The biographer of Pitt was a grandson of the Lord Mahon, afterwards Earl of Stanhope, who married, in 1774, the great statesman’s eldest sister.  Philip Henry Stanhope was born at Walmer on January 30, 1805, and entered the House of Commons as Lord Mahon in 1831.  He took a prominent part in the foundation of the National Portrait Gallery, and the Historical Manuscripts Commission, and the promotion of successful archaeological investigations on the site of Troy.  His literary labours were considerable and important.  Chief among them were the “History of England from the Peace of Utrecht to the Peace of Versailles,” the “History of Queen Anne’s Reign,” and the “Life of the Right Honourable William Pitt.”  The last named, published in 1861-2, is one of the most authoritative of political biographies, compiled with a gravity and care characteristic of its author, and of abiding value as a standard book of reference for one of the greatest personalities and one of the most stirring periods of English history.  Earl Stanhope died on December 24, 1875.

I.—­The Boy Statesman

William Pitt, the elder, afterwards Earl of Chatham, married in 1754 Lady Hester Grenville.  William Pitt, their second son, was born on May 28, 1759, at Hayes, near Bromley, in Kent.

In his boyhood, from the earliest years, William Pitt evinced to all around him many tokens of intellectual promise and ambition; but his parents were frequently distressed by his delicate health.  It was no doubt on this account that he was not sent to any public or private school.  Lord Chatham was extremely careful of the education of his family; and, without any disparagement to young William’s tutor, it was certainly from his father that he profited most.

William was at fourteen so forward in his studies that he was sent to Cambridge, commencing his residence at Pembroke Hall in October 1773.  His health at this period gave cause for great alarm.  A serious illness at Cambridge, however, proved a turning-point; for long afterwards he enjoyed fairly good health.  Early hours, daily exercise on horseback, and liberal potations of port wine—­his elixir of strength at this time, although it helped in later years to undermine his constitution—­made him far stronger after his illness than before it.

In 1778, after the death of his father, he was entered at Lincoln’s Inn, and was called to the Bar in 1780.  But he had little opportunity of practising as a barrister, for his parliamentary ambitions were soon fulfilled.  In the autumn of 1780 he was an unsuccessful candidate for Cambridge University; but through the influence of Sir James Lowther he was returned in the same year for Appleby, and took his seat in the Commons on January 23, 1781.

Lord North was still at the head of affairs, and the Opposition consisted of two parties:  the aristocratic Whigs, whose leader was the Marquis of Rockingham, but whose true guiding spirit was Charles James Fox; and a smaller band of the old adherents of Lord Chatham, under Lord Shelburne.  To this party Pitt, as a matter of course, attached himself.  His first speech was made on February 26, in support of Burke’s bill for economical reform.  He completely fulfilled the high expectations that had been formed of the son of so illustrious a father.  Not only did he please, it may be said that he astonished the House.