906 



PITT 



shown themselves more indifferent to the higher 

 interests of UtentBn, science, and art. 



When the French Revolution broke out his 

 policy was one of absolute neutrality towards the 

 contending parties, and this neutrality be most 

 faithfully observed. He wholly failed, however, to 

 understand the character and tin 1 supreme impor- 

 tance of the Hi-volution. He believed that it was 

 merely a passing disturbance, and that its prin- 

 cipal effect would l>e to deprive France for Home 

 years of all serious influence in Enro|iean affaire, 

 and almost to the eve of the great war he was 

 reducing the armaments of England. There is no 

 real doubt that he was forced most reluctantly into 

 war by the aggressive (Hilicy of France in Flanders 

 and towards Holland ; but he drew the sword 

 believing that Franee was so disorganised and 

 bankrupt that a struggle with her would be both 

 short and easy ; he was almost wholly destitute 

 of the kind of talents that are needed for a war- 

 minister, and he had to contend with an almost 

 unexampled outburst of military enthusiasm, and 

 soon after with the transcendent genius of Napo- 

 leon. His belief in the probable shortness of the 

 war and in the efficacy of his sinking fund, led him 

 into the great error of raising his war expenses in 

 the first stages of the war almost wholly oy loans, 

 and thus laying the foundation of an enormous 

 increase of debt. His military enterprises were 

 badly planned and badly executed, and lie had 

 none or his father's skill in discovering and bring- 

 ing forward military talent. For some years it 

 is true his ascendency in parliament continued to 

 increase. The great Whig schism of 1794 and 

 the secession of Fox reduced the opposition to 

 utter insignificance. But even in his domestic 

 measures Pitt was no longer fortunate. Through 

 fear of the revolutionary spirit which had infected 

 some portions of the population, he was led into 

 repressive measures very little in harmony with 

 his earlier career. Cornnad risen to famine price, 

 and great distress prevailed, and the government 

 attempted to meet it by verv ill conceived relaxa- 

 tions of the poor-laws by levying rates for the 

 purpose of increasing wages, and by granting 

 parochial relief in proportion to the number of 

 children in a family, and thus offering a direct 

 premium to improvident marriages. In Ireland 

 disaffection was steadily growing, and Pitt tried 

 to win the Catholics by measures of conciliation, 

 and especially by the concession of the suffrage ; 

 but the opposition of the king, di\ided councils, 

 and the vacillation of his own mind im|>aired 

 his policy, and the injudicious recall at a very 

 critical moment of a |K>rmlar viceroy contributed 

 largely to the savage reiM-llion of 1798. He then 

 tried to place Irish affairs on a sound basis by 

 a legislative union which was to be followed by 

 Catholic emancipation, the payment of the priests, 

 and a commutation of tithes. The first measure 

 was carried by very corrupt means, but the king, 

 who had not IM-CII informed of the ultima!-' in 

 'tent ions of his minister, declared himself inexo- 

 rahly opposed to Catholic emancipation, which he 

 deemed inconsistent with his coronation oath. 

 Pitt resigned his office into the- hands of his fol- 

 lower Addington in February 1801 ; but a month 

 later, on hearing that the agitation of the Catholic 

 question had for a time overthrown the totter- 

 ing intellect of the king, he declared that he 

 would abandon the Catholic i|ii-'stion during the 

 remainder of the reign, and he resumed office in 

 May IHIV4 on the understanding that be would 

 not" sutler it to lie carried. His last ministry was 

 a melancholy and a humiliating one. The war, 

 which had linen Himjiended by the peace of Amiens, 

 bad lirokcii nut with renewed vehemence. There 

 was great danger of invasion, and Pitt earnestly 



desired to combine the most eminent men of alt 

 parties in the mini-try: but the king forbade 

 the admission of Fox. The principal followers of 

 FOX refused to join without their chief, and Ixird 

 l.'renvillc and bis followers took the same course. 

 < I'renvillc, who had long been one of Pitt's ablest 

 colleagues, was now completely alienated. A junc- 

 tion with Addington was emoted, lut it lasted 

 only for a short time, and it added little to the 

 strength of the ministry. I inn-las. I'm s ..Iciest, 

 friend and colleague, had l>een lately made Viscount 

 Melville. He was placed at the head of the Admi- 

 ralty ; but a charge of misappropriating public 

 funds was raised against him, and in IsiCi he was 

 driven ignomimouslv from office. Pit ('sown health 

 was now broken, llis spirits had sunk : the spell 

 which had once surrounded him hail in a gieat 

 degree passed away, and although the victory of 

 Trafalgar saved K.nglund from all immediate 

 danger of invasion, the disasters of I'lm and 

 Ansterlitz threw a dark cloud over his closing 

 scene. He died in his forty-seventh year on 23-u 

 January 1806. The House of Commons by a great 

 majority voted him a public funeral and a monu- 

 ment in Westminster Abbey. 



He was never married, ami he never mixed much 

 in general society; but in all his private relations 

 he was pure, amiable, simple, and attractive. He 

 was a warm friend, llis temper was very cipiahle, 

 and till near the close of his life very cheerful. He 

 had much readv wit, and he could easily throw oil' 

 the cares of office, and even join heartily in the 

 games of boys. He maintained t<i the last his 

 familiarity with the classics, but his serious 

 interests were exclusively jMilitical. He only once 

 crossed the Channel, an- 1 he appears to have been 

 wholly untouched by the great eontcm|ioraiy 

 currents of literature and mm -political thought. 

 He was not free from the prevailing vice of hard 

 drinking, and he has been justly blamed for having 

 allowed his great indifference to money to degener- 

 ate into a culpable carelessness. In 1801 some of 

 his friends subscribed 12,000 towards the payment 

 of his debts, and in the following year he sold 

 Holwixxl, his country place. Hut these measures 

 proved wholly insufficient. With no extravagant 

 tastes, with no family to sup|>ort. with no expen- 

 sive elections, and with an official income of at 

 least 10,000 a year, lie left 40,000 of debt, which 

 was paid by the nation. In public he was cold 

 and repellent, and there was .something theatrical 

 in the unvaried dignity of his demeanour ; but few 

 men jmssessed to a higher degree the |>ower of 

 commanding, directing, and controlling, and he 

 inspired the nation with an Unbounded confidence 

 both in his character and in hmubilities. Kngland 

 has seen no greater parliamentary leader, few 

 greater masters of financial and commercial legisla- 

 tion, ami he was one of the first statesmen to adopt 

 the teaching of Adam Smith. If his eloquence was 

 very diffuse, if it showed little imagination, or 

 depth or originality of thought, it was at least 

 supremely adapted to all the purposes of debate, 

 and it rarely failed in its effect. He was, in a 

 word, a great [H-ace-ministcr : but in the latter part 

 of his life an evil fate brought him face to face with 

 problems which he never wholly understood and 

 with difficulties which he was very little fitted to 

 encounter. 



His jKilitical life lion been written in much detail by 

 Toinlini' 'nl by <;itf-inl : but by far the fullest and best 

 biography of him which has yet appeared in that of Ix>rd 

 Stanhope. Ixird Macaiilay has made him tlic subject <>f 

 a well-known biographical essay, and Mr Cnl-lwin Smith 

 of two brilliant lecture*, and the reader m:iv consult the 

 monographs by Mr Walford (1890) and Lord Kmehcry 

 i. The career of I'itt, however, is indimolulily 

 JUKI t incil with the whole English history of his time, 

 and in that connection it mar best lie studied. 



