202 BRODRICK. Pyne, chief justice of the king's bench in Ireland, he was appointed his successor. On this occasion the author of the Life of Thomas, Earl of Wharton, who was then lord- lieutenant, observes, " that he procured that high post for one of the most worthy patriots of that kingdom, as an instance of the care he took of the security of religion and liberty." By this promotion, being raised to the house of peers, he took his seat on the woolsack on the 19th of May, 1710; and received the thanks of the commons for his faithful and eminent services to that house, during the time of his being speaker. In 1711, the queen, on changing her ministry, removed Brodrick from this high situation, in which he was succeeded by Sir Richard Cox. In 1713, he was returned to parliament for the county of Cork, and was again invested with the dignity of speaker, a more ample proof of his abilities, and judgment in the exercise of that arduous office, than the common-place routine of votes of thanks. Indeed, his constant and faithful attach- ment to the laws and establisbments of his country were eminently conspicuous; and he exerted himself with so much diligence in securing the succession of the crown to the House of Hanover, that George I. immediately on his succession, preferred him to the dignity of lord high chancellor of Ireland; and soon after advanced him to the peerage, by the name of Baron Brodrick, of Midleton. From this time he continued in great favour with the government, and was frequently appointed one of the lords justices during the absence of the lord-lieutenant, and in 1717, he was created Viscount Midleton. He was after- wards chosen a member of the British parliament for Midhurst, in Sussex; and died in February 1727.
