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trary, when a rupture with France became inevita- | head of which stood Lord Bute; and the first opble, Pitt seconded the proposal of Viscount Bar-portunity was taken to force him out of the king's rington, secretary at war, to increase the army, councils. On the 25th of October, 1760, George which was accordingly raised from about 20,000 to II. died. He was succeeded by his grandson, 35,000 men. In spite, however, of this indisposi- George III.; and Pitt's days of influence and tion unnecessarily to embarrass the councils of the power became numbered. Negotiations for peace government, the war was not well managed. Mi- had been begun on the side of France, and were norca fell into the hands of the French. Admiral proceeding as favorably as an English minister Byng was sacrificed. Oswego in America, and could desire, when Charles III. came to the throne Calcutta in Asia, were both lost. A panic seized of Spain, with feelings strongly prejudiced in favor the Duke of Newcastle, and after vainly endeavor- of his relative, Louis XV. Pitt was not long kept ing to bring Pitt back again, he resigned. A new in doubt respecting the formation of the "family cabinet was accordingly formed, with the Duke of compact," and foreseeing that its consequences Devonshire at its head, and Mr. Pitt and Mr. Legge would be, not peace with France, but war with formed part of it-the former as secretary of state, Spain, and, perhaps, with Sicily likewise, he dethe latter as chancellor of the exchequer. termined to anticipate the plans of both. He proposed in the cabinet that the negotiations with France should be broken off, and that England should take the initiative in the inevitable quarrel with them. To his great surprise he found himself outvoted. He tried a second appeal in the council chamber, and was again defeated; whereupon he tendered his advice in writing to the young king, and there, likewise, met with a repulse. No course now lay open to him except resignation. He went with his seals of office to St. James', where the young king received him with such marks of kindness and respect, that the heart of the proud statesman was touched. His resignation could not, of course, be withdrawn; but he accepted, in token of the gratitude of the crown, a peerage for his wife, and was not ashamed (he had no reason to be) of becoming a pensioner to the extent of 30007. a year.

There was still on the part of the king a rooted dislike to his servant-a feeling which was carried to a still greater extreme by the Duke of Cumberland. The latter, indeed, refused to take command of the army which was to protect Hanover unless Pitt were removed from office; and once more Pitt, with Legge, and this time with Lord Temple, were sacrificed. But the disfavor of the court was more than compensated to the two former by the respect and admiration of the people. Numerous addresses of thanks poured in upon them from all quarters; and cities and boroughs loaded them with deeds of freedom, each enclosed in a gold box. The king's faction could not make head against this stream, the weight of which was further increased by the abortive issue of the Duke of Cumberland's military operations. Another change of administration became necessary, and the Duke of Newcastle assuming the post of first lord of the treasury, Pitt became again secretary of state, and to all intents and purposes leader in

the councils of the nation.

A retiring statesman, whose descent into private life is softened by a pension, seldom fails to incur at least temporary unpopularity. This was the case with Pitt; but the storm, though sharp It is unnecessary to dwell at length upon the for the moment, soon blew over, and he became great events which characterized the interval be- again the idol of the people. All that he had tween 1757 and 1762. However averse he might foretold as about to happen in regard to Spain be to war, Pitt threw himself into the contest came to pass. On the 4th of January, 1762, war which he found raging, with wisdom and vigor. was declared against that power, under circumThe navies of France were swept from the face of stances far less favorable to England than would the ocean. Canada was conquered, and numerous have attended the measure had Pitt's suggestions islands and stations in the West Indies, in Africa, been acted upon. On the whole, however, the and in Asia, subdued. Nor was his triumph over country had no cause to complain of the results the prejudices of the Jacobites either less striking of the contest. Several of Spain's most valuable or less creditable to himself. He conquered Can- settlements, of which Cuba was one, fell into the ada, and several of the West Indies, by bringing hands of the English, and the tide of success was against them the stout right arms of the very clans flowing without a check, when negotiations for which had followed Charles Edward to Derby, and peace were entered into. Pitt heard of these, fought at Falkirk and Culloden. It was a wise and left his bed, to which he had been confined policy this which enlisted the military spirit of the for several days, to protest against them. Unable Highlanders on the side of the established govern- to stand, he was permitted to address the house ment, and consummated by kindness the triumph from the bench on which he sat, but he fairly which Lord Hardwicke's terrible, but necessary, broke down ere he could reach the pith of his laws of proscription had begun. But Pitt, though argument. His speech produced a great sensaa great and most successful minister, was intolerably overbearing in the cabinet; and showed no disposition to yield, even in manner, to royalty itself. He ruled his colleagues with a rod of iron, and lost all hold except upon their fears. Hence a cabal formed itself against him, at the

tion, though it could not arrest the progress of events. Cuba, the most important conquest which England had ever made, was restored to Spain in exchange for Florida; an arrangement of which, down to the present day, England has good reason to regret the improvidence.

It was about this time, or rather in the early part of the following year, that Sir William Pynsent, a Somerset baronet of ancient family, died and bequeathed to William Pitt the estate of Burton Pynsent, with a rental of 3000l. a year. The baronet had no personal acquaintance with the legatee-it is doubtful whether he had ever seen him; but he was a great admirer of Pitt's public character, and seems to have had no near relatives. So considerable an accession to means not previously abundant proved very acceptable to the recipient; but it did not abate one jot of the mental activity of the man. A martyr to gout, he still played a conspicuous part in Parliament, though he steadily refused to become again a member of the cabinet which had so unceremoniously thrown him overboard.

From 1761 to 1766 Pitt remained excluded from the king's councils. He was, therefore, no party to the ill-judged Stamp-Act, which had well nigh precipitated, by a year or two, the rupture with the North American colonies; indeed, he opposed it when first brought forward vigorously, and contributed largely, by the eloquence and power of his denunciation, in effecting its repeal. The following extract from his speech on the latter occasion well deserves to be remem

bered:---

A great deal has been said without doors of the power, of the strength, of America. It is a topic that ought to be cautiously meddled with. In a good cause, on a sound bottom, the force of this country can crush America to atoms. I know the valor of your troops; I know the skill of your officers. There is not a company of foot that has served in America out of which you may not pick a man of sufficient knowledge and experience to make a governor of a colony there. But on this ground on the Stamp Act-when so many here will think it a crying injustice, I am one who will lift up my hands against it.

Be to her faults a little blind;

Be to her virtues very kind.

Upon the whole, I will beg leave to tell the house what is really my opinion. It is, that the Stamp Act be repealed absolutely, totally, and immediately. That the reason for the repeal be assigned, because it was founded on an erroneous principle. At the same time, let the sovereign authority of this country over the colonies be asserted in as strong terms as can be devised, and be made to extend to every point of legislation whatsoever. We may bind their trade, confine their manufactures, and exercise every power whatsoever, except that of taking their money out of their pockets without their consent.

famous disputes between the House of Commons It was during this interval, likewise, that the and John Wilkes occurred.

Pitt was no admirer of Wilkes; but he still less admired the unconstitutional and impolitic proceedings of those who, in their abhorrence of a demagogue and a libeller, forgot what was due to the privileges of Parliament, and the undoubted rights of the constituencies. He spoke against the sentence of expulsion, which was, however, as is well known, carried

into effect.

The king was by this time heartily tired of the bondage in which the great whig families seemed determined to keep him. His first attempt to emancipate himself, by placing Lord Bute at the head of the administration, had failed. He now endeavored, with the assistance of Lord Rockingham, to shake them off; but Lord Rockingham possessed small influence in Parliament, and was quite as much a member of the clique at heart as many who followed more openly in the wake of the house of Russell. Nothing now remained, therefore, except to call upon Pitt to form an administration. He did so, "and produced,"

says Burke, "such a piece of diversified mosaic, such a tessellated pavement without cement; here In such a cause, even your success would be a bit of black stone, and there a bit of whitehazardous. America, if she fell, would fall like patriots and courtiers, king's friends and republithe strong man. She would embrace the pillars cans, whigs and tories, treacherous friends and of the state, and pull down the constitution along open enemies; that it was, indeed, a very curious with her. Is this your boasted peace? To show, but utterly unsafe to touch, and unsure to sheathe the sword, not in its scabbard, but in the stand on." Nor would the state of his own bowels of your countrymen? Will you quarrel health permit the framer of the cabinet to watch, with yourselves now the whole house of Bourbon is united against you? While France disturbs as it was right that he should, over its proceedyour fisheries in Newfoundland, embarrasses your ings. The business of the House of Commons slave-trade to Africa, and with holds from your was too much for him, and he passed into the subjects in Canada their property stipulated by Lords as Earl of Chatham. Had he consulted treaty; while the ransur for the Manillas is his own fame more, and what he believed to be denied by Spain, and its gallant conqueror basely the best interests of the crown less, he would traduced into a mean plunderer-a gentleman have retired from the cabinet as soon as the truth whose noble and generous spirit would do honor was forced upon him that physical strength to the proudest grandee of the country. The Americans have not acted in all things with pru- enough to guide its deliberations was wanting. dence and temper. The Americans have been He failed to do this; and cannot, therefore, escape wronged. They have been driven to madness by his share of responsibility for measures which injustice. Will you punish them for the madness resulted in the catastrophe which he had on which you have occasioned? Rather let prudence former occasions contributed to postpone. and temper come first from this side. I will undertake for America that she will follow the example. There are two lines in a ballad of Prior's, of a man's behavior to his wife, so applicable to you taxing America, by levying duties on certain artiand your colonies, that I cannot help repeating cles which the Americans were not permitted to them,import, except from Great Britain. We need

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duced into the House of Commons a bill for In the year 1767, Charles Townsend intro

In one part of his speech he ridiculed the apprehension of an invasion, and then recalled the remembrance of former invasions-" A Spanish invasion, a French invasion, a Dutch invasion, many noble lords must have read of in history; and some lords (looking keenly at one who sat near him) may remember a Scotch invasion."

not so much as refer to the consequences of this dropped a handkerchief the noise would have been measure; but it is due to Lord Chatham not to heard. At first Lord Chatham spoke in a very low place out of record, that, as the scheme was none and feeble tone; but as he grew warm, his voice of his, he hastened, in 1768, to mark his disap-cal and affecting, perhaps more than at any former rose, and became as harmonious as ever; oratoriproval of it by withdrawing from the government. period, both from his own situation, and from the It is just, also, to bear in mind, that almost from importance of the subject on which he spoke. He the date of his return to power till his resignation gave the whole history of the American war; of he labored under the pressure of a malady, which all the measures to which he had objected; and though not, perhaps, such as deserves to be all the evil consequences which he had foretold; "And so it described as an aberration of intellect, entirely adding at the end of each period, unfitted him from taking part in public affairs. proved." The portion of blame which attaches to him, as compared with that justly attributable to his colleagues, is very small. But if he erred in suffering himself to be made an involuntary party to the beginning of the strife, he more than made amends by the unwearied zeal which marked his efforts to heal the breach. In 1770, his health being somewhat reestablished, he returned to public life; and as a peer of Parliament advocated measures of conciliation, which were unhappily rejected. At last, as is well known, the government, which had repeatedly declined to entertain fair and honorable propositions from the enemy, gave up all for lost, and resolved to have peace on any terms. This was quite as much at variance with Lord Chatham's sense of right as the original ground of the war. He resolved, therefore, to oppose the motion; and rose from a sick bed, to which he had been long confined in the country, that he might carry his design into force. He proceeded to London, and sat in the lord chancellor's room till informed that the business of the debate was about to begin. Let the editor of the work which we are here reviewing, tell the

rest:

He was then led into the House of Peers by two friends. He was dressed in a rich suit of black velvet, and covered up to the knees in flannel. Within his large wig, little more of his countenance was to be seen than his aquiline nose and his penetrating eye, which retained all its native fire. He looked like a dying man; yet never was seen a figure of more dignity; he appeared like a being of a superior species. The Lords stood up, and made a lane for him to pass to his seat, whilst, with a gracefulness of deportment for which he was so eminently distinguished, he bowed to them as he proceeded. Having taken his seat on the bench of the earls, he listened to the speech of the Duke of Richmond with the most profound attention.

After Lord Weymouth had spoken against the address, Lord Chatham rose from his seat slowly and with difficulty, leaning on his crutches, and supported by his two friends. Taking one hand from his crutch, he raised it, and, casting his eyes towards heaven, said, "I thank God that I have been enabled to come here this day to perform my duty, and to speak on a subject which has so deeply impressed my mind. I am old and infirm -have one foot, more than one foot, in the grave -I have risen from my bed to stand up in the cause of my country-perhaps never again to speak in this house!"

The reverence-the attention-the stillness of the house was most affecting; if any one had

"My lords," continued he, "I rejoice that the grave has not closed upon me; that I am still alive to lift up my voice against the dismemberment of this ancient and most noble monarchy! Pressed down as I am by the hand of infirmity, I am little able to assist my country in this most perilous conjuncture; but, my lords, while I have sense royal offspring of the house of Brunswick, the and memory, I will never consent to deprive the heirs of the Princess Sophia, of their fairest inheritance. Where is the man that will dare to advise such a measure? My lords, his majesty succeeded to an empire as great in extent as its reputation was unsullied. Shall we tarnish the lustre of this nation by an ignominious surrender of its rights and fairest possessions? Shall this great kingdom, that has survived, whole and entire, the Danish depredations, the Scottish inroads, and the Norman conquest; that has stood the threatened invasion of the Spanish Armada, now fall prostrate before the house of Bourbon? Surely, my lords, this nation is no longer what it was! Shall a people that, seventeen years ago, was the terror of the world, now stoop so low as to tell its ancient inveterate enemy, Take all we have, only give us peace? It is impossible!

"I wage war with no man, or set of men. I wish for none of their employments; nor would I cooperate with men who still persist in unretracted error; or who, instead of acting on a firm decisive line of conduct, halt between two opinions, where there is no middle path. In God's name, if it is absolutely necessary to declare either for peace or war, and the former cannot be preserved with honor, why is not the latter commenced without hesitation? I am not, I confess, well informed of the resources of this kingdom; but I trust it has still sufficient to maintain its just rights, though I know them not. My lords, any state is better than despair. Let us at least make one effort; and if we must fall, let us fall like men!"

When his lordship sat down, Earl Temple said to him, "You forgot to mention what we talked of, shall I get up?" Lord Chatham replied, No, no; I will do it by and bye."

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The Duke of Richmond then replied; and it is said that, in the course of his speech, Lord Chatham gave frequent indications of emotion and displeasure. When his grace had concluded, Lord Chatham, anxious to answer him, made several attempts to stand, but his strength failed him, and, pressing his hand to his heart, he fell backwards in convulsions. The house was immediately

thrown into a state of the greatest agitation, and an adjournment was at once moved and carried. Lord Chatham was first taken to the house of Mr. Sargent, in Downing street; and when he had in some measure recovered, he was removed to his own residence at Hayes; where, after lingering for a few days, he expired on the 11th of May, in the seventieth year of his age. On the evening of his death, the House of Commons, on the motion of Colonel Barré, voted him a funeral and a monument in Westminster Abbey at the public expense. A few days afterwards, an annuity of 4000l. was settled upon the heirs of the Earl of Chatham, to whom the title should descend; and a public grant of 20,000l. was made for the payment of his debts. We regret that our limits will not permit us to pursue this interesting subject further. The Modern Orator is, however, a work which can well afford to stand or fall upon its own merits; and we heartily recommend it to the careful study of all who either delight in observing the forms and shapes which genius of the highest order once took in others, or are themselves desirous of catching a ray from the fires which still continue to burn, even amid the ashes of the mighty dead.

From Fraser's Magazine.

GESTA ROMANORUM.

It is a strange old quilt of diverse patches,
Sombre and gay, to suit the tastes of all.-Old Play.
DEAR, quaint Charles Lamb, in his Detached
Thoughts on Books and Reading, lisps out this
drollery:

ered we had lighted on a treat-a choice collection of tales, possessing an intrinsic interest of subject, and a still greater extrinsic interest, arising from the circumstance of their having furnished warp for the woof of many a bard of fame.

Being of a benevolent disposition, we wish to enable others to taste of that which has afforded pleasure to ourselves; and so, for the benefit and delectation of those of our readers who may not have met with the Gesta, we shall proceed to give a brief history of the work, and then invite their attention to a few specimens of its contents, interspersed with extracts and remarks that will tend to show the influence it has had on English poetical literature.

For infants," the strong wine of truth" must be mingled with "the honeyed waters" of amusing story; and when man's mind is childish, through imbecility or want of education, it too must have instruction conveyed to it in the concrete rather than the abstract, being unable, or unwilling, to admit a principle, unless that principle be clad in an example. The monks of the middle ages were aware of this fact, and, therefore, in their preaching, endeavored to fix the attention of their benighted hearers by striking narratives; striving afterwards, by the somewhat strained "applications" they tacked on to them, to awaken their sluggish, slumbering consciences. The Gesta Romanorum is an assortment of such tales, carelessly copied from oriental, classical, and German writers, and generally stated to be the composition of Petrus Berchorius, who was prior of the Benedictine convent of St. Eloi, in Paris, in 1362. I can read anything which I call a book. There Pisistratus, however, might as justly be called the are things in that shape which I cannot allow for such. In this catalogue of books which are no books-author of the Iliad; for all that Berchorius did biblia a-biblia-I reckon court calendars, directories, was to string together "stirring stories," that, pocket-books, draught-boards bound and lettered long before his time, had been told by orators in on the back, scientific treatises, almanacs, statutes at large; the works of Hume, Gibbon, Robertson, Beattie, Soame Jenyns, and, generally, all those volumes which "no gentleman's library should be without; the histories of Flavius Josephus, (that learned Jew,) and Paley's Moral Philosophy. With nationalism to suit the taste of its probable readthese exceptions, I can read almost anything. I ers, (just as now-a-days French Vaudevilles are bless my stars for a taste so catholic, so unex-adapted to Adelphi audiences,) was produced in cluding. England by a monk, at a very early period; and to this version Shakspeare appears to be indebted for the plots of several of his plays.

cope and cowl, to make their congregations change their weary gaping into wonderment. An imitation of the work, slightly differing in contents from the original, and qualified with a dash of

I confess that it moves my spleen to see these things in books' clothing perched up on shelves, like false saints, usurpers of true shrines, intruders into So much by way of introduction. Now for our the sanctuary, thrusting out the legitimate occupants. To reach down a well-bound semblance of specimens, selected both from the continental and a volume, and hope it some kind-hearted play-book; the insular edition. then, opening what "seem its leaves," to come bolt upon a withering population essay! To expect a Steele, or a Farquhar, and find-Adam Smith!

b

NO. I. A SAUCY THIEF.

A fair face was the emperor Leo's chief delight. be made in the form of women, dedicated a temTo enjoy it to the full, he caused three images to ple to their service, and ordered all his subjects to worship them. The first stretched forth its hand, as though in the act of benediction, having on one

We can keenly sympathize in the disappointment that "Elia" so whimsically describes, having "many a time and oft" put forth our hand to grasp what we fondly deemed would prove a cluster of delicious thoughts, and found, to our chagrin, that its grapes had been gathered from a vine of Sodom. It was, therefore, with no small delight that, on taking down the book that gives In fitting these with an English dress, we have its title to the present article, from a very dusty Swan's elegant translation of the Gesta. The notes shelf in our library, some months ago, we discov-appended to it have also been laid under contribution.

a We would observe, en passant, that the recorded "Gests" are by no means exclusively those of the Ro

mans.

derived considerable assistance from the Rev. Charles

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of its fingers a golden ring, which bore as its motto, "My finger is munificent." The second had a golden beard, and on its brow was written, "I have a beard; if any one be beardless, let him come to me, and I will give him one." The third was clad in a golden cloak, whilst on its breast gleamed forth, in shining characters, "I care for nobody." These three images were made of stone. When they had been placed upon their pedestals, the emperor decreed that if any one should take away ring, beard, or cloak, he should be doomed to some most ignominious death. It happened, notwithstanding, that a low scoundrel entering the temple, and perceiving the ring upon the finger of the first image, immediately drew it off. He then went to the second, and took away the golden beard; and, to finish up his work, robbed the third image of its golden cloak. The theft was soon discovered, and the culprit dragged before the emperor. When charged with the crime, he replied with great coolness, "My lord, suffer me to speak. When I entered the temple, the first image held out its finger towards me, as though it would tempt me to take the ring; and when I read the motto, My finger is munificent,' I thought it would be very rude to refuse the obliging offer, and, consequently, took it. When I approached the second image, and saw its golden beard, I reasoned thus with myself, 'The maker of this statue never had such an appendage to his chin, for I have often seen him; and, without question, the creature should be inferior to its creator; ergo, I ought to take the beard.' Any scruple as to the propriety of appropriating it that might still trouble me, was removed when I perceived, in characters most clearly legible, I have a beard; if any one be beardless, let him come to me, and I will give him one.' I am beardless, as your majesty may see, and, therefore, took away the proffered beard for two good reasons; firstly, that the image might look more like its maker; and, secondly, that I might cover up my own bare chin. I carried off the golden cloak, partly from a feeling of benevolence, because I thought that a mantle of metal would in summer be burdensome to the statue, and in winter but a poor protection from the cold; and partly from a feeling of indignation at its haughty boast, I care for nobody.'' "My good sir," retorted the emperor," the present trial is one of law, and not of logic. You are a robber, and so you must be hanged!" he was.

And

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Of plate of gold, a beard he had,
The which his breast all over spradde."
Of-gold also, withouten fail,
His mantle was of large entayle.b
Be-set with perrey all about,

Forth right he stretched his finger out,
Upon the which he had a ring-
To see it, was a rich-e thing,
A fine carbuncle for the nones,d
Most precious of all stones.
And fell that time in Rom-e thus,
There was a clerk, one Lucius,
A courtier, a famous man;
Of every wit, somewhat he can,
Out-take that him lacketh rule,
His own estate to guide and rule;
How so it stood of his speaking,
He was not wise in his doing;
But every riot-e at last

Must need-es fall, and may not last.
After the need of his desert,
So fell this clerk-e in povérte,
And wist not how for to risé,
He cast his wit-es here and there,
He looketh nigh, he looketh far,
Fell on a tim-e that he come
Into the temple, and heed nome
Where that the god Apollo stood;
He saw the riches, and the good ;h
And thought he wold-e by some way
The treasure pick and steal away.
And thereupon so slily wrought,
That his purpose about he brought.
And went away una perceived;
Thus hath the man his god deceived—
His ring, his mantle, and his beard,
As he which nothing was afeard,
All privily with him he bare;
And when the wardens were aware
Of that their god despoiled was,
They thought it was a wondrous case,
How that a man for any weal
Durst in so holy plac-e steal,
And nam-e-ly, so great a thing!
This tale cam-e unto the king,
And was through spoken over-all.
But for to know in special,

What manner man hath done the deed,
They soughten help upon the need,
And maden calculatión,
Whereof by demonstratión

The man was found-e with the good.
In judgment, and when he stood,
The king hath asked of him thus:
"Say, thou unsely Lucius,
Why hast thou done this sacrilege?"
"My lord, if I the cause allege,"
(Quoth he again) "me-thinketh this,
That I have done nothing amiss.
Three points there be, which I have de
Whereof the first-e point stands so,
That I the ring have ta'en away.
Unto this point this will I say-
When I the god beheld about,

I saw how he his hand stretched out,
And proffered me the ring to yere ;)
And I, which wold-e gladly live
Out of poverte thro' his largess,
It underfang so that I guess;
And therefore am I nought to wite.'

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