ibed liberal doses of port wine, and this 'pleasant medicine,' we
hear, pleased the child, and he drank a great deal of it daily. Though
at the time it seemed to suit him, yet there is little doubt it planted
the seeds of the disease which was to carry him off before middle age.

At fourteen, William's tutors said that he knew more than most lads at
eighteen and was quite ready for College, so he was sent to Oxford,
where he amazed his tutors by his wisdom and learning. At seventeen he
left the University with the degree of M.A., which was, at that time,
unwisely given to the sons of peers without any examination.

He then studied for the Bar, and attended the Western Circuit, and at
the age of twenty-one he put his foot on the first rung of Parliamentary
fame, by becoming Member for Appleby. His success was almost
instantaneous, and after his third speech, one of the Opposition
remarked to Mr. Fox, who was Pitt's life-long rival, 'Mr. Pitt promises
to be one of the first men in Parliament,' to which remark Fox answered
generously, 'He is so already, sir!'

Pitt's voice was singularly clear and deep-toned, and he had been well
trained as to the use to make of it, but his personal actions were too
vehement, and one wag remarked, 'Mr. Fox, in speaking, saws the air with
his hands, but Mr. Pitt saws with his whole body.'

At twenty-three Pitt became Chancellor of the Exchequer, and in the
following year the young man became Prime Minister, the youngest Prime
Minister who has ever sat in the House of Commons.

His administration was at first highly successful, but his genius was
better fitted for peaceable and domestic government, than for the
warlike policy which circumstances thrust upon him.

When in 1792 the French Revolution broke out and a war with France
seemed inevitable, and when the power of Buonaparte became alarming to
every government, Pitt succeeded in forming a coalition of Austria,
Russia, and England, and felt perfectly confident of opposing a barrier
to the ambition of 'the Corsican.'

But while the Russian troops were slowly coming up from Poland,
Buonaparte swiftly assembled together a huge army, and defeated the
Austrians at Ulm. The news of this defeat came to England in a
roundabout way in a Dutch newspaper. Pitt received it on a Sunday, when
all the public offices were closed. He knew no Dutch himself, and
feverishly anxious to learn what had happened, he be-thought himself of
Lord Malmesbury,