554 
PITT. 
to pacific counfels, refolved to quit the elevated ftation 
he had fo long held. The immediate reafon for his re¬ 
treat, not publicly avowed, bur, it is faid, alleged to his 
friends, was the oppofition he found in the higheft quar¬ 
ter, to that complete emancipation of the Irifh Catholics 
which he had induced them to expe£l. He refigned his 
poll in February 1801, and was fucceeded by Mr. Adding¬ 
ton, now Lord Sidmouth. The peace of Amiens foon 
followed, which Mr. Pitt defended in his place in parlia¬ 
ment. He afterward, in fome important points joined 
the oppofition ; and the new minifter was in a Ihort time 
forced into a fecond French war. His talents were foon 
found unequal to theconteft in which he had embarked; 
and Mr. Pitt, in 1804, refumed his poll as firft lord of the 
treafury, at the head of an arrangement formed of part of 
the mir.illers then in place, with the addition of fome of 
his own friends. He now came into office as a war-mi- 
niller, and exerted all the vigour of his charafler to ren¬ 
der the contell fuccefsful. Notwithffanding the fevere 
lefibns of experience, he engaged the two great military 
pow ers of Ruffia and Aultria in a new confederacy againll 
France. The errors committed by them in their plan of 
co-operation were probably not imputable to the Englilh 
cabinet; they were, however, fatal to the caufe; and the 
battle of Aullerlitz put an end to the hopes of a check 
to the enormous aggrandizement of an empire which 
feemed deltined to l'way the European continent, Mr. 
Pitt was in a Hate of health ill calculated to meet this 
terrible drake. At an early age he had given indications 
of inheriting his father’s gouty conditution with his ta¬ 
lents ; and it had been thought necedary to make the li¬ 
beral ufe of wine a part of his ordinary regimen. The 
habit and the neceffity of courie gained ground upon him, 
and, with general blameleffnefs of moral conduft, he did 
not efcape the charge of convivial intemperance. This 
abufe of drong dimulants, added to the cares and exer¬ 
tions of office during the flormy period of his adminidra- 
tion, brought on a premature exhaudion of the vital 
powers. A parliamentary attack upon his intimate affo- 
ciate lord Melville was thought to have deeply wounded 
Iris feelings; and the difadrous termination of his grand 
political fchemes completed his mental depreffion. He 
fell into a date of extreme debility, which carried him off 
on the 23d of January, 1806, before he had attained the 
age of 47, leaving his country involved in a mod danger¬ 
ous war with the power which he had regarded with in¬ 
veterate hodility, and which had regularly increafed in 
drength and dominion under every combination formed 
againll her. 
Mr. Pitt pofied'ed no advantages of perfon orphyfiog- 
r.omy, the fird of which w-ere ungraceful, the fecond re- 
puifive. In public, a lcftinefs approaching to arrogance 
was his habitual expredion, and he was lefs formed for 
perfuafion than command. His eloquence, the quality 
which fird brought him into notice, was more perfefl 
than that of any other fpeaker in his time. Singularly 
correft, copious, and varied, clear, well-arranged, argu¬ 
mentative or impaffioned as the fubjefl required, it left 
fcarcely any thing tq be dedred ; and, if not illuminated 
with thofe flalhes of genius which were charafileridic of 
his father’s eloquence, or enriched by thofe dores of ima¬ 
gination which didinguiffied that of Burke, it was more 
uniformly jud and impredive than that of either. In his 
political conduct, though apparently firm and decided, 
there was much attention to popular opinion, and fome 
artifice in feizing upon favourite objefts, and exrrafting 
from them merit not properly his own. It has been feen 
lvowhe advocated, and then dropt, the bufinefs of parlia¬ 
mentary reform. In like manner he fpoke eloquently 
and voted in favour of the abolition of the Have-trade ; 
but he would not, as a minider, encounter the difficul¬ 
ties of putting it in execution, and fudered his colleagues 
to appear as the open oppofers of the meafure. When 
a bill had been brought in by an oppofition member for 
bettering the condition of the poor, he took the matter 
into his own hands, and produced a plan, which, with a 
deeming benevolent regard to their comforts, diowed 
great ignorance of their real date, and was fet afide as 
impracticable. The love of power was his ruling paf- 
fion ; but his mind was elevated above the meannefs of 
avarice. His perfonal integrity was unimpeached. So 
far from making ufe of his opportunities to acquire 
wealth, he died involved in debts, which negligence and 
the demands of his public dation, rather than extrava¬ 
gance, had obliged him to contrad; for his fades were 
limple, and he had no fondnefs for fplendor or parade. 
The motion for burying him at the public expenfe, and 
ereCling a monument to his memory, in Wedminder-ab- 
bey, paded in the houfe of commons with fome oppofi- 
tion ; but fcarcely any objection was made to a vote of 
40,000k for paying his debts. 
A motion in the common-council of the city of Lon¬ 
don to ereCl a monument to Mr. Pitt in Guildhall, drew 
forth from a Mr. Quin, what we think a very excellent dif- 
criminative charaCler of that minider; and, though the de¬ 
bates of the common-council feldom furnidi much matter 
worthy to remain upon record, yet upon the prefent occa- 
fion we diall copy the fubdance of that gentleman’s fpeech. 
After an exordium, in which he explained the import¬ 
ance of the fubjedl, he adverted to the general conduct 
of the late minider : fird, as to his internal adminidration; 
and next, with regard to his colonial and exterior policy. 
He would take, he faid, the more pleafing review of hi3 
merits, before he defcended into the diade of his political 
errors. 1. The Sinking Fund, if not invented by this 
expert financier, was greatly improved by his exertions, 
and would abundantly conduce to alleviate the burthens 
which have been unavoidably impofed. 2. DifafFeclion 
had been raifed, diforganization had been promoted, by 
noify adventurers : Mr. Pitt applied the energies of his 
manly underdanding to impede the progrefs of this red- 
lefs fpirit, and, affided by the good fenfe of the nation at 
large, lie effe£lually removed this dangerous caufe of pub¬ 
lic calamity. 3. On the remarkable occadon, when the 
regency was propofed, this minider made a firm dand, in 
protedlion of the genuine and permanent intereds of the 
empire; and, on this fubjeft in particular, he was happy 
in appealing to men acquainted with the nature and prin¬ 
ciples of the Britifli conditution. 4. The Union with 
Ireland was a meafure peculiarly his own ; and it had 
been found greatly advantageous to the commerce and 
profperity of the refpeftive idands. 5. The confolida- 
tion-fcheme was among the prominent expedients of his 
government, and this fingle project had been more valua¬ 
ble than the labours of many who had devoted a pro¬ 
tracted life to the fervice of the kingdom. 6. Wiiatever 
feverity might have been diredled to the volunteer eda- 
blidiment, he (Mr. Quin) confidered it as one highly con¬ 
ducive to the public fecurity ; as a plan of national de¬ 
fence to which, probably, we were, at this awful moment, 
indebted for our independence. 
After this particular examination of the diftinft parts of 
Mr. Pitt’s conduct, the gentleman took a coile&ive view 
of their general effeCt on the fituation of the Britiffi mo¬ 
narchy ; and concluded with commenting on the perni¬ 
cious confequences of a few of Mr. Pitt’s favourite mea- 
fures. 1. The extenfion of the revenue-laws had been 
deplored at a much earlier period by fome of the moll 
profound judges of political economy ; and thefe had been 
expanded by the late minider to a degree which threat¬ 
ened the exidence of our deared immunities. 2. The 
dave-trade was a difgrace to our age and country; it vio¬ 
lated every principle of honour, judice, and humanity; 
all the naturallaws of religion and morality were facrificed 
to it, and yet this commerce was continued by his fup- 
port and encouragement. 3. Penfions, during his go¬ 
vernment, had been laviffied ; titles and honours had 
been grofsly mifapplied; offices had been difpofed of to 
perfons wholly incompetent to fulfil the important duties 
of the date. 4. His continental lchemes afforded a very 
melancholy 
