Part 11

Pitt was now arrived at undisturbed possession of that influence in affairs at which his ambition had aimed, and which his presumption had made him flatter himself he could exert like those men of superior genius, whose talents have been called forth by some crisis to retrieve a sinking nation. He had said the last year to the Duke of Devonshire. "My Lord, I am sure I can save this country, and no one else can." It were ingratitude to him to say that he did not give such a reverberation to our stagnating Councils, as exceedingly altered the appearance of our fortune. He warded off the evil hour that seemed approaching; he infused vigour into our arms; he taught the nation to speak again as England used to speak to Foreign Powers; and so far from dreading invasions from France, he affected to turn us into invaders. Indeed, these efforts were so puny, so ill-concerted, so ineffectual to any essential purpose, that France looked down with scorn on such boyish flippancies, which Pitt deemed heroic, which Europe thought ridiculous, and which humanity saw were only wasteful of lives, and precedents of a more barbarous warfare than France had hitherto been authorized to carry on. In fact, Pitt had neither all the talents he supposed in himself, nor which he seemed to possess from the vacancy of great men around him....

Pitt's was an unfinished greatness: considering how much of it depended on his words, one may almost call his an artificial greatness; but his passion for fame and the grandeur of his ideas compensated for his defects. He aspired to redeem the honour of his country, and to place it in a point of giving law to nations. His ambition was to be the most illustrious man of the first country in Europe; and he thought that the eminence of glory could not be sullied by the steps to it being passed irregularly. He wished to aggrandize Britain in general, but thought not of obliging or benefiting individuals....

Posterity, this is an impartial picture. I am neither dazzled by the blaze of the times in which I have lived, nor, if there are spots in the sun, do I deny that I see them. It is a man I am describing, and one whose greatness will bear to have his blemishes fairly delivered to you--not from a love of censure in me, but of truth; and because it is history I am writing, not romance.

DEATH OF GEORGE II. (1760).

_Horace Walpole to Sir Horace Mann._

ARLINGTON ST., _October 28, 1760_.

... This is Tuesday; on Friday night the King went to bed in perfect health, and rose so the next morning at his usual hour of six; he called for and drank his chocolate. At seven, for everything with him was exact and periodic, he went into the closet.... Coming from thence, his _valet de chambre_ heard a noise; waited a moment, and heard something like a groan. He ran in, and in a small room between the closet and bedchamber he found the King on the floor, who had cut the right side of his face against the edge of a bureau, and who after a gasp expired. Lady Yarmouth was called, and sent for Princess Amelia; but they only told the latter that the King was ill and wanted her. She had been confined some days with a rheumatism, but hurried down, and saw her father extended on the bed. She is very purblind and more than a little deaf. They had not closed his eyes; she bent down close to his face, and concluded he spoke to her, though she could not hear him--guess what a shock when she found the truth. She wrote to the Prince of Wales, but so had one of the _valets de chambre_ first. He came to town, and saw the Duke [of Cumberland] and the Privy Council. He was extremely kind at the first--and in general has behaved with the greatest propriety, dignity, and decency. He read his speech to the Council with much grace, and dismissed the guards on himself to wait on his grandfather's body. It is intimated that he means to employ the same ministers, but with reserve to himself of more authority than has lately been in fashion. The Duke of York and Lord Bute are named of the cabinet council. The late King's will is not yet opened. To-day everybody kissed hands at Leicester House, and this week, I believe, the King will go to St. James's. The body has been _opened_; the great ventricle of the heart had burst. What an enviable death! In the greatest period of the glory of this country, and of his reign, in perfect tranquillity at home, at seventy-seven, growing blind and deaf, to die without a pang, before any reverse of fortune, or any distasted peace, nay, but two days before a ship-load of bad news: could he have chosen such another moment?

APPENDIX

LONDON IN 1725-1736.

DEFOE'S DESCRIPTION OF LONDON IN 1725.

+Source.+--_A Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain_, 1724-7. Vol. ii., pp. 94-97.

_London_, as a City only, and as its Walls and Liberties live it out, might, indeed, be viewed in a small Compass; but, when I speak of _London_, now in the Modern Acceptation, you expect I shall take in all that vast Mass of Buildings, reaching from _Black Wall_ in the _East_ to _Tothill Fields_ in the _West_; and extended in an unequal Breadth, from the Bridge, or River, on the _South_, to _Islington North_; and from _Peterburgh House_ on the Bank Side in _Westminster_, to _Cavendish Square_, and all the new Buildings by, and beyond _Hanover Square_, by which the City of _London_, for so it is still to be called, is extended to _Hyde Park Corner_ in the _Brentford Road_, and almost to _Maribone_ in the _Acton Road_, and how much farther may it spread, who knows? New Squares, and new Streets rising up every Day to such a Prodigy of Buildings, that nothing in the world does, or ever did, equal it, except old _Rome_ in _Trajan's_ time, when the walls were Fifty Miles in Compass, and the Number of Inhabitants Six Millions Eight Hundred Thousand Souls.

It is the Disaster of _London_, as to the Beauty of its Figure, that it is thus stretched out in Buildings, just at the pleasure of every Builder, or Undertaker of Buildings, and as the Convenience of the People directs, whether for Trade, or otherwise; and this has spread the Face of it in a most straggling, confus'd Manner, out of all Shape, uncompact, and unequal; neither long nor broad, round or square; whereas the City of _Rome_, though a monster for its Greatness, yet was, in a manner, round, with very few Irregularities in its Shape.

At _London_, including the Buildings on both Sides the Water, one sees it, in some Places, Three Miles broad, as from St. _George's_ in _Southwark_, to _Shoreditch_ in _Middlesex_; or Two Miles, as from _Peterburgh House_ to _Montague House_; and in some Places, not half a Mile, as in _Wapping_; and much less, as in _Redriff_ [Rotherhithe].

We see several Villages, formerly standing, as it were, in the County and at a great Distance, now joyn'd to the Streets by continued Buildings, and more making haste to meet in the like Manner; for Example, 1. _Deptford_, This Town was formerly reckoned at least Two Miles off from _Redriff_, and that over the Marshes too, a Place unlikely ever to be inhabited; and yet now, by the Encrease of Buildings in that Town itself, and by the Docks and Buildings-Yard on the River Side, which stand between both the Town of _Deptford_, and the Streets of _Redriff_ (or Rotherhith as they write it) are effectually joyn'd, and the Buildings daily increasing; so that _Deptford_ is now more a separated Town, but is become a Part of the great Mass, and infinitely full of People also; Here they have, within the last Two or Three Years, built a fine new Church, and were the Town of Deptford now separated, and rated by itself. I believe it contains more People, and stands upon more Ground, than the City of _Wells_.

The Town of _Islington_ on the _North_ side of the City, is in like Manner joyn'd to the Streets of _London_, excepting one small Field, and which is in itself so small, that there is no Doubt, but in a very few years, they will be intirely joyn'd, and the same may be said of _Mile-End_, on the _East_ End of the Town.

_Newington_, called _Newington Butts_, in _Surrey_, reaches out her Hand _North_, and is so near joining to _Southwark_, that it cannot now be properly called a Town by itself, but a Suburb to the Burrough, and if, _as they now tell us is undertaken_, St. _George's Fields_ should be built with Squares and Streets, a very little Time will shew us _Newington_, _Lambeth_, and the _Burrough_, all making but one _Southwark_.

The Westminster is in a fair Way to shake Hands with Chelsea, as St. _Gyles's_ is with _Marybone_; and Great _Russel Street_ by _Montague House_, with _Tottenham Court_: all this is very evident, and yet all these put together are still to be called _London_: Whither will this monstrous City then extend? and where must a Circumvallation or Communication Line of it be placed?

THE PRESENTMENT OF THE MIDDLESEX GRAND JURY, JANUARY SESSION (1735-1736).

+Source.+--_Distilled Spirituous Liquors the Bane of the Nation_, 1736.

We the Grand Jury for the County of _Middlesex_ taking notice of the vast number of _Brandy_ and _Geneva-Shops_, _Sheds_, and _Cellars_, of late set up and opened, for the retailing of _Gin_ and other _Spirituous Liquors_, which being sold at a very low Rate, the Meaner, though Useful, Part of the Nation, as Day-Labourers, Men and Women Servants, and common Soldiers, nay even Children, are enticed and seduced to taste, like, and approve of those pernicious _Liquors_ sold for such small Sums of Money, whereby they are daily intoxicated and get drunk, and are frequently seen in our streets in a Condition abhorrent to reasonable Creatures.

It is visible, that by this destructive Practice, the strength and Constitution of Numbers is greatly weakened and destroyed, and many are thereby rendered useless to themselves as well as to the Community, many die suddenly by drinking it to Excess, and infinite Numbers lay the Foundation of Distempers which shorten their Lives, or make them miserable, weak, feeble, unable and unwilling to Work, a Scandal and Burthen to their Country.

But it does not stop here; the unhappy Influence reaches to the Posterity of those poor unhappy Wretches, to the Children yet unborn, who come half burnt and shrivelled into the World, who as soon as born, suck in this deadly spirituous Poison with their Nurse's Milk; the barbarous Mothers also often giving the detestable spirits to poor Infants in their Arms; so that, if the Infection spreads, as it lately has done, it must needs make a general Havock, especially among the laborious Part of Mankind, who are seen manifestly to degenerate from the more manly and robust Constitutions of preceding Generations.

The natural Consequences of which will be, that his Majesty will lose Numbers of his Subjects, the Publick the Labour and Industry of her People, the Soldiery will be greatly weakened and enfeebled, and Masters will every Day have greater Reason to complain of bad and dishonest Servants, especially whilst that scandalous Custom prevails amongst Chandlers and other lower Trades, of giving Drams, making them uncapable of doing their Business, saucy to their Superiors, and in the End tempts them to cheat and rob their Masters, to supply themselves with large quantities of this destructive Liquor.

We therefore the Grand Jury aforesaid, do present all such _Brandy_ and _Geneva-Shops_, _Sheds_ and _Cellars_, where _Gin_ and other _Spirituous Liquors_ are sold and vended by Retail, as publick Nuisances, which harbour, entertain and shelter the indolent, dissolute, and incorrigibly Wicked, that they are a high Grievance, and of the greatest ill Consequence to all our Fellow Subjects, as most plainly appear by the daily Meetings and Associations of Numbers of loose and disorderly Persons of both Sexes in these Places, where after they have drank of this most pernicious Liquor, they are ready for, and actually do spirit up each other to perpetrate and execute the most bold, daring, and mischievous Enterprizes, and shaking off all Fear and Sham, become audaciously impudent in all manner of Vice, Lewdness, Immorality, and Profaneness, in Defiance of all Laws, Human and Divine.

We therefore earnestly hope, that the Magistrates will unanimously and vigorously put the Laws already made, and which have any relation to the rooting out this pernicious Custom, in full Execution: That they will punish severely all Transgressors of them, and use their utmost Endeavours to put some stop to the bold Encroachments of this terrible Destroyer of our Fellow-Creatures, which we apprehend will greatly conduce to the Honour and Glory of God, to the Safety, Happiness, Welfare, and Benefit of the Nation in general, and of every Family in particular, and will be a Means to secure the Health and Strength of our Posterity.

If the Laws already made should not be found sufficient to put a stop to a Custom so universal, and yet plainly, so destructive; As it is now become a National Concern, and the ill Consequences arising therefrom universally felt and confessed, we do not doubt but it will be thought worthy the most serious Consideration of the Legislature, and of his most gracious Majesty, the most tender Father of his People.

[Here follow the signatures of the Grand Jury.]

BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD.

BELL'S ENGLISH HISTORY SOURCE BOOKS

Scope of the Series and Arrangement of Volumes.

1. Roman Britain to 449. 2. 449-1066. 3. 1066-1154. 4. 1154-1216. 5. 1216-1307. 6. 1307-1399. 7. 1399-1485. 8. 1485-1547. _Ready Immediately._ 9. 1547-1603. _Now Ready._ 10. 1603-1660. " 11. 1660-1714. " 12. 1714-1760. " 13. 1760-1801. " 14. 1801-1815. " 15. 1815-1837. 16. 1837-1856. 17. 1856-1876. 18. 1876-1887. 19. 1887-1901. 20. 1901-1912.

_The volumes are issued in uniform style. Price 1s. net each._

* * * * * *

Transcriber's note:

Apparent typographical errors have been corrected.

Two occurrences of unpaired doublel quotation marks were left unchanged.

Notices of other books in the series have been moved to the end of the text.