THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE ELDER PITT.

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ISE and Character of Pitt. -William Pitt, one of the greatest ministers that ever directed the fortunes of this country, was born in the year 1708.1 He was educated at Eton and Oxford; and, after a short service in the army a cornet in the Blues, he entered Parliament in 1735. There he at once joined the opposition to Walpole, and his powers as an orator were first shown in a speech condemning the convention that minister had made with Spain. Throughout the whole of his early parliamentary career he acted as an English patriot, insisting that the blood and treasure of this nation should not be wasted in support of the German principality of Hanover. He thus earned the bitter hostility of the king; but, in spite of this, he forced his way upwards—until, in 1757, he became Chief Secretary of State, with the management of Foreign affairs.3

WILLIAM PITT.

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No more striking portrait has been handed down of any historical character than that afterwards drawn of this great statesman by one of the most brilliant orators of the next reign. "His august mind overawed majesty; and one of his sovereigns thought royalty so impaired in his presence, that he conspired to remove him, in order to be relieved from his superiority. No

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state chicanery, no narrow system of vicious politics, sunk him to the vulgar level of the great; but, overbearing, persuasive, and impracticable, his object was England, his ambition was fame. France sunk beneath him. With one hand he smote the House of Bourbon,8 and wielded in the other the Democracy of England." His schemes were to affect, not England, not the present age only, but Europe and posterity."

Such was the marvellous genius who was now to direct the foreign affairs of this country.

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The Seven Years' War.' -The peace of Aix-laChapelle had been concluded, not because the combatants had come to any real agreement, but because they required rest before recommencing the struggle. France and England had been since then nominally at peace; but in India they were engaged in a series of intrigues with the native powers against each other, whilst in America a colonial war between the two nations had arisen. Before war was formally declared, the French took Minorca.12 The loss of the island so deeply wounded the national pride that the British commander, Admiral Byng, was brought to trial and shot, although Pitt made strenuous efforts to save him and the very courtmartial that condemned him had unanimously recommended him to mercy.

At first the war did not go well; England suffered defeat both on the coast of France and in America, whilst her allies were beaten on the continent.

These reverses were suffered before Pitt's influence had made itself fully felt; but he soon introduced a new element both into political life and into all departments of the public service. Acting on a principle the reverse of Walpole's, he constantly

appealed to the higher motives which influence human nature, declining the emoluments of the offices which he held and refusing to have anything to do with the disposal of government patronage.

Pitt's soaring ambition led him to turn away from the humble but useful details of domestic legislation to the wider theatre of foreign affairs. It was in the direction of great armaments in every part of the world, in the formation of great confederacies, in the planning of striking expeditions, that he was most at home. He was emphatically a war-minister, and the whole service was animated with his spirit.

At no time do our annals present so many cases of splendid daring, and the early misadventures of the war were soon succeeded by brilliant successes. Expeditions to Cherbourg 13 and St. Malo 14 damaged the French arsenals, the victories of Lagos 15 and Quiberon 16 destroyed their fleet. In America, Quebec was captured and Canada became an English province; while, in the east, the broad foundations of our Indian empire were laid by Clive. Victory succeeded victory so regularly that a wit of the time 17 said it was necessary to ask each morning what new conquest there was, as there was danger that you would lose the reckoning.

India and Clive. Of all these successes, the most important in their results to England were the victories of Clive in India, and the capture of Quebec by Wolfe.

Of the former of these triumphs, but a word can be said here. The question to be decided there was whether India was to be under the rule of France or to become a province of Britain; and it was the genius of Robert Clive which decided that the destinies of the mighty

Asiatic peninsula were to be thenceforward guided by this country. His first victory was that of Arcot;18 after

CLIVE.

which his capture of the

Fort of St. David, near Madras, gave Britain the entire command of the east coast of India.19 But the battle which really secured for Britain the Empire of India was that of Plassey.20 In this momentous encounter, Clive, with a force of three thousand 21

men, totally

Indian army of sixty

thousand, under the notorious Surajah Dowlah, the cruel Nabob 22 of Bengal, and thus obtained possession of the entire north-east of Hindostan.

Wolfe and Quebec.-Not less remarkable was the heroic achievement of the gallant Wolfe. Pitt had formed a daring scheme to subdue Canada, a scheme so bold that only its success justified it. Three armies were to reach the St. Lawrence by different routes, and converge on Quebec, which stands on that river about a hundred leagues from its mouth. Here the stream narrows considerably, and is about a mile broad.

The army under Wolfe was the only one that arrived before the fortress; and just before the battle it was posted on the south side of the river, opposite to and a little above the town, which was defended by a French army under the Marquis de Montcalm. The Heights of Abraham, believed to be inaccessible,

rose from the water above the town, and Wolfe conceived the idea of scaling the precipice and forcing the enemy to give battle on equal terms. Accordingly, at one o'clock in

WOLFE.

narrow that sometimes only one was able to pass at once. The top was at last reached; and the boats rowed back for the rest of the army, who also succeeded in crossing.

When the day broke, the British had secured possession of the Heights; but long ere this, the French had discovered them (though too late to arrest their progress); and, advancing to give battle, were received with a close and deadly fire. As they swerved, Wolfe, who, though wounded, still held the command, ordered a charge. The enemy gave way, but Wolfe was carried dying to the rear. His last request was to know how the battle went, and his last words were words of gladness for the victory. The fate, though not the fortune, of the French leader was like that of his opponent. He was mortally wounded in the engagement, and died the day after the battle,