ance in the nations which she had deluded by offers of liberty and friendship. Mr. Pitt and his supporters, therefore, persisted in the opinion that France must at last yield to some confederacy or other; and when the state of Europe was such as to render it unwise to send English troops to join the confederates, he conceived that no better use could be made of the annual supplies than to subsidize the powers that were still willing to take the field. He even determined to continue the struggle when, in 1800, Bonaparte, the most successful of the French generals, had assumed the sovereign power, under the name of consul, and addressed a letter to our king intimating a desire for peace. The answer of our minister was, that it would be useless to negociate while the French seemed to cherish those principles which had involved Europe in a long and destructive war. And although he gave his assent to the experiment made by Mr. Addington in 1801, to conclude a peace with the French government, he soon had reason to revert to his former sentiments, and when recalled into office in 1804, again exerted all the vigour of his character to render the contest successful.

He did not, however, live to witness that glorious and wonderful termination which was at last brought about by a continuance of the same system he all along pursued, and which finally ended in the conquest of France, the annihilation of her armies, and the banishment of her ruler. The last event of importance in Mr. Pitt's life-time was the fatal battle of Austerlitz, and he was at this time in a state of health ill calculated to meet this stroke. He had, from an early period of life, given indications of inheriting his father's gouty constitution, with his talents, and it had been thought necessary to make the liberal use of wine a part of his ordinary regimen, a stimulant which, added to the cares and exertions of office during his long and momentous administration, brought on a premature exhaustion of the vital powers. In December 1805, he was recommended to go to Bath, but the change afforded him no permanent relief. On the 11th of January he returned to his seat at Putney, in so debilitated a state, as to require four days for the performance of the journey. The physicians, even yet, saw no danger, and they said there was no disease, but great weakness, in consequence of an attack of the gout. On the following Sunday he appeared better, and entered upon some points of public business with

his colleagues in office: the subject was supposed to relate to the dissolution of the new confederacy, by the peace of Presburgh, which greatly agitated him. On the 17th, at a consultation of his physicians, it was agreed, that though it was not advisable he should attend to business for the next two months, yet there was hope he would be able to take a part in the House of Commons in the course of the winter. On the 20th, however, he grew much worse, and his medical friends now saw that he was in the most imminent danger, and that, probably, he had not many hours to live. The bishop of Lincoln, who never left him during his illness, informed him of the opinion now entertained by sir Walter Farquhar, and requested to administer to him the consolations of religion. Mr. Pitt asked sir Walter, who stood near his bed, "How long do you think I have to live?" The physician answered that he could not say, at the same time he expressed a faint hope of his recovery. A half smile on the patient's countenance shewed that he placed this language to its true account. In answer to the bishop's request to pray with him, Mr. Pitt replied, "I fear I have, like too many other men, neglected prayer too much, to have any ground for hope that it can be efficacious on a death-bed-but," making an effort to rise as he spoke, " I throw myself entirely on the mercy of God." The bishop then read the prayers, and Mr. Pitt appeared to join in them with a calm and humble piety. He desired that the arrangement of his papers and the settlement of his affairs might be left to his brother and the bishop of Lincoln. Adverting to his hieces, the daughters of earl Stanhope by his elder sister, for whom he had manifested the sincerest affection, he said, "I could wish a thousand or fifteen hundred a-year to be given them; if the public should think my long services deserving of it." He expressed also much anxiety respecting major Stanhope, that youthful hero, who fell a sacrifice to his valour at Corunna, in company with his friend and patron, general sir John Moore, and his brother, who was also at Corunna at the same time, and who has been engaged in all the great battles in the peninsula, and more than once severely wounded in his country's service. Mr. Pitt died about four o'clock in the morning of the 23d of January 1806, in the 47th year of his age. A public funeral was decreed to his honour by parliament, and 40,000l. to pay those debts which he had incurred in his country's service. Public monuments have been since erected to his memory in Westminster-Abbey, in the Guildhall of the city of London, and by many public bodies in different parts of the kingdom.

In this sketch, we have avoided entering into those details which belong to history, although convinced that Mr. Pitt's character as a statesman can never be duly appreciated, if detached from the events which he attempted to controul. Something yet remains to be added respecting his personal character.

Mr. Pitť possessed no particular advantages of person or physiognomy, but as a speaker he was thought to be without a rival; such was the happy choice of his words, the judicious arrangement of his subject, and the fascinating effect of a perennial eloquence, that his wonderful powers were acknowledged even by those who happened to be prepossessed against his arguments. In his financial speeches he manifested a perspicuity, eloquence, and talent, altogether wonderful; which carried the audience along with him in every arithmetical statement, left no calculation obscure or ambiguous, and impressed the House, at its close, with tumultuous admiration. When employed, say his opponents, in a good cause, he was irresistible; and in a bad one he could dazzle the judgment, lead the imagination captive, and seduce the heart, even while the mind remained firm and unconvinced. Yet they allow that although ambition and the love of power were his ruling passions, his mind was elevated above the meanness of avarice. His personal integrity was unimpeached, and so far was he from making use of his opportunities to acquire wealth, that he died involved in debts, which negligence, and the demands of his public station, rather than extravagance, had obliged him to contract; for his tastes were simple, and he does not appear to have had a fondness for splendour or parade. His private character has been drawn by a friend (the right hon. George Rose), and it corresponds perfectly with other accounts that we have had from those much in his confidence, and who were frequently in his company at times when the man and not the minister was displayed in all its native colours: "With a manner somewhat reserved and distant in what might be termed his public deportment, no man was ever better qualified to. gain, or more successful in fixing, the attachment of his friends, than Mr. Pitt. They saw all the powerful energies of his character softened into the most perfect complacency and sweetness of disposition in the circles of private life, the pleasures of which no one more cheerfully enjoyed, or more agreeably promoted, when the paramount duties he conceived himself to owe the public, admitted of his mixing in them. That indignant severity with which he met and subdued what he considered unfounded opposition; that keenness of sarcasm with which he expelled and withered, as it might be said, the powers of most of his assailants in debate, were exchanged in the society of his intimate friends for a kindness of heart, a gentleness of demeanour, and a playfulness of good humour, which no one ever witnessed without interest, or participated without delight."

PITTACUS, one of the seven sages of Greece, of whom some sayings are preserved, but not many particulars of his life, was born at Mitylene in the island of Lesbos, about 649 B. C. By his valour and abilities he obtained the sovereignty of his native city, which he employed only to lead the people to happiness, by giving them the best laws he could devise. Having fulfilled this task, and put his laws into verse, according to the fashion of the times, that they might be more easily remembered, he resigned his authority, and returned to a private life. His fellowcitizens would have rewarded his benefits by a large donation of land, but he positively refused to accept more than a circular portion, taking the cast of his javelin from the centre every way, as the measure of its circumference. "It is better," he said, " to convince my country that I am sincerely disinterested, than to possess great riches." He died about 579 B. C. aged seventy. Some of his sayings were, "The first office of prudence is to foresee threatening misfortunes, and prevent them. Power discovers the man. Never talk of your schemes before they are executed; lest, if you fail to accomplish them, you be exposed to the double mortification of disappointment and ridicule. Whatever you do, do it well. Do not that to your neighbour, which you would take ill from him. Be watchful for opportunities, &c."

2

PITTIS (THOMAS), an English divine, was born in the Isle of Wight, and became a commoner of Trinity col

lege, Oxford, in 1652, where, after taking the degree of B. A. he removed to Lincoln college, and had the reputation of a good disputant. Having taken his master's degree he gave offence to the then ruling party in the university, by a speech he made in the character of Terræ Filius, for which he was expelled, in 1658. On the restoration he was preferred to the rectory of Gatcombe in the Isle of Wight, proceeded in his degrees of B. and D. D. and was made one of his majesty's chaplains in ordinary. Dr. Morley, bishop of Winchester, gave him afterwards, the living of Holy Rood in Southampton, and the king the rectory of Lutterworth in Leicestershire, which he exchanged for that of St. Botolph Bishopsgate, London. This last he held at his death, along with the rectory of Gatcombe, his chaplainship, and the lectureship of Christchurch, Newgate-street. He died Dec. 28, 1687, and was buried at Gatcombe. Besides a few occasional sermons, he published, 1. "A private conference between a rich alderman and a poor country vicar," &c. respecting the obligation of oaths, Lond. 1670, 8vo. 2. "A Discourse on Prayer," &c. 1683, 8vo, and, which is still frequently to be met with. 3. " A discourse concerning the trial of Spirits," against enthusiastic notions of inspiration, 1684, 8vo. 1

PIUS II. (POPE), whose name was ÆNEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, was born in 1405, at Corsignano in Sienna, where his father lived in exile. He was educated at the grammar-school of that place; but his parents being in low circumstances, he was obliged, in his early years, to submit to many servile employments. In 1423, by the assistance of his friends, he was enabled to go to the university of Sienna, where he applied himself to his studies with great success, and in a short time published several pieces in the Latin and Tuscan languages. In 1431 he attended cardinal Dominic Capranica to the council of Basil as his secretary. He was likewise in the same capacity with cardinal Albergoti, who sent him to Scotland to mediate a peace betwixt the English and Scots; and he was in that country when king James I. was murdered. Upon his return from Scotland, he was made secretary to the council of Basil, which he defended against the authority of the popes, both by his speeches and writings, particularly in