Category: Biographies
There is one initial part of a biography which is skipped by every judicious reader; that in which the pedigree of the hero is set forth, often with warm fancy, and sometimes at intolerable length. It is, happily, not necessary to enter upon the bewildering branches of the inn...
But with this Government we have nothing to do. We have reached our limits. The youth of Pitt has passed, his apprenticeship is over, he has now his foot in high office, he is s...
3. CHAPTER III.But before he launches on that troubled career, it is well to catch what glimpses we can obtain of Pitt in private life. It is the more necessary as this aspect soon disappears...
4. CHAPTER IV.More than sixteen years elapse between this letter and the next, which takes us far beyond our present limit, but it is best to finish the story of Ann. Part of this long interv...
8. CHAPTER VII.During his first session of Parliament, Pitt never opened his mouth: indeed, his only public performance was to tell in a division. In 1736 he became better known. He supported...
20. CHAPTER XIX.This blank though important space in the life of Pitt himself seems favourable for picking up a few threads which had to be dropped in the narrative of his negotiations with New...
16. CHAPTER XV.We have seen that Pitt was to proceed to Hagley after leaving Tunbridge Wells in September 1753. From Hagley he sent a letter to Newcastle, which it must have cost him something...
13. CHAPTER XII.Pitt was now to inhabit the Pay Office, and he gave notice to Ann, without any previous quarrel so far as we know, that they would henceforth live apart. In any case, Pitt's acc...
21. CHAPTER XX.The bombardment of the new Ministry continued without intermission, for Pitt was determined to wreak his vengeance on Newcastle and Fox. We may, moreover, presume that, seeing t...
22. CHAPTER XXI.But national calamity was now to lend irresistible force to his attacks. It had been known for some time that France was meditating an attack on Gibraltar or Minorca, and in the...
1. CHAPTER I.There is one initial part of a biography which is skipped by every judicious reader; that in which the pedigree of the hero is set forth, often with warm fancy, and sometimes at...
2. CHAPTER II.William Pitt, the elder statesman of that name, was born in London, in the parish of St. James's, November 15, 1708. It does not now seem possible to trace the house of his nati...
12. CHAPTER XI.Soon after this memorable debate France formally declared war against Great Britain in a document reciting the injuries sustained by France at the hands of the 'King of England,...
19. CHAPTER XVIII.It was soon clear to Newcastle that Fox after all might not suffice, and that Pitt must be again approached. The King, then in Hanover and beyond Newcastle's control, was negoti...
14. CHAPTER XIII.On the meeting of Parliament in January 1751, Lord Egmont raised on the Address the question of the peace with Spain. Pitt in reply delivered a speech of singular interest, for...
17. CHAPTER XVI.In the meantime all had been settled by hasty arrangements in London. Owing to Newcastle's 'overwhelming affliction,' Hardwicke tells us that he himself was compelled to step fo...
11. CHAPTER X.No more of Pitt's speeches are recorded during the session, which, with the enviable ease of those days, having opened on November 16, 1742, closed on April 21, 1743. In the int...
18. CHAPTER XVII.On November 14, the very day of the opening of Parliament, Pitt brought forward a bill for the relief of the Chelsea Pensioners, who, from receiving their pensions a year in arr...
10. CHAPTER IX.A life of Pitt should concern itself with Pitt alone, or with the persons and events immediately relating to him. But as during this period of his life foreign policy was all in...
7. CHAPTER VI.It is here that his public career begins. His lot was cast in stirring times. For the year of his entry into Parliament was the fourteenth of Walpole's long administration, and...
6. CHAPTER V.In 1734 there had been a fiercely contested General Election, and Thomas Pitt had been returned for both Okehampton and Old Sarum. He elected to sit for Okehampton, and nominate...
23. did. To us now, viewing the poverty of his following and the usefulabilities of Fox, it would seem that he made a palpable mistake. Fox would have taken the second place; as a matter of fact he was content to subside into the gilded subordinati...
5. letter I received from you yesterday leaves me in great anxiety andperplexity of mind, I can not set out without assuring you, as I do with the most exact truth, that there was no mistery in my journey here, nor no purpose but the relief I prop...
15. CHAPTER XIV.How did he pass these three years? It is not easy to say, for we have so little light on his private life. No prescient Boswell marked his words and habits, or indeed had much o...
9. CHAPTER VIII.George II. was first and fundamentally a German prince of his epoch. What other could he be? And these magnates all aped Louis XIV. as their model. They built huge palaces, as l...