ostensibly against Jacobitism, but really intended to crush Murray, who had just been raised from the office of Solicitor to that of Attorney General. "In both speeches," says Fox, "every word was MURRAY, yet so managed that neither he nor any body else could take public notice of it, or in any way reprehend him. I sat near Murray, who suffered for an hour." It was, perhaps, on this occasion, says Butler, in his Reminiscences, that Pitt used an expression which was once in every mouth. After Murray had "suffered" for a time, Pitt stopped, threw his eyes around, then fixing their whole power on Murray, exclaimed, "I must now address a few words to Mr. Attorney; they shall be few, but shall be daggers." Murray was agitated; the look was continued; the agitation increased. "Felix trembles!" exclaimed Pitt, in a tone of thunder; "he shall hear me some other day!" He sat down. Murray made no reply; and a languid debate showed the paralysis of the House. Such were the effects of Mr. Pitt's oratory when he wished to be severe.

Another instance of Mr. Pitt confounding a member of Parliament, and awing the House into silence, occurred several years after, when he had become an invalid. Having finished a speech in the House of Commons, he walked out with a slow step, being severely afflicted with the gout. A silence ensued until the door was opened to let him pass into the lobby, when a member started up, saying, "Mr. Speaker, I rise to reply to the right honorable gentleman" — "Pitt, who had caught the words, turned back and fixed his eye on the orator, who instantly sat down. He then returned towards his seat, repeating, as he hobbled along, the lines of Virgil, in which the poet, conducting Æneas through the shades below, describes the terror which his presence inspired among the ghosts of the Greeks who had fought at Troy."

"Ast Danaum proceres, Agamemnoniæque phalanges
Ut vidère virum, fulgentiaque arma per umbras,
Ingenti trepidare metu; pars vertere terga,
Ceu quondam petière rates; pars tollere vocem
Exiguam: inceptus clamor frustratur hiantes.*

Virgil En., vi., 489.

Reaching his seat, Pitt exclaimed, in a tone that terrified the whole House, "Now let me hear what the honorable gentleman has to say to me!" One who was present, being asked whether the house was not convulsed with laughter, at the ludicrous situation of the poor orator and the aptness of the lines, replied, "No, sir; we were all too much awed to laugh."

A similar anecdote is recorded of the celebrated Mirabeau,f in the debate of the National Assembly, when Neckar

*The Grecian chiefs, and Agamemnon's host,
When they beheld the MAN with shining arms

Amid those shades, trembled with sudden fear.

Part turned their backs in flight, as when they sought
Their ships. *

*

Part raised

A feeble outcry; but the sound commenced,

Died on their gasping lips.

† Honoré Gabriel Riquette, Compte de Mirabeau was born at Bignon, in France, on the 9th of March, 1749. He was the greatest of the French political orators. The following graphic sketch of his oratorical character, which will afford the reader some idea of his vehemence as a public speaker, is furnished by a distinguished French writer.

"Mirabeau in the tribune was the most imposing of orators: an orator so consummate, that it is harder to say what he wanted than what he possessed.

"Mirabeau had a massive and square obesity of figure, thick lips, a forehead broad, bony, prominent; arched eyebrows, an eagle eye, cheeks flat and somewhat flabby, features full of pock-holes and blotches, a voice of thunder, an enormous mass of hair, and the face of a lion.

"His manner as an orator is that of the great masters of antiquity, with an admirable energy of gesture and a vehemence of dictior, which perhaps they had never reached.

"Mirabeau in his premeditated discourses was admirable. But what was ae not in his extemporaneous effusions? His natural vehemence, of which he

had proposed an extraordinary subsidy by a vote of credit, as the only escape from national bankruptcy. Mirabeau supported this, in a speech which carried the vote of the Assembly by storm. A member got up and said, "I rise to reply to M. de Mirabeau." Mirabeau glared on his opponent; and the assembly gazed with silent surprise at the man who could venture to reply to such a speech. The unlucky orator, after standing for a moment with his mouth open and his arm raised, sat down without uttering another word.

In December, 1756, Mr. Pitt entered on the duties of Prime Minister. During his brief, but glorious administration, he was supported by the unanimous voice of the people; but the King regarded him with personal dislike; and in April, 1757, he was deprived of his office. So great

repressed the flights in his prepared speeches, broke down al! barriers in his improvisations. A sort of nervous irritability gave then to his whole frame an almost preternatural animation and life. His breast dilated with an impetuous breathing. His lion face became wrinkled and contorted. His eyes shot forth flame. He roared, he stamped, he shook the fierce mass of his hair, all whitened with foam; he trod the tribune with the supreme authority of a master, and the imperial air of a king. What an interesting spectacle to behold him, momently, erect and exalt himself under the pressure of obstacle! To see him display the pride of his commanding brow! To see him, like the ancient orator, when, with all the powers of his unchained eloquence, he was wont to sway to and fro in the forum the agitated waves of the Roman multitude! Then would he throw by the measured notes of his declamation, habitually grave and solemn. Then would escape him broken exclamations, tones of thunder, and accents of heartrending and terrible pathos. He concealed with the flesh and color of his rhetoric the sinewy arguments of his dialectics. He transported the Assembly, because he was himself transported. And yet so extraordinary was his force-he abandoned himself to the torrent of his eloquence, without wandering from his course; he mastered others by its sovereign sway, without losing for an instant his own self-control."

As a fine specimen of his burning eloquence, we quote his beautiful eulogium on our immortal Franklin, pronounced on the 11th of June, 1790:

"Franklin is dead! Restored to the bosom of the divinity is that genius which gave freedom to America and rayed forth torrents of light upon Europe.

was the popularity of Mr. Pitt, that immediately after his dismissal, he received addresses of thanks, expressed in the warmest language, from all parts of the kingdom. "For some weeks," says Horace Walpole, "it rained gold boxes!" In vain did the king attempt to form another administration; and Pitt was borne back to the cabinet. as it were, "on the shoulders of the people."

In June, 1757, his second administration commenced. It was, perhaps, the most brilliant one that British history has ever recorded. By the powers of his sagacious mind, and unrivaled eloquence, Mr. Pitt raised England from the brink of ruin to a high position among the nations of the world. His administration infused a new spirit into the political and military affairs of the nation. Everything was done with promptness while he held the reins of government. England was then at war with France; The sage whom two worlds claim the man whom the history of empires and the history of science alike contend for-occupied, it can not be denied, a lofty rank among his species. Long enough have political cabinets signalized the death of those who were great in their funeral eulogies only. Long enough has the etiquette of courts prescribed hypocritical mournings. For their benefactors only should nations assume the emblems of grief; and the representatives of nations should commend only the heroes of humanity to public veneration.

"In the fourteen states of the confederacy, Congress has ordained a mourning of two months for the death of Franklin; and America is at this moment acquitting herself of this tribute of honor to one of the Fathers of her Constitution. Would it not become us, gentlemen, to unite in this religious act; to participate in this homage, publicly rendered, at once to the rights of man, and to the philosopher who has contributed most largely to their vindication throughout the world? Antiquity would have erected altars to this great and powerful genius, who, to promote the welfare of mankind, comprehending both the heavens and the earth in the range of his thought, could at once snatch the bolt from the cloud and the scepter from tyrants. France, enlightened and free, owes at least the acknowledgment of her remembrance and regret to one of the greatest intellects that ever served the united cause of philosophy and liberty. I propose that it be now decreed that the National Assembly wear mourning, during three days, for Benjamin Franklin." Mirabeau died in 1791.

and, during his administration, she won several of the most brilliant victories that ever graced the British arms. The English were victorious in almost every quarter; in Asia, Africa, and America. Their flag waved triumphantly over the seas. It was at this time that Admiral Hawke gained his brilliant naval victory off Quiberon, and that the gallant Wolfe, whom Pitt himself had brought forward, expired in the arms of victory, at Quebec. The vigorous plans which Mr. Pitt formed for carrying on the war with France, and the great ability with which he managed the whole affairs of government, proved that he was the greatest statesman that England had produced.*

France was soon effectually humbled, and, in 1761, sought for peace. Mr. Pitt declared to his friends, when about to enter on the negotiation, that "no Peace of Utrecht should again stain the annals of England." In the meantime, France entered into a close alliance with Spain. The French minister, now changing his tone, came forward with proposals which Mr. Pitt spurned. He declared that "he would not relax one syllable from his terms, until the Tower of London was taken by storm." But Mr. Pitt could no longer carry his measures. George III had ascended the throne, and with his accession a new favorite, the Earl of Bute, rose into power. The proposal of Mr. Pitt, for immediately declaring war against Spain, was voted down by an obsequious cabinet; whereupon he instantly resigned, "in order not to remain responsible for measures which he was no longer allowed to guide." Thus ended his glorious ministry, on the 5th of October, 1761.

"As a statesman, his influence over the minds of the people was more universal and powerful than that of any minister whom the world has seen. He spread an enthusiasm amongst the people which never before was equaled. He persuaded the nation that it was invincible and irresistible, and he lived to prove the truth of his assertions. — Thackeray.