The Press. — London, England, 1853-09-03 00:00:00

Ilitraturt. Courts and Cabinets of George the Third By the Duke of Buckingham. Second Edition. London : Hurst and Blackett. Atcond Notice.) ON the present occasion we will use some of the new historical matter disclosed in this selection from the Duke of Bucking ham's papers, and employ it (according to our promise) in the composition of a com panion-piece to " A Day with Fox" (ride PRESS, ante pp. 67-90 and p. 324). Again we must claim the privilege of Asmudeus to de piet— A DAY WITH PITT. In the afternoon of a tine day in November, 178$, a tall horseman, with a groom after him, might be observed crossing Westminster bridge to the StuTey side. Riding with excessive rapidity, and seated almost bolt upright in the saddle, he looks neither to the right nor to the left, but seems rapt in abstraction. A physiognomist, at a passing glance, would pause before saying, whether the countenance was most expressive of mental thought or personal arrogance. The grave face, indeed, tells of habitual reflection ; but that pro minent haughty nose, tossed disdainfully upwards, is suggestive of 'wide carried even to scorn. His figure is gaunt, and more wiry than muscular, but the well-opened chest and manly bearing promise elasticity and energy. few of the foot-passengers look after him, and recognise his striking form, for they have often seen that haughty horseman riding thus rapidly about town ; and, once seen, kw could forget the sovereign look of that un crowned ruler of men who answered to the world-famed name of "Mr. Pitt." It is even he, and he looks more grave and resolute than usual. As the servant has saddle-bags, it. appears that his master was going some considerable distance. But he would scarcely go very far at this advanced season of the year. Onward he rides faster anti faster, and more rapidly than his livery groom likes,* and the minister takes the r o ad that crosses the Surrey hills by Norwood and Dulwich. lie pulls up for a moment in as cending a sharp acclivity, and draws aside to let a yellow barouche pass by. How that showy, hold-looking woman stares after him ! Alt ! that if, Miss (or rather " Mistress") Her vey, who twenty years ago used to be toying at the bar at Nando's with gay young Tem plars, anti who is now at the head of the Lord Chancellor Thurlow's estatblishmentat Kni ght's hill, Dulwich. But the minister is not going there, aunt canters by its gate without stopping ; and on he rides, until he reaches the heights by White Horse-house, and, if he bad any reel ing for the picturesque, the man of great ora tions might enjoy time striking effect of the declining day upon that vast bitrst of country, which meets his eye as he looks over the cul tivated tracts of West. Kent and East Surrey. But for that fair landscape, end the dila-My elin) of the darkling light over*Croydon town, the horseman has not the least sentiment. And Pitt still trots forward at his rapid pace, taking the road to Beckenham, but he is not going so far. lie soon turns off the highroad about a mile to the east of Croydon town, and dis-. mounts at an old-fashioned villa, seated in a flat and rather swampy paddock, which gives the courtesy title of " park " to " Adgecombe," or " Addiscombe," according to later ortho graphy.t Pitt is glad to learn that its owner, Lord Hawkesbury, has recovered from his severe cold, anti soon he is in the study, where the veteran official (now a new peer) is laid up before the tire, ill a half-invalided condition. In 31 moment the sudden visit is explained. Pitt wants to talk to old .lenkinson about fifty things that press. The • td _ ~ . crisis Itas become very serious i ndeed, and I - - ... I is dismayed, as he sees th i c 4.,..- . - pression of Pitt's face. 41fr n -M TM ak . vz\.. it • becomes that bold and .4 ._.- , •: - Istc.--„a&4--i 4:= I "T i •: 4 4,,, 0 , : t. ill's ..r,i..,. from tar etre,•ls of ;`' er gallorili:: after thin master. di1iji1,L,,,,V. 7 " . .:. ".' = .. t, whieli %.• loww also from ,qiwr 1 01 • it i the habit of WIWI; Isccret 7 — • , " , isp +,:... rw . , s . • N el - pool. 5s 'A It Li 'Altai THE PRESS. manly countenance as he desc►ibes the ter rible state of things. Yesterday ho was at Windsor, and saw the King of England iu the paroxysm►s of madness. He beheld earthly majesty laid prostrate by an (fetus Dei; and he had seen the Queen, and all the household, struck with consternation. He had witnessed the alarm► of the loyal and prospj►eerous citizens of L►►►►don, and had beheld horror on the faces of great merchants that swayed 'Change. A panic,—political, off►cial, and commercial, — is seizing on the public mind. The rau►k and tile of the Ministerialists are threatening to desert. The faction at Carlton-house expects to c►►r►y all before it. The King's suns, — George P►ince of Wales, anti Frederick Duke of York,—have shown themselves, in a►► hour of anxious trial, to be bad Englishmen, a►►d bad sons! And Fox—" Alt! there is the cause of their errors. The Princes have fallen into the hands of bad advisers."--Fox has left Mrs. Armistead behind him on the Continent, and he will now strive might and main to repair his coalition defeat, and restore the fallen political fortunes of his ►apacious fac tion, thirsting fin• revenge. All this, and much more, is talked over by Pitt and Lord Huwkesbu►y, when a loud and joyous laugh is heard outside. "'Tis only Robert, and one of his young college friends from Oxfo►d.' And the statesmen continue their colloquy, until the noise of wheels is I►eard coming up to the door. 'Tis Sir Peter Burrell, on his way to Beckenham, along with his visitor, Sir William Young. They had no idea that Pitt could be here, and Lord Hawkesbu►y makes them stay and dine. As Pitt will sleep at Addiscombe, there will be time enough for their private colloquy s►t night ; and Pitt, who nevur tires of parliamen tary or official topics, is glad to have compa nions who will take their wine tiller dinner, since the host is not equal to the bottle. And now dinner is announced, and "Robert," himself to be a Prime Minister in atter days, comes in. But who is that along with hint, whom he familiarly calls " George"? It is a tall and manly youth, with a form of uncom mon grace, a countenance in which amiability and intelligence are stamped, with lus trous eyes, a voice of singular sweetness, and an air of genius in his every look and ges ture. Pitt is not mistaken. It is that bril liant lad who struck him so much at Eton in the delivery of the complimentary speech when Robert Tenkinson good-naturedly gave his place to his friend George Canning.* Both Sir C. Burrell and Sir W. Young are also struck by the appearance of the gifted young Oxonian, who eagerly listens as he hears these politicians fresh from the great world tattle of the topics of the day. Nor is Pitt unobservant of his animated look, as Sir W. Young tells the story of Lord Mornington (a name dear to Oxonians) having consulted the Sortes Virgilituve on the question, "Whether the Prince of Wales would be Regent?" and his opening at the passage in the seventh book of the ..Etteid " Sic mgia tecta subiln.t liorridus;" • and how, when he put the question, "'Whether the King would recover his understanding ?" he was answered by "Comma viva n - efai Stygia noctare and Pitt calls on young Canning to tnmslate the last line, and he cries, " flood, sir, good !" as the ready tongue of the orator in his teens replies. " It is criminal to treat as dead a man who has in him the principle of life ;" aud, amid allusions to Welwood's memoirs and Lord Falkland, dinner is announced, and the small party adjourn. The two youngsters find themselves out of place while the politicians talk in the unknown tongue of St. Stephen's, and they have tact enough to retire early from the table. Pitt has seareely spoken at all. but he has listened while Sir Peter Burrell prattles on about the way things arc going at Carlton house, where Jaek Payne, and Master Leigh from Eton. and Lord Barrymore's young brother. and Mrs. Fitz." form the Cabinet.t along with Fox and Sheridan; and then Pitt. in a quiet. subdued way, talks of the state of affairs at Windsor, whcre the Prince grasped • Historie.a. 4. Court., wa4 cattriuut4 ut kicurl;v: LU. (voL p. SATURDAY, at the command, but really ordered nothing that was decent, and how it was only at his (Pitt's) entreaty that a couple of grooms of the chamber were appointed to receive the inquiries of the anxious visitors. And Sir William Young talks of the Princes, and how the Duke of York has taken kindly to play, and how the hawks at Brookes's pluck his feathers without mercy, reducing him to the vowels I. 0. U.* And the Prince of Wales is even worse. " And all that," cries Lord Hawkesbury, " when their father is so terribly afflicted !" and he then chimes in with many stories that he has heard from Lord Bulkeley about the libertine lives that the royal brothers are leading at this time of public sorrow. But Pitt seems to be setting tired of all this, and he appears impatient, and the subordi nates think it better to take a hint and re tire ; and the two visitors depart for Beckenham, leaving Lord Hawkesbury with Pitt, who then retire to the library, where Pitt calls for another bottle of that " capital wine." And then his host asks with incredu lity whether an the stories about the hardness of heart and utter want of feeling shown by the Princes can be true ? Pitt at first makes no other answer but a significant look at his friend, and, then drawing close, whispers in his ear, " The Queen told me this ;" and adds, sotto rove, facts which make Lord Hawkesbury cry with a start, " You make my blood ran c011.".} But Pitt does not care for " indigna tion" he proceeds to the crisis of the day, and again puts all the eventualities of the occasion before the practical mind of tho veteran official, who replies in the quiet manner of one who had been in close connec tion with another Prime Minister when the political waves were running highil Yes ! Pitt is heartily glad he cantered out to Addis combe : it eases his mind to have Hawkes bury's common sense and experience on his side. And now he must retire for the night, and he says that he will have breakfast at seven in the morning. So he proceeds to his bedroom earlier than had been anticipated by the household at Addiscombe. As he opens his chamber door, he sees that there is some one in the room. It is a maid servant arranging the toilet-table, and within ten miles round of Croydon a prettier girl than Madge Brooks could not be found. Look at her trim spruce figure, with her neatly made kirtle tucked up so nicely, and her pretty coquettish mob cap, surmounting a face fit for a May Queen. With her blooming cheeks, her sparkling eyes, and gipsylike glance, and with lips that might tempt an anchorite, she looks the very model from which George Morland painted. Sweet Madge! how that mantling blush becomes you as you find yourself alone with a youthful Prime Minister, flushed with wine! But your lips are safe from any rude coalition with those of the orator before • you. Madge blushes still deeper as the great man addresses her with— " Stay ! you must let me hare —," and Madge thinks that he is going to say something likewhat other young bachelors would say ; hut, pshaw ! 'tis only " a matchbox" he wants, and Madge retires, saying to herself " that he's not such a great man to look at after all, and if' her John Thomas was only dressed up he'd be a finer germ an, that he would; " but thus it is; and, with an indifference worthy of Sir Isaac Newton, the statesman, unmoved by the apparition of rustic beauty, goes to his couch. It wants ten minutes to eleven as he lays his head on his pillow, and before the clock has struck lie is fast asleep, and enjoys most re freshing repose before the midnight hour has gone. And one, and two, and three, and four, are told from the turret clock, and still, with the calmness of a child, the tired statesman slumbers ou. But, as the Kentish waggoner guides his wain towards Croydon, he can see a light in one of the upper rooms at A ddiscomb4. , . "fis scarcely half-past four ; but Pitt is up, and rummaging in one of the saddle bags. He finds what he wants. He has the full report of the proceed ings at the Convention Parliament in 168 S, and he has the written remarks on portions * Idetu (t(1. ii., p. 9s). + Ideal (v,4. ii.. p. Os). " That valuable e.inimotlity—indignation."—Canning. had been Lad privatv oecretary,