The majority had been so decisive, that [abominable; but it mattered less as the all the opponents of the ministry, save one, prorogation was at hand. He would give were disposed to let the bill pass without the delinquents one more chance. If they any further contention. But solicitation did not alter their conduct next session, he and expostulation were thrown away on should not have one word to say for them. Grenville. His indomitable spirit rose up He had already resolved that, long before stronger and stronger under the load of pub- the commencement of the next session, lic hatred. He fought out the battle obsti-Lord Rockingham should cease to be minnately to the end. On the last reading he ister. had a sharp altercation with his brother-inlaw, the last of their many sharp altercations. Pitt thundered in his loftiest tones against the man who had wished to dip the ermine of a British King in the blood of the British people. Grenville replied with his wonted intrepidity and asperity. If the tax,' he said, 'were still to be laid on, I would lay it on. For the evils which it may produce my accuser is answerable. His profusion made it necessary. His declarations against the constitutional powers of King, Lords, and Commons, have made it doubly necessary. I do not envy him the huzza. I glory in the hiss. If it were to be done again, I would do it.'

The repeal of the Stamp Act was the chief measure of Lord Rockingham's government. But that government is entitled to the praise of having put a stop to two oppressive practices, which, in Wilkes's case, had attracted the notice and excited the just indignation of the public. The House of Commons was induced by the ministers to pass a resolution, condemning the use of general warrants, and another resolution, condemning the seizure of papers in cases of libel.

It must be added, to the lasting honor of Lord Rockingham, that his administration was the first which, during a long course of years, had the courage and the virtue to refrain from bribing members of Parliament. His enemies accused him and his friends of weakness, of haughtiness, of party spirit; but calumny itself never dared to couple his name with corruption.

Unhappily his government, though one of the best that has ever existed in our country, was also one of the weakest. The King's friends assailed and obstructed the ministers at every turn. To appeal to the King was only to draw forth new promises and new evasions. His Majesty was sure that there must be some misunderstanding. Lord Rockingham had better speak to the gentlemen. They should be dismissed on the next fault. The next fault was soon committed, and his Majesty still continued to shuffle. It was too bad. It was quite

We have now come to a part of our story which, admiring as we do the genius and the many noble qualities of Pitt, we cannot relate without much pain. We believe that, at this conjuncture, he had it in his power to give the victory either to the Whigs or to the King's friends. If he had allied himself closely with Lord Rockingham, what could the court have done? There would have been only one alternative, the Whigs or Grenville; and there could be no doubt what the King's choice would be. He still remembered, as well he might, with the utmost bitterness, the thraldom from which his uncle had freed him, and said about this time, with great vehemence, that he would sooner see the devil come into his closet than Grenville.

And what was there to prevent Pitt from allying himself with Lord Rockingham ? On all most important questions their views were the same. They had agreed in condemning the peace, the Stamp Act, the general warrants, the seizure of papers. The points on which they differed were few and unimportant. In integrity, in disinterestedness, in hatred of corruption, they resembled each other. Their personal interests could not clash. They sat in different Houses, and Pitt had always declared that nothing should induce him to be first lord of the treasury.

If the opportunity of forming a coalition. beneficial to the state, and honorable to all concerned, was suffered to escape, the fault was not with the Whig ministers. They behaved towards Pitt with an obsequiousness which, had it not been the effect of sincere admiration and of anxiety for the public interests, might have been justly called servile. They repeatedly gave him to understand that, if he chose to join their ranks, they were ready to receive him, not as an associate, but as a leader. They had proved their respect for him by bestowing a peerage on the person who, at that time, enjoyed the largest share of his confidence, Chief-Justice Pratt. What then was there to divide Pitt from the Whigs? What, on the other hand, was there in common be

tween him and the King's friends, that he should lend himself to their purposes-he who had never owed any thing to flattery, or intrigue, he whose eloquence and independent spirit had overawed two generations of slaves and jobbers, he who had twice been forced by the enthusiasm of an admiring nation on a reluctant Prince?

which ought to have roused their apprehensions. His habits were gradually becoming more and more eccentric. A horror of all loud sounds, such as is said to have been one of the many oddities of Wallenstein, grew upon him. Though the most affectionate of fathers, he could not at this time bear to hear the voices of his own children, and laid out great sums at Hayes in buying up houses contiguous to his own, merely that he might have no neighbors to disturb him with their noise. He then sold Hayes, and took possession of a villa at Hampstead, where he again began to purchase houses to right and left. In expense, indeed, he vied, during this part of his life, with the wealthiest of the conquerors of Bengal and Tanjore. At Burton Pynsent, he ordered a great extent of ground to be planted with cedars. Cedars enough for the purpose were not to be found in Somersetshire. They were therefore collected in London,

Unhappily the court had gained Pitt, not, it is true, by those ignoble means which were employed when such men as Rigby and Wedderburn were to be won, but by allurements suited to a nature noble even in its aberrations. The King set himself to seduce the one man who could turn the Whigs out without letting Grenville in. Praise, caresses, promises, were lavished on the idol of the nation. He, and he alone, could put an end to faction, could bid defiance to all the powerful connections in the land united, Whigs and Tories, Rockinghams, Bedfords, and Grenvilles. These blandishments produced a great effect. and sent down by land carriage. Relays For though Pitt's spirit was high and manly, though his eloquence was often exerted with formidable effect against the court, and though his theory of government had been learned in the school of Locke and Sidney, he had always regarded the person of the sovereign with profound veneration. As soon as he was brought face to face with royalty, his imagination and sensibility became too strong for his principles. His Whiggism thawed and disappeared; and he became, for the time, a Tory of the old Ormond pattern. Nor was he by any means unwilling to assist in the work of dissolving all political connections. His own weight in the state was wholly independent of such connections. He was therefore inclined to look on them with dislike, and made far too little distinction between gangs of knaves associated for the mere purpose of robbing the public, and confederacies of honorable men for the promotion of great public objects. Nor had he the sagacity to perceive that the strenuous efforts which he made to annihilate all parties tended only to establish the ascendency of one party, and that the basest and most hateful of all.

of laborers were hired; and the work went on all night by torchlight. No man could be more abstemious than Pitt; yet the profusion of his kitchen was a wonder even to epicures. Several dinners were always dressing; for his appetite was capricious and fanciful; and at whatever moment he felt inclined to eat, he expected a meal to be instantly on the table. Other circumstances might be mentioned, such as separately are of little moment, but such as, when taken together, and when viewed in connection with the strange events which followed, justify us in believing that his mind was already in a morbid state.

Soon after the close of the session of parliament, Lord Rockingham received his dismissal. He retired, accompanied by a firm body of friends, whose consistency and uprightness enmity itself was forced to admit. None of them had asked or obtained any pension or any sinecure, either in possession or in reversion. Such disinterestedness was then rare among politicians. Their chief, though not a man of brilliant talents, had won for himself an honorable fame, which he kept pure to the last. He It may be doubted whether he would had in spite of difficulties which seemed have been thus misled, if his mind had been almost insurmountable, removed great in full health and vigor. But the truth is, abuses and averted a civil war. Sixteen that he had for some time been in an un-years later, in a dark and terrible day, he natural state of excitement. No suspicions was again called upon to save the state, of this sort had yet got abroad. His elo- brought to the very brink of ruin by the quence had never shone with more splendor same perfidy and obstinacy which had emthan during the recent debates. But peo-barrassed, and at length overthrown, his ple afterwards called to mind many things first administration.

Pitt was planting in Somersetshire when I was indebted for an importance in the state he was summoned to court by a letter writ- which his own talents could never have ten with the royal hand. He instantly hast- gained for him. That importance had turnened to London. The irritability of his ed his head. He had begun to fancy that mind and body were increased by the ra- he could form administrations, and govern pidity with which he travelled; and when Empires. It was piteous to see a well-meanhe reached his journey's end he was suffer- ing man under such a delusion. ing from fever. Ill as he was, he saw the King at Richmond, and undertook to form an administration.

Pitt was scarcely in the state in which a man should be who has to conduct delicate and arduous negotiations. In his letters to his wife, he complained that the conferences in which it was necessary for him to bear a part heated his blood and accelerated his pulse. From other sources of information we learn, that his language, even to those whose co-operation he wished to engage, was strangely peremptory and despolic. Some of his notes written at this time have been preserved, and are in a style which Louis the Fourteenth would have been too well bred to employ in addressing any French gentleman.

In spite of all these difficulties, a ministry was made, such as the King wished to see, a Ministry in which all his Majesty's friends were comfortably accommodated, and which, with the exception of his Majesty's friends, contained no four persons who had ever in their lives been in the habit of acting together. Men who had never concurred in a single vote found themselves seated at the same board. The office of paymaster was divided between two persons who had never exchanged a word. Most of the chief posts were filled either by personal adherents of Pitt, or by members of the late ministry, who had been induced to remain in place after the dismissal of Lord Rockingham. To the former class belonged Pratt, now Lord Camden, who accepted the great seal, and Lord Shelburne, who was made one of the Secretaries of State. To the latter class belonged the Duke of Grafton, who became First Lord of the Treasury, and Conway, who kept his old position both in the government and in the House of Commons. Charles Townshend, who had belonged to every party, and cared for none, was Chancellor of the Exchequer. Pitt himself was declared prime minister, but refused to take any laborious office. He was created Earl of Chatham and the privy seal was delivered to him.

In the attempt to dissolve all parties, Pitt met with some difficulties. Some Whigs, whom the court would gladly have detached from Lord Rockingham, rejected all offers. The Bedfords were perfectly willing to break with Grenville; but Pitt would not come up to their terms. Temple, whom Pitt at first meant to place at the head of the treasury, proved intractable. A coldness indeed had, during some months, been fast growing between the brothers-inlaw, so long and so closely allied in politics. Pitt was angry with Temple for opposing the repeal of the Stamp Act. Temple was It is scarcely necessary to say, that the angry with Pitt for refusing to accede failure, the complete and disgraceful failure, to that family league which was now the of this arrangement, is not to be ascribed to favorite plan at Stowe. At length the Earl any want of talents in the persons whom proposed an equal partition of power and we have named. None of them were defipatronage, and offered, on this condition, to cient in abilities; and four of them, Pitt give up his brother George. Pitt thought himself, Shelburne, Camden, and Townthe demand exorbitant, and positively re- shend, were inen of high intellectual emifused compliance. A bitter quarrel follow- nence. The fault was not in the materials, ed. Each of the kinsmen was true to his but in the principle on which the materials character. Temple's soul festered with were put together. Pitt had mixed up spite, and Pitt's swelled into contempt. Temple represented Pitt as the most odious of hypocrites and traitors. Pitt held a different, and perhaps a more provoking tone. Temple was a good sort of man enough, whose single title to distinction was, that On the very day on which the new prime he had a large garden, with a large piece minister kissed hands, three-fourths of that of water, and a great many pavilions and popularity which he had long enjoyed withsummer-houses. To his fortunate connec-out a rival, and to which he owed the greattion with a great orator and statesman he er part of his authority, departed from him.

these conflicting elements, in the full confidence that he shouldbe able to keep them all in perfect subordination to himself, and in perfect harmony with each other. We shall soon see how the experiment succeeded.

A violent outcry was raised, not against The clamor against Pitt appears to that part of his conduct which really de- have had a serious effect on the foreign reserved severe condemnation, but against a lations of the country. His name had till step in which we can see nothing to cen- now acted like a spell at Versailles and sure. His acceptance of a peerage pro- Saint Ildefonso. English travellers on the duced a general burst of indignation. Yet Continent had remarked, that nothing more surely no peerage had ever been better was necessary to silence a whole room-full earned; nor was there ever a statesman of boasting Frenchmen, than to drop a hint who more needed the repose of the Upper of the probability that Mr. Pitt would return House. Pitt was now growing old. He to power. In an instant there was deep siwas much older in constitution than in lence: all shoulders rose, and all faces were years. It was with imminent risk to his lengthened. Now, unhappily, every foreign life that he had, on some important occa- court, in learning that he was recalled to sions, attended his duty in Parliament. Du- office, learned also that he no longer posring the session of 1764, he had not been sessed the hearts of his countrymen. Ceasable to take part in a single debate. It ing to be loved at home, he ceased to be was impossible that he should go through feared abroad. The name of Pitt had been the nightly labor of conducting the busi-a charmed name. Our envoys tried in vain ness of the government in the House of to conjure with the name of Chatham. Commons. His wish to be transferred, The difficulties which beset Chatham under such circumstances, to a less busy were daily increased by the despotic manand a less turbulent assembly was natural ner in which he treated all around him. and reasonable. The nation, however, Lord Rockingham had, at the time of the overlooked all these considerations. Those change of ministry, acted with great moderwho had most loved and honored the great ation, had expressed a hope that the new Commoner, were loudest in invective against government would act on the principles of the new-made lord. London had hitherto the late government; and had even interbeen true to him through every vicissitude. fered to prevent many of his friends from When the citizens learned that he had been quitting office. Thus Saunders and Kepsent for from Somersetshire, that he had pel, two naval commanders of great emibeen closeted with the King at Richmond, nence, had been induced to remain at the and that he was to be first minister, they Admiralty, where their services were much had been in transports of joy. Prepara- needed. The Duke of Portland was still tions were made for a great entertainment. lord-chamberlain, and Lord Besborough and for a general illumination. The lamps postmaster. But within a quarter of a year, had actually been placed round the Monu- Lord Chatham had so effectually disgusted ment, when the Gazette announced that these men, that they all retired in deep disthe object of all their enthusiasm was an gust. In truth, his tone, submissive in the Earl. Instantly the feast was countermand- closet, was at this time insupportably tyraned. The lamps were taken down. The nical in the cabinet. His colleagues were newspapers raised the roar of obloquy. merely his clerks for naval, financial, and Pamphlets, made up of calumny and scuril- diplomatic business. Conway, meek as he ity, filled the shops of all the booksellers; was, was on one occasion provoked into deand of those pamphlets, the most galling claring that such language as Lord Chatwere written under the direction of the ma-ham's had never been heard west of Constanlignant Temple. It was now the fashion to compare the two Williams, William Pulteney and William Pitt. Both, it was said, had, by eloquence and simulated patriotism, acquired a great ascendency in the House The breach which had been made in the of Commons and in the country. Both had government by the defection of so many of been intrusted with the office of reforming the Rockinghams, Chatham hoped to supthe government. Both had, when at the ply by the help of the Bedfords. But with height of power and popularity, been seduc- the Bedfords he could not deal as he had ed by the splendor of the coronet. Both had dealt with other parties. It was to no purbeen made earls, and both had in a moment pose that he bade high for one or two membecome objects of aversion and scorn to the bers of the faction, in the hope of detachnation, which a few hours before had re-ing them from the rest. They were to be garded them with affection and veneration. had; but they were to be had only in the

tinople, and was with difficulty prevented by Horace Walpole from resigning, and rejoining the standard of Lord Rockingham.

lot. There was indeed for a moment some person was a member who was not conwavering and some disputing among them. nected with the government, and who neiBut at length the counsels of the shrewd they had, nor deserved to have, the ear of and resolute Rigby prevailed. They deter- the House-a noisy, purseproud, illiterate mined to stand firmly together, and plainly demagogue, whose Cockney English and intimated to Chatham that he must take scraps of mis-pronounced Latin were the them all, or that he should get none of jest of the newspapers-Alderman Beckthem. The event proved that they were ford. It may well be supposed that these wiser in their generation than any other strange proceedings produced a ferment connection in the state. In a few months through the whole political world. The they were able to dictate their own terms. city was in commotion. The East India The most important public measure of Company invoked the faith of charters. Lord Chatham's administration was his cel- Burke thundered against the ministers. ebrated interference with the corn-trade. The ministers looked at each other, and The harvest had been bad; the price of knew not what to say. In the midst of the food was high; and he thought it necessary confusion, Lord Chatham proclaimed. himto take on himself the responsibility of lay- self gouty, and retired to Bath. It was ing an embargo on the exportation of grain. announced, after some time, that he was When Parliament met, this proceeding was better, that he would shortly return, that attacked by the opposition as unconstitu- he would soon put every thing in order. tional, and defended by the ministers as in- A day was fixed for his arrival in London. dispensably necessary. At last, an act But when he reached the Castle inn at was passed to indemnify all who had been Marlborough, he stopped, shut himself up concerned in the embargo.

The first words uttered by Chatham, in the House of Lords, were in defence of his conduct on this occasion. He spoke with a calmness, sobriety, and dignity, well suited to the audience which he was addressing. A subsequent speech which he made on the same subject was less successful. He bade defiance to aristocratical connections, with a superciliousness to which the Peers were not accustomed, and with tones and gestures better suited to a large and stormy assembly than to the body of which he was now a member. A short altercation followed, and he was told very plainly that he should not be suffered to browbeat the old nobility of England.

in his room, and remained there some weeks. Every body who travelled that road was amazed by the number of his attendants. Footmen and grooms, dressed in his family livery, filled the whole inn, though one of the largest in England, and swarmed in the streets of the little town. The truth was, that the invalid had insisted that, during his stay, all the waiters and stable-boys of the Castle should wear his livery.

His colleagues were in despair. The Duke of Grafton proposed to go down to Marlborough in order to consult the oracle. But he was informed that Lord Chatham must decline all conversation on business. In the mean time, all the parties which It gradually became clearer and clearer were out of office, Bedfords, Grenvilles, that he was in a distempered state of mind. and Rockinghams, joined to oppose the His attention had been drawn to the terri- distracted government on the vote for the torial acquisitions of the East India Com-land-tax. They were reinforced by almost pany, and he determined to bring the all the county members, and had a considwhole of that great subject before Parlia- erable majority. This was the first time ment. He would not, however, confer on that a ministry had been beaten on an he subject with any of his colleagues. It important division in the House of Comwas in vain that Conway, who was charged mons since the fall of Sir Robert Walwith the conduct of business in the House pole. The administration, thus furiously of Commons, and Charles Townshend, who was responsible for the direction of the finances, begged for some glimpse of light as to what was in contemplation. Chatham's answers were sullen and mysterious. He must decline any discussion with them; he did not want their assistance; he had fixed on a person to take charge of his measure in the House of Commons. This

assailed from without, was torn by internal dissensions. It had been formed on no principle whatever. From the very first, nothing but Chatham's authority had prevented the hostile contingents which made up his ranks from going to blows with each other. That authority was now withdrawn, and every thing was in commotion. Conway, a brave soldier, but in civil affairs the