"The Secretary stood alone; modern degeneracy had not reached him; original and unaccommodating—the features of his character had the hardihood of antiquity. No State chicanery, no narrow system of vicious politics, no idle contest for ministerial victories, sunk him to the vulgar level of the great; but overbearing and persuasive, his object was—England; his ambition—fame! Without dividing, he destroyed party; without corrupting, he made a venal age unanimous. France sunk beneath him. With one hand he smote the house of Bourbon, and wielded with the other the democracy of England. The sight of his mind was infinite; and his schemes were to affect, not England and the present age only, but Europe and posterity. Wonderful were the means by which these schemes were accomplished; always seasonable, always adequate, the suggestion of an understanding animated by ardour, and enlightened by prophecy. The ordinary feelings which make life amiable and indolent—those sensations which allure and vulgarize—were unknown to him. A character so exalted, so strenuous, so various, so authoritative, astonished a corrupt age, and the Treasury trembled at the name of Pitt through all her classes of venality. Corruption imagined, indeed, that she found defects in this statesman, and talked much of the inconsistency of his glory, and much of the ruin of his victories; but the history of his country and the calamity of his enemies answered and refuted her. Nor were his political abilities his only talents; his eloquence was an era in the senate, peculiar and spontaneous, familiarly expressing gigantic sentiments and instinctive wisdom: not like the torrent of Demosthenes, or the conflagration of Tully; it resembled sometimes the thunder and sometimes the music of the spheres. He did not conduct the understanding through the painful subtlety of argumentation; nor was he for ever on the rack of exertion, but rather lightened on the subject, and reached the point by the flashings of the mind, which, like those of his eye, were felt, but could not be followed. Upon the whole, there was in this man something that could create, reform, or subvert; an understanding, a spirit, and an eloquence to summon mankind to society, or to break the bonds of slavery asunder, and rule the wildness of free minds with unbounded authority: something that could establish or overwhelm empire, and strike a blow in the world that should resound through the universe."

At the time of Lord Chatham being interred, it was intimated in the public prints that an epitaph descriptive of his talents and services was to be inscribed on his tombstone; and that any one writing such an epitaph would render an acceptable service to the committee who had the management of his monument. The following was sent, but as it was unkindly rejected by them, it is here inserted:—

"HERE LIES THE BODY OF WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM;
A GREAT AND ELOQUENT STATESMAN,
WHOM THE KING DID NOT CONSULT OR EMPLOY,
AND WHOM THE KING WAS RESOLVED NEVER TO CONSULT
OR EMPLOY;
A MOST INFORMED AND ENLIGHTENED SENATOR,
A MOST CONVINCING AND PERSUASIVE ORATOR,
WHOSE OPINIONS AND ADVICE THE PARLIAMENT HEARD WITH MOST
ILLIBERAL IMPATIENCE,
AND WHOSE ARGUMENTS THEY TREATED WITH MOST
SOVEREIGN CONTEMPT.
THESE WERE THE SENTIMENTS,
AND THIS THE CONDUCT, OF BOTH KING AND PARLIAMENT.
TO PERPETUATE THE MEMORY OF HIS ABILITIES,
AND THEIR WISDOM,
THAT KING AND THAT PARLIAMENT HAVE
ERECTED THIS MONUMENT."

[136] It has been generally called a Cheshire cheese. Having never seen this pride of the English dairy with a hole bored through the middle, I have ventured to pronounce it a millstone.

[137] Lord Bute is said to be personified by one of the Highlanders: as I cannot ascertain which, my reader must discover it—if he can. The fireman is probably intended for the Duke of Bedford.

[138] If Hogarth must be so unmercifully abused for what he inserted, he is entitled to some credit for what he erased. I hope this blot in his original design will not be considered as an additional blot on his escutcheon.

[139] The small pyramid upon a little pedestal immediately behind him is, I think, an afterthought. It much resembles the ornament inscribed "Cyprus," which was painted on Hogarth's chariot, and might possibly be intended to carry some allusion to himself, for the stream of water from one of the garretteers just touches the point.

[140] Hogarth seems to have had a strong antipathy to the politics of this year. In later impressions of Plate 8 of "The Rake's Progress" will be found a halfpenny with the same date, in which Britannia is represented in the character of a maniac, with dishevelled hair, etc.

[141] If this sign of the Castle were not inscribed "Newcastle Inn," we should take it for a very old castle indeed. Its being in so ruinous a state, the frame shattered, and off one hook, describes the Duke's interest at that time. His Grace might be termed a Father of the Church, for he had promoted almost every bishop in the kingdom, and during the continuance of his administration an archbishop's levee could not have a more sable appearance. He resigned, or was turned out, which the reader pleaseth; and at his succeeding levee—there was not one ecclesiastic!

[142] Lord Besborough and the Honourable Robert Hampden were, I think, joint Postmasters-General this year; a short time after, Lord Egmont had the situation of Lord Besborough, but soon resigned.