572 



PITT. 



principally known by his translation of the JEneid 

 ami of Villa's Art of Poetry. Mr Pitt died in 1748. 

 (See Johnson's Lives of the Poets.) 



PITT, earl of Chatham. See Chatham. 



PITT, WILLIAM, second son of the earl of Chatham, 

 was horn May 28, 1759. He received a private 

 education in the first instance, and, at the age of 

 fourteen, was entered of Pembroke hall, Cambridge. 

 Ou quitting the university, he visited France, and 

 studied at Rheims, and, on his return, became a stu- 

 dent of Lincoln's inn; and, in 1780, was called to the 

 bar. He attended the western circuit once or twice, 

 when he was introduced into parliament by Sir 

 James Lowther, as representative for his borough of 

 Appleby. His maiden speech was delivered in sup- 

 port of Mr Burke's financial reform bill, and he also 

 spoke in favour of a refomi in parliament. On the 

 breaking up of the Rockingham administration, he 

 became chancellor of the exchequer, at the age of 

 twenty-three, under the premiership of the earl of 

 Shelburne. A general peace soon followed, which 

 being made the ground of censure by a strong opposi- 

 tion, the cabinet was dissolved, and the Fox and 

 North coalition took its place. On his retirement 

 from office, Mr Pitt resumed his efforts for a reform 

 in parliament, and submitted three specific motions 

 on the subject, which, although supported by Mr 

 Fox, then secretary of state, were rejected. On the 

 failure of the India bill of the latter, which produced 

 the dismissal of the coalition, Mr Pitt, although at 

 that time only in his twenty-fourth year, assumed the 

 station of prime minister, by accepting the united 

 posts of first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the 

 exchequer. Although strongly supported by the 

 sovereign, he stood opposed to a large majority of 

 the house of commons, and a dissolution took place 

 in March, 1786. At the general election which fol- 

 lowed, the voice of the nation appeared decidedly in 

 his favour, and some of the strongest aristocratical 

 interests in the country were defeated; Mr Pitt, him- 

 self being returned by the university of Cambridge. 

 His first measure was the passing of his India bill, 

 establishing the board of control, which was followed 

 by much of that fiscal and financial regulation, which 

 gave so much tclat to the early period of his adminis- 

 tration. The establishment of the delusive scheme 

 of a sinking fund followed in 1786. Whatever may 

 be the utility of the sinking fund in the regulation of 

 funded sale and purchase, as a miraculous mode of 

 liquidating the public debt, its pretensions are now 

 set at rest for ever. A commercial treaty with France 

 followed in 1787, and soon after, the minister began 

 to exhibit that jealousy of Russian aggrandisement, 

 which, but for the manifest unpopularity of hostilities, 

 might have involved the two countries in war. A 

 similar spirit was displayed towards Spain, respecting 

 the free trade at Nootka sound ; and in defence of the 

 stadtholder against the machinations of France. In 

 1788, Mr Pitt resisted the doctrine of the opposition, 

 that the regency, during the king's indisposition, 

 devolved upon the prince of Wales by right. The 

 minister maintained, that it lay in the two remaining 

 branches of the legislature to fill up the office, but 

 that the prince could not be passed over in nomi- 

 nating to this post. By the adoption of this principle 

 he was enabled to pass a bill restricting the regent's 

 power, which the king's recovery rendered unneces- 

 sary. 



One of the most momentous periods in modern his- 

 tory had now arrived. The French revolution broke 

 out, and produced a vibration in every neighbouring 

 state; and a sensation was created in Great Britain, 

 which, previously excited as she had been on subjects 

 of parliamentary and general reform, in a great mea- 

 sure broke up the previous party divisions. A war 



against French principles was declared on the oiin 

 side, by which all amelioration was opposed; \vhiie, 

 on the other, the friends of rational reformation 

 found themselves confounded with ignorant and 

 heated men, who espoused some of the wildest and 

 most visionary notions of the innovators of France. 

 To make alarm as effective as possible; to encourage 

 the dissemination of high principles of government, 

 and involve in common obloquy all measures of oppo- 

 sition, and all projects of reform; to augment, accord- 

 ing to the apparent urgency of circumstances, restric- 

 tions upon personal liberty, and make temporary 

 sacrifices of the spirit of the constitution to what lie 

 deemed the public safety, such, according to one 

 party, were the principles of Mr Pitt's government 

 at this crisis; while others would have had him gone 

 much farther, and, purely on a conservative principle, 

 would, in a constitutional sense, have left him nothing 

 to preserve. The details of the momentous contest 

 which followed, form no subject for the biographer. 

 Great Britain was successful by sea; but, during the 

 life of Mr Pitt, the conflict on the continent was in 

 favour of France. The suspension of cash payments 

 in 1797, the necessity of attending to home defence, 

 the mutiny in the fleet, and the accumulation of the 

 public burdens, which still press so heavily on the 

 nation, were some of the bitter fruits of this struggle; 

 which were, however, on the other hand, alleviated 

 by a commercial monopoly, that, assisted by the 

 temporary operation of an unlimited paper issue, 

 materially modified the consequences both in form 

 and in fact. In 1800, the Irish union was accom- 

 plished. 



Soon after the accomplishment of this event, the 

 hopeless aspect of the war with France began to 

 turn the national attention towards peace; and Mi- 

 Pitt determined to retire. The alleged reason for 

 his retreat, not publicly avowed, but communicated 

 to his friends, was the opposition of the king (see 

 George III.) to all further concession to the Irish 

 Catholics, which had been promised by the articles 

 of the union, (See Catholic Emancipation.') He 

 accordingly resigned his post in 1801; and the crisis 

 of revolutionary fervour having for some time abated, 

 he carried with him into retirement the esteem of a 

 powerful party, which hailed him as " the pilot that 

 weathered the storm." The peace of Amiens suc- 

 ceeded; and the Addington administration, which 

 concluded it, Mr Pitt supported for a time, and then 

 joined the opposition, and spoke on the same side as 

 his old antagonist Mr Fox. The new minister, who 

 had renewed the war, unable to maintain his ground, 

 resigned; and, in 1804, Mr Pitt once more resumed 

 his post at the treasury. Returning to power as a 

 war minister, he exerted all the energy of his charac- 

 ter to render the contest successful, and found means 

 to engage the two great military powers of Russia 

 and Austria in a new coalition which was dissolved 

 by the battle of Austerlitz. Mr Pitt, whose state of 

 health was previously declining, was sensibly affected 

 by this event; and his constitution, weakened by a 

 hereditary gout, 'and injured by a too liberal use of 

 wine, by way of stimulant, rapidly yielded to the joint 

 attack of disease and anxiety. The parliamentary 

 attack upon his old associate, lord Melville (see 

 Dundas), not wholly parried either by ministerial 

 influence or the merits of the case, is thought to have 

 deeply wounded his feelings, and completed his men- 

 tal depression. A state of extreme debility ensued, 

 which terminated in death, encountered with great 

 calmness and resignation, January 23, 1806. 



As a minister, it would be impossible to sum up 

 the character of Mr Pitt in terms that would not 

 encounter a host of predilections and prejudices on 

 e*>ry side. It is ; however, generally conceded, that 



