by these rules which he did not deem justifiable. At the same time he was an amiable, worthy man

"and if astute in aught,

The love he had to pleading was in fault."

We need not wonder that his fame went forth among the attorneys, and that soon after he was called to the bar he was in considerable practice-as a fabricator of sham pleas, and an arguer of special demurrers. His name appears frequently in the Reports as counsel in special pleading cases; but, though "to the manner born," I must confess my inability to explain these mysteries to the profane.

There are only two cases on other subjects in which he is recorded as having been counsel while he remained at the bar. The first is Rex v. Ivinghoe, which came from the quarter sessions of his native county, and in which the question was, 66 whether a settlement was gained by a pauper who had been hired for a year by one master, and with the consent of his first master, served part of the year under another?" This was quite adapted to Lee's capacity, and he argued it as elaborately as if the rights and liberties of Englishmen had depended upon it. He succeeded, and was probably as much pleased with himself as Erskine on the acquittal of Hardy and Horne Tooke, for he induced that great sessions lawyer Lord Chief Justice Pratt to say, “If I lend my servant to a neighbor for a week or any longer time, and he goes accordingly and does such work as my neighbor sets him about, yet all this while he is in my service, and may reasonably be said to be doing my business. Therefore, I take this to be a service for the whole year under the first contract, and the settlement is at Ivinghoe."'

Again, when the famous appeal of murder was sued out against Bambridge and Corbett, the mode of proceeding being almost obsolete, Lee, from his black-letter reputation, was employed to conduct it. The trial coming on, he addressed the jury at great length, and exerted himself very unscrupulously to obtain a conviction; but he met with a signal defeat, which made him 1 I Strange, 90.

vow that in future he would have nothing to do with facts, and would stick to law alone.'

When in his 40th year—an age when ambition is said to rage with greatest fury-he was much annoyed by an offer to be brought into the House of Commons, by the interest of his family, for Chipping Wycombe, in Bucks. He long strenuously refused, but, being told that if he persisted in doing so the seat would be carried by the Tories, he succumbed, observing that, "as he came with King William, he was bound to be a good Whig." However, we in vain look to see his name in the Parliamentary History; for while his brother George was a frequent and excellent speaker, and so became one of the leaders of the Leicester House party, no human power would have induced William to make a speech, unless he might wear his wig and gown and hold a brief in his hand. Although he voted steadily with the government, he would never, even in the lobby or in private society, give any better reason for the line he took than that "he came with King William, and he was bound to be a good Whig."

The next offer which was made to him he accepted without hesitation, and he became a Puisne Judge of the King's Bench,-reaching the summit of his ambition, and better pleased than he could conceive himself to be by winning a battle equal to BLENHEIM, or writing a poem more esteemed than PARADISE LOST. It was supposed, and said, that he had been promoted because he had so steadily proclaimed and proved himself to be "a good Whig;" but politics had nothing to do with the appointment. Sir Robert Raymond, then Chief Justice of the King's Bench, complained bitterly of the insufficiency of his puisnies, particularly in the knowledge of special pleading, of which he himself, notwithstanding his general juridical acquirements, was by no means master; and he made a particular application to Lord Chancellor King, that a vacancy which then occurred in the court might be filled up by Mr. Lee, who was more eminent in this line than any other man in the profession. Being coifed, sworn in, and knighted, the new Judge took his seat in the Court of King's Bench on the 15th of June, 1730.

117 St. Tr. 401.

He remained a Puisne Justice for seven years, under Lord Chief Justice Raymond and Lord Chief Justice Hardwicke, and was found exceedingly useful to them and to the public. Having concentrated all the energies of a mind naturally strong, and quickened by dialectical exercise, on one department of one science, he had attained in it to an unexampled skill. Moreover, its rules and analogies having a very extensive influence over the whole body of our law and procedure, few points arose in the course of a term on which his opinion was not valuable. He gave it with much modesty and discretion; not seeking to expose the ignorance of his brethren, or to parade his own knowledge, but setting the Chief Justice right by a whisper, and inducing a bystander to believe, when the judgment was given, that they had all perceived how it must be from the first,insomuch that he was likened, by the knowing, to the helm which keeps the ship in her right course, without itself attracting any notice.

Sir William Lee particularly gained the favor of Lord Hardwicke, and is called by Horace Walpole and other contemporary writers his "creature," his "tool," his "dependent," and his "shadow." Their great intimacy appears from Lord Hardwicke having employed Lee to assist him in bargaining for the estate in Gloucestershire from which he took his title, and to act as a trustee in his family settlements.'

Lord Hardwicke, on becoming Chancellor, was severely blamed for rewarding such services by promoting a man well qualified for the subordinate station which he occupied, but wholly unfit to be Chief Justice of England,-who, in addition to being a good special pleader, should be an enlightened jurist, experienced in the ways of the world, well qualified to address a legislative assembly, a scholar, and a gentleman.

No one can blame Sir William Lee for acceptir g the honor which was thrust upon him; and, public expectation being low, it was generally allowed that he acquitted himself very reputably. His intentions were ever most pure and upright; his temper was well disciplined; his manners were bland; and, although it could not be said

1 Harris's Life of Lord Hardwicke, i. 188.

that he took an enlarged view of any subject, or did much to improve our code, his decisions between the parties litigating before him were substantially just.

On Monday, the 13th of June, being the fourth day of Trinity Term, 1737, he took the oaths and his seat as Lord Chief Justice in the Court of King's Bench. Subsequently to the Revolution, when judges actually did discharge their duty in an independent manner, they ceased to make any parading professions of their good intentions, and inaugural speeches had become obsolete. Lord Chief Justice Lee is said materially to have altered the opinion which the bar entertained, or at least expressed, of his law, by retaining a French cook, and giving frequent rounds of good dinners with copious draughts of claret and champagne.' He likewise had a villa at Totteridge, which still belongs to his family, where he used to entertain professional parties very hospitably, and tell them how he came in with King William. Dependents and flatterers clustered around him, and before he died he was praised as one of the greatest of Chief Justices.

His fame may have increased from his having had the good word of the fair sex; he certainly stood up for the rights of woman more strenuously than any English judge before or since his time. He had to decide "whether a female may by law serve the office of parish sexton?" and "whether females were entitled to vote at the election of a sexton?" John Olive and Sarah Bly were candidates for the office of sexton in the parish of St. Botolph in the city of London. She had 169 male votes and 40 female. He had 174 male votes and 22 female, and he was sworn in. The validity of the election coming on to be determined in the Court of King's Bench, the gentleman contended that all the votes for the lady were thrown away, as she was disqualified on account of her sex; and at any rate that he had a majority of lawful votes, as the female votes on both sides must be struck off from the poll, a woman being no more entitled to vote for a sexton than for a member of parliament or for a coroner, which Lord Coke

He was in the habit of particularly praising the precept of Lord Burleigh to his son "to keep an orderly table!" by which he understood a table covered with good dishes set out in orderly fashion.

says "they may not do although they have freeholds. and contribute to all public charges-even to the wages of knights of the shire, which are to be levied de communitate comitatus." (4 Inst. 5 Reg. Brev: 192.)

Lee. C. J.: "I am clearly of opinion that a woman may be sexton of a parish. Women have held much higher offices, and, indeed, almost all the offices of the kingdom; as Queen, Marshal, Great Chamberlain, Great Constable, Champion of England, Commissioner of Sewers, Keeper of a Prison, and Returning Officer for members of parliament." 2. As to the second point, it would be strange if a woman may herself fill the office, and yet should be disqualified to vote for it. The election of members of parliament and of coroner stands on special grounds. No woman has ever sat in parliament or voted for members of parliament, and we must presume that when the franchise was first created it was confined to the male sex. There was no reason for such a restriction respecting the office of sexton, whose duties do not concern the morals of the living, but the interment of the dead. The female votes being added to the poll, Sarah Bly has the majority, so that she, and not John Olive, is now the lawful sexton of this parish."

The Puisnies concurring, judgment was given in her favor."

I do not find any other cases which came before him in the King's Bench so fully reported, but, from short notes in Strange, we find that he decided several important points-as that "it is a misdemeanor to take a young lady out of the care of a guardian appointed by the Court of Chancery, and to marry her, although she goes away voluntarily;"" that "it is a misdemeanor to keep gunpowder where it may be dangerous to the King's subjects;" that "it is actionable to say of a jus

1 Spelman's Glossary, 497; 3 Keble, 32; Blunt's Tenures, 47; Dyer, 285 Hob. 148 Brady's History of Boroughs. Lady Packington was relieving officer at Aylesbury; and the famous Countess of Pembroke, being hereditary sheriff of Westmoreland, attended the judges in that capacity at the assizes.

2 Str. 1114. Same Case, MS. Taking the converse of Lee's rule, a woman may be a Director of the East India Company, as she is entitled to vote for that office.

Rex v. Lord Ossulston, 2 Str. 1107.

4 Rex v. Taylor, ib. 1167