very startling, asperity. "If," he asked, "our assistance to the Queen of Hungary be an act of honesty, why may it not be equally required of Hanover? If it be an act of generosity, why should this country alone be expected to sacrifice her interests for those of others? or why should the Elector of Hanover exert his liberality at the expense of Great Britain ? "It is too apparent, Sir, that this powerful, this great, this mighty nation is considered only as a province to a despicable Electorate. How much reason the transactions of every year have given for suspecting this absurd, ungrateful, and perfidious partiality, it is not necessary to declare! To dwell on all the instances of that partiality, and the yearly visits which have been paid to that DELIGHTFUL Country-to reckon up all the sums that have been spent to aggrandize and enrich it, would be an irksome and invidious task, invidious to those who are afraid to be told the truth, and irksome to those who are unwilling to hear of the dishonour and injuries of their country!"

This, in any times, would be thought violent language, and there can be little doubt that the force of what was really spoken was attenuated in the report; but when we recall to memory the predilection of George the Second for his German dominions, we cannot but admit that this speech sounds like a personal defiance of the Sovereign, and that whatever disinclination His Majesty might previously have had on other grounds to admit Mr. Pitt into office, he had now a direct and personal cause of displeasure which no candid man can call unreasonable.

At the opening of the next session, Mr. Pitt was still more offensive. In the recess, the battle of Dettingen, won by George II. in person, had not only vindicated in public opinion the conduct of the war and the employment of the Hanoverian troops, but raised the personal character of the King, and very much gratified his private feelings. On the meeting of parliament, (1st December, 1743,) the usual address was on this occasion seasoned with congratulations to the King on his victory, and with thanks "to Divine Providence, for the

protection of His Majesty's sacred person, amidst the imminent dangers to which his invaluable life had been exposed," &c. Mr. Pitt opposed the address in a great speech, which was reported in the London Magazine at considerable length. Although the energy and spirit are but imperfectly given in the report, there is enough to show how personally offensive it must have been to the King. Mr. Pitt thus depreciated the success, and censured the conduct of the royal hero of Dettingen:

"The ardour of the British troops was restrained by the cowardice of the Hanoverians, and, instead of pursuing the enemy, we ourselves ran away in the night with such haste, that we left all our wounded to the mercy and care of the enemy, who had the honour of burying our dead as well as their own. This action may, therefore, be called, on our side, a fortunate escape; I shall never give my consent to honouring it with the name of victory."

As to the statements of the King's personal gallantry, he more than insinuated that they were "false," and asks—

"Suppose, Sir, it should appear that His Majesty was exposed to few or no dangers abroad, but those to which he is daily liable at home, such as the overturning of his coach, or the stumbling of his horse, would not the address proposed, instead of being a compliment, be an affront and insult to the Sovereign? Now, what assurance have we that all these facts will not turn out as I have imagined ?"

"Unless (says the writer in the Quarterly Review, No. 131) we carry ourselves back into those times, and imagine such sentiments as these, enforced by the most rapid variety and volubility of diction-the most impressive and commanding powers of utterance-the most energetic yet dignified action -an eye that flashed lightning to the thunder of his voice -and an air of supreme, not to say audacious, authority over his audience-unless, we say, we endeavour to picture to ourselves the Mr. Pitt of that day, we shall have a very inadequate idea of the peculiarity of his position, or of the difficulties in which the self-relying impetuosity of his character

involved almost equally his enemies, his friends, and himself."

Mr. Pitt, however, managed to conciliate George the Second by other means. The Ministry took advantage of the great popularity of the Duke of Cumberland's victory at Culloden to propose for His Royal Highness a parliamentary pension of 25,000l. a year, into which Mr. Pitt came so warmly, that the King-with great tact, whether it was a compliment or a snare-desired that this proposition should be made by Mr. Pitt; but the Duke of Cumberland thought it more proper, as it certainly was, that it should be introduced by the first Minister, Mr. Pelham. The ice that had impeded Mr. Pitt's advance was now broken; and in about three months after his admission into office, the death of Sir Thomas Winnington made way for his advancement to that of Paymaster of the Forces, which, for emoluments and consideration, was always considered next to the cabinet; and in those days was often held by persons like Mr. Pitt, more really important than many who sat in the cabinet.

At length, Mr. Pitt completely won over the King. It was at the audience with his Majesty, in 1757, that the following remarkable sentences (repeated by Lord Nugent, many years afterwards in the House of Commons) were uttered by the Sovereign and his minister. Mr. Pitt-"Sire, give me your confidence, and I will deserve it." The King

"Deserve my confidence, and you shall have it." Lord Nugent added, that Mr. Pitt, at length, won so upon the King, that he was able to turn his very partialities in favour of Germany to the benefit of his country.

Mr. Pitt treated George II. with profound respect. No infirmity, occasioned by disease, not even the solicitation of his Majesty, could prevail upon Pitt to be seated in his presence. When he was not able to stand, he received his commands kneeling upon a stool; with which the King expressed himself highly gratified to one of his attendants, after the first audience.

MR. PITT'S RESIGNATION OF OFFICE.

Mr. Burke, who wrote the historical portion of the Annual Register for the year 1761, says, that "when Mr. Pitt resigned the seals, the great person to whom they were re-delivered, received them with ease and firmness, without requesting that he should resume his office. His Majesty expressed his concern for the loss of so able a servant; and to show the favourable sense he entertained of his services, he made him a most gracious and unlimited offer of any rewards in the power of the crown to bestow. His Majesty at the same time expressed himself not only satisfied with the opinion of the majority of his council, but declared he would have found himself under the greatest difficulty how to have acted, had that council concurred as fully in supporting the measure proposed by Mr. Pitt as they had done in rejecting it. Mr. Pitt was sensibly touched with the grandeur and condescension of the proceeding. I confess, Sir, I had but too much reason to expect your Majesty's displeasure: I did not come prepared for this exceeding goodness; pardon me, Sir,-it overpowers, it oppresses me.' He burst into tears. We are far from attempting to add any colouring to so exquisitely affecting a picture; we are, indeed, far from being able to do justice to perhaps one of the most pathetic and elevated scenes which could possibly be displayed, the parting of such a prince and such a minister."

A life-like picture of the public feeling upon this extraordinary phase in Mr. Pitt's career is given in a letter of the time, addressed by a Mr. G. Cruch to the Hon. Mr. William Robinson, at Naples, and first printed in No. 5 of Notes and Queries. The letter is dated Oct. 12, 1761, from Lancastercourt, in the Strand; we detach a few descriptive passages:

"The ensuing winter may possibly produce many things to amaze you; it has opened with one that I am sure will: I mean Mr. Pitt's resignation, who delivered up the seals to the King last Monday. The reason commonly given for this extraordinary step is a resolution taken in Council contrary

to Mr. Pitt's opinion, concerning our conduct towards the Spaniards, who, upon the breaking off of the negotiations with France, and our sending Mr. Bussy away, have, it is said, made some declarations to our Court which Mr. Pitt was for having the King treat in a very different manner from that which the rest of the Cabinet advised; for they are all said to have been against Mr. Pitt's opinion, except Lord Temple. The effect of this resignation you'll easily imagine. It has opened all the mouths of all the news-presses in England, and, from our boasted unanimity and confidence in the Government, we seem to be falling apace into division and distrust; in the meantime Mr. Pitt seems to have entered on this occasion upon a new mode of resignation, at least for him, for he goes to Court, where he is much taken notice of by the King, and treated with great respect by everybody else, and has said, according to common report, that he intends only to tell a plain story, which I suppose we are to have in the House of Commons. People, as you may imagine, are very impatient for his own account of a matter about which they know so little at present, and which puts publie curiosity to the rack.

"Fresh matter for patriots and politicians! Since writing the former part of this letter, I have been at the coffee-house, and bring you back, verbatim, a very curious article of the Gazette.

(Then follows the announcement.)

"A report of this matter got about the day before, and most unfortunately all the newspapers contradicted it as a scandalous report, set on foot with a design to tarnish the lustre of a certain great character. This was the style of the morning and evening papers of Saturday, and of those who converse upon their authority; so that upon the coming in of the Gazette about ten o'clock at night, it was really diverting to see the effect it had upon most people's countenances at Dick's Coffee-house, where I was: it occasioned a dead silence, and I think everybody went away without giving their opinions of the matter, except Dr. Collier, who has always