prince, and you must all be accountable to the emperor." "Am I not regent," replied Biron," with abfolute authority? Such affertions, fir, may occafion great commotions; and your highness muft know, that whenever factions arife, the emperor and the country are in danger; and what must be the inevitable confequence, if you and I fhould be at variance "A maffarre!" returned the prince with great warmth, and putting at the fame time his hand upon his

fword.

After much altercation, the prince accufed Biron of having forged the teftament and fignature of the emprefs; and the duke quitted the apartment with thefe words; "This affair, fir, is of fuch importance, that it must be laid before the principal nobility of the realm." Repairing inflantly to his palace, he fummoned the cabinet council, the fenate, and the principal nobility, and acquainted them with the converfation which had paffed between him and the prince. But when the imperial minifter, count Keyferling, who was prefent, endeavoured to justify the prince, he called the prince a liar, who had mifreprefented the converfation; and turning to Keyferling, faid, "we want here no advocates; and no lawyer's quirks;" and walking up and down the apartment in great agitation, exclaimed," am I a poifoner! or do I contend for the throne and the fceptre!"

The princefs Anne, who had been informed of the mifunderstanding, now arriving, he turned to her, and explained with great bitternefs what had already paffed. Anne was exceedingly affected, and appeared to blame her husband's conduct. At length, the prince himself being Emmoned, was prevailed upon to

attend, and foon afterwards made his appearance. Being reprimanded by Biron, and by feveral who, were prefent, in the groffeft terms, his highnefs at length fubmitted to demand pardon, the tears starting from his eyes from this neceffary but degrading conceffion; and the affair was hushed up.

"Soon afterwards, the regent fent a meffage by Marthal Munich, ordering the prince to refign his military employments, and not to ftir out of his chamber. But this ftate of things could not laft long. The regent, at variance with the parents of the emperor, fufpicious of the plots forming against him, and detested by the nation in general, became agitated and uneafy, felt the precariousnefs of his prefent fituation, paid his court with great affiduity to the princefs Elizabeth, and feems even to have formed the defign of marrying her to the prince, his eldeft fon, and of raifing her, or her nephew the duke of Holftein, to the throne of Ruffia. He was imprudent enough to declare publicly, that if the princefs Anne was refractory, he would fend her and her husband into Germany, and place the duke of Holftein on the throne.

"While he was fluctuating concerning his future conduct, and laying plans to remove those who gave him umbrage, his own ruin came from a powerful quarter which he did not expect, and was not prepared to refift. Marthal Munich, fecretly difpleafed with the regent at not being appointed generaliffimo of the Ruffian forces, fomented the difcontents, awakened the fufpicions of the princess Anne, and prevailed upon her to permit him to arreft the duke of Courland. His offer being accepted, he fucceeded in fecuring the perfon of the regent, arrested him on the 18th of December, only twenty days

after

after he had been appointed to the regency. Lieutenaut colonel Manftein, who was employed by Munich on that memorable occafion, and who has related the tranfaction in his Authentic Memoirs, penetrated, at the head of only twenty men, into the palace inhabited by the duke of Courland, though guarded by forty foldiers, who were placed under the windows of the regent's bed-chamber, and by numerous centinels pofted in the feveral apartments through which he was to pafs. Being perfonally known to the centinels, they permitted him to pafs, thinking that he had an affair of confequence to communicate to the regent. Having burft open the door of his bed-chamber, he approached the bed, in which the duke and dutchefs were so fast afleep, that the noife did not awaken them. On drawing the curtains, both started up in furprife, and the duke inftantly got out of bed with an intention to escape, but was prevented by Manftein, who threw himfelf upon him, and held him faft till the foldiers came to his affiftance. In this interval the duke had difengaged himself from Manftein, and endeavouring to burft from the foldiers who had laid hold of his arm, received feveral blows from the butt-ends of their muskets. Being at length thrown down on the floor, his mouth gagged with a handkerchief, and his hands tied behind him with an officer's fafh, he was led to the guardroom, where being covered with a foldier's cloak, he was conveyed in a carriage to the winter palace, in which the princefs Anne refided. While he was leading away, the duchefs fprang out of bed, and though only in her shift, ran after him, fcreaming, in an agony of defpair, into the street, till being forced away by the foldiers, the dropped down upon the fnow, and would have

pe

rifhed with cold, if the captain of the guard had not fent for fome clothes to cover her, and re-conducted her to her apartment.

"The next day the duke and his family were conveyed to the fortress of Schluffelburg; and in June were removed to P'elim, a fmall town in Siberia, where he was imprisoned in a wooden houfe under the stricteft confinement. Fortunately he did not long occupy this dreary prifon. The emprefs Elizabeth had no foon. er afcended the throne, by the depofition of Ivan, than the recalled Biron from his imprisonment; and if his misfortunes had not foftened his vindictive fpirit, he enjoyed the pleasure of feeing his enemy, Marfhal Munich, occupy that prifon which he had just quitted.

"Biron was transferred to Yaroflaf, where he had a comfortable manfion affigned to him and his family, five roubles a day, and the permiflion of hunting within twenty or thirty miles of Yaroflaf. In this fituation, wretched when contrafted with his former dignified station as the omnipotent favourite of Anne, or as regent of Ruffia, but a paradife when compared with his prifon at Pelim, he paffed his days during the whole reign of Elizabeth.

"On the demife of Elizabeth, Peter the Third recalled Biron to Petersburgh, but did not reînstate him in the dutchy of Courland. Biron had refufed, during his confinement, to refign his right to that dutchy, although he was offered his liberty, and a penfion of 100,000 roubles; nor could he be prevailed upon by Peter the Third to abdicate in fayour of the duke of Holstein; nobly adding, that nothing fhould induce him to do fuch an injury to his family; but that he would perfer even a fecond imprisonment.

Catharine, foon after the revo

lution which placed her on the throne of Peter the Great, took compaffion of his misfortunes, and reftored him to his former dignity. "Biron repaired to Mittau in 1763, twenty-eight years after he had been elected duke of Courland, and for the first time fince he had been raised to the dignity. Prince Charles of Saxony, although fupported by a large party in Courland, yet receiving no affiftance from his father Auguftus the Third,

was compelled to retire before the Ruffian forces; and Biron received the oaths of allegiance and fidelity from the whole nation.

"In 1764, he obtained from the king and republic of Poland the inveftiture of Courland for his eldest fon Peter; the prefent duke; 1769, abdicated in his favour; and, in 1772, clofed at Mittau, in the eightythird year of his age, a life of almost unparalleled viciflitude."

"SIR,

"B10

IOGRAPHY in general affords fo much instruction and entertainment, where the fubjects are of fufficient importance to lay claim to the public notice and regard, that I cannot help looking upon it to be incumbent upon every one to contribute his mite, who has at all in his power, towards enabling an author, that is induced to engage in fuch a purpose, to render his work as complete as poffible. Chance having therefore led me to caft my eye, while I was at Cheltenham, upon an advertisement in the Gloucefter Journal, of the 15th inftant; wherein you announce an intention of publishing an Elay on the Life and Character of that great lawyer, the late Earl of Hardwicke, whofe inflexible integrity and eminent abilities gave a luftre fo many years to the courts of law and equity, wherein he practised at the bar, 47941

and afterwards prefided in Weftminfter-hall; and there being now but very few living, who had any relation to thefe courts, that are ca pable of tracing the perfonal knowledge and remembrance of him, fo far back as myself, I flatter myself it may poffibly not be unacceptable to you to be made acquainted with a few anecdotes relative to the late earl of Hardwicke, which may not have come to your knowledge from any other quarter; and which is my only inducement for furnishing you with the following particular:

"Mr. Philip Yorke was the fon (and I believe the only fon) of an eminent attorney, at Dover, in Kent, who, after giving him a proper education, and intending him for the bar, very judicioufly placed him with a Mr. Salkeld, a law agent, in the Temple; at that time a man of the first character for abilities and bufinefs of any in his profeffion;

B

and

and not with fergeant Salkeld, as mifreprefented in the Biographia Britannica. And it is no lefs true, than it was an extraordinary circumftance, that this Mr. Salkeld had, in his office, nearly about the fame time, for the like purpose, Mr. Jocelyn, lord chancellor of Ireland; Mr. Parker, who was afterwards fir Thomas Parker, and lived to be many years lord chief baron of the court of exchequer; as alfo Mr. John Strange, afterwards fir John Strange, who died mafter of the Rolls.

"Mr. Yorke, by his uncommon affiduity and attention, made himfelf thoroughly acquainted with the grounds and principles of the common law; and having been entered a ftudent in the Temple, he reguJarly attended the court of King's Bench, for the purpofe of being called to the bar; and in order thereto, it being neceflary for him to keep commons, by dining in the Temple-hall, he had the good fortune, by that means, to become aequainted with Mr. Parker, the fon of lord Macclesfield, then chief-juftice, who was at that time a fudent alfo at the Temple: fuch an ac quaintance foon proved a very favourable circunftance to Mit. Yorke; for, upon the chief-juftice afking his fon, Mr. Parker, whether he had made any and what acquaintance among the young men of his own ftanding, Mr. Parker took occafion to tell his father, that he had contracted an intimacy with Mr. Philip Yorke, whom he reprefented to his father to be not only a very agree able companion, but a very intelli. gent young man; upon which the chief-juftice, being naturally pleafed with his fon's having made fo good a choice of a companion, told him, he fhould be glad to fee Mr. Yorke, and to bring him to dine with him,

which Mr. Parker foon afterwards did. So fortunate an introduction, as well may be imagined, foon enabled a young man of Mr. Yorke's prudence and abilities to recommend himself to the efteem and regard, and confequently to the friendhip, of lord Macclesfield, which continued without interruption fo long as his lordfhip lived; who took every occafion that offered to dif tinguifh Mr. Yorke as his particular favourite, as well when he prefided in the court of king's bench, as afterwards in the court of chancery, when he became lord high chancellor of Great Britain; and when lord Macclesfield was fo unfortunate as to be impeached by the houfe of commons, on account of some mifdemeanor in the execution of his office, Mr. Yorke, who was at that time attorney-general, and knighted, was fo fenfible of his obligations to his lordship, that he got himself excufed, though not without fome difficulty, from being appointed one of the managers for carrying on the profecution, in confequence of the impeachment.

Mr. Yorke, by means of his own merit, and the countenance he was known to have from the court, made fo rapid a progress in his profeffion, that he had foon as much bufinefs as he could well go through with; which gave occafion to judge Powis to make him a compliment, that, in the manner it was made, terminated more to Mr. Yorke's credit, as a young man of readywit, than to the judge's good fenfe. The affair was this-Mr. juftice Powis, who had been trying caufes at fome one of the aflizes, in the circnit he went, being at dinner, and feveral of the counfel with him, amongst whom was Mr. Yorke, took occafion to make Mr. Yorke fome compliment, by telling him, he could not but be

greatly