of cenfure. The tranfport-fervice was become an article. of expence beyond all precedent or imagination. At length, an address to his Majefty was propofed in the House of Lords, ftrongly expreffive of cenfure on the King's minifters; describing, in emphatical terms, the ftate to which the nation was reduced, and praying that his Majefty would be graciously pleafed to put an end to the fyftem which had prevailed in his court and adminiftration, to the difgrace and ruin of the kingdom. The minority were much divided in opinion concerning the propriety of immediately acknowledging the independence of America. The addrefs. being rejected, a noble Earl propofed, that thofe members who fupported it, fhould wait upon the King and prefent it, but fuch a fpirited proceeding was not adopted.

During a very animated debate in the Houfe of Lords, on the day that the committee for enquiring into the state of the nation clofed that bufinefs, the Earl of Chatham, whofe vigorous mind, on fo momentous an occafion, endeavoured to shake off the preffure of bodily infirmities, having spoken with great vehemence, was fuddenly seized with a faintingfit, which he furvived but a short time. On the 11th of May this truly great man refigned his breath, in the fixtieth year of his age.

This country may exult as much in having produced a Pitt, as in giving birth to a Milton or a Newton, his ge nius, like theirs, being great and original. Nature had given him every bodily and mental qualification of an orator, A graceful figure, a piercing eye, a voice strong and clear, which, through a variety of cadences, was harmonious and infinuating. He had ftudied the mafter of Grecian eloquence with the difcernment of a kindred spirit: poffeffing a fancy equally playful, he wielded thunder equally majeftic.

jeftic. Whilst he rivalled antiquity in the powers of his eloquence, among modern orators he was as the eagle among birds. The rapidity of his conceptions ftruggling with the fhackles of language, rendered him frequently abrupt and incorrect, but the effufions of genius always threw a grandeur over the whole, like the creative pencil of a Salvator Rofa.

Thefe precious gifts were not destined by Providence to be merely admired; they were employed to recover a nation finking rapidly into effeminacy, to its native spirit and vigour. Born to act as well as to harangue, every department of government, both civil and military, felt his renovating influence. His difcernment pointed out men, whilft his wisdom planned measures which his vigilance effected. When he withdrew from power, the inftance which he gave of incorruptible integrity, confummated his character: he then delivered into the treasury a very large fum of money, of which he was exempted from rendering any account, having officially received it for the fecret fervice of the ftate, but to which purpose it had not been found neceffary to apply it.

His greatness was not derived from noble birth, or the gifts of fortune. He ruled over the empire of the mind, and monarchs felt the inferiority of external to intellectual power. They either reluctantly availed themfelves of his councils, or paid the forfeit for their contumacy in degra dation and ruin. In himself he was equally dignified, whether he awed the house of Bourbon, or fuffused a pallidnefs and trepidation over the minifter who fpurned at his warnings, It was only by the honours derived from

* Such were the effects of his eloquence upon the late Earl of Suffolk.

kings

kings that he could be degraded. What could not his elevated foul effect? He caufed even Englishmen to renounce those political diftinctions which had divided and weakened the nation for more than a century! Difdaining to govern by parties, he absorbed them all into his own vortex. Alike regardless of the approbation or cenfure of busy and obfcure writers, (the objects of complacence or dread to court-made statesmen) he kept on his courfe, and made his appeal to the understanding and to the heart. To fum up the whole of his character: he was a minifter formed for fuperintending the affairs of a mighty empire, and to preserve in a free state, the due equipoife between the powers of the crown, and the liberties of the people.-Nil oriturum alias, nil ortum tale fatentes.

Such are the viciffitudes in the motives to human action, that the very member, who, when Mr. Pitt was minifter, firft difplayed his oratorical powers against the measures then purfuing, now pronounced a panegyric on the late Earl of Chatham, and moved that his remains fhould be interred at the public expence. Mr. Rigby endeavoured to quafh this motion, by fuggefting, that it would be a more lafting teftimony of public gratitude to vote a monument to his memory, which Mr. Dunning propofed as an amendment to the original motion, and they were both carried without a diffenting voice. The Earl of Shelburne moved in the Houfe of Lords, that the House fhould attend the funeral of the late Earl, but it was loft by a cafting vote. In confequence of an addrefs to his Majefty from the Houfe of Commons, an annuity of 4000l. per annum was afterwards fettled in perpetuity on those heirs of the late Earl of Chatham to whom that earldom

*The Athenians, on the death of Demofthenes, expressed their veneration for his memory in a manner very fimilar.-Each of thefe renowned orators died in the fixtieth year of his age,

might defcend; and 20,000l. was granted towards dif charging the debts of the deceased nobleman. The Commons were unanimous in fhewing thefe inftances of respect, but in the House of Lords they occafioned a proteft to be figned by four peers *.

The fupplies for the year 1778 amounted to 14,345,4971. of which the navy claimed 5,001,8951. + Befides the

land

The Duke of Chandos, the Lord Chancellor (Bathurst), the Archbishop of York (Markham), and Lord Paget.

land-tax and duty upon malt, to provide for this fum, fix millions were raised by annuities, at three per cent. per annum, with the further annuity of two pounds ten hillings per cent. per annum, for the term of thirty years, and then to cease; or it might be made determinable upon a life; and 480,000l. by a lottery; two millions by Exchequer bills. The finking fund to April 5, 1778, produced 703,700l. the

Extraordinaries of the army from Jan. 31, 1777,