'^, ANECDOTES OF THE L1FE OF THE RIGHT HON. WILLIAM PITT, EARL D*F CHATHAM, AND OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS OF HIS TIME. WITH HIS SPEECHES IN PARLIAMENT, FROM THE YEAR 1736 TO THE YEAR 1778, PREFACE. HE most proper apology for this publication, is a candid and unadorned statement of Truth. Had a similar work been executed by any of those persons, who are more capable, .aad'more conversant with the period, and' with'" the conduct of the noble Lord, than tHeF.r|itor,^the public would not have been jrgftbled/with., this attempt. It is now almost' fourteen years since Lord Chatham's death, and the writer has not heard, that any intention to offer a similar work has been in the contemplation of any such person. Every period in history is interesting. Undoubtedly some periods more than others; and, perhaps, none more than that of these volumes. JBut truth is so seldom the object of the historian of his own times, that it has, for some years past, been a trite observation, among persons of information, that |