NOTES. NOTE 1.-Page 2. AT the common law commissions were granted to the Judges durante bene placito. By the Act of Settlement, 13th William III., it was enacted, That commissions should be granted to the Judges quamdiu se bene gesserint. George II., while Prince of Wales, had been displeased with some of the Judges, for the opinion which they had given on a dispute between him and his father, respecting the guardianship of George the Second's children: and, as by the death of George I. all commissions granted by him were terminated, it was necessary that new commissions should be granted to the Judges. by George II. The Act of Settlement com pelled the King to grant commissions to the Judges quamdiu se bene gesserint, but it did not compel him to grant those commissions to the men who had been Judges in his father's reign; and George II. refused to grant new commissions to those Judges who had offended him. At the accession of George III., those who had the most influence about the young King, had a wish to throw reproach upon the memory of George II.; the King, therefore, was prevailed on to recommend to Parliament to enact, That every succeeding King should grant new commissions to those who had held the office of Judge in the preceding reign. The courtiers of George III. have trumpeted this conduct as a singular mark of George the Third's disposition to diminish his power; but in fact George III. increased his power by this measure: having no dislike to those whom he found in office, he had renewed their commissions. By the statute which he thus procured to be enacted, he rendered those Judges whom he might himself afterwards appoint, irremoveable by his successor; and thus, instead of diminishing his power, he increased it. I do not mean to vindicate the conduct of George II. in refusing to grant new commissions to those gentlemen who had been Judges in his father's reign. I will even admit that his conduct on this occasion was injudicious; but the manner in which the subject was brought forward in Parliament, and the elaborate praises bestowed upon the young King on this occasion, flowed from the malevolence which had been cultivated at the Court of Leicester House against the deceased Monarch; and which was not terminated even by his death. NOTE 2.-Page 2. The Earl of Hardwicke was certainly a very able magistrate. He was a very honest man, under a most craving appetite; extreme avarice. I have heard the late Lord Thurlow say, that he thought the Earl of Hardwicke was more able as Chief Justice of the King's Bench, than he was as Lord Chancellor; but I could never discover on what ground Lord Thurlow entertained this opinion. The Earl of Hardwicke was un |