By This, He Did Not Mean To
Reflect On Lord Shelburne:
Only of this he was certain, that the
present administration was a thousand times worse than that under
Lord North (who was present).
When I heard Mr. Pitt speak for the first time, I was astonished
that a man of so youthful an appearance should stand up at all; but
I was still more astonished to see how, while he spoke, he engaged
universal attention. He seems to me not to be more than one-and-
twenty. This same Pitt is now minister, and even Chancellor of the
Exchequer.
It is shocking to a foreigner, to see what violent satires on men,
rather than on things, daily appear in the newspapers, of which they
tell me there are at least a dozen, if not more, published every
day. Some of them side with the Ministry, and still more I think
with the Opposition. A paper that should be quite impartial, if
that were possible, I apprehend would be deemed so insipid as to
find no readers. No longer ago than yesterday, it was mentioned in
one of these newspapers, that when Fox, who is fallen, saw so young
a man as Pitt made the minister, he exclaimed with Satan, who, in
"Paradise Lost," on perceiving the man approved by God, called out,
"O hateful sight!"
On Thursday the king went with the usual solemnity to prorogue the
Parliament for a stated time. But I pass this over as a matter that
has already been so often described.
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