Magdalen Hall in 1608, Fellow of All Souls' in 1613, Prebendary of Worcester Cathedral in 1628, Dean of Chichester in 1634, Clerk of the Closet, and Prebendary of Westminster, in 1638, Dean of St. Paul's in 1641, and of the Chapel Royal; afterwards Dean of Lincoln, and Prolocutor of the Lower House of Convocation. He was a Commissioner for Ecclesiastical matters at the treaty of Uxbridge in January 1644. He was deprived of all his preferments by the Parliament, and retired to Paris, where Charles the Second visited him, after his escape from the battle of Worcester. He died there Nov. 14, 1651.

NICHOLAS LOCKYER, of New Inn Hall, Oxford; Fellow of Eton, Jan. 21, 1649. Elected Provost, Jan. 14, 1658; of which he was deprived soon after the Restoration. He had been chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, and often preached before the Parliament. He died in 1684.

JOHN MEREDITH, of All Souls' College, Oxford, and Fellow there. Fellow of Eton, April 22, 1648. Rector of Stamford Rivers, county of Essex; Master of Wigston's Hospital at Leicester. After the Restoration, he was elected Warden of All Souls'. Died July 16, 1665. Buried in All Souls' College chapel.

ZACHARY CRADOCK, of Queen's College, Cambridge. Chaplain in Ordinary to the King; Canon Residentiary of Chichester in 1669; Fellow of Eton, Dec. 2, 1671. Died Oct. 1695.

HENRY GODOLPHIN, Fellow of All Souls' College, Oxford; Fellow of Eton, April 14, 1677; Canon Residentiary of St. Paul's; Dean of St. Paul's in 1707. Died Jan. 29, 1732.

CHAPTER IV.

Fielding-Gray-Broome-West

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Lord Chatham-Lord Camden-Lord Lyttelton-Lord Holland-Sir C. H. WilliamsJacob Bryant - Horace Walpole -Marquis of Granby Sir W. Draper-Charles James Fox-Lord North-Lord Sandwich-Sir Joseph Bankes-Lord Cornwallis-Marquis of Wellesley-Lord Howe-Canning -Windham-Whitbread-Anstey-Steevens- Porson-Sir J. Mansfield-Sir Vicary Gibbs-Lord Grey — Lord Grenville-Lord Holland—Archbishop Tenison— Bishop Lloyd-Simeon, &c., &c.

LORD CHATHAM.

WILLIAM PITT, first Earl of Chatham, was born on the 15th November, 1708, in the parish of St. James's, Westminster. He was the second son of Robert Pitt, Esq., of Boconnoc, near Lostwithiel, in Cornwall, by Harriet Villiers, sister of the Earl of Grandison (an Irish peer), and the grandson of Thomas Pitt, governor of Madras, the possessor of the celebrated Pitt diamond, which, according to an account published by himself, he bought in India for 24,000l., and sold to the French king for 135,0001.

Pitt was sent to Eton at an early age, and was educated there till his eighteenth year. Dr. Bland was then head-master, and is said to have discerned and highly valued the high qualities of young Pitt. He was there eminent among a group, every member of which, in manhood, acquired celebrity. George (afterwards Lord) Lyttelton, Henry Fox (afterwards Lord Holland), Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, Henry Fielding, Charles Pratt (afterwards Lord Camden), were among Pitt's young friends and competitors at Eton. His biographer, Thackeray, justly remarks, that "among the many recommendations which will always attach to a public system of education, the value of early emulation, the force of example, the abandonment of sulky and selfish habits, and the acquirement of generous, manly dispositions, are not to be overlooked. All these I believe to have had weight in forming the character of Lord Chatham." He was admitted a gentleman commoner at Trinity College, Oxford, in 1726.

Pitt was attacked, even in boyhood, by hereditary gout; and being thus often debarred from sharing in the ordinary sports and exercises of his age, he devoted those periods of compulsory inaction to regular and earnest reading, and thus made his physical weakness minister to his intellectual strength. He had the advantage of an able and attentive guide to his studies in his father, during his school vacations; and Lord Mahon informs us that it may be stated, on the authority of the present Lord Stanhope, that "Pitt, being asked to what he principally ascribed the two qualities for which his eloquence was most conspicuous, namely, the lucid order of his reasonings, and the ready choice of his words, answered, that he believed he owed the former to an early study of the Aristotelian logic, and the latter to his father's practice in making him every day, after reading over to himself some passages in the classics, translate it aloud and continuously into English prose."

Pitt must also have diligently and successfully cultivated, while a boy, the art of Latin versification. This is evident from the copy of Latin hexameters on the death of George the First, written by him in the first year after he went to Oxford. They may be seen in Thackeray's Life of Pitt, near the beginning of the first volume. I am persuaded that the continued exercise of composition in Latin verse is one of the most valuable for forming an accurate taste, and for giving an artistic skill in the arrangement of ideas, and in the selection of phraseology, that can possibly be pursued. To write Latin verse elegantly and correctly, implies that the writer has not only read, but that he is perfectly familiar with the best models of the Augustan age. To acquire eminence in this exercise, the best parts of Virgil, Homer, and Ovid must be known by heart-the memory and the feeling must be so imbued with their letter and their spirit, that the noble and beautiful thoughts, and the melodious lines of these great poets will suggest themselves to our recollection at the least hint, though long years may have passed away since we last read them. It is the best possible discipline for giving the imagination and the judgment that tone and temper which the epithet "classical" perfectly describes, and which no other word or phrase can express. Whether our modern Latin verses have original poetical worth or not, is quite another matter, though it is the sole test by which many people most absurdly try the utility of the exercise. Latin versification

is valuable, not on account of its products, but of its process ; though it is not to be conceded that no modern Latin poetry deserves praise, even when examined with reference to the natura naturata, and not to the natura naturans.

The Musa Etonenses contains many poems which command our admiration, even when we forget the date and place of their composition, and try them by the same canons which we apply to the great classical authors themselves.

Pitt's Latin verses attest his devotion to the best Augustan writers; and in every respect and for every purpose he was an assiduous and a worthy student of the classics. Lord Mahon says that Demosthenes was his favourite among them; and we learn his opinion of others by the recommendations which he gave in after-life for the studies of his second son, afterwards the celebrated minister. He then selected Thucydides as the first book for his son's reading; and it appears, from allusions in his speeches, that the greatest of all histories, the Krua ès deì, was a constant subject of Lord Chatham's study and admiration. The other classic which Lord Chatham particularised for his son's attention, was Polybius, an historian not in general duly appreciated, and whose great characteristic may be said to be sound, practical

common sense.

Lord Chatham's own studies in youth were not pedantically limited to antiquity. He was a diligent reader of the best English authors, among whom he chose, as his chief models, Bolingbroke and Barrow. His high opinion of Bolingbroke's style has been mentioned in the memoir of that writer; and Lord Chatham is said to have read some of Dr. Barrow's sermons so often, as to know them by heart.

After leaving Oxford, Mr. Pitt (for it is best to speak of "the great Commoner" by his name as such, until he became the still greater Lord) made the customary tour of Europe. His patrimony, as a younger son, being small, he obtained, on his return, a cornetcy in the Blues. In 1735 he was returned to parliament for the family borough of Old Sarum. His principal friends and connexions were at that time attached to Frederick Prince of Wales, and consequently in opposition to Sir Robert Walpole. Pitt was thus naturally enlisted among the assailants of that minister; and it is probable that his keen sensibility for England's honour made him estimate too highly the insults which this nation was then supposed

to be receiving from Spain, and for which Sir Robert was reluctant to declare war. Walpole's habit of scoffing at all enthusiasm, and his contemptuous neglect of men of genius (subjects discussed in the preceding memoir of that minister) must also have gone far to alienate an ardent, youthful temperament, like that of Pitt. Pitt learned, in after-life, to appreciate, and had the candour to acknowledge, the solid merits of Walpole; but it is not to be wondered at that he thought differently calidá juventá.

Pitt made his first speech in the House on the 29th April, 1736, on Mr. Pulteney's motion for a congratulatory speech to the King, on the marriage of the Prince of Wales. The report which we possess of this speech can hardly be accurate; but we know that the oration itself was highly eulogised by those on Pitt's side who heard it; and it had the far more decisive honour of being fiercely resented by those against whom it was directed. They who listened to Pitt, felt at once that a spirit of the highest order was among them. Walpole instinctively recognised in him an adversary of the most formidable strength and the most fiery vehemence. While Pitt was speaking, the veteran minister is said to have muttered to those near him, "We must muzzle this terrible Cornet of Horse." Walpole thought that he could intimidate him. Pitt's personal circumstances were known to be far from affluent, and his regimental pay was not a matter of indifference to him. Walpole dismissed the "terrible Cornet" from the army; but he grievously mistook the man whom he had to deal with. Pitt's indignation was roused by the blow that was meant to tame him; and he now attacked the minister and the Court with powers of oratory, such as had never before been witnessed in modern times, and which have never since been equalled.

The meagre and inaccurate parliamentary reports of that period cannot give us even faithful sketches of Pitt's early speeches; and even if we possessed most full and accurate reports of them, we should be unable, by perusing them, to appreciate their full effect. We must strive to call up and keep before our minds' eye, the personal image of him who delivered them. We must strive to comprehend and remember the magic of his voice, and the majestic grace of his gesture. "His voice was both full and clear; his lowest whisper was distinctly heard; his middle tones were sweet, rich, and beautifully varied; when he elevated his voice to the highest pitch, the House was completely filled with the volume of