THOMAS PARKER, FIRST EARL OF MACCLESFIELD, [WAS As born in 1667, and if not a native was long a resident at Derby, where he followed the profession of an attorney. Abilities and industry procured him practice, that practice brought money, and money consequence. These united introduced him into the office of recorder, which opened a wider field for his talents. He soon became a pleader at the bar, travelled the midland circuit, acquired additional estimation, was denominated "the silver-tongued counsel," and found interest enough in 1705 to cause himself to be returned a member for the borough of Derby with lord James Cavendish. Having now ascended into a political atmosphere, where his talents beamed with more diffusive brightness, he made rapid advances towards preferment. He was knighted in June 1705, and appointed queen's serjeant. The commons, sensible of his powers, chose him one of their managers in the trial of Dr. Sacheverell, which he conducted with great ability. In 1710 he was made lord chief justice of the king's bench; and refused the chancellor's seals because his sentiments did not coincide with those of the Harleian ministry. He was created baron Parker in 1716, viscount • Collins's Peerage, vol. v. p. 45. Parker of Ewelme, in 1718, and then accepted the seals. 3 In 1721 he was further created earl of Macclesfield, and continued lord chancellor till 1725, when he was accused of selling places in Chancery, brought to trial, and fined 30,000l. 4 The king called for the council-book, and with a sigh dashed out his name. The lord chancellor had committed a fault, says his biographer, but such a one as is every day committed: discovery constituted its criminality. Unhappily for his lordship, party-rage ran high3; and a brand was fixed upon his name which never wore out. The accomplished lord Macclesfield retired during the last eight years of his life to Derby, where he resigned his earthly existence as a Christian, on April 28. 1732. 6 Mr. Gutch, in his Collectanea Curiosa 7, has printed from a communicated manuscript, s' He succeeded earl Cowper, and on his friendly recommendation readily concurred in permitting Hughes, the poet, to retain his place as secretary for the commissions of the peace. Cibber's Lives, vol. iv. p. 28. Young inscribed to him his paraphrase on Job, and Hughes has tributary stanzas to chancellor Parker. 4 His trial was published in 1725, by order of lord-chancellor King, and filled 284 folio pages. Of a disgraced favourite the excellencies are forgotten, and the errors magnified. Staffordshire, it was said on this occasion, had produced three of the greatest rogues that ever existed - Jack Sheppard, Jonathan Wild, and lord Macclesfield. Hutton's Hist. of Derby, p. 287. 5 It must be presumed, however, that the charges were fully proved, as out of ninety-three peers who gave judgment, there was not one who pronounced- Not Guilty. 6 Hutton's Derby, p. 290. 7 Vol. ii. p. 53. "A Memorial relating to the Universities:" which has generally been ascribed to lord chancellor Macclesfield, a just encourager of learning, and a known friend to the universities. This memorial appertains to the disloyal behaviour of the universities after the accession of George the first to the crown, and offers a proposition to amend and regulate such disloyalty, the substance of which may be reduced to these three heads: "I. By what methods learning and industry may be promoted in the universities, setting aside all party considerations. "II. What force may be necessary to cure the present disaffection of the universities. "III. What gentle methods may be of service to win them over to government." His lordship proposes in the first place, "That the choice of heads of houses, instead of being vested in the fellows, which occasions factions and intrigues, should be referred to the great officers of state, with such of the archbishops and bishops as shall be thought proper. That none should enjoy a fellowship longer than twenty years from being admitted actual fellow." And whereas his lordship found, "by the discourses he met with, that several, partly through the ignorance of the true state of the universities, partly through anger at the clergy for their unhappy behaviour of late years, and partly (as they think) to prevent the evil of the clergy increasing as they do beyond what there is employment for, propose taking away all obligations by the statutes to go into orders, and leaving all fellows to pursue what profession they please: he begs leave to offer the following observations : "That most of our founders designed their several colleges for seminaries of the clergy, in which way they may with ease be made very serviceable to the nation. "That the too great increase of the clergy, is not from the fellows of colleges (scarce one in ten of the parochial clergy or their curates having ever been fellows), but from servitors, batchelors, and others, who spent but four or five years in the universities. "That the ill disposition of the clergy over the nation is owing to the small share of sense, learning, and knowledge of the world, that those persons must be supposed to have from their short stay in the university, and the meanness of their circumstances, and to the great opinion they have of the judgment of the university, where they did not live long enough to discover that the senior part of the university are no such great men as they pass for with the youth; and so these men are duly qualified to be the most noisy and zealous tools of faction in the hands of cunning men in greater posts. "That 'tis seen that the nobility and gentry, and other laymen that come from the universities, prove as generally disaffected to the government as those in orders, so that it is not the going into orders that spoils men. "That in those colleges where most liberty is allowed as to orders, they have sent out as few fellows into the service of their country, as where they were most confined. "That, generally speaking, those who have the faculty-places get them purely to avoid going into orders, and that they may live a more gay life without designing to follow any profession. "8 His lordship's primary resource for counteracting the political evils towards which his memorial is directed, was to found a professorship in both universities for the study of the law of nature and nations: but some other considerations are adduced, which may not be unworthy the perusal of those sages who preside at our well-springs of academic learning.] 8 Dr. Knox, in his Liberal Education, is of opinion " that students should not in general reside more than seven years in any university; because, secluded from the pains and pleasures of sympathy, they sink into a selfishness and indolence, no less fatal to enjoyment than to improvement. Those, however, who are really engaged in teaching, in lecturing, or in superintending morals, may certainly reside without local injury, as long as their circumstances and inclination shall require. All others are most truly characterized by the appellation of the drones of society, ignavum pecus." |