PITT, WILLIAM, the second son of the earl of Chatham and of lady Hester Grenville, daughter of the countess Temple, was born on May 28, 1759. His genius and ambition displayed themselves with an almost unexampled precocity. "The fineness of William's mind," his mother writes of him, when he was but twelve years old, "makes him enjoy with the greatest pleasure what would be above the reach of any other creature of his small age." Owing to the excessive delicacy of his constitution, it was found impos sible to educate him at a public school. His studies were, however, prosecuted at home with vigor and success. In 1773 he was sent to the university of Cambridge, where his knowledge of the classics seems to have astonished veteran critics. To modern literature he appears to have been utterly indifferent—he knew no continental language except French, and that very imperfectly. Among English poets, lie liked Milton best; the debate in pandemonium being his favorite passage. In 1780 Pitt was called to the bar. He took chambers in Lincoln's Inn, and joined the western circuit. A general election having taken place in the autumn of the same year, he stood for the university of Cam bridge; but he was at the bottom of the poll. Through the influence, however, of the duke of Rutland, he obtained a seat in parliament as member for Appleby, Lord North was now prime-minister. The opposition consisted of two parties; one being led by Rockingham and Fox, the other by lord Shelburne. The latter consisted chiefly of the old followers of Chatham; and to this party Pitt naturally became attached. On Feb. 26, 1781, lie made his first speech in parliament. It was in favor of Burke's plan of eco nomical reform, and was a splendid success. " It is not a chip of the old block," said Burke, " it is the old block himself." Shortly before the meeting of parliament, in the autumn of 1781, the news arrived of the surrender of Cornwallis and his army. In the debate on the address, Pitt spoke with even more energy and brilliancy than on any former occasion. No one was so loud in eulogy as Henry Dundas, lord advocate of Scotland; and from this night dates a connection between hint and Pitt, which was only broken by death. After several defeats, the ministry resigned, end Rockingham was called on to construct a cabinet. Pitt was offered the vice-treasurership of Ireland; but he declined to accept a position which did not confer a seat in the cabinet. On _May 7, 1782, he made his first motion for a reform in the representation of the people; which motion was lost by only 20 votes in a house of more than 300 members. The reformers never again bad so good a division till 1831. At the end of three months after his acces sion to office, Rockingham died; lord Shelburne succeeded to the head of the treasury; and Pitt, at the age of 23, became chancellor of the exchequer. In opposition to the government, there was then formed a coalition emphatically known as " the coali tion." On lord Shelburne's resignation in 1783, the king himself, who hated the coali tion, tried to persuade Pitt to take the helm of affairs; but he resolutely declined. The duke of Portland succeeded, with Fox and North as secretaries of state. Pitt from the opposition benches, brought for a second tittle the question of parliamentary reform before the house. His motion was lost by 203 votes to 149. On the prorogation, he visited the continent for the first and last time. In 1783, the ministry having been defeated on a motion for transferring the government of India to parliament, Pitt became first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the 'exchequer. But parliament was dead against him: between Dec. 17, 1783, and March 8, 1784,he was beaten in sixteen divisions. The nation, however, was in his favor; both on account of his policy, and from admira tion of his private character. Pecuniary disinterestedness is what all can comprehend; and even when known to be overwhelmed with debt, when millions were passing through his hands, when the greatest men in the land were soliciting him for honors, no one ever dared to accuse him of touching unlawful gain. At the 5eneral election in
1784, 160 supporters of the coalition lost their seats, Pitt himself heading the poll for the university of Cambridge. He was now, at 25 years old, the most powerful subject that England had seen for many generations. He ruled absolutely over the cabinet, and was at once the favorite of the sovereign,'of the parliament, and of the nation; and from this date, the life of Pitt becomes the history of England and of the world. For seventeen eventful years he held his great position without a break. In 1784 he established a new constitution for the East India company. In 1786 he carried through a commercial treaty with France on liberal principles. In the same year he established a new sinking fund; a scheme which experience has shown to be wrong in principle, though it was long viewed with favor by the nation. To exertions which were now begun for the abolition of the slave-trade, he gave the help of his eloquence and power. In 1788-89 he main tained against Fox the right of parliament to supply the temporary defect of royal authority occasioned by the incapacity of the king. The year 1793 saw the beginning of the great war with France. Authorities differ as to the cause. It is. however, cer tain that Pitt's military administration was eminently unsuccessful. But no disaster could daunt his spirit. When a new French victory, a rebellion in Ireland. a mutiny in the fleet, and a panic in the city had spread dismay through the nation, Pitt from his place in parliament poured forth the language of inextinguishable hope and inflexible resolution. Disaster abroad was regularly followed by triumph at home, until at last lie had no longer an opposition to encounte . In 1799 he effected the union with Ireland. It was part of his scheme to relieve the Roman Catholic laity from civil disabilities, and to grant a public maintenance to their clergy; but the obstinacy of the king frustrated this design. Chagrined by this failure, Pitt resigned office in 1801. He was succeeded by Mr. Addington, to whom for a while he gave his support. In 1804 he returned again to the head of the treasury, which position he continued to hold till his death on Jan. 23, 1806. This event was doubtless hastened by the stupendous success of Napoleon. The peculiar look which he wore during the last ten days of his life was pathetically termed by Wilberforce "the Austerlitz look." The impeachment also of his friend lord Mel ville is supposed greatly to have hastened his end. It gave him, he said in parliament, a deep pang. His voice quivered as he uttered the word; and it seemed as if the man of iron were about to shed tears. " He was," says Macaulay, "a minister of great talents; honest intentions, and liberal opinions, . . . . but unequal to surprising and terrible emergencies, and liable in such emergencies to err grievously, both on the side of weak ness and on the side of violence." But what man ever lived, we may ask, who, placed in such circumstances as Pitt, would not often have greatly erred? , His policy was liberal beyond his age, at least he wished it to be so, although lie was often obliged to yield to the prejudices of his sovereign. He resigned office because he could not carry Catholic emancipation. He laid beforo the king unanswerable reasons for abolishing the test act. He was more deeply imbued with the doctrines of free-trade than either Fox or Grey. It cannot indeed be denied that lie was addicted to port-wine. and that he died overwhelmed with debts; parliament voting £40,000 to his creditors. High as his character stands, it would have stood even higher had he united the virtue of frugality to that of disinter estedness. See Life of Pitt, by lord Stanhope (Loud. 1861): also lord Macaulay's Biwa phiess (Ellin. 1860). In the former work, vol. ii., p. 185, will be found a valuable criticism on Macaulay's memoir.