Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 45.djvu/366

 of the highland clans. During the earlier part of the winter Pitt was laid up with a severe attack of gout. He made his first appearance as leader of the house on 17 Feb. 1757, when he delivered a message from the king, desiring support for his electoral dominions and the king of Prussia (, Memoirs of the Reign of George II, ii. 313). On the following day Pitt proposed a vote of 200,000l. on that account, and was unkindly reminded by Fox that he had said 'the German measures of last year would be a millstone about the neck of the minister' (ib. ii. 314). In the same month he pleaded unsuccessfully with the king for Admiral Byng. When he urged that the House of Commons was inclined to mercy, the king shrewdly replied, 'Sir, you have taught me to look for the sense of my subjects in another place than the House of Commons' (ib. ii. 331). To Waldegrave the king expressed his dislike of Pitt and Temple in very strong terms, and complained that 'the secretary made him long speeches, which possibly might be very fine, but were greatly beyond his comprehension ; and that his letters were affected, formal, and pedantic' (, Memoirs, p. 95). Urged by the Duke of Cumberland, who was desirous that a new administration should be formed before he set out for Hanover, where he was about to take the command of the electoral forces, the king at length struck the blow which he had for some time meditated. On 5 April 1757 Temple was dismissed from office, and on the following day Pitt shared the same fate. The public discontent, which had subsided when Pitt had been called to power, now burst out again on his dismissal from office. The stocks fell. The court of common council voted the freedom of the city to Pitt and Legge for 'their loyal and disinterested conduct during their truly honourable though short administration,' and for some weeks a shower of gold boxes and addresses descended upon Pitt from all parts of the country (, Anecdotes, iii. 2-5). Ultimately, after a ministerial interregnum of eleven weeks, the king found himself obliged to acquiesce in Pitt's return. On 11 June Lord Mansfield was given full powers to open negotiations with Pitt and Newcastle. With the assistance of Lord Hardwicke as mediator, the alliance between Hie two statesmen was concluded, and on 20 June Pitt once more became secretary of state, with the supreme direction of the war and of foreign affairs. The Duke of Newcastle returned to the treasury as the nominal head of the ministry, with the disposal of the civil and ecclesiastical patronage, and of that part of the secret-service money which was employed in bribing the members of the House of Commons. Lord Granville remained president of the council. Legge again became chancellor of the exchequer ; Sir Robert Henley, afterwards Lord Northington, was appointed lord keeper of the great seal ; Temple lord privy seal, George Grenville treasurer of the navy, and Fox paymaster-general of the forces. Pitt was anxious to represent the city of Bath, which Henley vacated on his promotion to the peerage. As no new secretary of state had been 'appointed in his room, nor his commission revoked,' he was under no necessity to offer himself for re-election (, Memoirs of Lord Lyttelton, 1845, ii. 594). He therefore accepted the Chiltern Hundreds (Journals of the House of Commons, xxvii. 926), and at a by-election in July 1757 was returned for Bath. During the next four years Pitt's biography is to be found in the history of the world. Since 1756 England, allied with Prussia under Frederick the Great, had been arrayed in war against a combination of France, Austria, and the Empire, which was afterwards joined by Russia and Spain. The conflict was pursued in America and India, as well as in Europe. The struggle had opened disastrously for England. 'My lord,' Pitt had said to the Duke of Devonshire, 'I am sure I can save this country, and nobody else can' (, Memoirs of the Reign of George II, iii. 84). Upon being recalled to power, he immediately took steps to accomplish this task. Braving all charges of inconsistency, he brushed aside his old hatred of foreign subsidies and German alliances, and frankly declared that he would win America in Germany. With the opening of 1758 began a succession of victories all over the world which effectually justified the claim, of Pitt to be the restorer of the greatness of Britain. 'We are forced to ask every morning,' said Horace Walpole in 1759, 'what victory there has been for fear of missing one.' Pitt himself planned the expeditions, and he raised loans for war expenses with a profusion that appalled more timid financiers. In 1760 no less than sixteen millions were voted. After the Duke of Cumberland's humiliating acceptance of the convention of Kloster Seven (10 Sept. 1757), which Pitt promptly disavowed, he raised another army for service in Germany, which, under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, gained the decisive battle of Minden (1 Aug. 1759). In the meantime, in America, Louisburg and Fort Duquesne were wrested from