MAJOR-GENERAL CARLETON (1) TO THE earl of MY LORD, CHATHAM. Rottingdean, October 12, 1773. I AM too much flattered by what I learn through Lord Shelburne, not to testify to your Lordship my great satisfaction at the choice you have made of the forty-seventh regiment for Lord Pitt, and your approbation of his accompanying me to America. (2) With sincerity I assure your Lordship, that it will afford me great happiness, should I prove fortunate enough to be of essential service to your son, and this, whether I consider him as a person we reasonably may expect to become a great and useful subject, or as it may afford some proof of the high esteem, with which I truly am, my Lord, Your most obedient And most humble servant, GUY CARLETON. (1) Major-General Carleton had, during the preceding year, been appointed governor of Canada. In 1776, he was nominated a knight of the bath; in 1781, appointed commander-in-chief in America; and in 1786, again appointed governor of Quebec, and elevated to the peerage, by the title of Lord Dorchester. He died in 1808, in his eighty-fifth year. (2) In a letter to Lady Stanhope, dated March 23, 1774, Lord Chatham says, "the time draws nigh for our dear Pitt joining his regiment at Quebec. What pain to part with him! and what satisfaction to see him go in so manly a manner― just in the age of pleasures!" THE EARL OF CHATHAM TO GENERAL CARLETON. [From a rough draught in Lord Chatham's handwriting.] SIR, October 15, 1773. I AM honoured with your letter of the 12th instant, and seize with impatience the first opportunity the post gives, to express the just sense I have of the very friendly and kind sentiments you are so good as to entertain towards me and mine. Nothing could be so flattering to my wishes and hopes for my son, as to see him enter the career of a profession his choice has led him to embrace, under your auspices. Your expressions on his subject are highly flattering; and I hope he will aspire to be not undeserving of your countenance. My son's ambition is to become a real officer; and I trust that he already affixes to the appellation all the ideas that go to constitute a true title to that name. He is aware how much is to be learned, read, seen, and done, before he can tell himself he is an officer; and my satisfaction will be complete, in seeing him placed where all those wants can be best supplied. He will be too proud and happy in accompanying General Carleton to America, if that may be, without too much loss of self-convenience to yourself and family in the voyage. With regard to an ensigncy in your regiment, which you are so good as to allow, may I entreat your advice concerning the means? Should I trouble Lord Barrington with my desire to purchase an ensigncy in the fortyseventh, or wait the favour of your own obliging directions therein? I feel how far I am trespassing upon your goodness, by asking new favours when I meant to return thanks and acknowledgments for the greatest already received; which I beg you to accept, for the sincerity and warmth with which they are offered. I am, with truest esteem, Sir, &c. &c. CHATHAM. THE HONOURABLE WILLIAM PITT TO THE EARL OF СНАТНАМ. Pembroke Hall, October 15, 1773. My dear father will, I hope, believe that nothing could make me more happy than his kind and pleasing letter, and is I trust assured, that its flattering contents must incite me to labour in manly virtue and useful knowledge, that I may be, on some future day, worthy to follow, in part, the glorious example always before my eyes. How ill-timed was the neglect of the post, that should damp with any degree of anxiety the rejoicings on the happy ninth of October! Our thoughts as ardently hailed the auspicious day, as your renowned western Luminary; who, I trust, by the next morning, though he sunk that night probably in a bowl of punch, "Had trick'd his beams, and with new-spangled ore Sunday being the day which he usually celebrates in the gold waistcoat. Lectures in Quintilian will shortly call me away from the pleasure of writing to you; so that I shall be able to add but little more. You see by this, that I am now settled to business, and the tutors (1) make a favourable, I fear a partial, report to the master; who has obligingly taken the trouble of hearing me himself, and, I trust, is not wholly dissatisfied. Health smiles on my studies, and a college life grows every day more and more agreeable. I received yesterday another most kind letter () "Lord Chatham wrote a letter to the Master of the college, in which he expressed a desire, that each of the two public tutors, who were then Mr. Turner * and myself, would devote an hour in every day to his son. This plan was accordingly adopted. Although he was little more than fourteen years of age when he went to reside at the university, and had laboured under the disadvantage of frequent ill health, the knowledge which he then possessed was very considerable; and in particular, his proficiency in the learned languages was probably greater than ever was acquired by any other person in such early youth. In Latin authors he seldom met with difficulty; and it was no uncommon thing for him to read into English six or seven pages of Thucydides, which he had not previously seen, without more than two or three mistakes, and sometimes without even one. It was by Lord Chatham's particular desire, that Thucydides was the first Greek book which Mr. Pitt read after he came to college. The only other wish, ever expressed by his Lordship, relative to his son's studies, was, that I would read Polybius with him." - Bishop Tomline, vol. i. p. 3. Afterwards master of Pembroke Hall, and Dean of Norwich, from Burton; for which I am infinitely obliged. I was very sorry to find, that any thing of gout was felt, but I hope all those sensations are, before now, perfectly dispersed. I was in hopes to have had a few minutes to write to my dear mother, and thank her for her letter; but I find I must defer it till the next post. I therefore beg leave to trouble you with my duty to her, as well as love to brothers and sisters many thanks to the latter for their obliging epistles: which I wish I had time to answer. I am, my dear father, your ever dutiful And affectionate son, WILLIAM PITT. THE EARL OF SHELBURNE TO THE EARL OF CHATHAM. MY DEAR LORD, Berkeley Square, Sunday night, WHEN I wrote last I mentioned nothing to your Lordship about Ireland, notwithstanding Lord Besborough (') had written to me to Bowood, that he knew administration had determined, in case a bill come from Ireland taxing the estates of non-residents, to pass it here. (2) Though I have the (1) William, second Lord Ponsonby, and second Earl of Besborough. His Lordship died in 1793, and was succeeded by the present Earl. (2) Early in the ensuing session, a motion was made in the Irish House of Commons by Mr. Flood, that a tax of two shillings in the pound should be laid on the net rents and annual |