A CONSUMMATE ACTOR. 149 Mansfield, he said: "Who are the evil advisers of his Majesty? is it you? is it you? is it you ?" pointing When to the different ministers until he came to the Chancellor. Several peers were round him, and Chatham said, "My Lords, please to take your seats." they had done so, he turned his finger towards Mansfield, exclaiming, "Is it you? Methinks Felix trembles." Only a great actor could venture on such a tour de force as this. "His words," says Lord Lyttelton, "have sometimes frozen my young blood into stagnation, and sometimes made it pace in such a hurry through my veins that I could scarce support it." Pitt's faith in himself was great. "I know," he said to the Duke of Devonshire, "that I can save the country, and I know no other man can." This was partly the secret of the popular faith in him; the people saw him serene, unshaken, self-reliant, and trusted him. He stooped to no vulgar arts to gain popularity. He lavished his scorn upon Wilkes, when that pretended demagogue was the idol of the mob; and when the old hatred of England for the Scots revived, he generously expressed his admiration of their courage. His personal integrity was beyond suspicion. Not even for the power he loved would he sully his hands with the public money or betray his principles. When Pelham appointed him to the lucrative office of Paymaster of the Forces, he refused to accept anything except his salary, because the profits were obtained by corrupt and illegal means. In a like spirit, when overtures were made for his support, he exclaimed "I will not go to the Court if I may not bring the constitution with 150 PITT'S "THEATRICAL MANNER." me." When in the Cabinet his measures were opposed by his aristocratic colleagues, he haughtily answered, "It is the people who have sent me here." That there was something theatrical in his manner, and a certain ostentation in his conduct must be admitted, though not to the degree that Macaulay's exaggerated rhetoric pretends, or the Earl of Shelburne's prejudiced criticism implies. It was probably necessary to enable him to mantain his peculiar influence. "No man is a hero to his valet," says the old adage; and this is true because the hero in ordinary life too often descends to the common level. Pitt, with his consummate knowledge of mankind, was unwilling to err in this direction.* He endeavoured to preserve his superiority in all circumstances, and to live as one who was not of the multitude. It is a touch of true art in Byron's 'Corsair,' when he represents Conrad, the pirate chief, as resuming his usual dignity of mien before he joins his followers : "He bounds--he flies-until his footsteps reach That checks low mirth, but lacks not courtesy ; * He himself says,-" Behaviour, though an external thing, which seems rather to belong to the body than to the mind, is certainly founded in considerable virtues." PITT'S LINEAGE. 151 Such, we believe, was Pitt's motive, and his " acting was forced upon him by the necessities of his position. But though he drew his support from the crowd, he never became a demagogue. In Parliament and in the Cabinet alike he retained his loftiness of demeanour, his "solemn aspect," and his "high-born eye;" and by these, no less than by the force of his will and the power of his genius, he succeeded in subduing the formidable opposition which incessantly threatened him. William Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham, came of an opulent and respectable family. His grandfather, who had been Governor of Madras, brought back from India the famous diamond which suggested the calumny of Pope, and was purchased by the Regent Orleans for upwards of 2,000,000 livres (about £135,000), or nearly eleven times more than the vendor had given for it. The ex-governor bought lands and rotten boroughs, for which (old Sarum and afterwards Oakhampton) his son Robert sat in Parliament. Robert Pitt married a sister of the Earl of Grandison, by whom he had two sons. Thomas, the elder, succeeded to the estates and the rotten boroughs; the younger was the subject of the present notice. He was born on the 15th of November, 1708. After a course of study at Eton he entered Trinity College, Oxford. During the second year of his University curriculum (1729) George the 1st died; whereupon, ac * " Asleep and naked as the Indian lay, An honest factor stole the gem away." 152 STUDY AND TRAVEL. cording to custom the Oxonians expressed their loyal regret in such verse as they were able to compose. Pitt's grief found vent in some Latin lines, which are so bad as fully to deserve Macaulay's severe and characteristic criticism.* He had from his childhood been tortured by the gout, and being recommended to travel for the benefit of his health, he left Oxford without taking a degree, and visited France and Italy. Physically, whatever may have been the case mentally, he derived little advantage from his tour; and to the end of his days he suffered terribly from his inherited disease, to the effects of which some of his eccentricities are fairly attributable. On the death of his father the straitness of the family's circumstances compelled him to adopt a profession. The army was his choice, and his friends procured him a cornetcy in the Blues. In 1734 his elder brother, at the general election, was chosen for Old Sarum and Oakhampton. When Parliament met, he decided on sitting for Oakhampton,-and William Pitt was returned as member for Old Sarum (A.D. 1735). Walpole was then at the head of affairs; but the power which he had enjoyed so long was threatened by an Opposition which * Here is a specimen, which at least shows that Pitt had read Virgil:— "Felix, qui potuit mundi cohibere tumultus! Fortunatus et illi, ægri solamen amoris Qui subit Angliacis, tanti audit nominis hæres. A FIRST SPEECH. 153 every year increased in numbers and influence. It was composed of a strange coalition of Tories and Whigs, led by the man whom Walpole had offended and discarded. The Tories were more numerous but less formidable than the Whigs, for while the former were chiefly "ponderous foxhunters," broad-acred squires with bucolic tastes, the latter included the rising young men of the day, the "Patriots" as they called themselves, who considered it their peculiar mission to overthrow a Whig minister in defence of the principles of the Revolution. While the King and his Court supported the Minister, the Prince of Wales extended his favour to the Opposition. This was the usual course of the heir-apparent during the first three Hanoverian reigns; and it is only in our own time that we have had a Prince of Wales able to hold himself aloof from political struggles. In April 1736, Prince Frederick, the most contemptible, perhaps, of all scions of the House of Hanover, was married to the Princess of Saxe Gotha. On this occasion the usual congratulatory address from the House of Commons was moved, not by the Minister of the Crown, but by Pulteney, the leader of the Opposition. In the debate that ensued, Pitt made his first speech, and his fluency, animation, and self-possession at once secured the ear of the House. At this time, he presented all the qualifications which might be expected to fascinate a popular assembly.* His figure was tall but He was tall in his person, and as genteel as a martyr to the gout could be, with the eye of a hawk, a little head, thin face, long aquiline nose, and perfectly erect."-Lord Shelburne (Life, by Lord E. Fitzmaurice, i. 77). |