Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/69

 had a letter to write to his steward about some estate or another—voilà l'embarras de richesses: but when he heard of some generous action done by a wealthy man—'There’s the pleasure of being rich,’ he would cry. He did not pretend to despise wealth, but he was not a slave to it, as will be seen by the following anecdotes:—

“At one time a person was empowered by his city friends to settle on him £10,000 a year, in order to render him independent of the favour of the king and of everybody, upon condition (as they expressed it) that he would stand forth to save his country. The offer was made through me, and I said I would deliver the message, but was afraid the answer would not be such as they wished. Mr. Pitt in fact refused it, saying he was much flattered by their approval of his conduct, but that he could accept nothing of the sort.

"Yet these people," added Lady Hester, "were not, as you might at first suppose, disinterested in their offer: I judged them to be otherwise. For if it had been to the man, and not to some hopes of gain they had by him, would they not, after his death, have searched out those he esteemed as angels, and have honoured his memory by enriching those he loved so much? (alluding to herself and brothers.) But no—they thought if Mr. Pitt retired from public affairs, the country and its commerce would go to ruin, and