some good political hit, was still in vogue during the opening decade of the century.

The great world went out of town, when drums and theatres palled upon the jaded appetite; but it did not then, as now, sprinkle itself in brilliant fragments on the banks of the Rhine, the Tiber, and other Continental streams. War and the difficulties of travel caused the Continent to remain a sealed book to the majority of Britons. Shut up within the circle of the sea, the persons of quality went off to drink the mineral waters of Bath, Epsom, or Tunbridge Wells, there to rehearse in fresher air the frolics and follies of the life they had left behind.

In the literary life of the period there was no medium between splendour and grinding want. An author was either a secretary of state, or a miserable hack, with a lodging in the attic of a Grub Street den. The great engine of the newspaper press was only in its infancy, and the demand for books had not yet set in.

In citizen life there was less change than in the idle world above. Dressed in clothes which were a sombre reflection of those lately described, the worthy shopkeeper did his honest day's work, dined at two, went off at six to the club to smoke and to drink spiced beer, and turned in regularly and soberly at ten o'clock. The Supplement and Daily Courant supplied food for his grave political speculations about the doings of the Grand Vizier and the price of stocks. His clergyman was often the leader of his opinion, and the unfailing oracle to be consulted in every domestic difficulty.

CHAPTER X.

THE GREAT COMMONER.

Early life--Climbing-Paymaster of Forces-Eight quiet years-Pitt and Fox-The New Style-Henry Pelham dies-Pitt dismissed--Clouds of war- -The Devonshire Cabinet-Minorca and Byng-Clive and Plassey Pitt Secretary of State-The War-Minden and Quiberon - The Heights of Abraham-Death of George II.-Jackboot-Temple and Pitt resign-Popular rage.

W

ILLIAM PITT the elder owes his title of the Great Commoner to the strenuous manner in which he upheld the authority of the lower House of Parliament during the greater part of his career. He was born at Boconnoc. in Cornwall, on November 15th, 1708, and was educated at Eton and at Oxford. After enjoying a glimpse of foreign life during a tour in France and Italy, he entered the army as a cornet in the Blues. His grandfather, Thomas Pitt, the Governor of Madras, had made a fortune by selling a remarkable diamond to the French government. Racked even in boyhood with the gout, he was forced to leave college without a degree. But drill and stable-duty, with an occasional review, did not satisfy the aspirations of the youth, and in 1735 he found an entry into political life as member for Old Sarum, a family borough of questionable fame.

Eleven years elapsed between the taking of his seat and his admission into office. Joining the Boys, as Walpole jeeringly called the brilliant constellation of young talent which sparkled

in the ranks of the opposition, he sat, voting dumbly, for a session. His maiden speech, seconding Pulteney's motion of congratulation on the marriage of Frederick, Prince of Wales (April 29th, 1736), sealed his political destiny, for it cost him his commission in the army, but gained for him a groomship of the chambers in Frederick's household. Having found the power of his tongue, he took a lead in the movement against Walpole, during the course of which conflict he rebuked the elder Horace, brother of the minister, in that famous speech whose antithetical sting, however, is probably due to his reporter, Samuel Johnson. The style of his oratory was not of the highest, but it was certainly of the most telling kind. A ready debater he was not; an affected and often pompous declaimer he certainly was; but there were times when the inner fire of the man thawed the ice of his delivery, and carried his whole audience with him in a blaze of sympathetic ardour. The Walpole affair does not much redound to Pitt's credit, since we find him playing fast and loose with that statesman, at first offering to avert the impending prosecution, if he would secure an entry into office, then inveighing bitterly against him, and urging the appointment of the Secret Committee. Carteret, too, came in for a share of Pitt's invective, his favourite theme being the undue fondness for Hanover which disfigured the British policy of that time.

An unexpected legacy changed the direction of his efforts. The old Duchess of Marlborough-Sarah Jennings, since 1722 the widow of the great duke-died in 1744, and left him £10,000. He then set himself to eradicate a great dislike which had been growing in the king's mind towards him, in consequence of his anti-Hanoverian speeches. It took considerable time to effect this, for George had much German obstinacy. After the great Jacobite rebellion, the Pelhams resolved to force this leading commoner into the cabinet; but the king held sturdily out against his admission. Secure in

their own strength, they resigned with nearly all their colleagues. Aghast at the daring move, George summoned Lord Bath, the Pulteney of old; but he could do nothing to form at new administration. There was nothing for it but to recall the Pelhams and to accept Pitt. A minor post-Vice-Treasurer for Ireland-was at first conferred on him, but he soon afterwards received the office of Paymaster of the Forces, in which any man but one of extremely delicate honesty might enrich himself rapidly; and here there was room for Pitt to display a feature of character then extremely rare. Rejecting all the perquisites of his post and all presents from subsidized sovereigns, he rested content with the small salary attached to the office he administered.

May 6, 1746

The eight years which followed are very barren of incident -no bad sign of the quiet working of the political machine. Sitting as member for Seaford, one of the Cinque Ports, Pitt began to undo a good deal of his former work. Opposition

vanished completely when Prince Frederick died in 1751 1751. The debates on the Regency Bill, following

this event, brought Pitt and Henry Fox, Secretary at War, into direct collision. The fathers rehearsed in this generation a rivalry which their eminent sons inherited and increased. The coarse exterior and ungainly address of Fox did not prevent him from excelling as a debater, in which he decidedly surpassed Pitt ; but the genius of the latter triumphed. The Princess-Dowager of Wales was appointed regent, in case George the Second should die before the heir reached eighteen. The adoption of the Gregorian Calendar came into operation in 1752 under the name of the New Style. Astronomers found that by reckoning the year at 365 days, 6 hours, they had made it eleven minutes too long. As the error, since the beginning of the Christian era, amounted to eleven days, that number of days was dropped out of the year 1752-September 3rd was called September 14th. There were

1752

many ignorant people in the country who could not see the necessity of any change. Newcastle was one of them. Silliest of all the silly cries ever got up against a ministry was that of the mobs, heard soon after "Give us back our eleven days."*

The death, in 1754, of Henry Pelham, an able man, gave a fatal shock to the interest of that great family; for Newcastle, his brother and successor, was a mere trifler in comparison. The rise of the duke to the head of the Treasury plunged the king into great perplexity, there being no 1754 man of talent disposed to lead the Commons on the terms offered by the Premier. Sir Thomas Robinson was at last selected. "The duke might as well send his jackboot to lead us," said Pitt to Fox. Fox, however, was induced to help the Jackboot.

1755

When the Parliament met in November 1755, a debate on the Address took place, which resulted in the dismissal of Pitt from office, and also of Legge, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. There was no man more popular in England than William Pitt, and deep in the heart of the nation burned a feeling that the only man fit to steer the country in a time of peril had been driven from the wheel.

The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) opened under Newcastle's ministry. It was caused by the feeling of uneasiness in Europe. excited by the ambition of Frederick the Great, who still held Silesia. Maria-Theresa obtained the aid of 1756 France, Russia, and Poland; while Britain formed an alliance with Prussia. In June, the British flag received a great and humiliating stain. The Duke of Richelieu, having made a swoop with 16,000 men upon the island of Minorca,

*To prevent further in regularity, it was resolved that, as the error amounts to 3 days in 4 centuries, three out of every four century years should not be leap years,-thus, 1800, 1900 are not leap years; 2000 is: 2100, 2200, 2300 are not leap years; 2400 is. Pope Gregory first made the change in Italy in 1582. It was at this time also that the first day of January was reckoned the beginning of the year, instead of March 25th.