He had meditated going still greater lengths. Lord Lincoln, whom he particularly hated, was Auditor of the Exchequer for life, the amplest sinecure in England, except the Archbishoprick of Canterbury. Some other great patent-places were held by men then in Opposition. Fox himself enjoyed a very considerable one in Ireland; yet so much did his thirst of vengeance surmount his interest, that a question was put to the Chancellor, whether the King could not take away patents bestowed in former reigns, and whether the case might not be laid before the twelve Judges. The Chancellor, who had fits of bluntness and honesty, or prophetically affectionate to grants for life, so profusely heaped on him afterwards, replied, “Yes, they might lay the idea before the Judges, and then refer Magna Charta to them afterwards, to decide on that too.” Norton, Solicitor-General, as bold and as blunt, but never as honest as Lord Northington, being consulted to the same point, advised to take away the places, and then see if the law would restore them. This man now rose from obscure infamy to that infamous fame which long will stick to him. It was known that in private causes he took money from both parties, and availed himself against one or other of them of the lights they had communicated to him.[291] Yet his abilities were so good, and his knowledge so great, that no man had more extensive practice in Westminster Hall. In Parliament he had for some years been disregarded; but his foul tongue and causidical boldness, his clearness in argument or facility in assertion, his attachment to Lord Mansfield, and his total alienation from all principle, offered him as a proper tool to a Court that was to wade through the letter of the law to the demolition of the spirit. Yet his authority alone could not encourage such a violation of justice as had now been in agitation. The Favourite, too, and the Favourite’s favourites, might think it more eligible to leave patent places unmolested; they must have coveted them more than they could wish, to render them precarious. The Duke of Cumberland, on these harsh proceedings, said to Lord Waldegrave, “Fox has deceived me grossly--not, as you think, by giving me up; he might be as angry with me for talking to Newcastle and Pitt--but he has deceived me, for I thought him good-natured; but in all these transactions he has shown the bitterest revenge and inhumanity.”