402 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. NO 73., May 23. '57. 



prit d'adulation : ' car il est odieux et ridicule de compter 

 parmi les flatteurs le plus ind^pendant des hommes de 

 lettres, et k I'occasion du livre meme qui I'avait fait ex- 

 clure de I'Acad^mie FraiKjaise, par un esprit d'adulation 

 pour I'ombre d'un roi. En jetant des soup(;ons sur la con- 

 duite de I'abbesse de Chelles, Massillon n'eut pas dit, 

 • Elle ^tait fiUe de M. le Re'gent, et e'en est assez.' Ce 

 n'est pas ainsi qu'il so filt exprime sur le neveu de 

 Louis XIV., en s'adressant h, Louis XV. ; et dans tout son 

 livre il eut jug^ avec moins de rigueur un prince dis- 

 tingue k beaucoup d'egards, h qui d'ailleurs il devait de 

 la reconnaissance, qui avait appreci^ son m^rite, et par 

 qui seul il dtait eveque, lui qui dfes long-temps aurait du 

 I'etre, puisqu'il la mort de Louis XIV. il avait deja cin- 

 quante-trois ans. Aprfes tant de preuves, et il nous serait 

 facile de les multiplier bien davantage, nous osons affirmer 

 que de tels mdmoires ne sont pas de I'eloquent eveque de 

 Clermont.' " 



It may be said, in reply to the foregoing re- 

 marks, that Niebuhr has nowhere professed to be 

 peculiarly conversant with the history of the mi- 

 nority of Louis XV. ; and that his want of critical 

 acumen in reference to it would not necessarily 

 impeach his critical powers in reference to Roman 

 history, a department of knowledge to which, 

 during many years, he devoted unremitting atten- 

 tion. And this might be true, if no more could 

 be asserted of him than that he had accepted this 

 work of the Abbe Soulavie as genuine Memoirs 

 by Massillon. But this is not a mere ordinary in- 

 stance of a powerful mind having been deceived 

 by spurious writings. For the extravagant praise 

 bestowed by Niebuhr on the Memoirs, under the 

 impression that they were Massillon's, seems to 

 show that his intellect was peculiarly capable of 

 being influenced by imagination in its judgments : 

 and thus it would be unsafe, even in Roman his- 

 tory, to admit his opinions as an authority, unless 

 they are supported by reasonable proofs. E. T. 



POPIANA. 



"Sir Balaam'' (2"^ S. iii. 325.) — A correspon- 

 dent who is more than a septuagenarian cannot 

 be astonished when he finds that any literary 

 tradition, current in bis early days, is now passing 

 into oblivion. He well remembers that the his- 

 tory of Sir Balaam used to be regarded as not 

 without a plan, and how old admirers of Pope 

 would read with a sly smile, 



" So kept the diamond, — and the rogue was Pitt," 



instead of reading the monosyllable as printed. 



It would, however, neither be charitable nor 

 reasonable to assume that the satirist's fictitious 

 Sir Balaam was a true portrait of the contempo- 

 rary respecting whom there were reports, which 

 Pope inserted into his picture to give it life, or 

 for the amusement of the lovers of scandal, who 

 would scarcely need the rhyme, suggested to their 

 thoughts, to point the insulting jest. Pope may 

 have thought it e^fpedient to make some parts 



of the fiction so decidedly at variance with the 

 events of Governor Pitt'slife, and with its close, 

 as should enable him to aver, as in other cases, 

 that no criminal personalities could be charged 

 against the writer. 



Whether what Pope describes as the first step 

 towards Sir Balaam's becoming rich had any re- 

 semblance in the prototype of other parts of this 

 satiric portrait I cannot say. The pedigree of tlie 

 Pitt family in Hutchins' Dorset (vol. i. art. Bland- 

 ford St. Mary) states that Thomas Pitt married 

 a Scotchwoman ; and his connexion with tlie East 

 India Company makes it not impossible that her 

 father may have been captain of an Indiaraan, 

 and that his death by shipwreck might unexpect- 

 edly make his son-in-law immediate possessor of 

 his previous profits in such a lucrative employ- 

 ment. That Mr. Thomas Pitt had Cornish estates 

 is certain. For his eldest son, the father of the 

 great Lord Chatham, is styled Robert Pitt of 

 Boconnoc. The estates in Cornwall passed to 

 Robert Pitt's descendants, and continued in their 

 possession till the death of Lord Camelford. It 

 was when Thomas Pitt was governor of Madras 

 that he became possessed of the diamond since 

 known by his name. Hutchins says, 



" It having been reported that he gained his famous 

 diamond by a stretch of power, he declared, in a very 

 solemn manner, that he purchased it fairly, of an eminent 

 diamond merchant, for 48,000 pagodas, or 20,400A" 



He sat in four parliaments, for Old Sarum and 

 Thirsk ; but a farther vindication was thought 

 necessary, in a sermon preached at his funeral, by 

 Rd. Eyre, Canon of Sarum, in 1726. He sold 

 the diamond to the King of France for 135,000/. 

 The cuttings had amounted to eight or ten thou- 

 sand pounds. 



It was also true of Mr. Thomas Pitt that one of 

 his daughters became a viscount's wife, by marry- 

 ing General Stanhope, whose first elevation to the 

 rank of Viscount Mahon continued, however, for 

 only a part of 1717. That any of Mr. Thomas 

 Pitt's sons led the unhappy course, or had the un- 

 happy end, assigned to Sir Balaam's son, seems im- 

 probable. Robert Pitt died in 1727, after having 

 by his wife Harriet, sister of Earl Grandison, two 

 sons and four daughters. Thomas, the second son 

 of Governor Pitt, was colonel of a regiment of 

 horse, and made Earl of Londonderry in 1726, 

 and died in 1729. The third, John, had also a 

 gay commission bought for him ; was a colonel in 

 1727, a member of Parliament, and at one time 

 Lieutenant-Governor of the Bermudas. Hutchins 

 mentions no other son. H. W. 



"Essay on Man'' (2"'^ S. iii. 3. 197. 325.) —I do 

 not exactly see what the point of M. C. A.'s in- 

 quiry is, but as I happen to possess the original 

 edition of each of the four parts on the Essay on 



