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Untitled Article
that he turned his attention from the law" upon his obtaining a se&t in parliament . Mr . Pitt entered the House of Commons
as a member of the new parliament ^ which met October 31 , 1780 . His first speech was delivered the 26 th February 1781 , in an unsuccessful support of Mr . Burke's famous bill for reforming the expenditure , and so diminishing the influence of the crown . At the Lent assizes in the following year , Mr . P . for the second and last time went the western circuit , in which
the interest of his family chiefly lay * His name appears m a printed " Trial of an Action brought by Benfield against Petrie , for Bribery at the Cricklade Election , tried at Salisbury , March 12 , 1782 . 5 > In this cause he was junior counsel for the defendant , his leader was a Mr . Burke , of whom I know nothing , probably the son or nephew x > f the Burke whom every body knows . From this statement you perceive that Mr . P . looked to the law for his advancement for some time after he became a
senator . The event which opened his career of ambition as a statesman was the unexpected and much lamented death of the Marquis of Rockingham ^ in July 1782 > after an administration of only three months , and the consequent disagreement
of the late Marquis of Landsdown , then Lord Shelburn , and Mr . Fox , who had acted with him as joint Secretaries of State . Mr . Pitt immediately became Chancellor of the Exchequer , and in little more than a year attained the summit of power , at an a < re when he must have been almost more than human not to
become giddy with the elevation . His acts are now consigned to the animadversions of history , \ yhich I trust will-do ' him justice . As it has been well observed in one of the daily prints , the ruins of political institutions scattered over Europe under the influence of Mr . Pitt ' s Administration will c < a tale unfold' * which no pompous monument which €€ lifts its head and lies' * will be able to disprove . I remain , Sir ^ yours , Feb . 12 , 1806- Verax * .
* We admit that the strictures of Verax are just . The Mr . Burke wfio wast fellow-counsel with Mr . Pitt in the defence of Mr . Petrie was , it is most probable , the son of Edmund Burke . It was a cause in which he was likely to be engaged ; and the time ( 1782 ) agrees -with the time of his coming forward into public life . Mr . Burke declared twice in his speech on this occasion , that " this was the first time he had had the honour of addressing a jury . " Editor .
Untitled Article
80 Mr \ Pitt a Lawyer .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1806, page 80, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1721/page/24/
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