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a high and important political fituation) he would not have been fond of affociating, in a state of exhaltation, with young men, who knew, and laughed at him in a ftate of contempt. It is greatly to the credit, and forms a moft honourable frait in the character of Mr. Pitt, that he brought a number of his fchool and college companions, and friends, into fituations, both highly refpectable and comfortable. And it is alfo very honourable, for thofe fortunate young gentlemen, that they acquired and preferved the friendship of fuch a man as Mr. Pitt. As to this laft circumstance, indeed, the merit was not great. For, it is confirmed by uniform experience, that the friendships contracted by firong minds are as lafting as thofe entered into by fools are fluctuating and capricious. Mr. Pitt had not been long at the bar, when he was fent to parliament by the university of Cambridge. His very firft fpeech anfwered the expectations that had been formed of him, though these were 'extravagant. Soon after this, an unufual jarring of political faction, and perfonal animofity, invefted fo pro mifing and popular a youth, (for he then flood on very popular ground) and the fon of lord Chatham, with the offices of chancellor of the exchequer, and firft lord of the treafury. His popularity was at that period fo great, that a declaration of his, which, from any other perfon of his ftanding, would have given the higheft difguft, was applauded by many as a juft claim of confequence due to merit.

His father, lord Chatham, had confidently predicted, that, "if the British parliament thould not, before the clofe of the eighteenth century

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be reformed, by itfelf, or, in other words, within, it would be reformed without." Mr. Pitt, conformably to this prediction, declared loudly, at first, for a reformation of parliament: but after he had' become prime minifter, he found fufficient occupation in other objects.

After the termination of a war, expenfive beyond all paft example, the attention of the minifter was naturally called to regulations refpecting finance, commerce, and general industry and improvement. The public mind was occupied fome time by an effort to fettle a commercial intercourfe with Ireland; a commercial treaty concluded with France; a bill for regulating the affairs of India; and a variety of other defigns: but, above all, by fetting apart a million fterling, annually, for the gradual reduction of the national debt. A fpirit of innovation, infurre&tion, and wild uproar, afterwards known by the barbarous appellation of Jacobinijm, had been brewing in France, ever fince the return of the French army from the American war, in 1784, and in 1789 it broke out in a geneneral explosion. The fpirit of liberty was now too generally allied with that of infubordination: and Mr. Pitt could plead as he did plead, in excufe for not bringing forward any plan for parliamentary reform, that to agitate the public mind in fuch circumftances, might be followed by the moft calamitous confequences. But during the first years of his administration, the tranquillity of France had not been difturbed: nor did the opponents of Mr. Pitt give him credit for the fagacity of forefeeing, as a confe quence of the American revolution,

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fo fudden and great a revolution in that great country. They remarked, that amidst a variety of meafures, there was not a word of what appeared from his fpeeches, on his entry into the houfe of commons, to have been nearest his heart. Time elapfed, but no conjuncture was found aufpicious to the introduction of that great meafure into parliament, The times, indeed, became every day lefs and lefs fo. Mr. Pitt had a good excufe for putting off, if not altogether evading, a parliamentary reform at last, but not at firft: fo that the verfatility of his conduct, with regard to that point, muft, in the judgement of the moft candid, hang as a millftone about his neck; juft as that of Mr. Fox, refpecting India, muft ever hang as a millftone about his. Of the propriety, or impropriety, of a parliamentary reform, we fay nothing. Perhaps it might have been hazarded among fo temperate a people as the English, in 1784, or 1787, and perhaps not; but there did not appear at that period to be any reafon for Mr. Pitt's dereliction of the project.

If young men who undertake the conduct of great affairs want the advantage of experience, that difadvantage is not unufually, in fome meafure, compenfated by ardent zeal and application, and by a decided, bold, and ingenuous conduct, which gains confidence, conciliates affection, and fometimes confounds the policy of old and more artful politicians. Such was the character of John, duke of Argyle, who was colonel of a regiment during the war in Flanders, and at the head of affairs in Scotland at the fime of the union, when he was no more than twenty-two years of age. Mr. Pitt was indefatigable in ap

plication, and wholly fuperior to the influence of youthful pleasures; but his character was foon difcovered to be that of a wary, cautious, and artful, rather than that of an open and frank politician. The genius of youth was principally feen in the loftinefs of his prefenfions, and a degree of haughtinefs in his manner. He declared, on his first setting out in life, that he never would accept of any fubordinate station in government.

Mr. Pitt poffeffed a ready command of language, and all the modes and fubtleties of reafoning. He was copious even to the brink of verbofity. The ftyle of his eloquence was chiefly characterized by what rhetoricians call amplification. He viewed the arguments of his adverfaries as with the magnifying power of a microfcope; confidered their principles and projects under a great variety of bearings or relations, and marked where they led to abfurdity and mifchief. On the other hand, in fetting off his own meafures, he difplayed all their benefits, even the moft remote, and in all his declamations was careful to obferve the order of a climax. It was characteriftical of his public fpeaking, that he made many perfonal reflections, and that he was not unfortunate in farcafm. He was, for the greater part of his miniftry, even till the folly of our entering or perfevering fo long in the war with the French had become apparent to' all but enthufiafts, popular; nevertheless he rather overrated, as is indeed very natural to man, the extent of his popularity. It was his continual boaft, as well as that of his coufin, lord Grenville, that they poffeffed the confidence of nine-. tenths of the nation. His popu

larity derived, no doubt, great fupport, from the circumftance that he could not be charged with the leaft tincture of avarice, or any thing mean, fordid, or luxurious. It was greatly to his honour, that his keenest adverfaries and enemies could not fix on any other ground of perfonal reproach in all their fquibs and ftrictures, than that he, as well as Dundas and fome others of their party, were fomewhat prone to unbend their cares over a hearty but not unfocial, and ftupifying glafs of wine; which might be well excufed, if it was not, inftead of being a vice, in statesmen rather a virtue.

In an age fo luxurious and corrupt, and in which all great affairs were tranfacted on fo vaft and complicated a fcale, he was led naturally enough, though moft unfortunately, to give the preference to gold above feel, and to confider the art of raifing the fupplies as the grand and almoft only qualification of a great minifter. His leading principle was to counterbalance and weigh down the accidents of fortune, by a perfeverance founded on fources of finance, fuperior to any that could be commanded by internal adversaries, or foreign enemies. The great glory of Mr. Pitt's adminiftration was refted by his friends, and, with juftice, on his financial abilities and plans, the union with Ireland, and the previous fuppreffion of the Irish rebellion. If the only object had been to confult the intereft of the nation in the long run, it would have been better policy to have laid out the annual million in fuch improvements as fhould have been thought most conducive to the increase of the national wealth and population. This increase on the one hand, with the rapid de

creafe in the value of money on the other, would have alleviated the public debt more and more, until, at laft, it would have scarcely been felt. Indeed the national debt would have foon been fufficiently lightened, by the depreciation of money alone; but the minifter in fuch critical times was under the neceffity, by all means, of fupporting public credit, on which our government and national exiftence folely depended. Commif fioners were appointed for buying flock FOR THE PUBLIC from THE PUBLIC. This was, in one view, a political juggle or fophifm. It was robbing Peter to pay Paul: taking from one hand to give to the other; with this difference, that there was an expenfe attending both the collection and diftribution of the annual million: but, as it ferved to fupport public credit, this establishment of a finking fund, for the reduction of the national debt, as well as the redemption of the land-tax, must be confidered as good policy.

With regard to the great bufinefs of the war with the French republic, it would have been more fortunate, and perhaps not, if we had cultivated the friendship of the federalifts, to which Briffot was very well inclined; but the plea of defending our allies the Dutch, and of checking encroachments, and the violation of treaties, was at least plaufible. Something alfo was due to humanity fuffering fo deeply in the perfons of the royal and fo many other families in France. What would the opponents of the British adminiftration have faid, if Mr. Pitt, from a cold and cautious selfishnels, had avoided to tender to Louis XVI, or his friends the fmalleft affiftance? The ftage of the war in which, in our judgment

judgement, the condued of Mr. Pitt became weak and liable to cenfure was 1794, when it became fufficiently evident, that individual aggrandizement, not the fafety of the French monarchy, was the great object of the greatest of our allies. The fragility of confederacies was proverbial. The first symptoms of this might have been alarming. The end of reftoring the monarchy, under certain limitations, was good: the means of attaining it inadequate. Several struggles were carried on in the name of the monarchy, againft the republic, but not one general and continued plan, free from all private views, and directed to the attainment of one object. The de faltory efforts of the allies ferved only to dilcover the loyalifts, and point them out to deftruction. That this would be the cafe, after the delertion of Pruffia, and the conduct of the imperialists at Valenciennes, might have been forefeen. Our allies on the continent would have done more for repreffing the power of the republic, if they had been left to themselves. The conduct of the British government, in ftirring up a fecond coalition, was as impohitic in defign as unfortunate in the issue. Opportunities of making peace, more favourable than that juncture at which peace was made, were neglected.

From this character and eftimate of the retiring minifters, we may be enabled to appreciate the reafonings for and against the change of miniftry. Granting that the old minifters were fuperior to the new in eloquence, and fuppofing, not granting, that they were alfo fuperior in abilities, yet fuperior eloquence and fuperior abilities were a mifchief rather than a bleffing, if

they were unhappily directed.– Much of Mr. Pitt's eloquence and financial abilities might have been fpared, if the war had either been hunned, or fooner terminated. It is better to choose the right path, than to fhew the greatest activity and addrefs in extrication from a wrong one. We have had different occafions to remark, that the ambition and the honour paid to oratory in the British parliament has grown to the height of puerility; and we have ventured to predict, that longwinded fpeeches will by and by be in as great difefteem as they are now in vogue. Plain speaking is fufficient for all the purpofes of plain dealing. In proportion as meatures are good, they are independent of oratory. Orators were banished by the wifeft of the ancients from their ideal republics. Truth in proportion as it is fimple and certain, and eloquence in proportion as it flows from the heart, appears in a few bold lines of light and fhade, and culminates into the aculeated brevity of antithefis. Neither Mr. Addington, nor thofe who fupported him, were deficient in that kind of eloquence, which was neceffary to explain and defend upright and plain measures. Chance, not either the virtue or the good fenfe of the nation, formed a miniftry that did not force their way into power by the engine of party, nor talk themselves into confequence by parliamentary rhapfodies, but dutifully ftanding forth, at the call of their fovereign, at a moment of great danger, appealed to their integrity as their only fhield, and to the purity of their intentions as their only motive, Mr. Addington exchanged the fpeaker's chair, one of the most refpectable stations in the ftate, and

which he had filled with comfort, dignity, and the highest reputation, for one full of trouble and difficulty, but in which he might be inftrumental in averting many evils, and bringing about many bleflings to the

nation.

It had become the custom for political management, and great talents for public fpeaking, to take the lead in public affairs. A miniftry was now offered to the united kingdoms, in which integrity and plain good fense were to take the lead, and call into their wake the eloquence and the ability of all who chose to fupport a fyftem of government framed on fuch principles. There was no reafon certainly to be thy of accepting and fupporting a minifter, whofe abilities, though not fuppofed to be tranfcendent, were allowed to be refpeciable, and whofe probity and honour were diftinguifhed. Upright intentions preclude many of thofe embarrassments, in which men of the first-rate talents are fome times involved by high paffions and felf-confidence. Moral rectitude coincides, in its conclufions, with the profoundeft political calculations. The law of the Lord is perfect, making wife the fimple. If the imperial parliament and the British nation be duly convinced of this maxim, what was the work of fortune, may be crowned with a high degree of na

tional proferity and comfort. t is time now to return from this di greffion to the committee of fupplies, where the change of minifiry was fo warmly agitated.

Immediately after Mr. Pitt had declared the grounds of his refignation, as above fiated, the motion for going into a committee was put, and agreed to, without a divifion. Supplies for the naval, military, and other fervice, each head, as ufual, being fpecified, were voted for ten lunar months. For the sea service, there was granted a force of 135,000 men, for ten months, including 39,000 marines. The fecretary-atwar prefented to the committee a brief account of all defcriptions of troops in the whole empire. The number of regular forces, cavalry and infantry, amounted to 193,187 men. The number of militia, both British and Irifh, was 78,046. Of fencibles, both British and Irish, 31,415: fo that the whole force in the empire, in these three defcriptions of troops, exclufive of the vo lunteer corps, amounted to 302,618 men. The expenfe of maintaining this force would be £12,940,889. The expenfe of the two countries, being diftinguished, would stand. thus: For Great Britain £9,617,033; for Ireland £3,323,856: making together the fum he had before ftated.

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