and cherish on the subject is, that the service of the public may be ably, disinterestedly, and faithfully performed. To those who feel for their country, as I wish to do, and will strive to do, it matters little who are out or in; but it matters much that her affairs be conducted with wisdom, with firmness, with dignity, and credit. Those entrusted to my care I will resign, let me hope, into hands much better qualified to do them justice than mine. But I will not mimic the parade of the right honourable gentleman, in avowing an indiscriminate opposition to whoever may be appointed to succeed. I will march out with no warlike, no hostile, no menacing protestations; but hoping the new administration will have no other object in view, than the real and substantial welfare of the community at large: that they will bring with them into office those truly public and patriotic principles, which they formerly held, but which they abandoned in opposition: that they will save the state, and promote the great purposes of general good, with as much steadiness, integrity, and solid advantage, as I am confident it must one day appear the Earl of Shelburne and his colleagues have done; I promise them before hand, my uniform and best support upon every occasion where I can honestly and conscientiously assist them.

"In short, Sir, whatever appears dishonourable or inadequate in the peace on your table is strictly chargeable to the noble lord in the blue ribbon, whose profusion of the public money, whose notorious temerity and obstinacy in prosecuting the war, which originated in his pernicious and oppressive policy, and whose utter incapacity to fill the station he occupied, rendered a peace of any description indispensable to the preservation of the state. The small part which fell to my share in that ignominious transaction, was divided with a set of men, whom the dispassionate public must, on reflection, unite to honour. Unused as I am to the factions and jarring clamours of this day's debate, I look up to the independent part of the house, and to the public at large, if not for that impartial approbation which my conduct deserves, at least for that acquittal from blame to which my innocence entitles me. I have ever been most anxious to do my utmost for the interests of my country; it has been my sole concern to act an honest and upright part; and I am disposed to think every instance of my official department will bear a fair and honourable

construction. With these intentions I ventured forward on the public attention, and can appeal with some degree of confidence to both sides of the house for the consistency of my political conduct. My earliest impressions were in favour of the noblest and most disinterested modes of serving the public: these impressions are still dear, and will, I hope, remain ever dear in my heart: I will cherish them as a legacy, infinitely more valuable than the greatest inheritance. On these principles alone I came into Parliament, and into place; and I now take the whole house to witness that I have never been under the necessity of contradicting one public declaration I have ever made.

"I am, notwithstanding, at the disposal of this house, and with their decision, whatever it may be, I will cheerfully comply. It is impossible to deprive me of those feelings which must always result from the sincerity of my best endeavours to fulfil, with integrity, every official engagement. You may take from me, Sir, the privileges and emoluments of place, but you cannot, and you shall not, take from me those habitual and warm regards for the prosperity of Great Britain, which constitute the honour, the happiness, the pride of my life; and which, I trust, death alone can extinguish. And with this consolation, the loss of power, Sir, and the loss of fortune, though I affect not to despise them, I hope I shall soon be able to forget:

Laudo manentem; si celeres quatit
Pennas, resigno quæ dedit-

probamque.

Pauperiem sine dote quæro."

This is a very long, but a most valuable extract: valuable for its own beauties, and valuable for the illustration it reflects over this sketch. No analysis, however minute, could create an equal impression; and no description, however finished, afford the same satisfaction. At an early, but a vigorous period, it exhibits the full capacity of his mind, and the ample extent of his acquirements; proves the merit of his principles, the spirit of his character, and the fairness of his conduct; and displays almost every feature which distinguished the style of his eloquence. Here, therefore,

matter.

while the proof is still fresh, it may be as well to enter upon an estimate of his qualifications as a speaker. That these were of the first order, is admitted on all sides, for they were universally admired: he had a good voice, and calm appropriate enunciation; His words flowed with but gave no care to action, or to attitude. a most engaging ease; his periods were rounded with an imposing art; he chose his expressions with felicity, always used a solid line of argument, and adopted a fine logical arrangement of his Added to all this, his address was most dexterous: upon a complicated subject no one knew better how to single out and enforce the points that most suited, or to evade those others that least answered his purposes. His tone was moderate, his manner persuasive, and the tenor of his remarks invariably marked by pure sensibleness and highly energetic thoughts. He had not the majestic strength of his father, who seemed to triumph rather by lifting himself up above his subject and his adversary, than by condescending to carry on an equal contest with him; nor had he the lusty earnestness of Fox, who entered the lists of discussion with a generous feeling, and sought to conquer, by laying aside all art and stratagem, and aspired to overthrow his enemy upon his greatest vantage ground; and yet, perhaps he was a more complete orator than either the one of these great men, or the other. Burke is removed out of the parallel of a comparison by the universality of his accomplishments; Grattan, ever unique and original, surpassed him with clear distinction; and Sheridan also exceeded him in wit and brilliancy. Still Mr. Pitt's eloquence was excellently adapted to the nature of his wants: equally discreet and determined, as the leader of a state majority, he oftener thought it prudent to confirm the reasonableness of government, than to dissipate the liberality of opposition, and thus acquired a peculiar tact, rather in upsetting any effect they might chance to make upon his own friends, than in contesting their questions with the same powers by which alone they were enabled to succeed. Hence, too, the nobler attributes, and nicer beauties of the art, are rarely discovered in his speeches: he appears to possess no passion, and but little heart; his imagination seldom expands, and he abounds not at all with standard propositions, profound discoveries, or an enlarged policy. Sarcasm and irony were almost the only auxiliaries to

which he resorted; but of them his use was fine, and his power deep.

Being dislodged from his first seat of office, after an immature administration of eight months, he conducted himself with patriotic decency. Embittered by no apparent disappointment, and animated by no resentment, he revived his motion for a parliamentary reform, in the session of 1783, with all his natural ability; and not only seconded, but outstepped the coalition ministry, in their enactments for a reduction of the taxes, and an abrogation of useless places, with the most disinterested propriety. Ere long, however, the bold policy of Mr. Fox's India Bill startled him into vigorous opposition, and after a month's combat on this subject, he was reinstated in his rank, at the head of the Exchequer and Treasury, on the 17th of September. The principle of Mr. Fox's bill has already been noticed in the life of that statesman, and the conciliative emendations which Mr. Pitt now introduced upon it may be shortly distinguished. He left the commerce of the East India Company independent, he gave them a primitive patronage of civil and military offices, but insisted, that once appointed, their servants should be promoted by seniority; he left them the choice of a governor-general, but gave the nomination of a commander-in-chief to the crown; and retained Mr. Fox's idea of a Board of Control, and improved Judicature, with this difference, that the government, and not either parliament or the company, obtained the privilege of composing the one institution or the other.

This knotty measure once firmly urged through a fierce opposition, he prosecuted his administration with a decided majority for the term of eighteen years. The history of such a period—one, too, more than ordinarily consequential, cannot be adequately written in a confined space; but the pre-eminent circumstances which characterize it may be selected and described. After triumphantly breaking up the coalition by a new election in 1784, he became a representative for the University of Cambridge-that Cambridge too, which had spurned him with insult only a year before, but now received him with open arms. He was honoured with the freedom of London, presented to him in a flattering address from the Chamberlain Wilks, and entertained with popular splendour in the city. A

reputation so grateful was not to be rashly hazarded, and, accordingly, he preserved an air of consistency, by making a few motions in favour of parliamentary reform, but failed to reap any benefit, because he left that vital question open, as the phrase is, to the sense of the house, which, if sincerely dictated, ought to have been earnestly enforced by all the influence of office. But the praise which he forfeited in one way he acquired in another : he contracted a favourable treaty of commerce with France, and paid a very meritorious attention to the finances of the country. Two projects for a war with Russia and Spain, which he next entertained, seemed likely to endanger his prosperity; but his grounds were futile, and he was preserved from the ordeal by the sense of the country at large, guided by the discretion of Mr. Fox, and his coadjutors. His disagreement with Russia was provoked by an unimportant dispute between that power and Turkey, respecting the occupation of Oczacow, while the peltry of Nootka Sound instigated him to a quarrel with Spain for those fatal possessions-the Falkland Islands. Recovering from such injudicious propensities, he retrieved his character by amicable treaties, and was thus enabled to secure a powerful support Tor his subsequent contest with revolutionary France. Though the opposition which he encountered throughout this undertaking was violent, it is nevertheless demonstrable that he was far from acting with precipitation, or without reason. The policy of the French concerning the opening of the Scheldt interfered directly with our commercial interests; and the fatuity of their decrees in favour of universal fraternity was nationally offensive and constructively hostile. The debatable point, therefore, was, whether such proceedings justified a war. Mr. Pitt thought they did, and he must be admitted to have elucidated his opinion with signal talents. The valuable conquests, and bright victories which he obtained in the issue, reconciled the majority of the nation to his views; his adversaries continued vainly to deplore the waste of money and loss of blood with which they were bought; but their alternative was not tried; and as a whole people are seldom inclined to contrast prospective losses with present gain, he revelled in all the satisfaction of national success.

There remain two more passages of his administration to be particularly mentioned: the first involves his conduct in repressing the liberty of the subject, on account of the excitement which was