the defender of the Protestant faith; he would rather lay that stout head upon the block than that Catholics should have a share in the government of England. And you do not suppose that there are not honest bigots enough in all countries to back kings in this kind of statesmanship? Without doubt the American war was popular in England. In 1775 the address in favor of coercing the colonies was carried by 304 to 105 in the Commons, by 104 to 29 in the House of Lords. Popular?-so was the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes popular in France: so was the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew: so was the Inquisition exceedingly popular in Spain.

King George's household was a model of an English gentleman's household. It was early; it was kindly; it was charitable; it was frugal; it was orderly; it must have been stupid to a degree which I shudder now to contemplate. No wonder all the princes ran away from the lap of that dreary domestic virtue. It always rose, rode, dined at stated intervals. Day after day was the same. At the same hour at night the king kissed his daughters' jolly cheeks; the princesses kissed their mother's hand; and Madame Thielke brought the royal nightcap. At the same hour the equerries and women in waiting had their little dinner, and cackled over their tea. The king had his backgammon or his evening concert; the equerries yawned themselves to death in the anteroom; or the king and his family walked on Windsor slopes, the king holding his darling little Princess Amelia by the hand; and the people crowded round quite good-naturedly; and the Eton boys thrust their chubby cheeks under the crowd's elbows; and, the concert over, the king never failed to take his enormous cocked-hat off, and salute his band, and say, "Thank you, gentlemen."-W. M. THACKERAY.

WILLIAM PITT, the Great Commoner of England, was destined by birth and training as the great son of a great father for the leadership which he attained. After proving his supremacy in a momentous crisis, and being accepted by king and commons as the foreordained representative of the nation, he was driven into contest with an ambitious and unscrupulous despot, who was able to array against all the resources of conservatism the enthusiasm and indomitable energy of democracy. He formed and sustained the great coalition against the French conqueror, but for want of generals he could not enable its armies to win victories in the field. Though he had set on foot the opposition which was eventually to overwhelm the greatest soldier of the modern world, he died at an early age heart-broken at his want of success.

William Pitt was born at Hayes, on the 28th of May, 1759. His father was then at the height of his popularity and power; under his direction the British Empire was enlarged in almost every quarter of the globe. But when a few years later the father had been advanced to the House of Lords, he no longer retained that popularity and power. He hoped, however, that his own eminence would be revived in his son, and spared no pains to train him for such high destiny. That he might early acquire fluency of speech and self-confidence as an orator, the father made the boy declaim before his friends and guests from a table or chair. The boy was even

more ambitious of succeeding to his father's eminence. Being of feeble frame, though intensely active mind, he was well trained at home by tutors, until, at the age of fifteen, he went to Pembroke College, Cambridge. Here also he associated chiefly with his tutor, showing industrious, regular and moral habits, and became so well versed in both classics and mathematics, as to excite general astonishment at his attainments. He received the degree of M. A. in 1776, but continued his studies at college. He was present at the memorable scene when his father fell stricken in the House of Lords. (See Vol. VIII., p. 351.) After his father's death he studied law at Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the bar as soon as he was of age.

In January, 1781, Pitt entered Parliament, and soon displayed special talent in debate. He was then in the opposition, and showed that he inherited his father's abhorrence for the war then waged with the American States. Burke is said to have exclaimed after hearing his first speech, "It is not a chip of the old, it is the old block itself." His genius was speedily acknowledged, and early in the next year when the Rockingham ministry came into power he was offered a lucrative position in the gift of the crown, but promptly declined it. He boldly advocated extreme measures for reform, which were becoming popular in Great Britain as well as France under the influence of the triumph of republican principles in America. In May, 1782, he brought in a motion for reform in the representation of the people in Parliament, and though not successful, it obtained a higher vote than such a proposal ever received until nearly half a century had elapsed.

Pitt, though but twenty-three years of age, had already announced that he would accept no post that would not give him a seat in the cabinet, and though he afterwards expressed regret for the saying, his boldness won public approval. When Lord Rockingham died, after three months' tenure of office, his cabinet, which had been inharmonious and was disliked by the king, fell to pieces. Lord Shelburne, being made prime minister, offered Pitt the great place of Chancellor of the Exchequer. It was under this administration that the

treaty acknowledging the independence of the United States was completed and ratified. The great parliamentary orator, Charles J. Fox, had welcomed Pitt's advent to political life, and hitherto they had agreed in their aims. But Fox was personally opposed to Shelburne, and, refusing to serve under him, made the famous "Coalition" with his former antagonist, Lord North. Its object was simply to drive Shelburne from power, and for this purpose Fox and North united in attacking the treaties. The ministry was defeated twice in the House of Commons, and Lord Shelburne resigned. After weeks in which the king sought to avoid the event, a new ministry was formed under the Duke of Portland, in which Fox was the ruling spirit. Pitt refused a place in this cabinet. During the following summer Pitt made his only visit to the Continent, and was received in Paris with popular enthusiasm.

In December, 1783, the Coalition ministry, which had a powerful majority in both Houses of Parliament, brought in a bill reorganizing the government of India. In spite of many objections both in and out of Parliament, it passed the House of Commons and had reached second reading in the House of Lords, when it was discovered that the king was opposed to the bill. The Lords rejected the bill, and the king dismissed the Coalition. Pitt was now made First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Prime Minister. He was but twenty-four years old. There had never been so young a premier, and few have been called to so arduous a task. He did not immediately dissolve Parliament, though the public feeling was in his favor. By his able championship, in spite of a powerful opposition in the House of Commons, the king was able to defeat the political aristocracy. After the supplies had been regularly voted, Parliament was dissolved, and in the new election Pitt, who was chosen for the University of Cambridge, won the greatest of his triumphs. The favorite of both king and people became the greatest of parliamentary rulers.

As financial minister he introduced in 1786 a new form of sinking fund, which was supposed to effect a partial extinction of the national debt. He also arranged various altera

tions in the mode of collecting the taxes, so as to render them more productive and to prevent frauds and defalcations. Meantime it was found that Great Britain, which had been regarded by other nations as most seriously damaged by the loss of her American colonies, was really more wealthy and powerful than she had ever been. Commerce and manufactures were flourishing. The people and the nation were prosperous.

King George III., who had previously been somewhat unpopular, now secured the full favor of his subjects. Unfortunately in 1788 he became insane. A parliamentary struggle took place over the regency, which, Fox contended, devolved at once upon the Prince of Wales, while Pitt maintained that it rested with Parliament to appoint the regent. Before the dispute was decided, the king recovered. For a few years more Pitt's ministry embodied enlightened progress in constitutional liberty. He was not able to induce Parliament to reform the mode of representation, but he assisted Wilberforce in mitigating the horrors of the slave-trade and he favored the freedom of the press, though, at a later stage, he reversed his action.

The great international conflict with which Pitt's name is inseparably connected was brought on by the outbreak of the French Revolution. Whatever were his youthful predilections in favor of popular liberty, he could never countenance the overthrow of monarchy and other established institutions of government. He shared in the reaction in public feeling which took place in England and other parts of the world against the mad crusade for freedom and indiscriminate slaughter which raged in France. While he hoped to preserve peace, he was compelled to engage in war. his fault was that he did not conduct that war with the heartiness which the nation would have supported and which the necessities of the occasion demanded. He did less for his Continental allies than had been done in the days of Marlborough. The young minister of the constitutional monarchy was compelled to measure his strength with the young military despot of France. Yet instead of rousing to its utmost that national enthusiasm which was ready and eager to

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