'Alas! Ait shall resume and equal even the sway Ye shall be taught by Ruin to revive The Grecian forms at least from their decay, And Roman souls at last again shall live give stands The austere Pantheon, into heaven shall soar A dome, its image, while the base expands Into a fane surpassing all before, Such as all flesh shall flock to kneel in: ne'er Such sight hath been unfolded by a door As this, to which all nations shall repair And lay their sins at this huge gate of hea ren. And the bold Architect unto whose care The daring charge to raise it shall be given, Or step to grandeur through the paths of shame, did dom possess. Indeed, it perhaps may be said that Mr. Pitt's life was so idenAnd wear a deeper brand and gaudier chain?' tified with the events of the time, that This poem opens a fine field for his little of him remains to be known to lordship's talents, and when he comes the public; but to an individual, who, to detail the more recent events in the like the Bishop of Winchester, has been history of Italy, he will have a noble behind the curtain, and through het theme for his muse. In conclusion, we loop-holes of retreat' has peeped at cannot but think, that high as his lord-such a world,' there must have appearship's reputation already stands, it willed much that was kept from public be considerably raised by the volume view. The two volumes now published before us. We confess that we only form a portion of the work, and not think he would have succeeded so bring the life of Mr. Pitt down to the well in a dramatic effort. We expected declaration of war by France in 1793, many beautiful and striking passages a remarkable epoch in the life of the and much originality; but we did not premier, and in the history of his think that the unity and connection of country. The remaining portion, it is the incidents would have been so well expected, will be comprized in one vomaintained. The tragedy has already lume, for which,' says the right revebeen produced on the stage, for an ac-rend author, I reserve what relates to Mr. Pitt's private life; and arduous as has been the task of describing his ministerial conduct, I foresee far greater difficulty in giving a just notion of his manners, temper, and disposition, which I always considered as constituting the most extraordinary part of his character.' Whom all arts shall acknowledge as their count of which we must refer to our lord, Whether into the marble chaos driven The Ghibelline, who traversed the three Which form the empire of eternity. The genius of my country shall arise, Fragrant as fair, and recognized afar, war, gaze On canvass or on stone; and they who mar All beauty upon earth, compeli'd to praise, dramatic review. Memoirs of the Life of the Right The life of Mr. Pitt, who directed stroy; And Art's mistaken gratitude shall raise To tyrants who but take her for a toy the most eventful period of its history, Her charms to pontiffs proud, who but em- talents, and opportunities of his present play The man of genius as the meanest brute To bear a burthen, and to serve a need, more Than the gilt chamberlain, who, clothed and fee'd, Stands sleek and slavish, bowing at his door. Oh! Power that rulest and inspirest! how And then assure us that their rights are thine And how is it that they, the sons of fame, Whose inspiration seemns to them to shine From high, they whom the nations oftest name, Must pass their days in penury or pain, biographer are considered. The Bishop hasty review of the life of this distin guished individual. Mr. Pitt, the second son of the great Lord Chatham, was born on the 28th of May, 1759. In his youth he made rapid progress in his learning; in the year 1773, his father designing the law to be his profession, sent him for the completion of his education to Pembroke Hall, Cambridge; but, on account of his tender age, and the extreine delicacy of his constitution, his former tutor, Mr. Wilson, afterwards canon of Windsor, lived with him in the college apartment; his studies, were, however, under the direction of his present biographer. At this early age, Mr. Pitt's proficiency in the learned languages was so very great, that in Latin authors he seldom met with dif ficulty, and it was no uncommon thing for him to read into English six or seven pages of Thucydides, which he had not previously seen, without more than two or three mistakes and sometimes without even one. Nor was it in learning "Little a boy in years and only that Mr. Pitt was so much supe- the favour of heaven smile upon the noble two dancings, in the short time they rior to persons of his age. Though career! passed there. One escape from a wasp's was really disappoint-nest, which proved only an adventure to talk of, by the incomparable skill and our girls in his carriage with four very presence of mind of Mr. Cotton, driving into an ambuscade of wasps more fierce fine horses, and no postillion. They fell than Pandours, who beset these course's of spirit not inferior to Xanthus and Podarges, and stung them to madness'; when disdaining the master's hand, he turned them short into a hedge, threw some of them, as he meant to do; and leaders, which afforded time for your sisleaping down, seized the bridles of the ters to get out safe and sound, their honor, in point of courage, intact, as well as their bones; for they are celebrated not a little on their composure in this alarming situation. I rejoice that your time passes to your mind, in the evacuated seat of the Muses. However, knowing that those heavenly ladies (unlike the London fair) delight most, and spread - I had frequent opportunities of observing Mr. Pitt's accurate knowledge of the Bible; and I may, I trust, be allowed to mention the following anecdote: In the year 1797, I was reading with him, in manuscript, my Exposition of the First of the Thirty-nine Articles, which I-afterwards published in the Elements of Christian Theology. There were several quotations from Scripture, all of which he remembered, and made no observation upon them. At last, we came to a quotation, at which he stopped and said, "I do not recollect that passage in the Bible, and it does not sound like Scripture." It was a quotation from the Apocrypha, which he had not read.' It was not only in language, but also in mathematics and philosophy, that Mr. Pitt's attainments were considerable. He was a great admirer of Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding he had an elegant taste for the beauties of the English poets, and, when young, occasionally wrote verses. In May, 1778, Mr. Pitt lost his father: this illustrious statesman saw, with 'prophetic ken,' the future greatness of his son. This, as well as his affec. tionate heart and amiable character, appear in the following letters. The first is written by Lord Chatham to Mr. Pitt upon his going to the University in 1773:— Burton Pynsent, Oct. 9th, 1773. Thursday's post brought us no let ter from the dear traveller. We trust this day will prove more satisfactory; it is the happy day that gave us your brother, and will not be less in favour with all here, if it should give us, about four o'clock, an epistle from my dear William. By that hour, I reckon, we shall be warm in our cups, and shall not fail to pour forth, with renewed joy, grateful libations over the much wished tidings of your prosperous progress towards your destination. We compute, that yesterday brought you to the venerable aspect of alma mater; and that you are invested to-day with the toga virilis. Your race of manly virtue, and useful knowledge is now begun, and may "Bradshaw has shone, this auspicious morning, in a very fine-speech of congratulation; but I foresee, his sun sets weeping in the lowly west,' that is, a fatal bowl of punch will, before night, quench this luminary of oratory. Adieu, again and again, sweet boy; and if you acquire health and strength every time I wish them to you, you will be a second Sampson, and, what is more, will, I am sure, keep your hair. their choicest charms and treasures in sweet retired solitude, I wo'n't wonder that their true votary is happy to be alone with them. Mr. Pretyman will by no means spoil company, and I wish you joy of his lost of late? Whose fences have you return. How many commons have you broken; and in what lord of the manor's fellow traveller and chumm; nor will he Your fond and loving mother, In another letter, dated a few days Hayes, Sept. 2, 1777. "I write, my dearest William, the post just going out, only to thank you for your most welcome letter, and for the affectionate anxiety you express for my situation, left behind in the hospital, when our flying camp moved to Stowe. Gout has for the present subsided, and seems to intend deferring his favours till winter, if autumn will do its duty, and bless us with a course of steady weather; those days, which Madame de Sevigne so beautifully paints, des jours filés d'or et de soye. I have the pleasure to tell you, your mother and sisters returned perfectly well from Bucks, warm in praises of magnificent and princely Stowe; and full of due sentiments of the agreeable and kind reception they found there.. No less than still with us, doing penance for the high living so well described to you in Mr. my sweetest boy in more abundance than Pam's excellent epistle. All loves follow I have time or ability to express. "I desire my best compliments to the kind and obliging master, who loves Cicero and you." My readers will be sorry to learn, that the following is the last letter of Lord their perusal; it was written only seten Chatham, which I am able to submit to or eight months before his death. "Hayes, Sept. 22, 1777. "How can I employ my reviving pen so well as by addressing a few lines to the hope and comfort of my life, my dear William? You will have pleasure to see, under my own hand, that I mend every day, and that I am all but well. I have sustained, most manfully, a visit, and all been this morning to Camden place, and the idle talk thereof, for above an hour by Mr. Norman's clock; and returned home, unticed, to dinner, where I eat like a farmer. Lord Mahon has confounded, not convinced, the incorrigible soi-disant Dr. Wilson. Dr. Franklin's lightning, rebel as he is, stands proved the more innocent; and Wilson's nobs must yield to the pointed conductors. On Friday, Lord Mahon's indefatigable spirit is to exhibit another incendium, to lord mayor, foreign ministers, and all lovers of philosophy and the good of society; and means to illuminate the horizon with a little bonfire of twelve hundred faggots and a double edifice. Had our dear friend been born sooner, Nero and the second Charles could never have amused themselves by reducing to ashes the two noblest cities in the world. My hand begins to demand repose-so, with my best compliments to Aristotle, Homer, Thucydides, Xenophon, not forgetting the civilians, and law of nations tribe, adieu, my dearest William. "Your ever most affectionate father, 'CHATHAM." Mr. Pitt was called to the bar innified elocution-generally, even in a June, 1780, and went the Western Cir- On the 26th of February, a circumstance of a very remarkable nature occasioned Mr. Pitt to make his first speech in the House of Commons. The subject of debate was, Mr. Burke's bill for economical reform in the civil list. Lord Nugent was speaking against the bill; and Mr. Byng, member for Middlesex, knowing Mr. Pitt's sentiments upon the measure, asked him to reply to his lordship. Mr. Pitt gave a doubtful answer; but in the course of Lord Nugent's speech, he determined not to reply to him. Mr. Byng, however, understood that Mr. Pitt intended to speak after Lord Nugent; and the moment his lordship sat down, Mr. Byng, and several of his friends, to whom he had communicated Mr. Pitt's supposed intention, called out, in the manner usual in the House of Commons, Mr. Pitt's name as being about to speak. This, probably, prevented any other person from rising; and Mr. Pitt, find ing himself thus called upon, and observing that the house waited to hear him, thought it necessary to rise. Though On the following day, Mr. Pitt, knowing my anxiety upon every subject which related to him, with his accustomed kindness, wrote to me at Cambridge, to inform me, that he had heard his own voice in the House of Commons;" and modestly expressed his satisfaction at the manner in which his first attempt at parliamentary speaking had been received.' really not intending to speak, he was from which occur to young unoccupied men the beginning collected and unembarrass-on a circuit; and joined all the little exed; he argued strongly in favour of the cursions to Southampton, Weymouth, bill, and noticed all the objectious which and such parties of amusement as were had been urged by the noble lord who habitually formed. He was extremely immediately preceded him in the debate, popular. His name and reputation of in a manner which greatly astonished all high acquirements at the university, comwho heard him. Never were higher ex-manded the attention of his seniors. His pectations formed of any person upon his wit, his good humour, and joyous manfirst coming into parliament, and never ners, endeared him to the younger part were expectations more completely an of the bar. In some bribery causes from swered. They were indeed much more Criclade, he was retained as junior coun than answered; such were the fluency sel; but even in that subordinate characand accuracy of language, such the per- ter, he had an opportunity of arguing a spicuity of arrangement, and such the point of evidence with extraordinary closeness of reasoning, and manly and dig- ability. I remember, also, in an action of crim.con. at Exeter, as junior counsel, he manifested such talents in cross-examination, that it was the universal opinion of the bar, that he should have led the cause. During his short stay in the profession, he never had occasion to address a jury; but upon a motion in the court of king's bench, for an habeas corpus to bring up a man to be bailed, who was charged with murder, Mr. Pitt made a speech which excited the admiration of the bar, and drew down very complimen tary approbation from Lord Mansfield. When he first made his brilliant display in parliament, those at the bar who had seen little of him, expressed surprise; but a few who had heard him once speak in a sort of mock debate at the Crown and Anchor tavern, when a club, called the Western Circuit Club, was dissolved, agreed, that he had then displayed all the various species of eloquence, for which he was afterwards celebrated. Before he distinguished himself in the House of Commons, he certainly looked seriously to the law as a profession. The late Mr. Justice Rooke told me, that Mr. Pitt dangled seven days with a junior brief and a single guinea fee, waiting till a causeof no sort of importance should come on in the court of common pleas. At Mr. Pitt's instance, an annual dinner took place for some years at Richmond Hill, the party consisting of Lord Erskine, Lord Redesdale, Sir William Grant, Mr. Bond, Mr. Leycester, Mr. Jekyll, and others; and I well remember a dinner, with Mr. Pitt and several of his private friends, at the Boar's Head in Eastcheap, in celebration of Shakespeare's Falstaff. We were all in high spirits, quoting and alluding to Shakespeare the whole day; and it appeared, that Mr Pitt was as well and familiarly read in the poet's works as the best Shakespearians present. But to speak of his conviviality is needless> After he was minister, he continued to ask his old circuit intimates to dine with Mr. Pitt spoke three times in the After the close of the session in which On the circuit in that year, he was employed in several election causes of great interest; and of his forensic talents we have the following account, furnished the author by a gentleman who was very intimate with Mr. Pitt: Among lively inen of his own time of life Mr. Pitt was always the most lively and convivial in the many hours of leisure him, and his manners were unaltered.' In all the debates which took place for the removal of Lord North and his colleagues from office, Mr. Pitt took a very prominent part. He frequently suggested modes of proceeding when difficulties occurred; he constantly replied to the principal ques is one that affords much variety of incident, and this volume presents genius in almost all its shapes, and often under circumstances of peculiar interest. The following are extracts: Lovelace. speakers on the opposite side; and tensive property of every species, who, has already reached seventeen parts, though he had been scarcely twelve from their large stake in the country, the last number, which is devoted to months in parliament, and was not yet will be most studious to consult and pro- Anecdotes of Genius, appear to us not twenty-three years of age, he answered vide for its real interests; and, secondly, their arguments and objections with to men, who, by possessing superior ta-only the most interesting, but we sus the readiness and exactness of the most welfare, and raise the glory, of the nation.ginality as any of its predecessors. By lents, will be best able to promote the pect, presents as strong a claim to oci¬ experienced debater, and in a style of Members of the former description, who originality, we must not be understoo oratory so dignified and brilliant that, have been truly independent, and of the to assert that the facts illustrative at this early dawn, he was compared to latter, who have been highly distinguish of genius are entirely new to us, but his illustrious father in his meridianed, have been introduced into parliament, that they are generally such as have splendour. In the Rockingham ad- by means of what are called close and not been detached as anecdotes or not ministration, Mr. Pitt was offered serotten boroughs, among whom may be veral situations, but he refused them, Mr. Fox, and Mr. Pitt. View the reckoned Lord Chatham, Lord North, very generally known. The subject and soon afterwards publicly declared tion in another light: it is the duty of the that he would never accept an office House of Commons, both to direct the which did not entitle him to a seat in concerns of the kingdom at large, and to the cabinet. In noticing Mr. Pitt's watch over and protect the particular inmotion for a Reform in Parliament, terests of all those various classes of per- "Tourneur.-Monsieur de Tourneur, his biographer gives us his opinion on sons, of whch the community consists; the elegant translator of Young's Night this much agitate ! question, which not and the present diversity of the elective Thoughts, sold the version for the trifling only contains a good deal of feasible franchise affords an opportunity to men of sum of twenty-five louis d'ors, to a Maargument, but also exhibits so much situations in life to become members of thousand livres of the work! While de all the liberal professions and respectable dame de Cene, who at least made sixty candour that we cannot forego the plea- the House of Commons; men of landed Tourneur was translating Young, and adsure of quoting it, as illustrative of the property, monied men, merchants, bank-ding new energy to his native language, truth of a preliminary remark we made ers, officers in the army and navy, law- he was seldom indulged with a bed to reas to the liberality of the atuhor. He yers, civilians, diplomatists, and those pose his wearied limbs on being often is speaking of the fate of Mr. Pitt's who, from consciousness of ability, are obliged with his wife to leave Paris before motion, which was lost by a majority of ambitious to serve their king and country night, to seek the most convenient and twenty:in some political department. Hence, hospitable hedge in the environs of the It is not to be inferred from this majo-guardians in the great council of the dawn of the succeeding day, fraught with not only every order in society has its capital, under which they might wait the rity, that no defect was supposed to exist nation to prevent any partially oppres- | equal misery.' in the present construction of the House of sive or injurious measure, but the House Commons, and no departure to have taken of Commons has among its members perplace from the original plan of represen- sons, who can, from their own know. tation. The ground on which the mo- ledge and experience, give information tion was opposed was this, that it may be upon any point under deliberation, and wiser to submit to certain deviations and suggest proposals upon subjects to which irregularities in an established form of they have directed their attention, and government, rather than, by attempting in which the public good may be conto correct them, to hazard the safety of cerned. This great variety of characters the whole fabric. A practice may indeed in the members, is of itself attended with prevail, utterly indefensible in theory, important advantages; and were they enand irreconcileable with the design of the tirely or principally chosen from any framers of a political institution, and yet, single description of men, the worst confrom the changes, to which time subjects sequences must inevitably ensue. every community, may not be mischiev- ever defects, therefore, there may be in What ous in its nature, and may even be pro- the present system of representation, and ductive of beneficial effects. It is, for however short it may fall of ideal perfecinstance, a principle of our House of Com- tion, it seems no wonder, that the House mons, that its members should be chosen of Commons, as now elected. should have by the unbiassed votes of their constitu- been considered well calculated for all ents. But the fact is, that a considerable the practical purposes of one branch of number of the members are chosen through the influence of persons, who, have been decided, that there was no bea free government; and that it should from private connexions or various other nefit in view sufficient to justify the causes, happen to have weight with the risque, which must have been incurred voters; and that seats in parliament, to a by any alteration.' certain extent, are obtained through pecuniary means, as was acknowledged without scruple in the debate upon Mr. Pitt's motion. This, it will be admitted on all hands, was never in the contemplation of THE brothers Percy appear to calcuour ancestors, but still no material harm late largely, and we suspect justly, on tained his liberation; but having, by that seems likely to result from it, while con- the avidity of the public for anecdote; time, consumed all his estate, partly by, fined to its present bounds; and, perhaps, rate. The two things chiefly to be de- dant stores, their monthly portion, and of every description in difficulties; he upon the whole, the good may preponde as they still pour out from their abun-furnishing the king with men and money, and partly by assisting ingenious persons sired in the House of Commons are, that still succeed in giving variety to the became himself, not long after, involved it should be open, first, to persons of ex- collection. Of the whole series, which in the greatest distress, and fell into a (To be continued.) THE PERCY ANECDOTES. "Dinnerless the polish'd Lovelace died." C. DYER. amiable and accomplished man, who • Colonel Sir Richard Lovelace was an lived in the time of the civil wars: by the men, respected for his moral worth and literary talents; by the fair sex, almost idolized for the elegance of his person, and the sweetness of his manners. He was author of a collection of poems, intitled Lucasta, printed in 1649; and which possess great merit. Being a great of Kent to deliver their petition to the loyalist, he was appointed by the people House of Commons for the restoration of Charles, and for settling the government. The petition giving offence, he was committed to the Gate House, Westminster, where he wrote that well-known and elegant little ginning thus:song, "Loyalty Confined," be "When Love with unconfined wings, And my divine Althea brings, The birds that wanton in the air, Know no such liberty." 'After a few months' confinement, he ob deep melancholy; which brought on a consumption, and made him as poor in person as in purse, till he became the object even of common charity. The man, who, in the days of his gallantry, wore cloth of gold, was now naked, or half covered only with filthy rags! he who had thrown splendour on palaces, now shrunk into obscure and dirty alleys; he who had associated with princes, had banquetted on dainties, been the patron of the indigent, the admiration of the wise and brave, the darling of the chaste and fair, was now fain to herd with beggars, gladly to partake of their coarse offals, and thankfully receive their twice given alins: "To hovel him with swine and rogues forlorn, In short and musty straw." Worn out with misery, he at length expired in 1658, at a very mean and wretched lodging, in Gunpowder Alley, near Shoe Lane, and was buried at the west end of St. Bride's Church, Fleet Street.' smile, repeated a line from one of the brated bard. He lived about the middle ""An old souldier and no scholler; On the death of his grandfather, Sir - Begone my book, stretch forth thy wings Amongst the nobles and gentility; Original Communications. I shall e'en forget and forgive past This being dispatched, now for some inquiries as touching thee and thine, (videlicet,) the Chronicle; but, per adventure, I should first tell of internal in the country round abouts, I promise impressions. It makes a marvellous stir thee. But, to the bar of all jesting, my dear fellow, I must very heartily congratulate you upon your extensive and extending influence;-your sale in this quarter is absolutely astounding, and there is some talk of the establishment of paper-mills upon the strength of it here-trusting to the advantage of my brotherhood to thee; but of this, more anon. · Crebillon.-When Crebillon was composing his tragedy of Cataline, a friend calle on him, and was surprised to see By the by, who is this W. H. PARRY,' that writes such flaming ar four large ravens sitting at his elbow. The part is dedicated to Mr. ticles in you? He is, certes, a devilish "Walk gently, my good friend," said the Southey, and contains a very neat por-shrewd dog-none of your milk and poet, "walk gently, or you will put my rait of the poet laureat. We presume water men-one who knows how to enconspirators to flight." In his last illness, Crebillon expressed that the brothers Percy had not seenjoy a delicious garden without shoving great regret that he should not live to fi- the Vision of Judgment,' when they his proboscis into every hole and cornish the play which he had in hand, hav-selected its author par excellence, as the ner, to find out weeds and dandelionsing gone through two acts of it only. representative of genius. and can smell a rose as he should do, The physician who attended him, begged that he would bequeath him the two acts. without pricking his fingers. I must Crebillon turned to him, and, with a know this Mr. Parry-do get him to come down with you. I see the name of one' SAM SPRITSAIL,' too-he's no fool let me tell you; I wish he would take some appellation less villainous,— I never see it without thinking of Wapping-a place of all others-but you know Wapping; you may shake hands with him for me, if you please, but say nothing of the invitation to Parry, (Sam's a good fellow, and I should be loth to hurt his heart;) but my place, you know, is more of a box than a castle, and I should not find room for all your clever contributors. Our friend acts: "Say shall the assassin be the dead man's heir ?" LETTER FROM W. B. L. TO THE EDITOR. MY DEAR-In the name of all that is heavenly, how long dost thou intend to winter in that vilest of all vile abodes-London ? Of a verity, thine Moods of Writing-Aristotle mentions a poet, who never wrote so well as when his poetic fury hurried him into a kind of phrenzy. The admirable pictures we have in Tasso's Armida and Clo-abiding hath alarmed me much; and, rinda, were drawn at the expense of a disposition he had to real madness, into which he fell before he died. "Do you imagine," says Cicero, "that Pacuvius wrote in cold blood? No; it was impossible. He must have been inspired with a kind of fury, to be able to write such admirable verses." did I not perceive thy head and hand will be Thy last epistle to me, my right good friend, beareth date in January last; albeit, I have replied thereunto In the modes which have been taken three several times, and yet have I re-there-he promises to give you some of exciting the mind to particular tempeceived no rejoinder. Now, in sober so- extracts of his projected work, for raments, there is a strange contrariety. lemnity, this is too bad, and I should which I beg to say you must thank my Dryden used to ply himself with physic have felt in my heart to have cut' thee exertions. That will certainly make a and phlebotomy before sitting down to quite, but that I have pondered on thy buz in the world, I suspect; when you any important work; Blackstone never avocations, independently of which, notice it, try to restrain your admirapenned a line without a bottle of old Port too, my affectionate rib hath whispered tion, and speak with the coldest equaat his elbow; while Dr. Johnson, a very into mine ear, that the month of thy nimity. You recollect when I exhibitdray-horse in literary drudgery, used to wonted sojourning approacheth, and the ed to you his paragraph on the Jaugh at all such preparatives, and to contend that a man was worth nothing, who remembrance of thy exquisite jocundity intimating that it was the prosing of could not write equally well at all times forceth a smile upon the lips that were old Parson S. (as great a blockhead, alinost resolved upon eternal compres-you know, out of the way of drinking and rabbit-shooting, as ever took orders.) I thought you would go madyou swore 'twas excellent-absolutely and under all circumstances.' "Walter Scott.-It is not generally known, that there was a poet of the name of Walter Scott, before the present cele sion to thee. However, as I propose to place thee upon trial once (mind, only once) more, |