arrear, I cannot in the instant answer for all I could wish. But let me beg you to have the goodness to name what sum is necessary to the exigencies of the present moment, and I am sure of being able to supply it. I shall without any other steps have 6007. paid into Mr. Coutts's hands the day after to-morrow, and will immediately direct whatever part of it you will allow to be placed to your account. If anything more is necessary, pray let me know the extent of it. I have no doubt of finding means, if they are wanting, at present; though, for the reasons I have related, the facility may be greater a little while hence. I should add that

I still continue to think some effectual arrangement may take place as to the 4 Fund, or a productive substitute for it. Forgive the haste in which I am obliged to write, and have the goodness to let me hear from you as soon as you conveniently can. The mode I have mentioned will enable you to draw on Mr. Coutts without trouble, and I think is the easiest, unless any other occurs to you.

"Believe me, my dear Mother, &c.,

"W. PITT."

"Putney Heath, August 28, 1784. "The end of the Session has hardly yet given me anything like leisure, as the continual hurry of some months leaves of course no small arrear of business now to be despatched. I hope, however, in about ten days, or possibly a week, to be able to get as far as Brighthelmstone. My brother has, I believe, written to tell Harriot that a house is secured. I shall be happy to see her either in Downing Street or there the first moment she pleases. I am already in a great measure a country gentleman, because, though full of business, it is of a nature which

I can do as well at Putney, from whence I now write, as in town. I look forward with impatience to being enough released to be with you at Burton, and work the more cheerfully in hopes of it."

"Putney Heath, October 7, 1784.

"I have not been without some useful and agreeable mixture of idleness in my Brighthelmstone excursions, though in them I have had pretty constant experience that I could not afford more than a day's distance from town. I have been for a good while engaged to a large party which was to take place, for two or three days about this time, at a famous place of Mr. Drummond's in the New Forest. But as the party was to be made up principally of the Treasury and the new India Board, it is not very certain that the business of one or the other will not prevent it. The principal cause of my being detained at present is the expectation of materials from Ireland, and persons to consult with from that country, on the subject of all the unsettled commercial points, which will furnish a good deal of employment for next Session. The scene there is the most important and delicate we now have to attend to, but even there I think things wear a more favourable aspect."

"December 24, 1784.

"I have deferred from time to time saying anything respecting the grant, hoping to have the opportunity of talking it over fully. I hope, however, that I may safely beg you to be at ease upon it; for though I cannot at this moment say precisely what mode must be taken, I am convinced the business may be soon satisfactorily settled.

I shall feel too much interested on

what so nearly concerns that which has the first claim to my attention, not to take care that it shall be early adjusted. The only thing you must allow me to beg and insist on, is that you will in the interval feel no difficulty in calling for whatever you find necessary from Mr. Coutts. I hope you know that while it is accidentally in my power to diminish a moment's embarrassment or uneasiness to you, the doing so is the object the most important to my happiness. Inconvenience, if it existed, ought to be out of the question with me; but I can assure you very sincerely that it cannot be produced in the slightest degree by your consulting your own ease and my pleasure in the interval that now remains."

During the autumn there were two considerable promotions in the Peerage. No Marquisate was at that time remaining in England. The title of Lord Winchester was merged in the Dukedom of Bolton, and the title of Lord Rockingham had become extinct at his death. Pitt now resolved to raise to the vacant rank two noblemen, one of whom had high claims on himself, and the other high claims on the King. On the same day in November the Earl of Shelburne became Marquis of Lansdowne, and Earl Temple Marquis of Buckingham. Of the former, we find the Duke of Rutland write confidentially to Pitt as follows in the previous June :-“I have reason to believe that though he (Lord Shelburne) has entirely relinquished all views of business and office, yet some mark of distinction such as a step in the Peerage would be peculiarly gratifying to him.""

Similar hints may perhaps have come from Lord

6 The Duke of Rutland to Mr. Pitt, June 16, 1784.

Temple's friends. It is even probable, as I have shown elsewhere, that he aspired to the highest rank. His eager wish in December, 1783, seems to have been baffled only by the resolute refusal of the King. The letter of Pitt to Lord Temple-which is not in my possession, but which I have seen-offering him a Marquisate in November, 1784, goes on to say that his claim to a Dukedom should be considered in the event of His Majesty ever granting any more patents of that title. I have been informed that the letter to Lord Shelburne of the same date conveys the same assurance.

On the 1st of December Pitt was most highly gratified by an important accession to his ranks. Lord Camden, though from the weight of years unwilling to engage once more in active life, would no longer refuse to join the son of Chatham. He consented to take the office of President of the Council, which Earl Gower gave up for his sake, receiving in return the Privy Seal, left vacant by the Duke of Rutland. It was also designed, and indeed made a condition by Lord Camden, that his intimate friend the Duke of Grafton should become a member of the Cabinet. From various causes His Grace postponed his decision for a considerable time. At last the affair of Ockzakow arising, he finally declined.

During the administration of Lord North it had been usual to convene Parliament in the month of November. But under Pitt the custom was changed. Unless in special cases, the Houses did not meet till after the New Year. Thus in 1784, at the time of which I speak, the opening of the new Session was appointed for the 25th of January, 1785.

CHAPTER VII.

1784-1785.

Gibbon's character of Pitt—Pitt's application to business — Parallel between Pitt and Fox-The King's Speech on the opening of Parliament - Westminster Scrutiny - Success of Pitt's Financial Schemes-Reform of Parliament - Commercial intercourse with Ireland The Eleven Resolutions - Pitt's Speech Opposed by Fox and North - Petition from Lancashire against the measure — Opposition in the Irish House of Commons Bill relinquished by the Government-Mortification of Pitt.

WHILE thus throughout the country parties were fiercely contending, we may desire to consult the more dispassionate opinion of an Englishman of superior intellect residing at a distance from England. It is, therefore, with especial pleasure that I insert the following letter. I owe the communication of it, and of several others, to the kindness of my friend the present and third Earl of St. Germans.

Mr. Gibbon to Lord Eliot.

"Lausanne, Oct. 27, 1784.

"Since my leaving England, in the short period of last winter, what strange events have fallen out in your political world! It is probable, from your present connections, that we see them with very different eyes; and, on this occasion, I very much distrust my own. judgment. I am too far distant to have a perfect knowledge of the revolution, and am too recently absent to