an office which he executed with fingular reputation to himself and advantage to the public.

In 1745, during the rebellion in Scotland, public credit received a fevere fhock, and so much distrust was shown towards the Bank of England, that the most serious confequences to that establishment were apprehended. In this crifis Sir John Barnard came forward and procured fignatures from most of the leading merchants of London to an agreement, binding themselves to receive the notes of the Bank of England in payment of all debts and bills, and thus the evil was averted. In 1758 Sir John retired from public life, and on that occasion received a vote of thanks from his fellow-citizens for his long and various fervices. He lived for fix years in retirement, and died at Clapham on the 29th August 1764, in the 80th year of his age: he was buried at Mortlake.

The gratitude of his fellow-citizens for his unremitted exertions in their service was not limited to the fimple expreffion of their thanks, but was shown by their placing his ftatue, during his lifetime, in the Royal Exchange. At his death the infcription "Humani Generis Decus" was placed on the base of the ftatue.* Sir John Barnard was characterized through life by inflexible integrity, by found judgment, and by uncommon ftrength of intellect.+

*This ftatue was deftroyed at the burning of the Royal Exchange the 10th January, 1838, and was not replaced in the new building. + This notice is compiled from Rees's Cyclopædia and other similar works.

WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM.

"Recorded honours fhall gather round his monument, and thicken o'er him. It is a folid fabric, and will fupport the laurels that adorn it." Eulogium of Lord Chatham. Junius, Letter 54.

ILLIAM PITT, firft Earl
of Chatham, was the fon
of Robert Pitt of Bocon-

nock, Efq. who served in

Parliament, in the year 1713 for the Borough of Old Sarum and in 1722 for Oakhampton. He was appointed

one of the Clerks of Green Cloth to George II. then Prince of Wales; and, departing this life in May 1727, was buried at Blandford St. Mary's, in Dorsetshire. His younger fon, the subject of the present notice, who was educated at Eton, ferved in Parliament for the Borough of Old Sarum in the 9th Parliament of Great Britain; the Port of Seaford in the 10th, the Borough of Aldborough in the 11th, and the City of Bath in the 12th till he was advanced to the Peerage. In February 1737 he was appointed a Groom of the Bedchamber to his Royal Highness Frederick Prince of Wales, and, refigning his place in 1745, he was conftituted in the following year Joint Vice-Treasurer of Ireland; and, on the 6th of May 1746, Treasurer and Pay-Mafter of the Army and was fworn a Member of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council.

He opposed the measures of the Ministry in Parliament with an eloquence and force of reasoning seldom equalled, for which her Grace Sarah Dowager Duchefs of Marlborough, left him a legacy of £10,000 " upon account," as her will expreffes it, "of his merit in the noble defence he has made for the support of the laws of England, and to prevent the ruin of his country.”

Having refigned his post of Paymaster-General of the Forces, he was, on the 4th December 1756, appointed Secretary of State for the Southern Department, in the room of the Right Honourable Henry Fox, which office he held until October 1761, (except the small interval from April 9th 1757, to June 29th the fame year,) with fuch honour to himself, fuch glory to the nation, and so greatly to the fatisfaction of his Sovereign and the people in general, as never any Minister in this kingdom before experienced. Our fuccesses abroad during his patriotic administration are too deeply engraved on the minds of his countrymen ever to be erased or to need much mention here: let it fuffice then to observe, that all the officers, employed through his influence by sea and land justified his clear and true discernment: under his aufpices, Amherst and Boscawen reduced Cape Breton; Wolfe and Saunders triumphed at Quebec; Goree and Senegal were fubjugated to the Crown of Great Britain; the French were ruined in the East Indies, their armies defeated in Europe; Belleisle was rent from their monarchy, their coafts were infulted and ravaged, their fleets deftroyed, their trade annihilated, and those ancient enemies of these kingdoms reduced to a state of bankruptcy; and that by his wife plan the Havannah was torn from the Spaniards after his refignation.

He refigned the feals of his office of Secretary of State on the 5th October 1761, and during the period that he bore no fhare in the administration, his behaviour displayed an inflexible integrity and the greatest love of his country, particularly in the famous affair of General Warrants, and that of the Repeal of the American Stamp-Act, on which he spoke with fuch eloquence, folid judgment and conviction, as could not fail to filence his opponents, and to prove that the flavery of our Colonies would be followed by our own deftruction.

His Majesty, at length, conscious of the weakness and unpopularity of the Rockingham administration, and induced by a thorough knowledge of Mr. Pitt's great abilities and by the general wishes of the people, was graciously pleased once more to fummon him to his affistance in the arduous affairs of government, and to confer new honours upon him.

Being fortunate enough to poffefs the original reply of Lord Chatham to the Minifter on this occafion, I here give it verbatim et literatim :

"MY LORD,

"Harley Street, August 8, 1766.

"I am honoured with your Lordship's very obliging letter, which brings me the flattering marks of your favourable and kind sentiments on my subject-little confcious of being able to do much service, I can only venture to hope that my Zeal and Duty to the most Gracious and amiable of Sovereigns, and my Devotion to the true Interests of his Government and People, are unimpaired in a frame otherwise well nigh worn out in the Publick Service. I hope this will find your

Lordship free from Pain or Illness, and I fhall always truely interest myself in your Lordship's happiness; being with perfect esteem and respect

Your Lordship's

Most faithfull and most obedient,

humble Servant,

CHATHAM."

On the 30th July 1766, His Majefty granted to him and to his heirs male, the dignity of a Viscount and Earl of Great Britain, by the name, ftyle, and title of Viscount Pitt, of Burton-Pynfent, in the county of Somerset and Earl of Chatham in the county of Kent; and was pleased to deliver to his Lordship the custody of the Privy Seal, which high office his Lordship held until the 2d November 1768, and it was the last public employment he filled.

It cannot be denied that the acceptance of a Peerage loft him much of his popularity, which he never totally recovered; an effect which does not feem founded in reason. His death on the 11th May 1778, the confequence of his eloquent efforts in the house of Lords a few weeks before, on the question of the American Colonies, is well known to all the world. For feveral years before that event his Lordship was fo violently afflicted with the gout that he was not only incapable of attending to his own private affairs, but was, in general, confined to his chamber, yet so great was his love for his country's welfare, that, whenever any question of great moment was to be debated in the house of Peers, his Lordship would attend his duty though he was obliged, to be wrapped in flannels and required the aid of crutches.