ry, and collected and arranged the poems of Homer. As he well knew how tyranny was hated, he carefully concealed his power under the exterior of a private citizen. He submitted, like others, to the sentence of the Areopagus, before which he was accused of murder, and conducted himself with as much prudence as clemency. In this way Pisistratus exercised the sovereignty, not as the oppressor but the father of his country, which scarcely ever enjoyed a longer term of peace and prosperity. He died 527 B. C., leaving two sons, Hippias and Hipparchus, to inherit his power, who were not, however, able to preserve it.

Piso; a surname common to many Romans of the Calpurnian family. Lucius Calpurnius Piso, when consul, subdued the seditious slaves in Sicily, and proposed the law de repetundis, concerning restitution in cases of extortion, in order to put limits to the avarice of the magistrates in the administration of the provinces. He distinguished himself, as prætor, in Sicily (where the purchase of provisions had been committed to him during a scarcity of corn at Rome) by a rare disinterestedness, so that he received the honorable appellation of Frugi (the honest). Another Piso afterwards filled the office of consul with Gabinius, in Cicero's time, and showed himself particularly hostile to that great man, who, in a speech which still remains to us, spoke very violently against him. Still later lived the Piso who, under Tiberius, was prefect of Syria, and distinguished himself for his pride, as well as for his odious conduct towards the noble Germanicus, the adopted son of Tiberius, whom he is said to have taken off by poison. PISTACHIA TREE; a small tree, with heavy, crooked limbs, somewhat resembling the walnut in foliage, indigenous to Syria and the neighboring parts of Asia, and now cultivated in many parts of the south of Europe. The fruit, which forms a considerable article of commerce, is a thin-shelled, oval and acuminate nut, about as large as an olive, and has a very agreeable flavor. These nuts are disposed in racemes, and are usually produced in profusion. Michaux recommends the introduction of this tree into West Tennessee and the Southern States. It flourishes in the same soil and climate as the olive-in dry, calcareous or stony grounds, and shuns a sandy and humid soil. As the plant is diæcious, care should be taken, in forming plantations, to allot one barren to five or six fertile plants; and, to avoid mistake, young grafts, stocks, or

suckers, from the root of an old tree, may be employed. The flowers of both sexes are small, greenish, and inconspicuous. From a second species of pistachia is obtained the mastic of commerce. (See Mastic.)

PISTOIA (anciently Pistoria); a provincial town of Tuscany, six and a half leagues north-west of Florence, a bishop's see, on a branch of the Arno; lat. 43° 56 5" N.; lon. 10° 55′ 12′′ E.; with 9150 inhabitants. In the neighboring mountains copper is found, also rock-crystal, called diamond of Pistoia; and inflammable gas issues from the earth. Pistoia was a republic in the middle ages, and lost its liberty with Pisa, in the beginning of the fifteenth century. It is a place often mentioned in the history of Florence. It is said that the first pistols were made here. Many straw hats are manufactured in this place.

PISTOL; a small hand gun, of a structure too well known to require particular description. Pistols are of various sizes, some being so small that they may be deposited in the waistcoat pocket. These are called pocket pistols. Others, such as duelling and horse pistols, are sometimes nearly half as long as a carbine. Pistol barrels are oftentimes rifled, and have frequently the addition of a sight. The best pistols are manufactured at London; those of an inferior kind at Sheffield and Birmingham. The stocks of the pistols intended for the Turkey trade are usually inlaid with silver, gold, mother of pearl, &c., and are, on the whole, far more costly than those sent to any other part of the world. Pistols, if well mounted, bring high prices at Constantinople and Smyrna. (For the origin of the name, see Pistoia.)

PISTOLE; the name of a coin and imaginary money, in use in several parts of Europe, more especially in Spain, Italy and Switzerland. (See Coins.)

PITCAIRN'S ISLAND; in the south Pacific ocean, lat. 25° 4" S., lon. 133° W., six miles long and three broad, covered with wood, of a fertile soil, and fine climate, but having neither river nor harbor. It was discovered by Carteret in 1767, when it was uninhabited, but was settled in 1789, by some of the mutineers of the English ship Bounty. The Bounty, under the command of lieutenant Bligh, had been sent out to introduce the bread-fruit tree from Otaheite into the West Indies, but was taken possession of by the crew, who set their officers adrift in a boat. Bligh and his companions arrived safely in the island of Timor, after a voyage of

1200 leagues. The next year the admiralty sent captain Edwards, in the Pandora, to Otaheite, in search of the twentyfive mutineers, who were supposed to have returned thither. At his arrival in the island (1791), four of them came on board, and ten others, who were living there, were taken the next day; they were carried home, with the exception of some who were lost by the wreck of the Pandora, and most of them were executed. According to their accounts, the mutineers, under Christian Fletcher, sailed for Toobooai, one of the Society islands, with the intention of settling there, and afterwards returned to Otaheite, where they took on board a supply of fruit trees and twenty-four Otaheitans, with whom they went back to Toobooai. Here they built a fort; but disputes among themselves and with the natives compelled them to abandon their project of forming a settlement, and Christian, finding his authority gone, proposed to return to Otaheite. Those who wished to remain were landed, and Christian, with the eight remaining mutineers and fifteen Otaheitans, of whom eleven were women, left the island. Nothing was known of their fate until 1808, when captain Folger, of Boston, having touched at Pitcairn's island, was surprised to find it inhabited. After landing, he received an account of the colony from an old English sailor, who called himself John Adams, but who is supposed to have been Alexander Smith, the only surviving individual of the crew of the Bounty. Christian had destroyed the ship soon after their arrival. A few years afterwards, the English were all killed by the Otaheitans, except three, who concealed themselves; the Otaheitans quarrelled among themselves, and were all killed or died of their wounds. Two of the Englishmen died soon after, and Adams, or Smith, with several women and children, remained the only inhabitants of the island. Captain Folger gave a circumstantial account of his discovery in 1813. In 1814, the island was visited by the British frigates Briton and Tagus, and has been repeatedly visited since. By the visitors in 1814, the inhabitants were thus described:-"This interesting new colony now consisted of about forty-six persons, mostly grown up young people, besides a number of infants. The young men, all born in the island, were very athletic, and of the finest forms, their countenances open and pleasing, indicating much benevolence and goodness of heart; and the young women were

objects of particular admiration; tall, robust, and beautifully formed, their faces beaming with smiles and unruffled good humor, but wearing a degree of modesty and bashfulness that would do honor to the most virtuous nation on earth; and all of them, both male and female, had the most marked English features. Their native modesty, assisted by a proper sense of religion and morality, instilled into their youthful minds by John Adams, the leader of the colony, has hitherto preserved these interesting people perfectly chaste. The greatest harmony prevails among them. But what was most gratifying to the visitors, was the simple and . unaffected manner in which they returned thanks to the Almighty for the many blessings they enjoyed. Their habitations are extremely neat; and the village of Pitcairn forms a pretty square." John Adams died in 1830. Recent accounts state that the island was abandoned not long after, on account of the scarcity of water, and that the whole colony of about sixty individuals had arrived at Otaheite. PITCH. (See Pine.)

PITCH; the acuteness or gravity of any particular sound, or of the tuning of any instrument. Any sound less acute than some other sound, is said to be of a lower pitch than that other sound, and vice versa. The opera pitch is tuned above most others, and is therefore said to be higher than the common concert pitch. (See Acoustics.)

PITCHER PLANT. (See Nepenthes.)

PITCH-PIPE; an instrument used by vocal practitioners to ascertain the pitch of the key in which they are about to sing. It is blown at one end like a common flute, and being shortened or lengthened by a graduated scale, is capable of producing, with mechanical exactness, all the semitonic degrees within its compass. PITCH ORE. (See Uranium.)

PITCHSTONE, PEARLSTONE, PUMICE, and OBSIDIAN. All these substances, formerly regarded as distinct, are now included under one species in mineralogy, the character of which is the following: cleavage none; fracture conchoidal, sometimes highly perfect, sometimes less distinct; in the granular masses, the fracture is more or less uneven and splintery; lustre vitreous and resinous; colors black, brown, red, yellow, green, gray and white; hardness between that of feldspar and quartz; specific gravity 2.3. The variety called obsidian possesses the most perfect conchoidal fracture and the highest degree of lustre. Agreeably to the degree of trans

Before the blow-pipe, they all melt with more or less facility into a vesicular glass, or they yield an enamel, according to the fusibility of their ingredients. The geological relations of these species are very remarkable. Pitchstone forms mountain masses, and is generally in close connexion with porphyry. Many of the other varieties occur under similar circumstances. Pitchstone veins sometimes occur in sandstone. Pumice and obsidian are among the products of volcanoes. The southern countries of Europe, South America, Mexico and the Sandwich islands are rich in the varieties of pitchstone. Pearlstone, in particular, occurs in Hungary, and at Cabo de Gates, in Spain. Obsidian is very frequent in Iceland and Mexico; pumice in the Lipari islands, Teneriffe and Peru. Obsidian is employed for mirrors, vases, snuff-boxes, &c. In Mexico and the island of Ascension, very sharp fragments are used as tools and weapons. Pumice yields a well known material for grinding and polishing, and is also employed for a filtering

stone.

PITH. (See Medulla.)

PITT, Christopher, an English poet, born in 1699, at Blandford, received his education at Winchester, whence he was elected, upon the foundation, to New college, Oxford. In 1722, a relation presented him to the family living of Pimperne, where he passed his life in the perform ance of his clerical duties, and the pursuit of elegant literature. He is principally known by his translation of the Eneid and of Vida's Art of Poetry. Mr. Pitt died in 1748. (See Johnson's Lives of the Poets.)

PITT, earl of Chatham. (See Chatham.)

PITT, William, second son of the earl of Chatham, was born May 28, 1759. He received a private education in the first instance, and, at the age of fourteen, was entered of Pembroke hall, Cambridge. On quitting the university, he visited France, and studied at Rheims, and, on his return, became a student of Lincoln's inn; and, in 1780, was called to the bar. He attended the western circuit once or twice, when he was introduced into parliament by sir James Lowther, as representative for his borough of Appleby. His maiden speech was delivered in support of Mr. Burke's financial reform bill, and he also spoke in favor of a reform in parliament. On the breaking up of the Rockingham administration, he became chancellor of the exchequer, at the age of twenty-three, under the premiership of the earl of Shelburne. A general peace soon followed, which being made the ground of censure by a strong opposition, the cabinet was dissolved, and the Fox and North coali tion took its place. On his retirement from office, Mr. Pitt resumed his efforts for a reform in parliament, and submitted three specific motions on the subject, which, although supported by Mr. Fox, then secretary of state, were rejected. On the failure of the India bill of the latter, which produced the dismissal of the coalition, Mr. Pitt, although at that time only in his twenty-fourth year, assumed the station of prime minister, by accepting the united posts of first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer. Although strongly supported by the sovereign, he stood opposed to a large majority of the house of commons, and a dissolution took place in March, 1786. At the general election which followed, the voice

of the nation appeared decidedly in his favor, and some of the strongest aristocratical interests in the country were defeated; Mr. Pitt himself being returned by the university of Cambridge. His first measure was the passing of his India bill, establishing the board of control, which was followed by much of that fiscal and financial regulation, which gave so much éclat to the early period of his administration. The establishment of the delusive scheme of a sinking fund followed in 1786. Whatever may be the utility of the sinking fund in the regulation of funded sale and purchase, as a miraculous mode of liquidating the public debt, its pretensions are now set at rest for ever. A commercial treaty with France followed in 1787, and soon after, the minister began to exhibit that jealousy of Russian aggrandizement, which, but for the manifest unpopularity of hostilities, might have involved the two countries in war. A similar spirit was displayed towards Spain, respecting the free trade at Nootka sound; and in defence of the stadtholder against the machinations of France. In 1788, Mr. Pitt resisted the doctrine of the opposition, that the regency, during the king's indisposition, devolved upon the prince of Wales by right. The minister maintained, that it lay in the two remaining branches of the legislature to fill up the office, but that the prince could not be passed over in nominating to this post. By the adoption of this principle he was enabled to pass a bill restricting the regent's power, which the king's recovery rendered unnecessary. One of the most momentous periods in modern history had now arrived. The French revolution broke out, and produced a vibration in every neighboring state; and a sensation was created in Great Britain, which, previously excited as she had been on subjects of parliamentary and general reform, in a great measure broke up the previous party divisions. A war against French principles was declared on the one side, by which all amelioration was opposed; while, on the other, the friends of rational reformation found themselves confounded with ignorant and heated men, who espoused some of the wildest and most visionary notions of the innovators of France. To make alarm as effective as possible; to encourage the dissemination of high principles of government, and involve in common obloquy all measures of opposition, and all projects of reform; to augment, according to the apparent urgency of cir

cumstances, restrictions upon personal liberty, and make temporary sacrifices of the spirit of the constitution to what he deemed the public safety, such, according to one party, were the principles of Mr. Pitt's government at this crisis; while others would have had him gone much farther, and, purely on a conservative principle, would, in a constitutional sense, have left him nothing to preserve. The details of the momentous contest which followed, form no subject for the biographer. Great Britain was successful by sea; but, during the life of Mr. Pitt, the conflict on the continent was in favor of France. The suspension of cash payments in 1797, the necessity of attending to home defence, the mutiny in the fleet, and the accumulation of the public burdens, which still press so heavily on the nation, were some of the bitter fruits of this struggle; which were, however, on the other hand, alleviated by a commercial monopoly, that, assisted by the temporary operation of an unlimited paper issue, materially modified the consequences both in form and in fact. In 1800, the Irish union was accomplished. Soon after the accomplishment of this event, the hopeless aspect of the war with France began to turn the national attention towards peace; and Mr. Pitt determined to retire. The alleged reason for his retreat, not publicly avowed, but communicated to his friends, was the opposition of the king (see George III) to all further concession to the Irish Catholics, which had been promised by the articles of the union. (See Catholic Emancipation.) He accord ingly resigned his post in 1801; and the crisis of revolutionary fervor having for some time abated, he carried with him into retirement the esteem of a powerful party, which hailed him as "the pilot that weathered the storm." The peace of

Amiens succeeded; and the Addington (q. v.) administration, which concluded it, Mr. Pitt supported for a time, and then joined the opposition, and spoke on the same side with his old antagonist Mr. Fox. The new minister, who had renewed the war, unable to maintain his ground, resigned; and, in 1804, Mr. Pitt once more resumed his post at the treasury. Returning to power as a war minister, he exerted all the energy of his character to render the contest successful, and found means to engage the two great military powers of Russia and Austria in a new coalition (q. v.), which was dissolved by the battle of Austerlitz. Mr. Pitt, whose state of health was previously declining,

was sensibly affected by this event; and his constitution, weakened by a hereditary gout, and injured by a too liberal use of wine, by way of stimulant, rapidly yielded to the joint attack of disease and anxiety. The parliamentary attack upon his old associate, lord Melville (see Dundas), not wholly parried either by ministerial influence or the merits of the case, is thought to have deeply wounded his feelings, and completed his mental depression. A state of extreme debility ensued, which terminated in death, encountered with great calmness and resignation, January 23, 1806. As a minister, it would be impossible to sum up the character of Mr. Pitt in terms that would not encounter a host of predilections or prejudices on every side. It is, however, generally conceded, that his genius was better adapted to the regulative process of peaceable and domestic government, than to the arrangement and conduct of that warlike exertion, which his policy entailed upon the country. At the same time, it must be confessed, that he had to encounter overwhelming energies-the result of a social crisis of most extraordinary character. If, therefore, he can be acquitted of a want of foresight in volunteering such a conflict, the result of the warfare, in establishing French ascendency on the continent, may be regarded as the effect of causes which no abilities could have controlled. According to the theories with which he set out in life, and as the son of lord Chatham, much constitutional and political improvement was to be expected from him; and much prudent and useful regulation he certainly effected. In higher points, he was, perhaps, more the man of expediency than of principle. It has been seen how he advocated and dropped the subject of parliamentary reform. In a similar spirit, he spoke and voted in favor of the abolition of the slave-trade; but although supported by the voice of a decided national majority, he would not make a ministerial measure of it, as was done without difficulty by his immediate successor; nor can we trace any decided social amelioration to his influence. As a financier, he was expert in practice rather than scientifically grounded; while the waste and profusion of his warlike expenditure were extreme, and will long be felt in their consequences. Although love of power was certainly his ruling passion, he was altogether above the meanness of avarice, and his personal disinterestedness was extreme. So far from making use of his opportunities to acquire

wealth, he died involved in debt, which negligence and the demands of his public station, rather than extravagance, had led him to contract; his tastes being simple, and averse from splendor and parade. Mr. Pitt possessed no advantages of person and physiognomy; a loftiness approaching to arrogance was the habitual expression of the latter in public, although in private circles he has been described as complacent and urbane. His eloquence, if not more elevated or profound, was, upon the whole, more correct than that of any other orator of his time, and remarkably copious and well arranged. Although neither illuminated by the flashes of genius which characterized his father's oratory, nor by the imagination which distinguished the eloquence of Burke, it was more uniformly just and impressive than that of either; while the indignant severity and keenness of his sarcasm were unequalled. On the whole, Mr. Pitt was a minister of commanding powers, and still loftier pretensions; and he died in possession of the esteem of a large portion of his countrymen. A public funeral was decreed to his honor by parliament, and a grant of £40,000 to pay his debts.-The reader may consult Gifford's Life of Pitt (3 vols., 4to., London, 1809) or the later work of his tutor, doctor Tomline (Prettyman), bishop of Winchester (London, 1821), a review of which, in the 35th volume of the Edinburgh Review, gives the Whig opinions concerning Mr. Pitt.

PITTACUS OF MITYLENE. (See Seven Wise Men.)

PITTSBURG; a city and capital of Alleghany county, Pennsylvania, 230 miles west-north-west of Baltimore, 297 westby-north from Philadelphia, and 225 from Washington; lat. 40° 32′ N.; lon. 80° 8 W.; population, in 1800, 1565; in 1810, 4768; in 1820, 7248; in 1830, 12,542. Pittsburg is situated in a beautiful plain, on a point of land where the Alleghany and the Monongahela unite to form the Ohio. The site of the town was early regarded as very important, and was selected by the French for fort Du Quesne. Afterwards this was called fort Pitt. In 1760, a considerable town rose about the fort; but the present town was commenced in 1765. The Indian wars and other troubles of the western country prevented its rapid growth till 1793. It is now the rival of Cincinnati in manufactures, and, in population, wealth and importance, is the third town in the Mississippi Valley. Pittsburg is well provided with houses of