this Mr. Fox immediately resigned his secretaryship. His resignation produced confusion, and the Duke of Newcastle and the rest of his Majesty's servants resigned also. This distressed the King extremely, and left him in a situation not to be envied. He complained bitterly to those about him

of their ill treatment.

"At the earnest request of the King, the Duke of Devonshire took the Duke of Newcastle's place at the treasury, and again waited on Mr. Pitt at Hayes, with a message from his Majesty, requesting to know the terms upon which he would come into office. Mr. Pitt gave his arrangement. Himself to be Secretary of State; Lord Temple, First Lord of the Admiralty; Mr. Legge, Chancellor of the Exchequer; the Great Seal to be in commission; George Grenville, Treasurer of the Navy; and James Grenville, a Lord of the Treasury."*

At Mr. Pitt's desire, Charles Pratt Esq., afterwards Lord Camden, was made Attorney General.

What an idea does this convey of the mighty power and the virtuous influence of William Pitt. His vast popularity was a different thing from that which elevated John Wilkes, and inflated him to a monstrous size, frightful to the eye of reason and good order. Pitt had built for himself a solid reputation grounded upon virtue, honor, an honest patriotism, a character so respectable as in a manner to compel a monarch who hated him, to solicit him repeatedly to become his prime minister. With this great weight of character, and with a matchless power of eloquence, Mr. Pitt became Prime Minis

In other words, he took the helm of a crazy ship in a tempestuous season, with a miserable crew, and but three or four good officers; and yet, in due time, no ship of state, since the ark of Noah, ever sailed the ocean so gallantly.

When Pitt came into office, he stipulated certain conditions which were very extraordinary. He insisted that Lord Anson should be excluded from the cabinet; nor was that all, he in

* Almon's Anecdotes of Chatham.

sisted that he himself should have the correspondence with the officers of the navy instead of the board of admiralty, and the King consented to it. Under this arrangement, Mr. Pitt wrote the instructions to the Admirals of the fleet, and to the Commodores and Captains, and these were signed by at least three of the Lords of the Admiralty, while a sheet of white paper covered the writing, so that they were kept in ignorance of what they signed, while all despatches and letters came to Mr. Pitt, who was Secretary of State, and at the same time Prime Minister. Lord Anson retained his place as First Lord of the Admiralty, under Pitt's limitation, and Mr. Fox took the pay office; and with these officers Pitt commenced his glorious administration in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-seven; the brightest period of English history since the REVOLUTION of 1688.

CHAPTER IV.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM, CONTINUED.

LET us look back on some of the ground we have run too rapidly over.

GEORGE the Second had little or no affection for his eldest son, and it would seem not much for his grandson, who was never taught to respect him. Royal families, all the world over, have less affection for each other than those of untitled rank. The aged monarch had been deserted by his ministers in a very unfeeling manner. In this state of perplexity, the venerable Duke of Devonshire, knowing that the Sovereign needed both consolation and advice, asked an audience; in the course of it, he entreated the King to recall Mr. Pitt and place him at the head of the administration, as the only man, who, by his extraordinary talents, unbounded popularity, and integrity, could redeem the government from confusion. It is said that the King shed tears on recounting the unfeeling treatment of his late ministers, declared himself willing to follow the advice of Devonshire, and therefore requested the Duke to make application to Mr. Pitt, as we have related. In the conference, Pitt said to his Grace, "My Lord! I am sure I can save this country, and nobody else can." This would have been arrogance from the lips of any other man. But he knew the state of the country better than any one else; and he knew also his own powers and means. This enabled him to say to the King on his first private audience, "Sire, give me your confidence, and 1 will deserve it." What can convey a better idea of the venerable monarch than his prompt reply,"Deserve my confidence, and you shall have it." There is a

degree of sublimity in the sentiment of both. "George the Second, though not possessed of brilliant talents, yet, to a strong firmness of mind, he added a long experience of men and public affairs, with a sufficient share of penetration to distinguish, even in his present short acquaintance with Mr. Pitt, that he was a bold and intelligent minister; qualities which were perfectly agreeable to the King, because the want of personal courage was not amongst his defects."* The minister perceived, from time to time, that he could manage his master to the benefit of his country; and during the remainder of the King's life they acted together in harmony, and the nation saw and rejoiced at the union and cordiality of opinion between the Sovereign and his popular minister upon all public measures.

Before Pitt assumed the administration of the government, Britain had sustained losses and incurred disgraces in Europe, in Asia, and America. All public transactions were reduced to party feelings. This perplexed and discouraged officers abroad, who knew not how to act, and they became of course languid and dispirited in their military operations, and in their civil governments. In this country, the French were encroaching every day upon us. Their soldiers were superior to the British in discipline, and they had better officers, and beside that, the friendship of the Indians. The defeat of the over confident General Braddock, and the shameful inactivity and incapacity of Lord Loudon, left open a wide avenue to the conquest of these colonies.

When the two leaders of the late administration, the Duke of Newcastle and Henry Fox, were constrained to quit their hold on the government, they left enough of the leaven of the Leicester-House faction behind to disturb and thwart the new minister. The press teemed with abuse against him; even with sarcasms on his bodily infirmities. If the old court at St. James's was restored from its gloom by the presence of Pitt, the new one at Leicester-House was considered by some

* Almon's Anecdotes.

no better than an impure nest in which was hatched a brood of evil designs against English and American liberty. A coterie assembled there unfriendly to the old monarch and his minister. The state of public manners was deplorable. Heroic virtue seemed to have fled, leaving in its place indolence, a sickliness of mind, a lack of spirit, a love of money with their miserable offspring, a habit of gaming carried on with a view to indulge in laziness, finery, and effeminacy; and this engendered venality, or an utter disregard to every thing but self-interest. This deterioration of mannners and principles was bred and nurtured in that hot-bed of corruption formed by Sir Robert Walpole. It appears strange that a hardy, stubborn, courageous people, as the British actually are, should have sunk into this effeminacy, after giving such evidence of bravery and patient endurance in the times of Charles the First and of Cromwell, and in the reign of Queen Anne. But so it really was. A sunless state of peace generated foul excrescences, and produced a morbid condition in the body-politic. The people of England were so sunk below their former character as to be absolutely dismayed at the incursion of a few half-naked, ill-appointed Scotchmen in 1745, and had recourse to foreign troops for protection. Pitt derided this step with his utmost powers of sarcasm; and proclaimed that state alone a sovereign state, "qui suis stat viribus, non alieno pendet arbitrio."

A

The condition of things was at that time deplorable. powerful writer of that day,* says,-" Let us, with due abasement of heart, acknowledge that the love of country is no longer felt, and that, except in a few minds of uncommon greatness, the principle of public spirit EXISTS NOT.. That mighty principle, so often feigned, so seldom possessed, which it requires the united force of upright manners, generous religion, and unfeigned honor to support. So infatuated are we in the contempt of this powerful principle, that we deride the inhabi

* Rev. Dr. Brown's Estimate of the Manners and Principles of the Times. London, 1757. (Seventh Edition in 1758.)