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WILLIAM PITT (1759-1806)
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See also: Whatever might be the vicissitudes of his public life, he never failed to find peace and love by his own See also:hearth . He loved all his children, and was loved by them; and of all his children the one of whom he was fondest and proudest was his second son . The child's See also:genius and ambition displayed themselves with a rare and almost unnatural precocity . At seven the See also:interest which he took in See also:grave subjects, the ardour with which he pursued his studies, and the sense and See also:Barry Life' vivacity of his remarks on books and on events amazed his parents and instructors . One of his sayings of this date was reported to his See also:mother by his See also:tutor . In See also:August 1766, when the world was agitated by the See also:news that Mr Pitt had become earl of Chatham, little William ex-claimed, " I am glad that I am not the eldest son . I want to speak in the House of Commons like papa." At fourteen the lad was in See also:intellect a man . See also:Hayley, who met him at Lyme in the summer of 1773, was astonished, delighted, and somewhat overawed, by See also:hearing wit and See also:wisdom from so See also:young a mouth . The boy himself had already written a tragedy, See also:bad, of course, but not worse than the tragedies of his friend . This piece (still preserved) is in some respects highly curious . There is no love . The whole See also:plot is See also:political; and it is remark-able that the interest, such as it is, turns on a contest about a regency .
On one See also:side is a faithful servant of the See also:Crown, on the other an ambitious and unprincipled conspirator
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At length the See also: The See also:governor to whom the direction of William's academical life was confided was a See also:bachelor of arts named Pretyman,' who had been See also:senior wrangler in the preceding year, and, who though not a man of prepossessing See also:appearance or brilliant parts, was eminently acute and laborious, a See also:sound See also:scholar, and an excellent geometrician . A close and lasting friendship sprang up between the pair . The See also:disciple was able, before he completed his twenty-eighth year, to make • his See also:preceptor See also:bishop of See also:Lincoln and See also:dean of St See also:Paul's; and the preceptor showed his gratitude by See also:writing a life of the disciple, which enjoys the distinction of being the worst See also:biographical See also:work of its See also:size in the world . Pitt, till he graduated, had scarcely one acquaintance, attended See also:chapel regularly See also:morning and evening, dined every See also:day in hall, and never went to a single evening party . At seventeen he was admitted, after the See also:fashion of those times, by right of birth, without any examination, to the degree of See also:master of arts . But he continued during some years to reside at See also:college, and to apply himself vigorously, under Pretyman's direction, to the studies of the See also:place, while mixing freely in the best See also:academic society . The stock of learning which Pitt laid in during this See also:part of his life was certainly very extraordinary . The work in which he took the greatest delight was See also:Newton's Principia . His liking for See also:mathematics, indeed, amounted to a See also:passion, which, in the See also:opinion of his instructors, themselves distinguished mathematicians, required to be checked rather than encouraged . Nor was the youth's proficiency in classical learning less remark-able . In one respect, indeed, he appeared to disadvantage when compared with even second-See also:rate and third-rate men from public schools . He had never, while under Wilson's care, been in the See also:habit of composing in the See also:ancient See also:languages; and he therefore never acquired the knack of versification . It would have been utterly out of his power to produce such charming elegiac lines as those in which Wellesley bade farewell to Eton, cr such Virgilian hexameters as those in which Canning described the See also:pilgrimage to See also:Mecca . But it may be doubted whether any scholar has ever, at twenty, had a more solid and profound knowledge of the two great See also:tongues of the old civilized world . He had set his See also:heart on being intimately acquainted with all the extant See also:poetry of See also:Greece, and was not satisfied till he had mastered See also:Lycophron's See also:Cassandra . To See also:modern literature Pitt paid comparatively little See also:attention . He knew no living See also:language except French; and French he knew very imperfectly . With a few of the best English writers he was intimate, particularly with See also:Shakespeare and See also:Milton . The debate in Pandemonium was, as it well deserved to be, one of his favourite passages; and his See also:early See also:friends used to talk, See also:long after his See also:death, of the just emphasis and the melodious See also:cadence with which they had heard him recite the incomparable speech of Belial . He had indeed been carefully trained from See also:infancy in the See also:art of managing his See also:voice, a voice naturally clear and deep-toned . At a later See also:period the wits of Brookes's, irritated by observing, See also:night after night, how powerfully Pitt's sonorous elocution fascinated the rows of country gentlemen, reproached him with having been " taught by his dad on a See also:stool " . His See also:education, indeed, was well adapted to See also:form a great See also:parliamentary See also:speaker . The classical studies of Pitt had the effect of enriching his English vocabulary, and of making him wonderfully See also:expert in the art of constructing correct English sentences . His practice was to look over a See also:page or two of a See also:Greek or Latin author, to make himself master of the meaning, and then to read the passage straight forward into his own language . This practice, begun under his first teacher Wilson, [1 George Pretyman (1750—1827) was senior wrangler in 1772 . In 1803, on falling See also:heir to a large See also:estate, he assumed the name of Tom-See also:line . From Lincoln, to which see he had been elevated in 1787, he was translated to See also:Winchester in 1820 . Tomline, to whom Pitt when dying had bequeathed his papers, published his See also:Memoirs of the Life of William Pitt (down to the close of 1792) in 1821 (3 vols . 8vo).]was continued under Pretyman . Of all the remains of antiquity, the orations were those on which he bestowed the most See also:minute examination . His favourite employment was to compare harangues on opposite sides of the same question, to analyse them, and to observe which of the arguments of the first speaker were refuted by the second, which were evaded, and which were See also:left untouched . Nor was it only in books that he at this time studied the art of parliamentary See also:fencing . When he was at See also:home he had frequent opportunities of hearing important debates at See also:Westminster; and he heard them, not only with interest and enjoyment, but with close scientific attention . On one of these occasions Pitt, a youth whose abilities were as yet known only to his own See also:family and to a small See also:knot of college friends, was introduced on the steps of the See also:throne in the House of Lords to Fox, his senior by eleven years, who was already the greatest debater, and one of the greatest orators, that had appeared in England . Fox used afterwards to relate that, as the discussion proceeded, Pitt repeatedly turned to him, and said, " But surely, Mr Fox, that might be met thus," or " Yes; but he See also:lays himself open to this See also:retort." What the particular criticisms were Fox had forgotten; but he said that he was much struck at the time by the precocity of a lad who, through the whole sitting, seemed to be thinking only how all the speeches on both sides could be answered . He had not quite completed his nineteenth year when, on the 7th of See also:April 1778, he attended his See also:father to Westminster . A great debate was expected . It was known that See also:France had recognized the See also:independence of the See also:United States . The See also:duke of See also:Richmond was about to declare his opinion that all thought of subjugating those states ought to be relinquished . Chatham had always maintained that the resistance of the colonies to the mother country was justifiable . But he conceived, very erroneously, that on the day on which their independence should be acknowledged the greatness of England would be at an end . Though sinking under the See also:weight of years and infirmities, he determined, in spite of the entreaties of his family, to be in his place . His son supported him to a seat . The excitement and exertion were too much for the old man . In the very See also:act of addressing the peers, he fell back in See also:convulsions . A few See also:weeks later his See also:corpse was See also:borne, with gloomy pomp, from the Painted Chamber to the See also:Abbey . The favourite child and name-See also:sake of the deceased statesman followed the See also:coffin as See also:chief mourner, and saw it deposited in the See also:transept where his own was destined to See also:lie . His See also:elder See also:brother, now earl of Chatham, had means sufficient, and barely sufficient, to support the dignity of the See also:peerage .
The other members of the family were poorly provided for
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William had little more than £300 a year
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It was necessary for him to follow a profession
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He had already begun to " eat his terms." In the See also:spring of 178o he came of age
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He then quitted See also:Cambridge, was called to the See also:bar, took See also:chambers in Lincoln's See also:Inn, and joined the western See also:circuit
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In the autumn of that year a See also:general See also:election took place; and he offered himself as a See also:candidate for the university; but he was at the bottom of the See also:poll
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He was, however, at the See also:request of an hereditary friend, the duke of See also:Rutland, brought into See also:parliament by See also:Sir See also:
The See also:British See also:flag had been scarcely able to maintain itself in the British Channel
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The See also:northern powers professed See also:neutrality; but their neutrality had a menacing aspect
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In the See also:East, Hyder See also:Ali had descended on the Carnatic, had destroyed the little army of See also:Baillie, and had spread terror even to the ramparts of Fort St George
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The discontents of See also:Ireland threatened nothing less than See also:civil war
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In England the authority of Lord North's. See also:government had sunk to the
lowest point
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The king and the House of Commons were alike unpopular
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The cry for parliamentary reform was scarcely less loud and vehement than afterwards in 183o
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The Opposition consisted of two parties which had once been hostile to each other, but at this conjuncture seemed to act together with cordiality
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The larger of these parties consisted of the great See also:body of the Whig See also:aristocracy, headed by See also: At their See also:head was William, earl of Shelburne, distinguished both as a statesman and as a See also:lover of See also:science and letters . With him were leagued Lord See also:Camden, who had formerly held the Great See also:Seal, and whose integrity, ability and constitutional knowledge commanded the public respect; See also:Barre, an eloquent and acrimonious declaimer; and Dunning, who had long held. the first place at the English bar . It was to this party that Pitt was naturally attracted . On the 26th of See also:February 1781 he made his first speech in favour of Burke's See also:plan of economical reform . Fox stood up at the same moment, but instantly gave way . The lofty yet animated deportment of the young member, his perfect self-See also:possession, the readiness with which he replied to the orators who had preceded him, the See also:silver tones of his voice, the perfect structure of his unpremeditated sentences, astonished and delighted his hearers . Burke, moved even to tears, exclaimed, " It is not a chip of the old See also:block; it is the old block itself." " Pitt will be one of the first men in parliament," said a member of the Opposition to Fox . " He is so already," answered Fox, in whose nature envy had no place . Soon after this debate Pitt's name was put up by Fox at Brookes's See also:Club . On two subsequent occasions during that session Pitt addressed the house, and on both fully sustained the reputation which he had acquired on his first appearance . In the summer, after the See also:prorogation, he again went the western circuit, held several briefs, and acquitted himself in such a manner that he was highly complimented by See also:Buller from the See also:bench, and by Dunning at the bar . On the 27th of See also:November the parliament reassembled .
Only See also:forty-eight See also:hours before had arrived tidings of the surrender of See also:Cornwallis and his army
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In the debate on the See also:report of the address Pitt spoke with even more energy and brilliancy than on any former occasion
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He was warmly applauded by his See also:allies; but it was remarked that no See also:person on his own side of the house was so loud in eulogy as See also: |