better
earned; nor was there ever a statesman who more needed the repose of the
Upper House. Pitt was now growing old. He was much older in constitution
than in years. It was with imminent risk to his life that he had, on
some important occasions, attended his duty in Parliament. During the
session of 1764, he had not been able to take part in a single debate.
It was impossible that he should go through the nightly labor of
conducting the business of the government in the House of Commons. His
wish to be transferred, under such circumstances, to a less busy and a
less turbulent assembly, was natural and reasonable. The nation,
however, overlooked all these considerations. Those who had most loved
and honored the Great Commoner were loudest in invective against the
new-made lord. London had hitherto been true to him through every
vicissitude. When the citizens learned that he had been sent for from
Somersetshire, that he had been closeted with the King at Richmond, and
that he was to be first minister, they had been in transports of joy.
Preparations were made for a grand entertainment and for a general
illumination. The lamps had actually been placed round the Monument,
when the Gazette announced that the object of all this enthusiasm was an
Earl. Instantly the feast was countermanded. The lamps were taken down.
The newspapers raised the roar of obloquy. Pamphlets, made up of calumny
and scurrility, filled the shops of all the booksellers; and of those
pamphlets, the most galling were written under the direction of the
malignant Temple. It was now the fashion to compare the two Williams,
William Pulteney and William Pitt. Both, it was said, had, by eloquence
and simulated patriotism, acquired a great ascendency in the House of
Commons and in the country. Both had been entrusted with the office of
reforming the government. Both had, when at the height of power and
popularity, been seduced by the splendor of the coronet. Both had been
made earls, and both had at once become objects of aversion and scorn to
the nation which a few hours before had regarded them with affection and
veneration.

The clamor against Pitt appears to have had a serious effect on the
foreign relations of the country. His name had till now acted like a
spell at Versailles and St. Ildefonso. English travellers on the
Continent had remarked that nothing more was necessary to silence a
whole room full of boasting Frenchmen than to drop a hint of the
p