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1ST See also:EARL See also: He sat in See also:parliament four years, but did not distinguish himself as a debater . His professional practice now largely increased . One of the most noticeable incidents of his See also:tenure of See also:office as attorney-general was the prosecution of Dr . J . Shebbeare (1709-1788), a violent party writer of the See also:day, for a libel against the government contained in his notorious Letters to the See also:People of England, which were published in the years 1756-1758 . As a See also:proof of Pratt's moderation in a See also:period of passionate party warfare and frequent See also:state trials, it is noted that this was the only See also:official prosecution for libel which he set on See also:foot . In See also:January 1762 Pratt was raised to the bench as chief-justice of the common pleas . He was at the same See also:time knighted . Soon after his See also:elevation the nation was thrown into See also:great excitement about the prosecution of John Wilkes, and the question involved in it of the legality of " general warrants." Chief-Justice Pratt pronounced, with decisive and almost passionate See also:energy, against their legality, thus giving See also:voice to the strong feeling of the nation and winning for himself an extraordinary degree of popularity as one of the " maintainers of See also:English constitutional See also:liberty." Honours See also:fell thick upon him in the See also:form of addresses from the See also:city of See also:London and many large towns, and of presentations of freedom from various corporate bodies . In See also:July 1765 he was raised to the See also:peerage as See also:Baron See also:Camden, of Camden See also:Place, in the See also:county of See also:Kent; and in the following year he was removed from the See also:court of common pleas to take his seat as lord chancellor (July 30, 1766) . This seat he retained less than four years; for although he discharged its duties in so efficient a manner that, with one exception, his decisions were never 'reversed on See also:appeal, he took up a position of such uncompromising hostility to the governments of the day, the See also:Grafton and See also:North administrations, on the greatest and most exciting matters, the treatment of the See also:American colonies and the proceedings against John Wilkes, that the government had no choice but to require of him the surrender of the great See also:seal . He retired from the court of See also:chancery in January 1770, but he continued to take a warm See also:interest in the See also:political affairs and discussions of the time . He continued steadfastly to oppose the See also:taxation of the American colonists, and signed, in 1778, the protest of the Lords in favour of an address to the king on the subject of the manifesto of the commissioners to See also:America . In 1782 he was appointed See also:president of the See also:council under the See also:Rockingham See also:administration, but retired in the following year . Within a few months he was reinstated in this office under the Pitt administration, and held it till his See also:death . Lord Camden was a strenuous opponent of See also:Fox's See also:India See also:Bill, took an animated See also:part in the debates on important public matters till within two years of his death, introduced in 1786 the See also:scheme of a regency on occasion of the king's See also:insanity, and to the last zealously defended his early views on the functions of juries, especially of their right to decide on all questions of libel . He was raised to the dignity of an earl in May 1786, and was at the same time created See also:Viscount Bayham . Earl Camden died in London on the 18th of See also:April 1794 . His remains were interred in Seale church in Kent . |
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