Conference between Lord Chatham and Lord Edgecumbe. Its consequences. The Admiralty offered to Lord Gower. Conduct of the Court. Seco.nd conserence with the Duke of Bedford. Chap. XXXIII. Further arrangements. Lord Chatham regrets the loss of Lord Temple. Seized with the gout at Bath, and at Marlboroughi Comes to Hampstead. Another change medi- tated. General Con way wishes to resign. Lord Northington wishes to resign. King's message to Lard Chatham. Duke of Newcastle is very anxi- ous to preserve the union of the opposition. Ap. plication to Lord Rockingham. Declaration of the Duke of Bedford. Declaration of the- Duke of Newcastle. Conserence at New- castle-house. Breaks off. Importance of the Minister of the House of Commons. America the true cause. Second conserence at Newcastle- house. Anecdotes of Mr. Lownds's tickets, and of the Judges tickets. Lord Rockingham waits on the King. Lord Holland advises the King Chap. XXXIV. Mr. Townshend resolves to be Minister. Dies. Lord North appointed. Lord Chatham goes into Somersetshire. The Bedford interest join the Ministry. Duke of Bed- ford's apology to Mr. Grenville, and Mr. Gren- ville's answer. Lord Chatham returns to Hayes. French purchase Corsica. Difference between the Duke of Bedford and Lord Shelburne. Lord Rochford resigns. Lord Shelburne resigns. Fine diamond ring presented to his Majesty. Lord Rochford made Secretary of State—with the SPEECHES AND ANECDOTES. CHAP. I. Introduction.—Mr. Pitt's Birth.—Placed at Eton.— Sent to Oxford.—Mr. (Varton's Compliment to Mr. Pitt.—Latin Verses by Mr. Pitt.—Goes abroad.— Made a Cornet of Horse.—Eletled as a Member of Parliament.—His Friends.—His first Speech in Parliament—Honoured by the Prince of Wales.— His CommiJ/ion taken from him by Sir Robert Walpole.—Verses to him by Mr.- Lyttelton.— Patronized by LordCobham. —His accomplishments. —Complimented by lhomfon; by Hammond —His Condutl in Parliament attacked by the Gazetteer; defended by the Craftsman.—ihe Prince dismissed from St. James's. HE lives of eminent men asford useful les- Chap. I. sons of instruction, as well as great examples for imitation. No native of the British island stands higher in the judgment of the present age, for either the magnisicence ot his talents as a senator and statesman, or the virtue of his con Chi?. I. duct in both private and public lise, than the v-—r-^ late Earl Of Chatham. Nor will the character tion. "°f any man» however flattered it may have . been in description, or however superior he may have been in station, go down to posterity with purer honour. Other men's names are lemembered by the aid of biography: his will be revered by the glories of his actions, which illumined the political hemisphere, during the splendid æra in which the reins of government were in his hands. The archives of the various nations of the world, at that period of his lise, though written in difserent languages, will unite in raising a pyramid to his name, which Time cannot destroy. The memoirs of such a man should be written by the sirst historian of the age. This work assumes an humbler rank in literature. It goes forth with no other claim to public notice, than that of being A Collection of Fugitive Papers and Anecdotes ; many of them known to several persons, now living, but all of them to very sew. In fine, the present publication is the effect of industry, not of ability. Birth. The Earl of Chatham was born on the fifteenth of November, 1708, in the Parish of St. Placed at James's, Westminister. He received the sirst Eton. part of his education at Eton; where he was placed upon the Foundation. His co-temporaries, at this school, were George Lyttelion, asterSent to wards Lord l.yttleton, Henry Fox, afterwards Lord Oxford. Holland, Sir Clas. Hanbury Williams, Hen, Fielding, author author of Tom Jones, &c. At the age of eigh- Chap. I. Extract from the Register in the Bursary in "Ego Gulielmus Pitt, filius Roberti « pITT, armigeri de Old Sarum, natus Londini "in Parochia Sancti Jacobi ; annorum circiter "18 admiflus sum commensalis primi ordinis "sub tutamine Magistri Stockwell Jan. die 10, "1726*." In the Oxford Verses upon the Death of George the First, which were published the year after he went to College, we find the sollowing, by Mr. Pitt. Angliacæ vos O præscntia numina gcnti» * In reserence to this having been a member of Trinity College, are the following lines in Mr. Warton's Address to him, upon the death of George the Second. —— Nor thou refuse This humble present of no partial Muse f Trinity College, Oxford, in which also Lotd Somert was educated. B * Instarc Chat. I. Instare horribiles longe latequc tumultus; 1 Hie super Hispanos violcnta tumescere campog Dextera quid potuit, primis ubi servor in armis. Quare agite, O Populi, tantarum yi mutlcre laudura Felix, qui potuit mundi cohibere tumultus! Inclyta Progenies! Tibi quam dilecta Tonanti GUL. PITT, e Coll. Trin. Socio Commens. Before |