found wisdom in his teaching, inspiration in his quenchless
hope, enthusiasm in his all-absorbing love of country. An egoist never
founds a school of the prophets. But Pitt, who

Spurn'd at the sordid lust of pelf
And served his Albion for herself,

trained and inspired a band of devoted disciples such as no other leader
of the eighteenth century left behind him. Some were unimaginative
plodders, as Perceval; others were capable administrators and shrewd
diplomatists, as Castlereagh; to one alone was vouchsafed the fire of
genius, the sympathetic insight, the soaring ambition held in check by
overmastering patriotism, which were commingled in the personality of
the master; and Canning afterwards declared that he buried his political
allegiance in the grave of Pitt. It was granted to these men to labour
on in the cause for which he gave his life, and finally, in the years
1814-15, to bring back France to her old frontiers by arrangements which
he clearly outlined in the years 1798 and 1805. Of the numerous
annexations and changes of boundaries effected by Napoleon, only one,
the Valtelline, was destined to survive. But Europe after Waterloo
testified alike to the sagacity and the limitations of the mind of
William Pitt.

FOOTNOTES:

[786] "Life of Wilberforce," v, 260; "Private Papers of Wilberforce,"
68.

[787] Marquis Wellesley, "Quarterly Rev." (1836).

[788] Michelet, "La Femme," Introd., ch. ii, quoted by Stanhope, iv,
405.

[789] "Private Papers of Wilberforce," 67-72.

[790] Lord Acton, "Letters to Mary Gladstone," 45, 46, 56.

STATISTICS OF THE YEARS 1792-1801

_N.B._--The figures under the heading "money borrowed" are taken from
the official statistics presented by the Rt. Hon. George Rose, "Brief
Examination into the Increase of the Revenue, Commerce and Navigation of
Great Britain" (London, 1806), p. 16. The total statistics are given in
round numbers.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
YEAR.| PERMANENT | | | | | MONEY
| TAXES. | IMPORTS. | EXPORTS. | NAVY. | ARMY. | BORROWED.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1792 | 14,284,000| 19,659,000| 24,465,000| 1,985,000| 1,819,000| ----
1793 | 13,941,000| 19,256,000| 19,676,000| 3,971,000| 3,993,000| 4,500,000
1794 | 13,858,000| 22,288,000| 25,111,000| 5,525,000| 6,6