The Sun.
London, England, 1826-05-31 00:00:00

PITT CLUB.

Yesterday the triennial toiebration of the birth-day of the
illotriona and irarnortai WILLIAM PITT, took place at Merchant
Tailors' Hall.

Lord Kewro'.:r occupied the Chair, supported on the right by
the Lord Cblncellorp and on the left by the Earl of Westmorland.
Earl &Vaunt, the Earl of Harewood, and many other distin-
guished Noblemen and Gentlemen graced the solemn occasion with
their presence.

The company eat down at half-past six o'clock, and a military
band in the Music Gallery enlivened the festivity of the evening
by playing several admired tunes. The opposite Gallery exhi-
bited a splendid assemblage of female beauty and fashion.
After the usual toasts, •
The Noble Cliata MAN rose. In proposing the appropriate
toast of the awing, he felt it necessary, he said, to apologise for
holding the chair for the second time, in a meeting so distin-
guished, and on an occasion so important. When he undertook
to panegyrist Mr. Pitt there were two points iu the life and cha-
racter of that great man, to which he was most anxious to direct
the attention of his admirers. Those points were suggested by
the elegant eulogy of an anonymous writer, the author of " The
Pursuit* of-Literature," who within the compass of a brief
couplet, lianaged to combine the most brilliant traits which die-
tiNPAshed Mr. Pitt'. career. The lines were these

" With two choice gifts Pitt well performed his part,
Transcendent talents, and an honest heart."
—(Loud applause).—To understand Mr. Pitt's character aright,
and to perceive how eminently he deserved the praise of wisdom
and moral rectitude, it was only necessary to take into considera-
tion the difficulties which he had to encounter, and the trium-
phant integrity and ability with which he passed from the
commencement of his glorious career to its termination. Every
page of his history bore abundant testimony to the possession
of matchless talents. But talents alone could neither command
the respect of coternporary witnesses, nor ensure the esteem of
more impartial posterity. It was to a rare and happy combi-
nation of the most exalted mental endowments, with the most
inflexible integrity, that Mr. Pitt owed the lasting record of
his merits in the grateful recollections of his countryee—
(Cheers.)-e-Faithfully discharging the duties which he owed to
his King and his country, that incorruptible Statesman stood
between the objects, of his protection and dangers of the first
magnitude which threatened the Constitution from the violence
'of parties. To assign motives short of virtue—to attribute
those of an impure and earthly character to the conduct of a
Statesman, one must regard Linn as actuated by a love of wealth,
an ambition for fame, or it thirst after power. Rut the object
of that day's veneration was beyond the reach of any one of these
imputations. The spring of all his actions, like the actions them-
selves, was pure and unblemished—it was generous anti unalloyed
patriotism. As to wealth, it was known to all men how little
the illustrious individual possessed ; and it was equally well known
that he never attained any degree of power which he did not
exercise for his country's good. An instance of his virtuous
abstinence, in this respect was seen in his noble suppression of all
private feeding, when affection prompted him to promote the ad-
vancement of his Rev. Tutor, an advancement, however,which he re-
linquished from conscientious motives. It was amongst the foremost
wishes of Mr. Pitt to sustain the financial system of the country,
SO as to afford the greatest possible mitigation to the burthens
which that system imposed. But in this good design he was
impeded when the country was driven by unsomprising necessity
into the most arduous war in which it hid ever been engaged.
Nothing certainly lay so near his heart as his country's interests,
and to them he sacrificed every minor consideration. Yet there
were not wanted at this day many who censured the acts of the
immortal man, and declared his mind to have been all through in
a state of obscuration. After the lapse of, thirty years those who
undertook to condemn the Statesman's acts, would do well to
mnsider the circumstances which determined those acts, and
its them a candid mind could not fail to discover a complete jus-
tification of their wisdom and rectitude. It was an ordinary ob-
servation, that it was not right, in discussing the merits of public
men, to make allusion to their private characters. This was a
good-natured regulation, and one perhaps required by the general
weakness and imperfection of every thing human. But in the
case of Mr. Pitt it was not necessary to attend to any such consi-
derationa. No ; his private life was as amiable as his public life
was great and splendid both were equally unimpeachable, equally
proof against the shafts of calumny. The eulogy of the poet,
once applied to a great, though. certainly not a good man, suited
Mr. Pitt more completely than it did its original subject—" And
to add greater honours to his name than man could give, he died
jeering God."--The Noble Lord concluded by proposing...
" The memory of ?dr. Pitt," which was drunk with entho-
" The Pilot that weathered the storm."

The next toad was—
" The Navy and Army of Great Britain."—Song, " Rule
Britannia."

The Noble Loan next preposed—" The House of Brunswick;
and may they never forget the principles which placed them on
the Throne of this Realm." After expressing the high gratifica-
tion with which he contemplated the sentiment expressed in the
toast, he proceeded to consider what were the principles to which
it alluded. They were, he said, two-fold ;—first, the establish.
/mint of religious liberty; and, secondly, the security of our civil'
liberties. If any other sentiment could be more dear to the human
breast, he was at a loss to conceive what that sentiment ceuld be;
and he therefore felt much indebted to the Cluh for having ad-
'flitted the toast upon their list. Since the exclusion of a
Monarch, who, for the sake of his own religious principles would
have violated those of the Constitution, a valuable principle was
connected with the hereditary succession to the throne which it
never had before, namely—that it should be essentially Protestant.
Applause. )
" The health of his Majesty's Ministers" having been drunk, •
The LOAD CXANCELLOR, returned thinks on the part of his
Noble and Right Ilea. Colleagues. They felt the compliment
the more, he said, from the distinguished character of the as-
sembly by which it was conferred. To hold a place in the
esteem of such men was indeed an honour, and a distinguished
one.-..(Loud cheers.)
Song, " My sin Fire-side."
The next toast was..." Islay the principles of Mr. Pitt always
animate the Council') of the Realm."--Song, " Now the bright
Morning Star comes dancing from the West."
The Earl of WiSTVLOKILAND proposed the health of the
Noble President, which was received with every demonstration of
delight.
Lord Kenyon returned thanks. Be could not attribute this
heist of kind feeling to any merit of his own ; he was conscious it
intuit arise front the community of sentiment in which he was as-
soeiated with those around him.

" The health of the Master, Wardens, and Brethren, dikter.
Chant Tailors' Company" having been drunk,
Mr. Bunskon returned thanks.
After " the health of the Earl of liarewood" the. Noble Earl,
in a neat and appropriate speech, expressed hie sense of the honour
done him.

The announcement of the next tout.••" The Lord Chancellor"
—was received with a degree of enthusiasm which it would be
difficult to describe. •

The Loan Clixtrezeeoa, when the plaudits subsided, rose, evi-
dently under the influence of strong emotion, to return thanks.
Hie first attempt to address the Company excited still louder peals
of applause than those which had just preceded.
His Loansnie hoped ha would be excused for the feeble expres.
sine with which he could recognize so much kindness--for in
truth he was overpowered by the intensity of his feeling. He had
no boast to make ; all he could say was, that he had honestly die-
charged his duty.—(Loud applause.)--It was now twenty years
since the great man whose memory they were this day assembled
to celebrate was laid in his grave. But though his mortal re-
mains now mosildered in the tomb, his mime; would imperishably
survive. He had the honour of attending the first of those meet-
ings whiclilhe gratitude of the people had instituted to the me-
mory of Mr. Pitt, and he had declared, that as long as God
granted hint life .and health to witness ' each succeeding an-
yueen i
ary, he would deem t a duty not to be alma., He had
never solicited favours, but that illustrious man had conferral
upon him the greatest favour which a professional own could
receive. From the year 17S he dated the commencement
of his own public career, and in 1792 ho had the honour to
be appointed a Judge. shortly after followed the revolution
in France. The financial affairs of England were then per-
plexed with unexampled embarrassments ; the whole world was
arrayed in arms against her, and it was impossible to con-
template the prospect which then presented' itself without
shuddering at the
probable result. The operations of the whole
world seemed to be wrought against liberty, and even England
wain not true to herself. Within the very bosom of the country
lurked her domestic enemies, preaching sedition and treason.
False theories of liberty and equality were raised, and substituted
for the sonnd doctrines which were necessary to secure to Eng-
prosperity, Mr. Pitt was then tidied upon
land her happiness and
not only to meet the demands
upon the finances and blood of
the country, but to tit) what was in the highest degree painful
to him, namely to abridge fur a time the liberties of his coun-
trymen, -in order by the temporary sacrifice of a part, to secure
the eventual enjoyment of the whole. At that period he (the
Noble Lord) did what-he conceived to be his duty, and he looked
back with the proud and gratified feeling of conscious, rectitude to.
the period of its performance, though at no other season of Ws