course of a speech, in
which he supported the claims of the Prince of Wales, incidentally
cited a passage from Grotius, with regard to the definition of the
word _right_. "The chancellor, in his reply," says the bishop in his
memoirs, "boldly asserted that he perfectly well remembered the
passage I had quoted from Grotius, and that it solely respected
natural, but was inapplicable to civil, rights. Lord Loughborough, the
first time I saw him after the debate, assured me that before he went
to sleep that night he had looked into Grotius, and was astonished to
find that the chancellor, in contradicting me, had presumed on the
ignorance of the house, and that my quotation was perfectly correct.
What miserable shifts do great men submit to, in supporting their
parties! The Chancellor Thurlow," continues the bishop, "was an able
and upright judge, but as the speaker of the house of lords, he was
domineering and insincere. It was said of him, that in the cabinet he
opposed everything, proposed nothing, and was ready to support
anything. I remember Lord Camden's saying to me one night, when the
chancellor was speaking contrary, as he thought, to his own
conviction, 'There now! I could not do that: he is supporting what he
does not believe a word of.'"
_Roscoe's Lives of Eminent Lawyers--Cabinet Cyclopaedia_.
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