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Early in 1754, Sir George recommended Lord Hardwicke's son as a proper person to succeed her Royal Highness's Solicitor-General; a recommendation thus acknowledged by the princess :

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and shortly afterwards came the following (10th April, 1754):

As I can't have the pleasure at present of seeing you, I desire you will let Mr. Hendly know that I appoint him my attorney; and likewise to acquaint the Chancellor that I nominate Mr. York Solicitor, being glad to have it in my power to shew him a mark of my regard. The King, whom I have seen to-night, approves of them both. I remain your friend,

AUGUSTA.

This having been duly announced, Lord Hardwicke sent his warm acknowledgments on the following day, saying,-" Before I received the honour of your letter, I fully intended to have writ to you this forenoon to entreat your favour in recommending my son Charles to the Princess of Wales to succeed to the office of her Royal Highness's Solicitor-General, in case her Royal Highness should think fit to promote Mr. Henley to be her attorney. But the princess's uncommon goodness, which I can never sufficiently acknowledge, has prevented me, and changed the form of my request to you. Permit me now to beg that you will lay me at her Royal Highness's feet, and to assure her of the high and grateful sense which I shall ever retain of this mark of her favour to me and my family; and of the great honour which her Royal Highness has been pleas'd to confer upon my son by receiving him into her service in this gracious manner."

Such was Sir George Lee as a court-lawyer: but the highest point of his public excellence was undoubtedly in his eminent exercise of the civil law,

which may be appreciated by the few ecclesiastical cases, comparatively, published in 1833 by Dr. Phillimore, with Dr. John Lee's permission. In Admiralty matters he was thoroughly conversant, and constantly resorted to for his opinion. thereon. Dr. Harris, in his dedication of the Institutes of Justinian, bears ample testimony to his genius and worth; and Dr. Phillimore remarks that his concise memoir of him would be imperfect, if it were closed without adverting to the part which Sir George Lee is reputed to have taken in framing the most celebrated State Paper of modern times, viz. the answer to the memorial of the King of Prussia, presented to the Duke of Newcastle by Mr. Mitchell. It bears date 8th of February, 1753, and is generally understood to have been the joint composition of Lee and Murray (afterwards Earl of Mansfield); and having been acknowledged throughout Europe as a masterly exposition of the nature and extent of the jurisdiction exercised over ships and cargoes of neutral powers, by courts of the law of nations established within the territories of belligerent states, it was generally adopted and received by eminent jurists of later times, as text authority on the text authority on the subjects discussed. Montesquieu (Lett. Persannes, xlv.) characterises it as "résponse sans réplique." And this celebrated paper, be it remembered, was written in times when the moralist. had not quite descended to the casuist, nor the statesman to the mere politician: nor had broad rules and fundamental principles as yet succumbed to little specialities and desperate expedients, suited only to the convenience of the hour, or the accommodation of a temporary party.

severe.

Sir George Lee was, as Lord Orford has recorded, of great parliamentary weight, and was persuasive by sound argument and flowing speech set off by a solemn harmonious voice, and a gravity of style which sometimes became But no political avocations ever induced him to neglect his professional duties. During the whole time that he presided over the testamentary and matrimonial law of the country, he retained the same close habit of industry which had distinguished him at the bar; and throughout his whole career he maintained the admirable practice of inserting in note-books a statement of the particulars of every case, a summary of the arguments of counsel, and a

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précis, as it were, of his own opinion. Many volumes of these jottings remain at Hartwell, authentic monuments of his indefatigable diligence: and, besides professional records, there are several specimens of his poetic taste, principally in Horatian paraphrases. In a versified letter to his brother, Sir William, secluded in "Totteridge Bowers," he contrasts the cares of town and courts with the peaceful pleasures of the country, where

The sun of each revolving day
Shines on you elegantly gay,
Cheerful, easy, dégagé;

And thus you pass each pleasing night,
Sacred to friendship and delight,—
Friendship, the truest bliss of life,
The brightest lustre in a wife,
That heightens joy and lessens grief,
To all the pangs of life relief!

He married Judith, second daughter of Humphrey Morice, Esq. of London, who died 19th July, 1743, and was buried in the church at Hartwell; where fifteen years afterwards Sir George, who had munificently contributed to its re-erection, was also interred. He expired suddenly while sitting in his chair, at his house in St. James's Square, on the 18th of December, 1758. He resigned his breath, states the tablet to his memory at Hartwell, "with the following farewell to his surrounding attendants-God bless you all.'" Leaving no children, he bequeathed his whole fortune to his nephew, Sir William Lee, the fourth baronet.

But a maritime writer must be excused for dwelling a moment longer on Sir George, as the civilian who cleared the tangles from the celebrated Cabandonga, Lord Anson's prize.* Among other cases of importance, he

* Sir George appears to have been very popular among naval officers. When Lord Forrester pounced upon a quantity of "pieces of eight" in a Swedish ship in May, 1741, Sir George advised the eccentric peer to make up the matter with the claimer upon the best terms he could, for that he had no ground to stand upon.

conducted the cause of those rich vessels, the Lewis Erasmus and Marquis d'Antin, which were captured by the Duke and Prince Frederick privateers, in 1745 the decision of which gave the fortunate owners seven hundred thousand pounds to their share. A massive and elaborately decorated silver vase, on which the main portion of the engagement is shewn, was presented to Sir George by his grateful clients: and it now remains an honourable memento in the family. Its ornaments consist of embossed and chased naval and military emblems, with armorial bearings of the Lees; it is fourteen inches high by twenty in circumference, weighing 85 oz. 19 dwts., and the lid is surmounted by a large knob in the shape of a ship's poop-lanthorn. action is represented in the following manner :

The

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Here I am constrained, on the principle that whatever is worth telling should be told truly, to criticise a passage relating to this identical vase in

Dr. Lipscomb's History of Buckinghamshire; and the more so, as he may, from the general merit of his work, be quoted as an authority hereafter. This gentleman (vol. ii. page 307) says, "The noble gift commemorates the determination of the fate of five privateers: the King George, Commodore and Commander George Walker; Prince Frederick, commanded by Edward Duffin; the Duke, by Robert Denham; the Princess Amelia, by Robert Riddle; and the Prince George, by Francis Davison." Now this appears sufficiently circumstantial, but is utterly without foundation; for the gallant privateers so exactly cited were not commissioned as "The Royal Family" till the signal success of those in the above action encouraged further adventure. The representation on the vase is faithful to the public descriptions of that transaction, both as to the number of ships, and their position in the battle; and to stamp the evidence undeniably, the initials of each vessel's name appears on the vase, over her masthead. In order to establish this allegation as a substantial fact, it may be as well to insert one of the accounts, say Entick's (Naval History, p. 805),

Some merchants of London had fitted out three privateers, intended for a joint cruise, under the command of Captain Talbot, who was to act as the Commodore; with the Prince Frederic, of twenty-eight guns and two hundred and forty men; the Duke, Captain Morecock, of twenty guns and one hundred and fifty men; and the Prince George, of twenty guns and one hundred and thirty-four men. The squadron set sail from Cowes. in the Isle of Wight, on the 2nd of June; but on the 7th the Prince George unfortunately overset and sunk; and though the Commodore immediately went to her assistance, he could save no more than twenty men out of the one hundred and thirty-four However, not discouraged with so unfavourable a beginning, the Prince Frederic and the Duke continued their course off the coast of Portugal; but, meeting with no remarkable success, they steered for the Azores, or Western Islands, situate between 25° and 33° of west longitude, and between 36° and 40° of north latitude, being nine in number, and subject to the crown of Portugal. The two privateers, on the 20th of June, made the Isle of St. Mary, the southernmost of the Azores, when they stood away to the westward, to cruise between these islands and the great Bank of Newfoundland.

Their cruise was unsuccessful till the 10th of July, and then, between five and six in the morning, they discovered three sail bearing west; which happened to be the Marquis d'Antin, of four hundred and fifty tons, twenty-four guns, and sixty-eight men, commanded by Captain Magon Serpere; the Lewis Erasmus, of five hundred tons, twenty-eight guns, and sixty-six men, com

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