BRITISH PLUTARCH,

CONTAINING

THE LI V E S

OF THE

Most Eminent StatesMEN,, Patriots, Di-

VINES, WARRIORS, PHILOSOPHERS, POETS,
and ARTISTS, of GREAT BRITAIN and IRE-
LAND, from the Accession of HENRY VIII. to
the present Time. Including, a Compendious
View of the History of England during that
Period.

IN EIGHT VOLUM I S.

FOR TIBA
VOL. VIII.

EW-Y01:1
THE THIRD EDITION,

Revised, corrected and considerably enlarged,

: by the Addition of New Lives,

LONDON:
Printed for CHARLES DILLY, in the Poultry..

' MDCCXCI.

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM PITT, : EARL OF CHATHAM.

(A. D. 1908, to 1778.)

T HIS illustrious statesman was born on the

15th of November, 1708. His grandfather was Thomas Pitt, Efq; some time governor of Madras, and who fold to the king of France, for 135,000l. the celebrated diamond, commonly known by the appellation of Pitt's diamond. His father was Robert Pitt, Esq; of Boconnock, in Corn. wall. After having received a liberal education, he entered into the army, and became a cornet of horse; but he seems soon to have discovered, as one of his biographers has expressed it, “ that the senate, and not the camp, the cabinet and not the field, were the scenes for which nature had deftined

Vol. VIII.