The king also had long cordially approved of his mea sures; and the conduct of Mr. Pitt, during the famous re gency question, is said greatly to have strengthened this sentiment. In 1788, his majesty was seized with the first attack of that awful malady, under which his days were destined to close ; the head of the government was declar ed to be incapable of discharging his functions; and the mode of supplying his place became an object of keen dis cussion, involving some of the most dubious principles of the constitution, and quickened by hopes and fears which had no reference to the general question. As the Prince of Wales then favoured the Whig party, it was their in terest to have him appointed regent with as few limita tions as possible ; Mr. Pitt's, on the contrary, with as many. The prevailing opinion appeared to sanction the views of the latter. Mr. Fox, in maintaining that the un restricted regency should devolve on the heir apparent in dependently of the two houses of parliament, was accused of forsaking those maxims of popular right which it had been the great object of his public life to support. Dur ing the discussion Mr. Pitt was countenanced by numerous addresses from various parts of the kingdom, and at length succeeded in passing a bill of such a kind as he desired. His majesty's recovery happily rendered this superfluous; but the minister's prudence and firmness were rewarded by an increase of confidence from his former adherents, and particularly from the master whose interests he watch ed over with such care.
Hitherto Mr. Pitt had proceeded without violent oppo sition, so as to gain the toleration of all ranks, and the warm applauses of many. But the next great event in which he took a share, while it united him more closely to his own party, made an irreparable breach betw een him and those who adopted the contrary side. In 1789 the French revolution broke out, convulsing all Europe by its explosion ; and it became a momentous question to de termine what measures England should follow in a crisis so terrible. For the arbitrary monarchs of the continent, it was natural to view with horror and aversion this formi dable display of democratic principles: was Great Britain to join in their league against the dishonoured cause of freedom, to check the disseminators of such doctrines by coercion and punishment at home and abroad ; or, stand ing aloof from the contest, to guard her own internal quiet, and study to promote her own interest, by the favourable conjunctures of a struggle, which she might contemplate without mixing in it ? The latter was in part the opinion of one class, at the head of which was Mr. Fox; the former was the plan adopted by Mr. Pitt. He embarked with great zeal in the continental war of 1792 ; and Britain be came involved in that quarrel, the disasters of which over spread Europe with misery for five-and•twenty years. The commencement was eminently unsuccessful ; the allied armies were defeated in every direction ; the voice of dis content grew clamorous at home ; commercial distress pressed heavy on the country ; reformers came forward with wild and dangerous schemes, which the government met by treatment of unexampled severity. The habeas corpus act was suspended, and political prosecutions mul tiplied without end. The events of the war continued to be unfortunate abroad; and at length a bloody rebellion broke out at home. Mr. Pitt's conduct in this universal commotion deserved the praise of steadfastness at least ; he persevered in his resolution amid every difficulty ; he strained every nerve to strike an effective blow at. France ; he met the danger of national bankruptcy by the suspen sion of cash payments ; he prosecuted reformers ; he quelled the rebellion in Ireland, and united that kingdom to our own. For these exertions he was by many venerat ed as the saviour of the British constitution ; by a few he was almost execrated as its destroyer. One party fondly named him " the pilot that weathered the storm ;" an other reckoned that the " storm" was yet far from being " weathered." Agitated and tired by these incessant con flicts, he must have viewed as a kind of relief his retire ment from office, which took place in 180 I . Various rea
sons have been assigned for this step : some say it was by reason of differences with the king in regard to the pro per mode of treating the Irish Catholics; others assert that, being hopeless of making any peace with France, at all suitable to the high tone with which he had begun the war, he was willing to leave to others the ungracious task of completing this unprosperous enterprise. He was suc ceeded by Mr. Addington, now Lord Sidmouth.
That both causes had some influence in his resignation was rendered probable by the line of conduct which Mr. Pitt pursued when out of office. He justified the peace of Amiens in his place in parliament ; but, in various im portant points, he voted with the opposition. This peace was of short duration ; a new war was declared, and the existing ministry being found inadequate for the support of it, Mr. Pitt was again called to the supreme charge in 180-1. He formed a cabinet, by introducing several of his own friends, and retaining many of those alrc ady in place. His own station, as formerly, was that of first lord of the treasury.
'Mr. Pitt was now to become a war minister in earnest ; he prepared himself for the most vigorous efforts to acquire the same reputation in this new in of public ser vice, as he had before acquired n that of finance. By his exertions, Russia and Austria entered into a new confede racy against France,—which, it was at last hoped, these two formidable powers would succeed in reducing to sub jection. The battle of Austerlitz put an end to such ex pectations. Mr. Pitt's plans again became abortive; he was again beset with difficulties; and the state or his health rendered this stroke of misfortune peculiarly se vere. The news of the French victory found him at Bath, to which he had been forced to retire in the end of 1805. His disorder originated in a tendency to gout, which he inherited from his father, and which his own anxious and over-laboured life, as well as his somewhat exuberant con vivial habits, had of course strengthened rather than abat ed. The Bath waters gave him no permanent relief ; and in the beginning of January lie returned to his villa at Put ney, in a very weak state. Still his physicians saw no cause for immediate alarm; but, before the twentieth of the month, various apprehensions were entertained for him, and a few hours of that day converted these apprehensions into mournful certainty. A short while previous to his de cease,Dr. Tomline, then bishop of Lincoln, who watched affectionately over his illness, communicated to him the unfavourable opinion of Sir Walter Farquhar, his medical attendant. Mr. Pitt inquired of Sir Walter, who then stood beside his bed, " How long do you think 1 have to live ?" The physician expressed a faint hope that he would recover ; a languid smile on the patient's counte nance showed that he understood the reply. When the bishop requested leave to pray with him, he answered, " I fear I have, like too many other men, neglected prayer too much to have any hope that it can be efficacious on a deathbed; but," added he, making an effort to rise as he spoke, "I throw myself entirely on the mercy of God." He then joined in the exercises of devotion with much apparent meekness and humility. Of his death he spoke with calmness ; arranged the settlement of his private concerns, and recommended his nieces to the gratitude of the nation. " 1 could wish," he said, "a thousand or fifteen hundred a-year to be given them, if the public should think my long services deserving of it." He died about four o'clock on the morning of the 23d of January, t806, in the 47th or his age. The parliament decreed him the honours of a public funeral, and granted the sum of 40,000 to discharge his debts. A monument was af terwards erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey ; and similar testimonies of the public feeling are to be met with in various quartet's of the kingdom. His death, so unexpected, and at so gloomy a period, was deeply re gretted at home, and created a strong sensation over all Europe.