he axe being carried before them with its edge
turned from them. The prisoners, when they approached the bar, made
three reverences, and fell upon their knees. Then said the Lord High
Steward your "lordships may arise;" upon which the three lords arose and
bowed to his Grace the High Steward, and to the House, which compliment
was returned by the Lord High Steward, and by the Peers.

Thus began the trial; "the greatest, and the most melancholy scene,"
wrote Horace Walpole to Sir Horace Mann, "that I ever saw. As it was the
most interesting sight, it was the most solemn and fine; a coronation is
but a puppet show, and all the splendour of it idle; but this sight at
once feasted one's eyes, and engaged one's passions;"--a signal avowal
for one whom a long continuance in the world's business, and, perhaps,
worse, its pleasures, had hardened. A hundred and thirty-nine lords were
present, making a noble sight on their benches, and assisting at a
ceremony which is said to have been conducted with the most awful
solemnity and decency throughout, with one or two exceptions.[360]

The Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, who presided on this occasion, has been
justly deemed one of the brightest ornaments of the woolsack. The son of
an attorney at Dover, as Philip Yorke, he had risen to the highest
offices of the law, by his immense acquirements, and his incomparable
powers of illustration and arrangement. By his marriage with a niece of
the celebrated Lord Somers, he strengthened his political interest,
which, however, it required few adventitious circumstances to secure.
Three great men have expressed their admiration of Lord Hardwicke almost
in similar terms: Lord Mansfield, Burke, and Wilkes. "When his lordship
pronounced his decrees, wisdom herself might be supposed to speak."[361]
In manner, he was usually considered to be dignified, impressive, and
unruffled; and his intentions were allowed to be as pure and elevated,
as his views were patriotic.

On this eventful day, since we cannot reject the testimony of an
eye-witness of discernment, we must believe that party spirit, which had
usually so little influence over his sense of justice, swayed the
prepossessions of Lord Hardwicke. At all events, it affected his
treatment of the unhappy men to whom he displayed a petulance wholly
derogatory to his character as a judge, and discreditable to his
feelings as a man. "Instead of keeping up the humane dignity of the law
of England, whose