that twelve Judges had unanimously decided unfavourably to the applicant; and that one of the most eminent of them had declared that probably all the Judges of all the Courts held the opinion which twelve had expressed. This long agitated matter (it had been disputed for three years between the parties, and had occupied two years in five courts of law) was, at length, brought to a termination. The important declaration of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (of which I have thought it right to give so extended an account in this chapter, as constituting a remarkable event in the legal life of Lord Langdale) now took effect; the cause, so decided, having been adopted by the Queen in Council, and, consequently, "remitted with that declaration to the Arches Court of Canterbury, to the end that right and justice might be done in the matter." Mr. Gorham was instituted to the vicarage and parish church of Brampford Speke, in the hall of that Court, by Sir Herbert Jenner Fust, the Official Principal of the Archbishop of Canterbury, on the 6th of August, 1851.

CHAPTER XX.

LORD LANGDALE'S DISPOSAL OF HIS PATRONAGE.-MR. SANDERS.-MR. LE DIEU.—THE DEPUTY KEEPERSHIP OF THE RECORDS.-THE TAXING MASTERS. THE SIX CLERKS.—HIS INTERCOURSE WITH THE AUTHOR. -HIS PRIVATE LIFE. LOVE OF CHILDREN. KINDNESS TO HIS DEPENDANTS.-KEEN SENSE OF HONOUR.

SPEAKING of that coveted appendant to officepatronage, Lord Langdale once said, "If you have to give away a place, and only to seek out a person to whom it will be agreeable to receive the profit of it, there seems nothing pleasanter than patronage; but if, in the exercise of patronage, you conscientiously endeavour to find out a person who is really deserving, and the most deserving and the best able to fulfil the duties of his intended situation, there is nothing more painful or difficult to accomplish. You will have to inquire into means, capacities, and qualifications, which cannot easily be ascertained, but which it is of the utmost importance to ascertain, in order to get the proper person, and to create a general persuasion that merit will be duly considered. The difficulties are greater than a man without a good deal of experience is apt to imagine."

The foregoing sentiments were not mere words of course; he acted up to their spirit in every appointment he had to make.

He did not even seek his Chief Secretary from amongst his friends and relatives, but selected for that office a gentleman with whom, except as a member of the same bar, he was unacquainted, conscientiously believing from all he had heard, that he could find no one better qualified for the appointment.

The gentleman in question was Mr. George W. Sanders, a Chancery barrister and conveyancer, who, at the time, was passing his Christmas vacation in the country, and who had neither solicited nor thought of the appointment.

Lord Langdale made no change among the other officers and attendants at the Rolls, and he would never for a moment listen to the suggestions for the exercise of his patronage by removal of any officer against whom no fault was charged, whether originally appointed by himself or not.*

* Mr. Le Dieu informs me that as soon as his master was appointed to the Rolls, he applied to him for the office of UnderSecretary. "That I cannot give you," was the reply. "Mr. Murray has held that office many years, and done his duty well. I will not remove him, or any one who has not committed a fault." I cannot resist following Mr. Le Dieu's fortunes a little further, because the facts connected with the appointment which his master gave him, bring out another strong feature in Lord Langdale's character, and prove the correctness of the opinion of the writer of that truthful and elegant memoir of his Lordship, which appeared on the death, in the "Times" newspaper. His whole life was unsullied by the suspicion of a job, or of being influenced by any but the loftiest motives of action. Mr. Le Dieu continues: "I said, 'Will you think it right to give me the office of the First Gentleman of the Chamber?' That is what I thought of,' he answered; but, about the salary-for I mean it to be a salary, and not an uncertainty depending on fees-what are your notions upon that point?' I replied that 'Sir C. C.

On his subsequently receiving the Great Seal as First Commissioner, the appointment to every office attendant upon the Great Seal fell into his hands; but he made not the slightest change, though there were not wanting persons who pressed him to do so.

The way in which his Lordship requested Mr. Sanders to give assistance in his laborious office, by becoming his Chief Secretary, was as flattering and honourable to Mr. Sanders as it was kind and considerate in Lord Langdale.

The new Secretary soon acquired the friendship and unbounded confidence of his patron, and he retained them to the end. On accepting office he gave up his practice at the bar, in order to devote himself exclusively to his new duties, and his assiduity and attention were rewarded by the esteem and high opinion which Lord Langdale entertained of his merits.

In writing the history of a life, not only truth but artistic skill demands that the shadows as well as the lights should be pourtrayed. In the case of Lord Lang

Pepys had promised his clerk something better than he had while in his private service, and yet had only given him 300l. per annum : but that Lord Lyndhurst, when Master of the Rolls, had given his clerk, whom he appointed to the same office, 700l. a-year; and, moreover, when any surplus in the fees occurred, he invariably desired him to put it into his pocket.' Some days after, Mr. Bickersteth settled the matter with me by giving me the appointment, and fixing the salary at 500l. per annum, saying, at the same time I wish to pay you liberally and properly, but I object to heap upon you an income for which you will not have it in your power to return adequate services. I think Sir C. C. Pepys' arrangement was too low, but Lord Lyndhurst's is beyond my notion of what is right. I therefore take the mean between them.'"

dale there is hardly sufficient shade in his character to throw out his virtues in the relief that they deserve. A life spent in a constant exercise of good without evil, is like a boundless cultivated plain without the relief of rock and mountain, river and cascade.

When Lord Langdale retired from public life, Mr. Sanders, as the result of that retirement, was thrown out of office. This circumstance, in the eyes of some, has cast a shade upon Lord Langdale's retirement; but it was not in his power to secure the Secretaryship to him, or he would have done so. That he might, by asking, have obtained from other hands the means of rewarding the services of Mr. Sanders, cannot be doubted; but I have already more than once asserted that to ask for patronage was against his nature. Whatever he could himself do, he was prepared to do, but he had laid down a rule never to ask a favour, and he could not break through it, even under such urgent circumstances as these, it had become a part of his spiritual self. Had his only child been placed in the like predicament, love and affection would have been sacrificed to duty; the heart might have broken, but his conscience would have been at rest.

His kind feeling towards Mr. Sanders was sufficiently apparent, for whenever an opportunity occurred he was anxious to promote his interest, by engaging him in important duties of a public nature unconnected with the Rolls. Thus he brought him forward to act as Secretary to the Chancery Inquiry, in 1841, and he procured the insertion of his name as Secretary under the Royal Commission to inquire into the Registration