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 an English Gentleman to Mr. Arland, giving an Account of a Journey to the Glacieres or Ice Alps of Savoy’ (1744), is one of the earliest printed accounts of Chamonix and Mont Blanc (see, Life of Stillingfleet; , Annals of Mont Blanc; , Le Mont Blanc, 1897, pp. 50–62; , William Windham et Pierre Martel, Genève, 1879). He also visited Hungary, and for some time was an officer in one of Queen Maria Theresa's hussar regiments. Returning to England, he vigorously supported Pitt's scheme for a national militia in 1756, and helped the Marquis Townshend to form the Norfolk militia regiment in 1757. He published in 1760 a ‘Plan of Discipline’ in quarto, with plates, which came into general use, and he sat in parliament for Aldeburgh in 1754. The statesman's father married Sarah Hicks, widow of Robert Lukin of Dunmow, Essex, and died of consumption on 30 Oct. 1761 at the age of forty-four.

William, the only son, was born on 3 May (O. S.) 1750 at No. 6 Golden Square, Soho. From 1762 to 1766 he was at Eton, where he was a contemporary of Fox, and was then placed with Dr. Anderson, professor of natural philosophy in the university of Glasgow. He attended the lectures of Robert Simson [q. v.], professor of mathematics, and pursued the study in later life, even composing three mathematical treatises, which, however, he never published. On 10 Sept. 1767 he entered University College, Oxford, as a gentleman commoner, and became a pupil of Robert Chambers. He was created M.A. on 7 Oct. 1782, and on 3 July 1793 he became an honorary D.C.L. Both at school and at college he was quick and industrious, but as a young man he was completely indifferent to public affairs, though distinguished both as a scholar and a man of fashion. Accordingly he refused Lord Townshend's offer of the secretaryship to the lord-lieutenant of Ireland, made while he was still at college, and left Oxford in 1771. Two years later he started with Commodore Constantine John Phipps (afterwards second baron Mulgrave [q. v.]) upon a voyage of polar exploration, but was compelled by sea-sickness to land in Norway and make his way home. He afterwards spent some time with the Norfolk militia, in which he attained the rank of major, and passed a couple of years abroad, chiefly in Switzerland and Italy. He also became known to Johnson and Burke. He was Johnson's favoured friend, attended him assiduously in his last days, and was a pall-bearer at his funeral. His attachment to Burke was such that he became his political pupil. He joined the Literary Club and attended its meetings almost till he died, and was also a member of the Essex Head Club.

Meantime he was gradually drawing towards a public career. He made his first public speech on 28 Jan. 1778 at a public meeting called to raise a subscription towards the cost of the American war, and opposed the project. He won some local repute by personal courage and promptitude in quelling a mutiny at Norwich, when the Norfolk militia refused to march into Suffolk, and in September 1780 he unsuccessfully contested Norwich. In 1781 he was a member of the Westminster committee, and came very near standing for Westminster in 1782. He, however, gradually drifted away from his earlier reforming opinions into a fixed antipathy to any constitutional change. In 1783 he became chief secretary to Northington, lord lieutenant of Ireland in the Portland administration, but resigned the post in August, nominally owing to ill-health, but in reality because he desired to give Irish posts to Irishmen, a policy not in favour with his superiors. After the dissolution in March 1784 he was one of the few coalition candidates who were successful, and was elected at Norwich on 5 April. For some time he acted steadily with the opposition, and Burke chose him in June to second his motion on the state of the nation. He spoke in 1785 on the shop tax and the Westminster scrutiny; he strongly supported the right of the Prince of Wales to be regent without restrictions in 1788, and in 1790 killed Flood's reform bill by the happy phrase that ‘no one would select the hurricane season in which to begin repairing his house.’ He was also one of the members charged with the impeachment of Warren Hastings, and undertook that part of the case which dealt with the breach of the treaty of 1774 with Faizulla Khan. He was re-elected at Norwich in 1790, and in February 1791 supported Mitford's catholic relief bill for England. Following Burke, by whom he continued to be largely guided, he took alarm at the French revolution, and in 1792 and 1793 was one of the most ardent supporters of the government's repressive legislation. He supported the proclamation against seditious meetings and the aliens bill, had a plan for raising a troop of cavalry in Norfolk, and on 11 July 1794, on Burke's advice, he somewhat reluctantly consented to take office under Pitt, with the Duke of Portland, Lord Fitzwilliam, and Lord Spencer (, Life of Burke, ii. 264). A secretaryship of state was at first