434 HIS HOME-EDUCATION. but not worse than the tragedies of Hayley.* It is in some respects highly curious. There is no love. The whole plot is political; and it is remarkable that the interest, such as it is, turns on a contest about a Regency. On one side is a faithful servant of the Crown; on the other an ambitious and unprincipled conspirator. At length the king, who had been missing, reappears, resumes his power, and rewards the faithful defender of his rights." Apparently this was in anticipation of the struggle that took place in 1789, on the outbreak of George the 3rd's insanity. Brought up at home on account of his feeble health, he enjoyed the benefit of his father's careful instruction. While his tutor, Mr. Wilson, grounded him in the classics and mathematics, the Earl attended to his practice in English composition, selecting for him the best models, such as Barrow's Sermons and the Letters of Junius, and directing his attention to the great Greek historians, than whom no finer examples of style could easily be selected. Pitt afterwards ascribed his wonderful readiness of speech to the assiduity enjoined upon him by his father; who bade him take up a book in any foreign language with which he was acquainted, and read out of it a passage into English, pausing, where he was not sure of the English equivalent, until the *The biographer of Cowper; and the author of the Triumphs of Temper.' The reader will remember Byron's reference to him in the English Bards and Scotch Reviewers' : "Whether he spin poor couplets into plays, PITT AT CAMBRIDGE. 435 right word came to his mind, and then proceeding. The Earl taught him also the art of managing and modulating the fine, clear, and sonorous voice with which Nature had gifted him. He caused him every day, or nearly every day, to write to him extracts from the best English poets, especially Milton and Shakespere; a custom which refined his taste, and gave him a great command of choice and elevated language. At fourteen Pitt went to Cambridge (1773), where he had for his tutor the Rev. George Pretyman, (afterwards, through his pupil's favour, Bishop of Lincoln †), and most industriously pursued his study of Thucydides, Quintilian, and Polybius. "The Historic Muse," he wrote to his father, "captivates extremely; but at the same time, I beg you to be persuaded that neither she nor any of her sisters allure me from the resolution of early hours [a 'resolution' prescribed by Dr. Addington, the family physician] which has been steadfastly adhered to, and makes this academic life agree perfectly." It is recorded that Pitt was regular in his attendance at the College Chapel. He was regular also in his daily ride and his daily glasses of port. He was regular in his presence at his tutor's theological lectures. In a word, he was regular in all he did.‡ * To this practice Captain Morris refers in one of his songs: "It's true, he's a pretty good gift of the gab, And was taught by his dad on a stool, sir." + In 1803, on inheriting a considerable estate, Bishop Pretyman assumed the name of Tomline. He was preferred to the see of Winchester in 1820, and died in 1827. Among the books which he read and mastered may be named Adam 436 HIS METHOD OF STUDY. Bishop Tomline gives us some idea of Pitt's literary partialities and dislikes at this time. We learn that he did not relish the rolling periods of Johnson, nor even the stately style of Gibbon. He preferred the elegant fluency of Hume and the artistic ease of Robertson. Of Middleton's Life of Cicero' he was an attentive reader, and like his father (and the Earl of Beaconsfield) he was a warm admirer of Bolingbroke. In after life he more than once declared that he regretted no loss in literature more than that of Bolingbroke's Parliamentary Speeches. He read French with accuracy, and appears to have fully appreciated Molière. The practice of extemporaneous translation, initiated by his father, he continued with Mr. Pretyman. When alone, he would dwell for hours upon striking passages of an orator or historian, carefully noticing their turn of phraseology, and studying their method of arranging a narrative. A few pages would thus occupy a whole morning. It was a favourite employment to compare opposite speeches on the same subject, and observe how each speaker handled his side of it. The authors whom he preferred for this purpose were Thucydides, Livy, and Sallust. On such occasions he frequently committed his observations to paper, that they might furnish a topic for conversation with his tutor at their next meeting. He was also accustomed to copy any eloquent passage, or beautiful or forcible expression, which he met with in his reading. His studies at Cambridge were prudently interrupted Smith's Wealth of Nations' and Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding.' The former taught him his system of finance. DEATH OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 437 by occasional visits to London, when he resorted to the House of Lords to hear his venerated father speak. Thus it happened to him to be present on the 7th of May, 1778, when, for the last time, the Great Earl addressed his peers. It was he who, with his brotherin-law, Lord Mahon, supported him as with feeble steps he limped into the august chamber. It was he who accompanied him back to his residence at Hayes, and was present when he drew his last breath. At the public funeral, which took place on the 9th of June, he walked, in the absence of his elder brother, as chief mourner, supported on one side by Lord Mahon, and on the other by the head of the Pitt family, Thomas Pitt of Boconnoc. To his mother, who remained at Hayes, he wrote the following account of the funeral: "I cannot let the servants return without letting you know that the sad solemnity has been celebrated so as to answer every important wish we could form on the subject. The Court did not honour us with their countenance, nor did they suffer the procession to be as magnificent as it ought; but it had, notwithstanding, everything essential to the great object, the attendance being most respectable, and the crowd of interested spectators immense. The Duke of Gloucester was in the Abbey. Lord Rockingham, the Duke of Northumberland, and all the ministry in town were present. The pall-bearers were Sir George Savile, Mr. Townshend, Dunning, and Burke. The eight assistant mourners were Lord Abingdon, Lord Cholmondeley, Lord Harcourt, Lord Effingham, Lord Townshend, 438 PITT AS A LAWYER. Lord Fortescue, Lord Shelburne, and Lord Camden. All our relations made their appearance. Pitt, at his father's death, was in possession of an income of about £300 a year. When he removed to London, in 1779, to enter himself at Lincoln's Inn, he was obliged to borrow from his uncle, Earl Temple, the sum necessary for the purchase of suitable "chambers." He duly kept his "terms," and still sought relaxation from his graver pursuits by attending Parliament on the occasion of any remarkable debate. It is said that, on one of these occasions, he was introduced, on the steps of the throne in the House of Lords, to Charles James Fox, his senior by ten years, and already in the flush of his fame. Fox used afterwards to relate that, as the debate proceeded, his young companion turned to him frequently, exclaiming, "But surely, Mr. Fox, that might be met thus," or "Yes, but he lays himself open to retort." Fox did not remember the particular criticisms; but he said that he was impressed at the time by the precocity of a lad who, through the whole sitting, was thinking only how the speeches on both sides might best be answered. Pitt was called to the Bar in June, 1780, and in the following month he lost his favourite sister, Lady Mahon. In August he joined the Western Circuit for a few weeks. At the dissolution of Parliament he contested Cambridge, and was defeated; but Sir James Lowther, through the influence of the Duke of Rutland, was induced to find him a seat for his borough of Appleby. "No kind of condition was mentioned," he wrote to his mother, "but that if ever our lines of conduct should become opposite, I should give him an opportunity of |