yond Cicero, who is frequently as digressive as Burke'; and resembles chiefly Demosthenes, the CLOSEST REASONER of ancient orators?

Mr. Fox has very often been likened to Demosthenes, and in several respects we think with great justice. Like Demosthenes, his oratory is forcible, vehement, and impressive, to an astonishing degree; like Demosthenes, his orations abound in strong and pointed reasonings, but his arguments are not so closely connected. His arrangement very frequently indicates carelessness, and a very hasty view of his subject In point of genius, we doubt not that Mr. Fox is equal to Demosthenes; but in his oratorical exertions, often proceeding without previous study, we cannot think that hein general comes up to the Athenian.

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Mr. Pitt voted on the side of Mr. Fox and Mr. Burke during the remainder of Lord North's Administration; but could not properly be said to be a member of the Fox party. He entered into no intimate connection with that statesman, and on several subjects differed in opinion both from him and Burke. Although Lord Chatham had joined with the Rockingham party in opposing the American wat, there were two great topics on which he maintained a different opinion. The Rockingham party proposed to grant to the Americans unqualified independence; Lord Chatham and his supporters were for more limited concessions: the former party was averse to reform in Parliament; Lord Chatham thought the state of Parliament in Lord North's Administration such as to require amendment, Mr. Pitt adopted both these opinions of his father: he was averse to American independence, and friendly to Parliamentary reform; 4 measure, the wisdom or folly of which can be ascertained by no abstract principle, but must depend on the circumstances of the times. High as is our admiration of Lord Chatham and his son, we cannot accede to their opinion, that a reform was then required; but if we did, that would not in the least affect the consistency of a change of sentiments with a change of case.

Mr. Pitt displayed his talents in speeches of astonishing force, on the motions, in winter and spring 1782, respecting the American war and the conduct of Administration. Seldom, indeed, if ever, has there been on one side such a combination of genius as was now united against Ministry, by Sheridan, by Dunning, by Fox, by

The talents and character of this extraordinary personage shall be a subject of future consideration; in which we shall endeavour to examine his powers, and their application, on the joint result of which depends merit or demerit.

Burke, and by Pitt. The penetration of Fox and Burke readily comprehended the uncommon talents which even an ordinary understanding must have seen... A high appointment was offered to him in the Rockingham Ministry; but he would not accept of it; and abstained from much connection with that Ministry. In 1782, he made a motion for a reform in Parliament, an object which he pursued with ardour, while his great mind had been considerably occupied in spe culative disquisitions, and was not by experience matured in the practice of affairs.

Although all admired the powers of Mr. Pitt, yet one man sooner than any other perceived that they were infinitely beyond the general conception. He saw that, combined with his moral qualities and habits, these, and these only, were destined to raise the country from its degraded state. The penetrating sagacity of Mr. Dundas first comprehended and estimated the character of Mr. Pitt,

Lord Shelburne, as the friend of his father, was respected by Mr, Pitt... When, on the death of Lord Rockingham, his Lordship was appointed Prime Minister, the Chancellorship of the Exchequer was offered to Mr. Pitt, and accepted. Thus, when just turned of three and twenty, unsupported by political connections, he, on account of his own personal character, was entrusted with one of the highest and most important offices of the State. In the 24th year of his age, his was the task to encounter, in the House of Commons, the com→ bined power of the former Ministry and former Opposition. At the opening of the session, in December 1782, it was found that the parties of Lord North and Mr. Fox, after all their virulent abuse and invectives, had formed the famous coalition. To arraign an union of men once opposite, or even inimical to each other, without considering the object of the combination, or the conduct of its members in their combined capacity, would be the result of prejudice, not of judgment. A change of circumstances often renders it just to deviate from that plan of political conduct, which it was once right to pursue, and to act with those men whom it was once right to oppose.* Very able, well informed reasoners, no doubt, severely blamed the coalition; but the blame must have arisen from a discovery of their motives, and an anticipation of the conduct which was likely to arise from such motives. The very first debate, indeed, manifested that the Fox part of the coalition was merely to oppose Ministers; for that leader and his adherents censured Ministry

See Life of Burke, p. 377.

for that very measure which they themselves had, for many years, been uniformly recommending. They had often asserted, that peace on any terms was adviseable for Britain, when in a much less exhausted situation than in 1783. They had offered peace to Hollanda they had proposed unconditionally to recognize the independence of America; yet did they profess to reprobate the peace which they had so often said to be on any terms necessary to the salvation of Britain, Messrs. Pitt and Dundas, with great force of reasoning, defended the peace as the best that could be made in such circumstances, and attacked the coalition as formed on principles of the most unjustifiable ambition, manifesting these in its first acts, and leading to the most perilous consequences. The vote of censure on the peace made the Ministers resign. The Administration, which now came into power, pos essed many symptoms of strength superior to that of any Ministry since the commencement of the present reign. By combin ing Lord North, and the greater number of his adherents, with Mr. Fox, Mr. Burke, and their adherents, it united philosophy and genius with experience in the management of political affairs. A great weight of aristocratic influence consolidated into one mass the parts formerly heterogeneous. The result of this combination of ability, experience, rank, and property, was a majority which bad, seldom been known in favour of any Administration except that of Secretary Pitt; when the majority arose not from a confederacy of different connections, but from the confidence reposed in the highest talents and virtues.

Mr. Pitt, May 7, 1783, again brought forward a motion for Par liamentary reform, which was not vague or indefinite, or such as might be extended according to the prejudices, misapprehensions, and passions of individuals; but stated in specific propositions, the limits of which were easily defined, and their meaning ascertained. The following were his propositions:

That measures are highly necessary to be taken for the prevention of bribery and expence at elections.

That, for the future, when the majority of voters for any borough shall be convicted of gross and notorious corruption, before a select Committee of the House, appointed to try the merits of any election, such borough should be disfranchised, and the minority of voters not so convicted, should be entitled to vote for the county in which such borough should be situated.

That an addition of knights of the shire and of the represen

tatives of the metropolis should be added to the state of the repre sentation."

"Though we cannot concur in the opinion that even then a Parliamentary reform would have been adviseable, yet we think this plan as cautions and judicious as any that could have been pro osed; and very different from those democratic and visionary theories of reform which many, having since framed, endeavoured to identify with this emendation moved by Mr. Pitt. The reasoning of those who have charged Mr. Pitt with a dereliction of principles, because averse to the doctrines and plans of present reformists, amounts merely to the following proposition: Whoever has, in any circumstances, maintained the propriety of adopting a given principie to an accurately defined extent, must, in all circumstances, adopt the same principle in its utmost extent, without any limits or qualifications; a proposition evident y carrying its absurdity in the very enunciation.

While Mr. Pitt was out of office, he was not without occupation leading to the good of his country. One great cause of the distressed state of the finances was the defalcation of the revenue by smuggling, He bestowed much pains, attention, and expence to acquire an accurate knowledge of its details. During autumn, 1783, he was in formed that an opportunity occurred of getting very accurate and extensive information, if he would go to Calais. He set out for Dover, and on his arrival found that the Streights were almost impassable, from an equinoctial storm. Tenax propositi, steady to his purpose, and regardless of danger when incurred for a momentous object, he prevailed with a skipper to undertake the passage. They had hardly cleared the pier, when the storm became so boisterous that the skipper declared it impossible to proceed. Mr. Pitt offered him fifty guineas. The other, not personally knowing his passenger, although at first tempted by the offer, on second thoughts rejected it, in the idea that the profferer of such a sum must be running away from his country for a forgery or a murder. Mr. Pitt telling and convincing him who he was, he at last went on, and after encountering great danger arrived at Calais; where the facts that he learned, the modes and proceedings that he discovered, were such as to be afterwards extremely useful to himself and his country. This was an instance of his steady and vigorous perseverance in his resolution. To the classical reader the circumstances of the case will naturally suggest-Quid times, vebis Cæsarem? Mr. Pitt at the same time visited Dunkirk, Ostend, and other sea-ports on the continent; and,

on his return, the most noted smuggling places on the coast of Sussex and Kent.

The state of the nation, the wishes of his Sovereign and country, soon called him to a station in which his exertions were fitted and destined to be most extensively beneficial.

A subject of the first importance to the statesmen of that time was India; the situation of the East India Company, and the state of their commercial property. Next to finance, indeed, India affairs were the most important subjects of consideration with both parties....

A session now commenced, in which very arduous difficulties of situation called forward the exertions of Mr..Pitt in such a way as to shew his character to be much greater than even his friends had conceived; and ascertained its predominant, qualities...

After the delivery of his Majesty's speech, and the motion for an address, Mr. Pitt bestowed his applause on both the speech and address; and in speaking of the affairs of India, and the state of our commerce and finance, he displayed an extent and accuracy of knowledge, grand and comprehensive views, that filled Mr. Fox with admiration; and that great statesman declared that nothing could give him more satisfaction than to find that the speech and address were honoured with his approbation. The opinion of Mr. Pitt was, that respecting India every temporary and palliative measure would be unavailing. On the finances he thought that Britain could never recover her situation but by an economy which should not only render her revenue equal to her expenditure, but should produce a redundancy for the extinction of the national debt. He had, by minute enquiry and by industry, provided himself with the materials for either forming great schemes of regulation himself, or estimating those of others. Mr. Fox expressed his satisfaction at the open and bold manner in which the genius. of Mr. Pitt proposed to meet our financial difficulties; and regarded the young senator with the highest admiration of abilities which he himself could so weil ap÷ preciate.

Mr. Fox was at this time generally looked up to as the first pos litical personage of the times. His comprehensive, expanded, and inventive genius; his intrepid, daring spirit rendered him the leader of a very powerful party, possessed of the highest offices of state, in which, though one at least equalled him in powers, greatly surpassed him in learning and political philosophy, yet he was inferior to him in many of the qualities of a practical politician. He was June.]