136 
of Burton Pynfent (a feat which had been 
bequeathed him on account of his pa- 
triotifm) prefaged his future deftiny. 
Whie his fchcol-exercifes were per- 
formed under the immediate au(pices of a 
private tuto1*, his noble father converfed 
with him freely on all fubjeéts, with a 
view of expanding his mind and matur- 
ing his judgment. As he grew up, mat- 
ters of ike utmoft importance were ftarted 
and difcuffed. On thefe occafions, a fond 
parent, fo eminent fer his paisutee and 
particularly for bis eloquence, was ac- 
cuftomed to make the littie orator declaim 
from a chair or a table. He knew that 
in a free country the giftof fpeaking with 
facility on every fubjeé, was one of the 
moft defirable acquifitions for a young 
min, who pan‘ed to excel his contempo- 
raries, and command his equals. He was 
conicious that this qualification had fup- 
plied the deficiencies of fortune in his 
own perfon; and as his fon, like himfelf 
at the fame time of lite, was but fcantily 
previded for, he wifhed, if poffible, to 
bequeath it to him as aninheritance. His 
lordfnip was aware aifo, perhaps, that his 
eld rival, Tord Holland, had bred up one 
of his children i in the ue manner; and 
as Charles Fox began already to ciftin- 
guith himfelf in the oratorical arena of 
the houfe of commons, in fuch a manner 
as to have nocompeer, it perhaps entered 
into his calculatiors that one William 
Pitt fhould outhitp him, as much as an- 
ether had excelled his father ! 
At a proper period it was determined to 
fend Mr. Pitt to one of the univerfities ; 
and upon this occafion Cambridge was 
expre{sly preferred to Oxfcrd, from a no- 
tion long cherifhed by many Whig fa- 
milies, that the political d:€trines incul. 
cated there were more liberal than thofe 
ufually engendered at Oxtord>. Pem- 
broke Hall having been accordingly pitch- 
ed upon, he was placed under the tuition 
of Jofeph Turner, D. D. fince Dean of 
Norwich, and who in 1784 was eleéted 
mafier. Dr. Prettyman (now Tomline, 
Bifhop of Liacoin, Dean of St. Paui’s, 
&c.) alfo participated in the care of his 
education, the latter being his private in- 
ftructor. 
* The Rey. Mr., afterwards Dr. Wiifon, 
anda canon of Windfor, was his firft in- 
firuCtor. 
+. We truft and believe that the principles 
of alimited government, coniifting of king, 
lords, and commons, are now equally enforc- 
ed at both wniverfities ; but at the period to 
which we allude, Oxford was faid to be ftill 
woterious fer its toryifm. * 
Memoirs of ihe Right Hon. William Pitt, - 
-amples of this kind: as 
[March 1, 
While he refided at Cambridge, Mr. 
Pitt’s morals and conduét were alike un- 
impeachable ; and if the example of the 
young nobility 1s fuppofed to be fome-~ 
times but little beneficial to our youth in 
general, certain it is that this do‘trine 
tound a diftinguifhed exception in his per- 
fon. Here he took his_bachelor’s degree, 
and alfo that of Mm. a., and eftablifhed 
(uch a character in the univerfity for in- 
duitry, talents, and propriety of demea- 
nour, that the fame then acquired proved 
not a little ferviceable in his future pur- 
fuits in life. 
On leaving his Alma’ Mater, Mr. Pitt 
was entered at Lincoln’s Inn, nearly at 
‘the fame time with Mr. Addington, whofe 
father had been the phyfician and friend 
of his family ; there he foon after hired 
chambers, anc being as ufual favoured on 
account of his degree, was enabled at the 
‘end of three years to be called to the bar. 
When this event took place, he, as 1s cuf- 
tomary with the junior counfel, felected 
one of the circuits as the fcene of his 
early efforts, and on this occafion he made 
choice of the weftcrn. We believe that 
the late Mr. John Froft Widmore, after- 
wards a bencher of the Inner Temple, led 
in the firft caufe in which Mr. Pitt ap- 
peared, We have alfo learned from good 
authority, that one of the firt briefs he 
ever received was inthe Cricklade election 
caufe, when Mr. Samuel Petrie, a peti- 
tioning candidate, brought 76 feparate 
a@ions againft the fitting member for 
bribery and corruption. 
But Mr. Pitt had bat little praétice, 
and con fequently but little celebrity, as 
an advocate; and periaps he was but ill 
qualified, on the fcore cf patient and labo- 
rious “inveftigatio on, for a purfuit in which 
nothing great can he achieved, without 
the unabating induftry of a hele life, 
John Dunning (afterwards Lord Athbur- 
ton), and Thomas, now Lord, Erikine, 
the two mof fuccelsful men “in the annals 
f legal hiftory, may be adduced as ex- 
for the Lords 
Thuriow and Rofslyn, itis well known 
that their rife is to be attributed to ther 
praéiice im parliament, and not in the 
couris of juftice. . 
But a different fate awaited him, and 
honours of another kind were at that 
moment hovering over bis head. Foitune 
fecmed eager on ‘this oceafion to pour the 
cornucopia of her favour inte his lap, and 
fhowed, by one fignal difplay of bounty, fs 
hew ayiih fhe could be to the fon of a 
great man, to whom fhe had dealt out her Bi 3 | 
kindnels eid aniggard hand. 
es, ae ee 
