information which could throw light upon the objects of his designs; sagacious in exploring both the difficulties of every enterprise, and the manner in which they might be removed or conquered; firm in his decisions; instant in their execution; he made the resources of his country and the powers of her minister felt throughout the world. During the last four years of George II. and the first year of his successor, England assumed an attitude more commanding than any in which she had formerly stood; not even during the protectorate of the mighty usurper, nor in the most "high and palmy" days of Marlborough, had her strength been so extensively felt, so tremblingly acknowledged. It was, indeed, a splendid sight to behold a single man-surrounded by treacherous friends and open enemies-extorting for his country a tribute of involuntary homage from every quarter of the globe.

In the work now before us, we find many anecdotes illustrative of the qualities which commanded this extraordinary success. We shall extract two of the shortest.

"A fleet and an army were assembled. The destination was kept a profound secret. Sir Edward Hawke was commander of the fleet, and Mr. Pitt corresponded with him. It is not a little remarkable, that when Mr. Pitt ordered the fleet to be equipped, and appointed the period for its being at the place of rendezvous, Lord Anson (then first lord of the admiralty) said, it was impossible to comply with the order; the ships could not be got ready in the time limited; and he wanted to know where they were going, in order to victual them accordingly. Mr. Pitt replied, that if the ships were not ready at the time required, he would lay the matter before the king, and impeach his lordship in the house of commons. This spirited menace produced the men of war and transports all ready, in perfect compliance with the order."1. 231.

"Parliament had been appointed to meet on the 15th of November. Intelligence of the King of Prussia's great victory at Rosbach, over the French and Germans, arrived at St. James's on the 9th. The moment the dispatches were read, the minister resolved to prorogue the parliament for a fortnight, notwithstanding every preparation had been made for opening the session on the 15th. The reason of this sudden prorogation was, to give time to concert a new plan of operations, and to write another speech for the king. Whether there was any precedent for this extraordinary step was not in the contemplation of the minister. In taking a resolution that involved concerns of the greatest magnitude, he was not to be influenced by precedents."— I. 243.

And with respect to the successes themselves, we shall content ourselves with the testimony of Horace Walpole. Our readers will readily believe, that such a witness is not very likely to exaggerate them. Moreover, the following extract

will shew in what manner the opponents of Lord Chatham contrived to qualify their reluctant praises.

"Mr. Pitt, on entering into office, had found the nation at the lowest ebb, in point of power and reputation. His predecessors, now his coadjutors, wanted genius, spirit, and system. The fleet had many able officers; but the army, since the resignation of the Duke of Cumberland, had lost sight of discipline, and was destitute of generals in whom either the nation or the soldiery had any confidence. France, who meant to be feared, was feared heartily; and the heavy debt of the nation, which was above fourscore millions, served as an excuse to those who understood nothing but little temporary expedients, to preach up our impossibility of making an effectual stand. They were willing to trust that France would be so good as to ruin us by inches. Pitt had roused us from this ignoble lethargy. He had asserted, that our resources were still prodigious; he found them so; and the intrepidity of our troops and navies; but he went farther, and perhaps too far. He staked our revenues with as little management as he played with the lives of the subjects, as if we could never have another war to wage, and as if he meant (which was impracticable) that his administration should decide which alone should exist as a nation, Britain or France. He lavished the last treasures of this country with a prodigality beyond example and beyond excuse. Yet even that profusion was not so blameable as his negligence. Ignorant of the whole circle of finance, and constantly averse from corresponding with financiers, a plain sort of men, who are never to be paid with words instead of figures, he kept aloof from all details, drew magnificent plans, and left others to find the magnificent means. Disdaining, too, to enter into the operations of an office which he did not fill, he affected to throw on the treasury the execution of measures which he dictated, but for which he thus held himself not responsible. This conduct was artful, new, and grand, and to him proved most advantageous. Secluded from all eyes, his orders were received as oracles, and their success of consequence was imputed to his inspiration. Misfortunes and miscarriages fell to the lot of the mere human agents. Corruption and waste were charged on the subordinate priests.

The admirers of Mr. Pitt extol the reverberation he gave to our counsels, the despondence he banished, the spirit he infused, the conquests he made, the security he afforded to our trade and plantations, the humiliation of France, the glory of Britain carried under his administration to a pitch at which it never had arrived. And all this is exactly true. When they add, that all this could not be purchased too dearly, and that there was no option between this conduct and tame submission to the yoke of France; even this is just in a degree; but a material objection still remains, not depreciating a grain from this bill of merits, which must be gratefully acknowledged by whoever

* Last treasures! Our national debt is now ten times as great, and we are not bankrupts yet.

calls himself Englishman, yet very derogatory from Mr. Pitt's character, as virtually trusted with the revenues, the property of his country. A few plain words will explain my meaning. All this was done, but might have been done for many millions less.--Posterity thus see an impartial picture. I am neither dazzled by the blaze of the times in which I have lived, nor, if there are spots in the sun, do I deny that I see them. It is a man I am describing, and one whose greatness will bear to have his blemishes fairly delivered."-Walpole's Memoires, ii. 346-349.

Some of the censures which Horace Walpole has here mixed up with his praises, will remind our readers of the objections with which, about fifty years before, the Marlborough administration had been assailed by the faction of Harley and St. John. Whoever reads Swift's History of the last years of Queen Anne will find, that at that time England had nearly ruined herself by the exuberance of her successes, and that she was then expending her last-her very last-treasures. Indeed, there is another point of resemblance between the two cases; the Marlborough administration and that of Mr. Pitt were both checked in their courses of disastrous success, and timely remedies found in the substitution of men, who restored their country by copious draughts of calamity and disgrace.

We must refer our readers to this work itself for a minute account of the different measures adopted by Lord Chatham while minister. Our business is merely to sketch an outline, which we have neither time nor space to fill up. There is, however, one measure of his administration to which we must particularly allude; we mean, the recruiting for the British army in the Highlands of Scotland. Up to his time, the Highlands had been governed with a rod of iron. The successive administrations which had existed since the accession of George I. had agreed in one hostile and arbitrary policy towards the north of Scotland; the later ministries differing from the earlier only in the increased measure of their severities. Terror was the only specific in their pharmacy; and that failed. Lord Chatham, on the contrary, determined, on his very entrance into office, to abate the rebellious spirit of the highlanders by methods of conciliation. Instead of cautiously shutting them out from all participation in the duties and prívileges of their fellow-subjects; instead of continuing to tell the highlander that he had and always would have the spirit of disaffection, and that he must therefore be watched with never-sleeping jealousy, fettered with endless restrictions, and terrified into a love for his legitimate sovereign,-Lord Chatham boldly threw the defence of the country upon him, gave him rights to maintain, and taught him to identify his objects, his

hopes, and his prejudices, with those of his fellow-countrymen. A more decisive and more successful policy was never adopted. From that period, the highlanders have been regarded as the very flower of the British army; and we believe, that the success of the last great battle, in which the troops of this country were engaged, is in no small degree attributable to the descendants of those who, before the time of Lord Chatham, were branded with the stigma of hopeless and eternal disaffection.

Great, however, as we seriously believe Lord Chatham's merits, as a minister, to have been, we turn with still higher pleasure to his efforts as a leader of opposition. He was, indeed and emphatically, the man of the people. He was their constant, sincere, and most able advocate-their warm and zealous friend; ready to ward off any danger which might threaten their true interests, whether proceeding from ministerial encroachment, or their own imprudence. And never, certainly, were the people of this country in greater need of such a friend than during the first ten years of George the Third. Administration succeeded to administration with a rapidity quite unparalleled; each heterogeneous, discordant, and weak; all the alternate tools and victims of a single favourite's caprice. Lord Bute-whose influence was the curse of Britain for so many years-precipitated the court into many acts, so arbitrary and wilful, as to exasperate the country almost into rebellion. On the other hand, there were not wanting public writers to take advantage of the popular discontents, and to point out the most unconstitutional means of redress. Smollett, Mallett, Francis, Home, Murphy, Mauduit, on one side, and the North Briton and Junius on the other, dealt largely in language the most gross and inflammatory; the former seeking to goad the ministers into absolute despotism, the latter aiming to subvert the very foundations of the monarchy. At such a time, Lord Chatham stood forward to repress the violence of both parties; and while he vindicated the rights of the people in language the boldest and most eloquent, and with a zeal and manner to which (as contemporary writers tell us) no description could do justice, he rebuked the revolutionary spirit, and rescued multitudes from its unholy domination.

The very austerity which partly disqualified him for a minister, rendered his efforts, as the people's advocate, only more impressive and successful. Corruption, impudent as it was in those days, not unfrequently trembled before him. He kept apostacy and tyranny in seasonable awe. The scoffer at patriotism, the derider of human rights, the ignorant or interested partisan of intolerance, rarely ventured to encounter the thunder and lightning of his indignation.

In opposition, as well as in office, he supported all

measures which had a tendency to make his country respected abroad, and happy within herself. Several instances are recorded in these volumes, of his seconding even those who had supplanted him, when their propositions were of such a

nature.

He was contented with the constitution as he found it; and though he believed that many abuses had vitiated it, and that some disorders had crept in, which, if not reformed in due season, would bring about its dissolution, he yet resisted every proposal to take away even one of the principles on which it was built. He thought that, so long as the influence of the crown was kept within moderate bounds, so long as justice was administered in purity, so long as the voice of the people could make itself heard in those deliberations which involved their interests, the constitution was a good one, and ought to be affectionately cherished.

He was no innovator: but neither would he submit to innovation upon the country's rights. His loyalty was unblemished --but it comprehended the people as well as the king. He discountenanced every thing like wanton resistance to any public authority; but, at the same time, he believed, with Lord Somers, that the highest authority might act in a way which would justify resistance.

Before we conclude this article, we shall say a few words upon Lord Chatham's eloquence. We have to lament, that not one of his speeches has come down to us without mutilation and disguise. Some of those which are generally regarded as his, were written by Johnson, during the connection of that author with the Gentleman's Magazine; others by Gordon*, who succeeded Johnson as reporter. Many, of scarcely higher authority, we believe, are to be found in Chandler's and Debrett's Collections of Parliamentary Debates. Unfortunately, in the days of Lord Chatham, reporting was an art which had attained very little of its present comprehensiveness and accuracy; and unless a speaker wrote out his own speech, either before or after delivery, and gave it to the world under his own auspices, he had a very bad chance of being represented with tolerable fairness to posterity. We regret that Lord Chatham never did

*How far Gordon's reports are likely to be accurate, may be judged of from the manner in which he obtained them: "His practice was to go to the coffee houses contiguous to Westminster Hall, where he frequently heard the members conversing with each other upon what had passed in the house; and sometimes he gained admission into the gallery; and as he was known to a few of the gentlemen, two or three of them, upon particular occasions, furnished him with some information."-i. 131.