1805,

certain existing evils rendered it needful and

[[137]]expedient, in the opinion of the ministry, that the English nation should fear an invasion from Buonaparte. We will say WHY they deemed it necessary. Because the burdens of the poor were already immense, and it was requisite to give an excuse for stripping thousands of families of their scanty apparel, their few mean and simple articles of furniture, and their humble home, for the purpose of enabling the "hydra-headed monster" of corruption to pursue his unlimited course over this insulted nation! And what could be better to effect this object than alarming the country with the fear of an invasion? The diabolical scheme too fatally succeeded!

In order to strengthen the power of the queen at this period, Mr. Pitt renewed his connexion with Mr. Addington, who was raised to the peerage by the title of Viscount Sidmouth, and succeeded the Duke of Portland as president of the council.

The minister, Mr. Pitt, cool as he was on many iniquitous subjects, could not avoid feeling pangs of remorse at the continual impositions he was compelled by the queen to make (in various shapes) upon the people. His unbending pride, however, would not permit him to name his uneasiness to her majesty, as he well knew her inflexible temper and disposition would not permit her to receive any opinion in preference to her own. He soon resigned his earthly vexation upon this point, as he became so indisposed as not to be able to attend his political affairs, and was obliged to seek for repose in retirement from active life.

[[138]]At the commencement of the year

1806,

parliament was opened by commission; but the usual address was omitted, on account of the absence of the minister, who, as before stated, was then seriously indisposed.

On the 23rd of January, Mr. Pitt expired, in the forty-seventh year of his age. He was said to have died insolvent. Be this as it may, forty thousand pounds were voted as a plea to discharge his debts, as well as means to defray the expenses of his funeral! Probably this was the best laid-out money of the ministry for some time past. If the occasion had occurred twenty years before, what an immense saving it had produced the country!

The public life of Mr. Pitt will afford no room for praise to the faithful and just historian. When the errors and praises of his biographers shall have lost their force, future generations will behold his character in its native colours. He must then appear either in the light of an ungrateful hypocrite, or submit to the only alternative of being reckoned a man of contracted mind. Even in private life, he was not more amiable nor exemplary. The ministerial system which he had laid down pervaded the internal economy of all his actions. He appeared to imagine true dignity consisted in a coolness and reserve, (probably acquired from his queen) that banished every suitor from his presence; nor did he ever suffer