PITT. 
through the probation of an univerfity with a more 
refpertable chararter for morals, abilities, induftry, and 
regularity. 
He was intended by his father for the bar and the 
fenate; and his education was regulated fo as to embrace 
both thefe objerts. Soon after he quitted the univerfity, 
he went to the continent, and palled a Ihort time at 
Rheims, the capital of Champagne. The death of his 
illuftrious father, while he was in his 19th year, could 
not fail to call a cloud over his profpefts ; but the foun¬ 
dation was laid of thofe qualities which would enable 
him to clear the path to eminence by his own exertions. 
He had already entered himfelf a ftudent of Lincoln’s 
Inn ; and as foon as he was of age, in the year 1780, he 
was called to the bar, went the weftern circuit once, and 
appeared in a few caufes as a junior counfel. His fuccefs 
during this Ihort experiment was thought to be fuch as 
was amply fufficient to encourage him to purfue his legal 
career, and to render himfelf almoft certain of obtaining 
all the wealth and honours which await the able and 
induftrious labourers in the vineyard of the law. He 
was, however, deftined to purfue a very different path, 
to fignalize himfelf as a ftatefman rather than as a barrifter, 
and to take, for a long feries of years, an active part in 
the regulation of the deftinies of his country and the 
civilized world. 
At the general elertion in 1780, he was perfuaded to 
offer himfelf as a candidate to reprefent the univerfity of 
Cambridge; bur, upon enquiry, he found his intereft 
would not be equal to carry the election ; he therefore 
wifely declined the conteft. Before, however, he had 
completed his twenty-fecond year, he was, through the 
influence of fir James Lowther, returned member of par¬ 
liament for the borough of Appleby. This was in the 
month of January, 1781 ; a period in which an oppofition, 
compofed of fome of the greateft characters of the nation, 
was in warm contention againft the miniftry, which, 
under the guidance of lord North, was (till carrying on a 
difaftrous war with the American colonies. By this party 
the power of the crown was regarded as too great for 
the balance of the conffitution ; and its reduction, by 
means of certain reforms, was the favourite topic of the 
times. For this purpofe Mr. Burke, at the commence¬ 
ment of the feflion, brought forward his well-known bill 
for an economical reform in the civil lift. It was on this 
occafion that Mr. Pitt, on the 26th of February, 1781, 
made his firft fpeech in the Britifh fenate. The atten¬ 
tion of the houfe was naturally fixed on the fon of the 
illuftrious Chatham, whofe memory was ftill dear to the 
nation; but in a few moments the regards of the whole 
audience were direrted to the youthful orator on his own 
account. Unembarrafl'ed by the novelty of the fituation 
in which he had been fo lately placed, he delivered him¬ 
felf with an eafe, a grace, a richnefs of expreflion, a found- 
nefs of judgment, a clofenels of argument, and a claflical 
accuracy of language, which not only anfwered, but 
exceeded, all the expectations which had been formed of 
him. During the fame and the fubfequent feflion, he 
occafionally rofe to give his fentiments on the mal- 
adminiftration of public affairs, and to prove that he in¬ 
herited his father’s abhorrence of the American war, as 
well as his liberal ideas on other public topics. What 
feemed particularly to intereft his patriotic feeling, which 
he unqueftionably poffeffed at this time, was a reform of 
parliament. The neceflity of fome improvement of this 
kind had ftrongly impreffed a large proportion of the 
nation ; and meetings of numerous bodies of men had 
been held in different parts, who had appointed delegates 
to confider of the heft plans for bringing it to effeCV. In 
one of thefe conventions, holden at the Thatched-Houfe 
tavern, Weftminfter, Mr. Pitt himfelf fat as a delegate. 
It is true that, when examined on his oath, in the year 
1794, on the trial of Mr. Tooke, he did not feem to re¬ 
member that he fat as a delegate, though he admitted he 
had been engaged in attempts to obtain a parliamentary 
55 L 
reform 5 but Mr. Sheridan, who was engaged with Mr. 
Pitt on the fame bufinefs, exprefsly declared, that the 
meeting at which they attended was a convention to 
which delegates were appointed from counties, towns, 
and different parts, to promote the objeCt of parliamentary 
reform, and to art, not for themfelves individually, but 
for thofe who deputed them. 
As a public fpeaker, we have already obferved Mr. Pitt 
had opened his courfe with great fplendour; and it was 
foon evident to all who arted with him, or who were 
witneffes to the exercife of his talents, that he was deftined 
to art a high part on the political ftage. When, however, 
lord North’s adminiftration broke up, and a new one 
was formed under the aufpices of the marquis of Rock¬ 
ingham, Mr. Pitt was not invited to take a (hare in it: 
he ftill therefore purfued the objert of parliamentary re¬ 
form ; and, in May 1782, moved for a committee, “ to en¬ 
quire into the ftate of the reprefentation in parliament, and 
to report to the houfe their obfervations thereon.” The 
motion was loft by a majority of twenty. Mr. Pitt did 
not on this occafion endeavour to difcufs the queftion 
as to the beft fpecies of reform; he only aflced for an en¬ 
quiry, in order that a report might be made to the houfe 
as to the beft means of carrying into execution a moderate 
and fubftantial reform in the reprefentation of the people. 
On this and two other occafions, viz. in May 1783, and 
April 1785, he fupported the neceflity of a parliamentary 
reform with great eloquence, and the mod powerful 
reafoning ; after which lie abandoned the caufefor ever. 
The death of the marquis of Rockingham foon put a 
period to the adminiftration of which that nobleman was 
the bond of union; and in July 1782, lord Shelburne, 
having, with a part of the former members, placed him¬ 
felf at the head of a new arrangement as firft lord of the 
treafury, afl'ociated Mr. Pitt, who had juft completed his 
23d year, as Chancellor of the Exchequer : he refufed, it 
was faid, to occupy an inferior poft. A general peace 
foon followed, which was made a ground of cenfure by 
a very powerful oppofition; and in April 1783, the fa¬ 
mous coalition-miniftry took the places of thofe whom 
they had expelled. Mr. Pitt, during his continuance in 
office, had found little opportunity to diftinguifh himfelf, 
otherwife than as an able defender of the meafures of 
adminiftration, and a keen animadverter upon the prin¬ 
ciples and condurt of his antagonifts. He retired with 
a chararter unimpeached, and immediately refumed his 
efforts for promoting the popular meafure of a reform in 
the reprefentation. For this purpofe he fubmitted to the 
houfe three fpecific motions; but, although fupported by 
Mr. Fox, then fecretary of ftate, he was left in a minority. 
A matter, however, foon occurred, which was the 
eventual caufe not only of Mr. Pitt’s return to office, 
but of his pofleflion of a degree of authority with the 
king and nation which has rarely been the lot of a mi- 
nifter, and which he preferved, with a (hort interruption, 
to the end of his life. A bill for the regulation of the 
territorial government in India (the corruptions of which 
were notorious to all) was brought into parliament in No¬ 
vember 1783. Its leading provifion was to veil the whole 
management of the affairs of the Eaft-India Company in 
feven commiflioners named in the art, and of courfe ap¬ 
pointed by the exilting miniftry. It was warmly oppofed 
by Mr. Pitt, on account of its being a violation of the 
chartered rights of the company; it however pafled the 
houfe of commons by a great majority, and was intro¬ 
duced to the lords. But in the mean time an alarm 
was raifed refperting the inordinate power fuch a regula¬ 
tion would confer upon the minifters, and which would 
render them almoft independent on the crown; and in a 
private audience given to lord Temple by his majefty, 
this danger was reprefented in fuch a light, that direc¬ 
tions were fent to all the noblemen dependant on, or 
confidential with, the court, to vote againft the bill; and 
it was accordingly rejerted. The immediate confequence 
was a change of miniftry; and in the new arrangement, 
December 
