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time Prussian ambassador at Rome, and is now a cabinet minister. And yet these two distinguished public men have been able to present to the republic of letters works which we should expect from none but professed literary men, and which would seem to require the leisure and labor of a professor in his closet. How is it too, that in England, our magna parens,' Mr Fox (to take one example for many) was able to discuss nice questions respecting the Greek metres with a professed scholar, like Gilbert Wakefield. And how is it, that we have nothing of this kind from our own public men? Is it because of any inferiority in native powers of intellect? We trust not; for the foreign nations, who are acquainted with us, have done us ample justice in that respect. Is it then, in consequence of the imperfections in our education? We leave the answer to our intelligent and candid readers.

ART. X.-Memoirs of the life of the Right Honorable William Pitt. By George Tomline, D. D. F. R. S. Lord Bishop of Winchester, and prelate of the most noble order of the Garter. Philadelphia, 1821. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 916.

DR TOMLINE, formerly known by the name of Prettyman, is not without his own reputation and dignities. His theological works, however, we believe, are thought to display more industry of compilation and purity of composition, than either uncommon intellect or much originality of investigation. He has already enjoyed the rare fortune and distinction of having filled two or three rich bishoprics in the church of England. Nevertheless, we account it the most remarkable circumstance in his life, and one to which he is probably indebted in part for the preferments we have just recorded, that he was the private tutor of William Pitt, and had the management of his education at the university; that for some time he acted as his confidential secretary, and at all times maintained an uninterrupted intercourse with him, in all matters connected with his official situation; that he was favored and honored by a constant and unreserved friendship with that eminent individual to the hour of his death, at which time he was present and administered to him with his own hand the last offices for the dying; and finally, that he was appointed one of his execu

tors, and in that capacity had access to all his papers. We cannot, however, in conscience, compliment Dr Tomline, on having very successfully employed the advantages with which he has himself acquainted us. We cannot, it is true, estimate the industry and intelligence with which the right reverend biographer has examined the papers of Mr Pitt; but we are able to judge of the degree of knowledge, which he possesses of the motives and causes of that statesman's public acts, and of the secret but bewitching history attending all negotiations, both foreign and domestic. We speak now only of those private and often trifling facts and circumstances, which constitute what may be called, the train of public events, which are set down in the green-room for the direction of the players, whispered in cabinets, or to confidential secretaries, but which a minister does not open with his budget, nor insert in the protocols of his treaties. These are the paragraphs after which readers now hunt with the keenest avidity; these form the plot, the romance of public life, and in dexterous hands would make the history of every warrior or statesman another 'Kenilworth,' or 'Memoirs of a Cavalier.' But of these details there is a most unhappy and pitiful want in the memoirs by Dr Tomline, a want which we cannot feel to be altogether justified by the remark of the distinguished prelate, that in writing the history of so recent a period, he has felt it incumbent on him to suppress many circumstances and anecdotes of a private nature.

But above all, we are bound to complain of the utter neglect of the papers of Mr Pitt. An individual, who had been premier of Great Britain for more than a score of years, and whose daily occupations during all that time were with the concerns of millions of people, must have abounded in portfolios containing the most curious letters and documents of which the publication at this time could put in jeopardy neither persons nor nations; more especially as we find that many families in England, such as the Sydney, the Harrington, the Grantham, and others of less note, who may perhaps have once furnished an ambassador at a foreign court, or minister to the cabinet, now possess valuable collections of papers. But Dr Tomline has thought proper to withhold every such paper, with the exception of a few private letters from the king; and the exquisite charm of those letters does but heighten our regrets, for the numerous compositions of a dipNew Series, No. 9.

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lomatic nature, which must have existed in the same archives. In short, we can look upon these memoirs in no other light than as a pleasing compilation, composed in an easy and intelligible style and manner, and though we do not profess to have gone through the comparison with perfect accuracy, we are, nevertheless, justified in making the remark, with some degree of confidence, that every fact and anecdote of much. importance in this work may be found in the Parliamentary History, the Political life of William Pitt, by John Gifford, (which we are far from mentioning in the way of commendation,) and in the Speeches of Mr Pitt, collected by Hathaway, of which the third edition was published as early as 1817; speeches from which those reported by Dr Tomline have been, in many instances, copied word for word, and in all have stood as the basis of his reports. At the same time we consider these memoirs as amusing and instructive, and we earnestly recommend them to all who feel a curiosity about political matters, or who partake with us in a sentiment of highest admiration for the memory of Pitt.

We cannot better employ this period of political tranquillity, than in presenting a rapid sketch of a few of the principal occurrences of Mr Pitt's life. His memoirs can now be read and his conduct estimated without prejudice, for the great measures of which he was the author, and which were adapted to the peculiar state of things in which he lived, have passed away beyond the reach and control of the present age. The age of Mr Pitt expired at the battle of Waterloo, and the statesmen and warriors who survived that battle, may regard his administration as a most brilliant episode, but as by no means belonging to the regular series and accustomed policy of British administrations. We, therefore, may consider ourselves almost in the light of a distant posterity of that generation, in which Mr Pitt lived, and we may examine and deliberate upon his measures with the same fairness and candor, with which we should discuss those of the earl of Clarendon or sir Robert Walpole.

In a review of a work of this nature we are necessarily obliged to exercise a great degree of forbearance, and to make a selection of those topics, which we think will be especially interesting. But it is not our intention to enter into any discussion on any of these topics; for we feel no disposition to take a share in the politics and prejudices which prevail in

Great Britain, nor do we believe that the readers of this jour nal would feel much indebted to us for encumbering our pages with dissertations, which have appeared long ago in much greater relief, upon the pages of foreign journals.

We shall begin with an account of Mr Pitt's birth and education, which we cannot too much regret or complain, should have been touched upon by Dr Tomline in a manner so brief and unsatisfactory. In the outset we again enter our protest, solemnly and sincerely, against such a hasty and arbitrary course as is pursued in this part of the biography, nor can we account it just to the memory of Mr Pitt, just to the natural and strong curiosity which the world most reasonably entertains, that his own private tutor, having enjoyed all those advantages, of which he makes a boast in the preface, and having already had fourteen years of preparation, should have undertaken to despatch the whole history of the early life of the son of lord Chatham, and of the minister of Great Britain at the age of twenty-five and for seventeen successive years,—in fifteen loosely printed octavo pages. According to this scale, men of common note would give but little trouble indeed to biographers and printers. We really think that this ignorance of Dr Tomline, or this indifference to the eager and rational curiosity of the world, merits the reprehension of all those, who have an opportunity of expressing their opinions publicly.

William Pitt was the second son of the first earl Chatham and of lady Hester, only daughter of Richard Grenville. He was born at Hayes, in Kent, the 28th of May, 1759. His mother is said to have been a woman of great strength of mind, of a most improved understanding, and of highly polished manners. Of the other two sons, the eldest, the present earl Chatham, was some years since much known as having been the leader of the Walcheren expedition; the younger, James Pitt, died at an early age in the West Indies, as a captain in the British navy. Of the two daughters, the eldest was married in 1774 to lord Mahon, and the youngest to Edward James Eliot, son of lord Eliot, in 1785. William Pitt, from the age of six to fourteen, was educated in his father's house, under the care of Dr Wilson. Notwithstanding great delicacy of health and constitution, he made a remarkable progress in his studies, and in the spring of 1773, he was sent by his father, who had resolved to devote him to the bar, to Pembroke Hall, in

Cambridge, in order to finish his education. On account of Mr Pitt's tender age and unconfirmed health, and his former private habits of education, Mr Wilson continued to live with him for several weeks in the same college apartment; but his studies were solely under the direction of the public tutors, who, according to a desire expressed by lord Chatham, devoted each one hour every day to his son. Mr Pitt's knowledge at this early age appears to have been very great, particularly in Greek and Latin. The only books, which lord Chatham expressed a desire his son should read, were Polybius and Thucydides. He had also read at this time the first six books of Euclid's elements, plane trigonometry, the elementary parts of algebra, and the two quarto volumes of Rutherforth's natural philosophy. Lord Chatham himself was in the habit of bestowing much time upon the education of his children, and seldom passed a day without reading a chapter in the bible to them. About this time Mr Pitt was attacked with so severe and protracted an illness, that he was able to reside only a short time at Cambridge, during the first three years; and the preservation of his life is justly to be ascribed to his extraordinary attention to diet and exercise, and to the unremitted and affectionate watchfulness of his family and friends. In consequence of this illness, he was prevented from taking the degree of bachelor in course, and was therefore admitted in the spring of 1776 to the degee of master of arts, to which he was entitled by his birth.

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While Mr Pitt,' says his biographer, was undergraduate, he never omitted attending chapel morning and evening, or dining in the public hall, except when prevented by indisposition. Nor did he pass a single evening out of the college walls. Indeed most of his time was spent with me; and exclusively of the satisfaction I had in superintending the education of a young man of his uncommon abilities and thirst for improvement, his sweetness of temper and vivacity of disposition endeared him to me in a degree which I should in vain attempt to express.'

It was Dr Tomline's rule to read with Mr Pitt alternately classics and mathematics, occasionally introducing other branches of learning, and there was scarcely a Greek or Latin classic of any eminence, whose works Mr Pitt and Dr Tomline did not read together. It was his habit and peculiar delight to compare the speeches delivered upon opposite sides of a question, and for this purpose he gave the preference to

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