Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 63.djvu/363

 behalf of Wilkes in the coming parliamentary campaign; but Yorke felt bound by his official past, and emphasised his consistency by arguing for the court in the grand debate on privilege (23 Nov.) with a weight, and force which were greatly enhanced by the independence of his position. Meanwhile he angled for his reinstatement in the attorney-generalship, failing which he signified that he was willing to accept the vacant mastership of the rolls [see ], with a salary of 4,000l. and a peerage. These ridiculous advances were repulsed by Lord-chancellor Northington, and Yorke ended by accepting a patent of precedence next after the attorney- general (30 Nov.) His conduct in this crisis betrayed a lamentable weakness which Pitt never condoned. It was, however, viewed with great indulgence by Cumberland and the Rockingham whigs, to which party he thence forth adhered.

In 1764 Yorke was elected to the recorderships of Dover and Gloucester, vacant by his father's death. In parliament (18 Feb.) he voted with the minority against the adjournment of Sir William Meredith's motions condemnatory of general warrants. In the following year (4 March 1765) he opposed Meredith's motion impugning the legality of the ‘information ex officio,’ which he defended on the high ground that the question of libel or no libel was a matter of pure law. On the formation of the Rockingham administration he declined the king's pressing offer of the great seal, and reluctantly acquiesced in the attorney-generalship which was then thrust upon him (25 Aug. 1765). The government was weak and divided, and from the first leant much on his advice. His liberal construction of the Navigation Acts gave legal sanction to the bullion trade between the American seaboard and the Spanish dominions. He approved the repeal of the Stamp Act, but insisted that it must be accompanied by the Declaratory Act. On the passing of Sir William Meredith's resolutions condemnatory of general warrants, he obviated further discussion of a matter best left to the courts of law by defeating George Grenville's proposed measure. A constitution which he had drafted for the province of Quebec was under consideration by the cabinet when the government fell. Its substance was embodied in the Quebec Act of 1774.

Born, so to speak, in the legal purple, Yorke had started in life with the idea that the woolsack was his by a sort of hereditary right; and the rapid and continuous development of his practice had brought him within what seemed measurable distance of his goal. He had rejected the king's offer because he had no faith in the stability of the Rockingham administration. He had in fact reserved himself for Pitt's return to power. He was proportionately mortified by the preference which Pitt now gave to Camden, and resigned his place in consequence (1 Aug.). During the session of 1767 he acted with the opposition on Indian affairs, and in February 1768 he spoke in support of the Nullum Tempus bill. Otherwise he observed a saturnine silence in the devious course of the Chatham administration, while he amused himself with landscape-gardening at his villa at Highgate, and did its honours to Warburton, Hurd, Garrick, and other friends. Among his correspondents at this time was one well qualified to condole with him on his misfortunes, Stanislaus Augustus, king of Poland, to whom he had been introduced by his brother, Sir Joseph Yorke. On Wilkes's incapacitation he differed from his party, but did not utter his views in public, and throughout the subsequent constitutional crisis he maintained the same politic reserve. He was thus in a position of comparative freedom when the impending dismissal of Camden suddenly placed the great seal within his reach (12 Jan. 1770). His acquisition was a matter of cardinal importance to the court, and no pains were spared to secure it. On the other hand, equal pressure was put upon him by the Rockingham party, to which he in effect pledged his word not to accept office. Grafton's offer he accordingly declined, but with characteristic weakness he suffered himself to be drawn into the closet. The private audience failed to remove his scruples, but on the day following (17 Jan.) the king summoned him after the levee to another audience. Yorke presented himself before his sovereign with nerves already shattered by the conflict between ambition and honour; the king pressed him hard, his resolution failed, and he left the closet lord chancellor. It is to his credit that he made no stipulations in his own interest except the usual peerage. He was at once sworn of the privy council, and a patent to create him Baron Morden of Morden, Cambridgeshire, was made out, and brought to him at the family mansion in Great Ormond Street, where he lay prostrated by fever. He retained sufficient consciousness to forbid its authentication under the great seal, which he ‘hoped was no longer in his custody.’ He died about 5 p.m. on 20 Jan. The fever was said to be complicated by colic and the rupture of a blood-vessel; but, whatever its physical antecedents, it is