Islands, and in the Bermudas, at least sixty thousand able persons of this nation, many of them well armed, and their bodies seasoned to that climate, which with a very small charge, might be set down in some advantageous parts of these pleasant, rich, and fruitful countries, and easily make his Majesty master of all that treasure, which not only foments the war, but is the great support of popery in all parts of Christendom.

9. And lastly, those courses are likely to produce such distempers in the State as may not be settled without great charge and loss; by which means more may be consumed in a few months than shall be gotten by such ways in many years. Having thus passed through the two first general branches, he was now come to the third, wherein he was to set down the ways of healing and removing those grievances which consisted of two main branches: first, in declaring the law where it was doubtful; the second, in better provision for the execution of law, where it is clear. But (he said) because he had already spent much time, and begun to find some confusion in his memory, 25 he would refer the particulars to another opportunity, and for the present only move that which was

general to all, and which would give weight and advantage to all the particular ways of redress. That is, that we should speedily desire a conference with the lords, and acquaint them with the miserable condition wherein we find the Church and State; and as we have already resolved to join in a religious seeking of God, in a day of fast and humiliation, so to entreat them to concur with us in a parliamentary course of petitioning the King, as there should be occasion; and in searching out the causes and remedies of these many insupportable grievances under which we lie. That so, by the united wisdom and authority of both Houses, such courses may be taken as (through God's blessing) may advance the honor and greatness of his Majesty, and restore and establish the peace and prosperity of the kingdom.

This, he said, we might undertake with comfort and hope of success; for though there be a darkness upon the land, a thick and palpable darkness, like that of Egypt, yet, as in that, the sun had not lost his light, nor the Egyptians their sight (the interruption was only in the medium), so with us, there is still (God be thanked) light in the sun-wisdom and justice in his Majesty to dispel this darkness; and in us there remains a visual faculty, whereby we

are enabled to apprehend, and moved to desire, light. And when we shall be blessed in the enjoying of it, we shall thereby be incited to return his Majesty such thanks as may make it shine more clearly in the world, to his own glory, and in the hearts of his people, to their joy and contentment.

At the conclusion of Pym's speech, the King's solicitor, Herbert, "with all imaginable address," attempted to call off the attention of the members from the extraordinary impression it had made. But the singular moderation no less than the deadly force of Pym's statements had created a calm but a settled determination. A committee was at once appointed to inquire into violations of privilege; and it was resolved to ask for a conference on grievances with the Lords. A conference was held, and the debate continued for two days-that of the second day continuing from eight in the morning till five in the afternoon. The King saw that grievances would have to be redressed before supplies would be granted, and, accordingly, at an early hour on the following morning, he dissolved Parliament. The Revolution was now probably inevitable. The affection of the people and of the members of Parliament for the King was fast transformed into distrust, and finally into hostility. Macaulay in his essays on Hampden" and "Hallam's Constitutional History" has well shown the several steps in the process of transformation. The King was soon obliged to summon another Parliament; and when the new members came together in November of the same year, it was evident that compromise was no longer possible. The impeachment and execution of Strafford were soon followed by an attempt of the King to arrest the leading members of Parliament, and this attempt in turn was followed by the outbreak of war.

LORD CHATHAM.

THE elder William Pitt entered the House of Commons at the age of twenty-six, in the year 1735. At Eton and at Oxford his energies had been devoted to a course of study that was admirably adapted to develop the remarkable powers for which his name is so well known. We are told that he was a devoted student of the classics, that he wrote out again and again carefully-prepared translations of some of the great models of ancient oratory, and that in this way he acquired his easy command of a forcible and expressive style. His studies in English, too, were directed to the same end. He read and reread the sermons of Dr. Barrow, till he had acquired something of that great preacher's copiousness of vocabulary and exactness of expression. With the same end in

view he also performed the extraordinary task of going twice through Bailey's Dictionary, examining every word, and making himself, as far as possible, complete master of all the shades of its significance. Joined to these efforts was also an unusual training in elocution, which gave him extraordinary command of a remarkable voice, and made him an actor scarcely inferior to Garrick himself. It may be doubted whether any one, since the days of Cicero, has subjected himself to an equal amount of pure drudgery in order to fit himself for the duties of a public speaker.

When Pitt entered the House of Commons, Walpole was at the height of his power. Pitt's first speech was on the occasion of the marriage of the Prince of Wales in 1736; and, although it consisted mainly of a series of highsounding compliments, it attracted immediate and universal attention on account of its fine command of language and its general elegance of manner. United with these characteristics was also a vein of irony that made it "gall