ry," he said to the Duke of Devonshire on his entry
into the Ministry, "and I know no other man can." The groundwork of
Pitt's character was an intense and passionate pride; but it was a pride
which kept him from stooping to the level of the men who had so long
held England in their hands. He was the first statesman since the
Restoration who set the example of a purely public spirit. Keen as was
his love of power, no man ever refused office so often, or accepted it
with so strict a regard to the principles he professed. "I will not go
to Court," he replied to an offer which was made him, "if I may not
bring the Constitution with me." For the corruption about him he had
nothing but disdain. He left to Newcastle the buying of seats and the
purchase of members. At the outset of his career Pelham appointed him to
the most lucrative office in his administration, that of Paymaster of
the Forces; but its profits were of an illicit kind, and poor as he was,
Pitt refused to accept one farthing beyond his salary. His pride never
appeared in loftier and nobler form than in his attitude towards the
people at large. No leader had ever a wider popularity than "the great
commoner," as Pitt was styled, but his air was always that of a man who
commands popularity, not that of one who seeks it. He never bent to
flatter popular prejudice. When mobs were roaring themselves hoarse for
"Wilkes and liberty," he denounced Wilkes as a worthless profligate; and
when all England went mad in its hatred of the Scots, Pitt haughtily
declared his esteem for a people whose courage he had been the first to
enlist on the side of loyalty. His noble figure, the hawk-like eye which
flashed from the small thin face, his majestic voice, the fire and
grandeur of his eloquence, gave him a sway over the House of Commons far
greater than any other minister has possessed. He could silence an
opponent with a look of scorn, or hush the whole House with a single
word. But he never stooped to the arts by which men form a political
party, and at the height of his power his personal following hardly
numbered half a dozen members.

[Sidenote: His patriotism.]

His real strength indeed lay not in Parliament but in the people at
large. His title of "the great commoner" marks a political revolution.
"It is the people who have sent me here," Pitt boasted with a haughty
pride when the nobles of the Cabinet opposed his will. He was the first
to see that the long political in