memoirs with the same impartiality with which he pointed out their
excellences. He mentions only two failings of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke:
one, that he was fond of acquiring wealth, the other, that he was of an
overweening pride to those whom he considered beneath him. Neither of
these is a very serious charge, and as both are insufficiently
corroborated, one may let them pass. He acquired immense wealth in the
course of his professional career, but in an age of corruption he was
remarked for his integrity, and was never suspected or accused of
prostituting his public position for private ends. In his capacity of
Attorney-General Lord Campbell remarks of him:

'This situation he held above thirteen years, exhibiting a model of
perfection to other law officers of the Crown. He was punctual and
conscientious in the discharge of his public duty, never neglecting it
that he might undertake private causes, although fees were supposed to
be particularly sweet to him.'

But it was as a judge that he won imperishable fame, and one of his
biographers observes: [Footnote: See Dictionary of National Biography.]
'It is hardly too much to say that during his prolonged tenure of the
Great Seal (from 1737 to 1755) he transformed equity from a chaos of
precedents into a scientific system.' Lord Campbell states that
'his decisions have been, and ever will continue to be, appealed to as
fixing the limits and establishing the principles of that great
juridical system called Equity, which now, not only in this country and
in our colonies, but over the whole extent of the United States of
America, regulates property and personal rights more than ancient Common
Law.'

He had a 'passion to do justice, and displayed the strictest