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whose fame, like an aloe, did not blow till near an hundred, was a singularity. The scandalous chronicle of Somersetshire talks terribly of his morals. . . . Lady North was nearly related to Lady Pynsent, which encouraged Lord North to flatter himself that Sir William's extreme propensity to him would recommend even his wife's parentage for heirs; but the uncomeliness of Lady North, and a vote my lord gave against the Cider bill, offended the old gentleman so much, that he burnt his would-be heir in effigy."

In another letter, Walpole writes to General Conway: "Do you know that Sir William Pynsent had your brother in his eye? He said to his lawyer, I know Mr. Pitt is much younger than I am, but he has very bad health: as you will hear it before me, if he dies first, draw up another will, with Mr. Conway's name instead of Mr. Pitt's, and bring it down to me directly." I beg Britannia's pardon, but I fear I could have supported the loss on these grounds." It will be remembered that General Conway was Horace Walpole's cousin, and most intimate friend.

The heirs-at-law of Sir William Pynsent disputed the validity of this will. After numerous delays, the cause was argued before the Master of the Rolls, and after three days' hearing, was decided in favour of Mr. Pitt, on the 27th of June..

“GENTLE SHEPHERD” GRENVILLE.

The debate upon the Tax upon Perry and Cider in the Session of 1763, gave rise to a humorous incident, which fixed a ridiculous epithet upon one of the promoters of the bill. At this time, Dr. Howard's song, "Gentle shepherd, tell me where," in which each stanza ended with that line, was very popular. Mr. Grenville, in answer to Mr. Pitt, contended that the proposed tax was unavoidable, because the Government did not know where else they could lay a tax of equal efficiency. "Let the honourable gentleman," said he, "tell me where you can lay another tax, let the honourable

gentleman, I say, tell me where." Unluckily for him, Pitt had come down to the House that night, and had been bitterly provoked by the reflections thrown on the war. He revenged himself by murmuring, in a whine resembling Grenville's, "Gentle shepherd, tell me where ?" "If," cried Grenville, "gentlemen are to be treated in this way" Pitt, as was his fashion, when he meant to mark extreme contempt, rose deliberately, made his bow, and walked out of the House, leaving his brother-in-law in convulsions of rage, and everybody else in convulsions of laughter. It was long before Grenville lost the nickname of "the Gentle Shepherd."

This additional tax on Cider created such dissatisfaction, that many of the apple-growers threatened to demolish their orchards. "There has been tough doings in Parliament," writes Walpole, "about the tax on Cider; and in the western counties the discontent is so great, that if Mr. Wilkes will turn patriot hero, or patriot incendiary, and put himself at their head, he may obtain a martyrdom before the summer is over." The unpopular tax. was part of the financial statement of Sir Francis Dashwood, who was so conscious of his unfitness for his office, that he exclaimed, in a fit of comical despair, "What shall I do? The boys will point at me in the street, and cry, 'There goes the worst Chancellor of the Exchequer that ever was.'"

INFLUENCE OF PITT'S NAME.

"His dismissal from the Ministry," thus wrote an accomplished Frenchman, in 1761, "is a greater gain to us than would have been the winning of two battles." In 1766, Horace Walpole, who had lately been at Paris, observes: "Their panic at Mr. Pitt's name is not to be described. Whenever they were impertinent, I used to drop as by chance that he would be Minister in a few days, and it never failed to occasion a deep silence."

When George III. and Queen Charlotte went to dine with

the citizens of London, in 1761, and as the procession advanced through the streets, most eyes and most voices were turned from their Majesties' state coach to Pitt's plain chariot and pair, containing himself and Lord Temple, we are told by an eye-witness, that at every step the mob clustered round his carriage, "hung upon the wheels, hugged his footmen, and even kissed his horses."

The first stone of the Bridge across the Thames at Blackfriars was laid by the Lord Mayor, a few days after the accession of George III.; "and on it, (says Walpole, was engraved so bombast an inscription in honour of Mr. Pitt, and drawn up in such bad Latin, that it furnished ample matter of ridicule to his enemies." Nine years later, when the Bridge was completed, the popularity of the Minister remained firm. The City approach was named after him, "Chatham-place," and the bridge itself opened on Sunday, Nov. 19, 1769, was named "Pitt Bridge," by order of the Common Council. "It was easier, however, (says Cunningham,) to remember the particular locality of the bridge than the name of the illustrious statesman, so that 'Pitt Bridge' was soon entirely dropped.” The decay of his popularity had something to do with this; for political fame is less lasting than the names of localities.

Some of these tributes to his popularity were eccentric enough. One of these was a salmon, sent by an inhabitant of Wareham, with this note: "I am an Englishman, and, therefore, love liberty and you. Sir, be pleased to accept of this fish, as a mark of my esteem; were every scale a diamond, it should have been at your service:" alluding to the celebrated Pitt Diamond.

Lord Chesterfield, in 1763, has strikingly expressed Mr. Pitt's authority at this moment. He writes: "I should naturally think that this session will be a stormy one; that is, if Mr. Pitt takes an active part; but if he is pleased, as the ministers say he is, there is no other Eolus to blow a storm. The Dukes of Cumberland, Newcastle, and Devonshire have no better troops to attack with than the militia but Pitt alone is ipse agmen " (an army in himself).

We cannot find that, during the session which began in January, 1765, Pitt once appeared in Parliament. He remained some months in profound retirement at Hayes, his favourite villa, scarcely moving except from his armchair to his bed, and from his bed to his armchair, and often employing his wife as his amanuensis in his most confidential correspondence. Some of his detractors whispered that his invisibility was to be ascribed quite as much to affectation as to gout. It was surmised that, having acquired all the consideration which could be derived from eloquence and from great service to the State, he had determined not to make himself cheap by often appearing in public, but, under the pretext of ill health, to surround himself with mystery, to emerge only at long intervals and on momentous occasions, and at other times to deliver his oracles only to a few favoured votaries, who were suffered to make pilgrimages to his shrine. If such were his object, it was for a time fully attained. Never was the magic of his name so powerful, never was he regarded by his country with such superstitious veneration, as during this year of silence and seclusion.*

POLITICAL CONNEXION OF MR. PITT AND MR. WILKES.

Wilkes was, at his entrance into public life, "a friend of Pitt's," and the Chatham Correspondence shows that he continued to profess to be so, and was a candidate for office under him. He was still more intimately connected with Lord Temple, who assisted in his election for Aylesbury, made him colonel of the Bucks militia, and Wilkes entered, as was his nature, headlong into all his lordship's politics, in furtherance of which he set up the North Briton, directed avowedly against Lord Bute and the Scottish nation generally. Wilkes was a man of considerable literary attainments, of which his letters are the best specimens. The following, addressed by him to Mr. Pitt, is a model of its class :

* Macaulay: Edinburgh Review, 1844,

"Great George-street, "Friday, February 27, 1761.

“SIR,

66

May I for a few moments draw your attention from the interests of your country to the concerns of an individual whose pride it is to have Mr. Pitt his patron and friend? I do not mean to be importunate, nor to cause the least embarrassment, but beg leave to submit to you every wish I have, and every desire I feel, entirely acquiescing in your ideas of the propriety of what I am going to mention.

"I am very desirous of a scene of business, in which I might, usefully, I hope, to the public, employ my time and attention. The small share of talents I have from nature are such as fit me, I believe, for active life; and, if I know myself, I should be entirely devoted to the scene of business I was engaged in. I wish the Board of Trade might be thought a place in which I could be of any service. Whatever the scene is, I shall endeavour to have the reputation of acting in a manner worthy of the connexion I have the honour to be in; and, among all the chances and changes of a political world, I will never have an obligation in a parliamentary way but to Mr. Pitt and his friends.

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May I mention a circumstance of no small importance to myself? If what I have taken the liberty of hinting be the fit and proper thing, I should wish that it might take place in the interval between the two parliaments, to avoid some very disagreeable circumstances attending a re-election at Aylesbury. I desire very truly to submit every particular; only begging you would do me the justice to believe me, with the most sincere regard, sir,

*

"Your obliged and

"Devoted humble servant,
"JOHN WILKES."

* Mr. Wilkes was, a few days after, returned for Aylesbury without opposition. Besides this application for a seat at the Board of Trade, he made an unsuccessful one for the embassy at Constantinople, and was also disappointed in not obtaining the governorship of Canada. Wilkes's character, at this time, is thus strongly sketched by Gibbon, in his

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