His birth.

Placed at
Eton.

The Earl of Chatham was born on the CHAP. fifteenth of November 1708, in the parish of St. James's, Weftminster. He received the first part of his education at Eton, where he was placed upon the foundation. His cotemporaries at this school were George Lyttelton, afterwards Lord Lyttelton, Henry Fox, afterwards Lord Holland, Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, Henry Fielding, author of Tom Jones, &c. At the age of eighteen he was fent to Trinity College, Oxford. This laft Sent to circumftance appears by the following extract from the Register in the Bursary in Trinity College, fol. 258:

66

"Ego Gulielmus Pitt, filius Roberti Pitt, armigeri, de Old Sarum, natus Londini in parochia Sancti Jacobi; annorum circiter 18 admiffus fum commenfalis primi ordinis "fub tutamine Magiftri Stockwell, Jan. die 10, 1726*."

66

66

Oxford:

In

* In reference to his having been a member of Trinity College, are the following lines in Mr. Warton's Addrels to him, upon the death of George the Second:

CHAP. In the Oxford verses upon the death of

I.

George the First, which were published the

year after he went to college, we find the
following by Mr. Pitt:

Anglicæ vos O præfentia numina gentis
Libertas, atque Alma Themis! Neptune Britanni
Tu pater Oceani! (fi jam pacata Georgi
Imperio tua perlabi licet æquora) veftro
(Trifte minifterium!) pia folvite munera Regi.
At teneri planetus abfint, mollefque querilæ
Herois tumulo; quas mors deflenda requirit,
Gefta vetant lacrymas, justæque fuperbia laudis.
Inftare horribiles longè latèque tumultus
Hic fuper Hifpanos violenta tumefcere campos
Belli diluvies, illic ad flumina Rheni

Ardentes furibundus equos immittere Mavors.

Heu quam in fe miferi cladem ftragefque cierent!
Quot fortes caderent anime! quot gurgite torquens
Sanguineo fluvius morientia corpora in altum
Volveret Oceanum! ni Te fuccurrere fæclo

Te folum, vifum fuperis, Augufte, labenti

From that calm Bow'rf, which nurs'd thy thoughtful

youth

In the pure precepts of Athenian truth':

Where first the form of British Liberty

Beam'd in full radiance on thy mufing eye;

That form, whofe mien fublime, with equal awe,

In the fame fhade unblemish'd Somers faw.

Trinity College, Oxford; in which alfo Lord Somers was educated.

Tu

t

Tu miferans hominum pacem fuper aftra volantem,
Imperio retines, terrafque revifere cogis.

', Dextera quid petuit, primis ubi fervor in armis
Impulit ulcifci patriam, populofque gementes,
Turcarum dicant acies, verfifque cohortes

Turbatæ fignis; dicat perterrita Buda,

Invitaque tuos prætollat laude triumphos,

Fulmina cum attonitum contra torquenda tyrannum
Vidit, et intremuit. Rerum at jam lenior ordo
Arrifit, gladiumque manus confueta rotare
(Majus opus!) gratæ prætendit figna quietis.

Quare agite, O populi, tantarum in munere laudum
Sternite humum foliis. Sed vos ante omnia Mufæ
Cæfarem ac aftra feretis; amavit vos quoque Cæfar:
Veftraque cum placida laurus concrevit oliva,

Felix, qui potuit mundi cohibere tumultus!
Fortunatus et illi, ægri folamen amoris

Qui fubit Angliacis, tanti audit nominis hæres.
Aufpice Te, dives agitans difcordia, ludo
Heu fatiata nimis! furias amnemque feverum
Cocyti repetat, propriofque perhorreat angues.
At fecura quies, metuens et gratia culpæ

Te circumvolitent. Themis hinc cæleftis, et illinc
Suftentet folium clementia. Tu quoque magnam
Partem habeas opere in tanto, Carolina labore
Imperii recreans feffum: nam Maximus ille
Te colit, atque animi fenfum Tibi credit opertum
Curarum conforti, et multo pignore junctæ.
Inclyta progenies! Tibi quam dilecta Tonanti
Latona invideat, quam vel Berecynthia Mater
Centum enixa Deos; fi qua hæc fint dona Britanniş
Propria, fintque precor, referant et utrumque parentem.

GUL. PITT,

e Coll. Trin. Socio Commenf,

CHAP. 1.

СНАР,

I.

1735. Elected a

parliament.

Before he left Eton he was afflicted with the gout, which increased during his refidence at Oxford; and which at length obliged him to quit the university, without taking a degree. It was hereditary.

He afterwards made the tour of part of France, and part of Italy; but his diforder was not removed by it. He however conftantly employed the leifure, which this painful and tedious malady afforded, in the cultivation and improvement of his mind. Lord. Chefterfield, who rather envied than admired his fuperiority, fays, " that thus he acquired a great fund of premature and useful know, ledge."

He came first into parliament in the month member of of February 1735, for the borough of Old Sarum, in the room of his brother; who, being elected for Old Sarum and Oakhamp, ton, made his election for the latter. His brother-in-law, Robert Nedham Efq. was his coadjutor. Having five fifters, and an elder Cornet of brother, his fortune was not very confiderable; his friends, therefore, obtained for him

Made

horle

a cornet's commiffion in the Blues, in addition to his income,

I.

1735.

In March 1735, George Lyttelton Efq. CHAP. (eldest son of Sir Thomas Lyttelton of Hagley, who married Lord Cobham's fifter, afterwards Lord Lyttelton, was elected member of parliament for Oakhampton, by the interest of Thomas Pitt Efq. in the room of Mr. Northmore, who died a little time before.

His

Friends.

At the general election in 1734, Richard He Grenville Efq. (the late Earl Temple, whose mother was Lord Cobham's eldest sister) came first into parliament, being elected for Buckingham. Mr. W. Pitt, Mr. Grenville, and Mr. Lyttelton, became affociates, and for feveral years always fat together in the House of Commons,

Mr. Pitt had not been many days in par

liament when he was felected for a teller. It appears by the Journals, vol. xxii. page 535, upon a motion to refer the navy eftimates to a felect committee, that the Houfe divided, and that Mr. William Pitt and Mr. Sandys,afterwards Lord Sandys, were appointed tellers of the minority upon that queftion.