BOOKS.

LETTERS OF LADY HARRIOT ELIOT."

Mn. CUTHBERT HEADLAM has done a great service to students of the Pitt period in editing these letters, a copy of which we have been allowed to see. As they have been printed privately, we suppose that Mr. Headlam did not think that letters so light in substance would justify publication in the ordinary way. We hope, however, that he, or publishers in general. may have underrated the interest of Englishmen in anything that relates to Chatham and William Pitt, and that a public; edition may be asked for and obtained. If Lady Harriot Pitt —younger daughter of the great Chatham, and afterwards Lady Harriot Eliot—writes in these letters to her mother rather of parties and marriages than of such momentous events as the rebellion in the American Colonies, we never- theless are brought by them into an intimate relation with the Chatham family. That is a clear gain for historical students from any point of view. If we had to describe in one word the effect of the letters upon our mind, we should say that they humanize the family of Chatham. Chatham's remoteness from the world, accentuated of course by his strange and almost eccentric, illnesses, and the eminence of his great eon, with its accompaniments of terrible responsi- bility and austere eloquence, have made plain readers of history feel towards father and son rather as the children of Israel felt towards Moses and Aaron when they descended from the mountain. Lady Harriet's charming and vivacious epistles show us a deeply united and affectionate family. Concern for her father during his illness at Hayes; her carefulness to consult her mother's wishes and win her approval in all her conduct when she is staying away from home ; her pride in the meteoric progress of her brilliant brother William; and her quaint preoccupation with the love affairs of her hesitating and rather ineffectual elder brother— all these things mark a collection of letters which would be worth reading if one knew of them only that they were the work of a clever and well-bred girl of the eighteenth century, but which are trebly well worth reading when one knows them to be the work of Pitt's favourite sister. We must say a word before we go further as to the excellence of the editing. Mr. Headlam has had the good sense to print the lettere exactly as they were written without correcting obvious slips, and above all he has paid his readers the compliment of not treating them like fools. His historical notes are just enough for guidance. He has evidently had to delve a good deal in contemporary memoirs, as the dating of the letters--even so carefully educated a young woman as Lady Harriot Pitt was not free from the feminine vice of not dating letters—has depended upon the episodes described in them. We notice in one place that Sir Horace Mann's name is given as Sir A. Mann, and we think some readers would have been glad to be saved from confusion by being told that Pitt's tutor Pretyman was identical with Bishop Tomline, since that ponderous but excellent person appears under both names in the book. We can find no other defect of any sort in care or judgment. These letters are edited as such lettere should be edited, and we are glad that they did not fall into the hands of one of our school of sickly historians who would have overlaid them with a heap of maudlin bosh and sentimental rakings.

Lady Harriet was born on April 18th, 1758, and was thus a year older than her famous brother. In 1785 she married Mr. Edward James Eliot, theeldest surviving son of the first Lord Eliot. In 1786 she died after giving birth to a daughter, who in 1806 married Colonel, afterwards Lieutenant-General, Sir William Pringle, an officer who served with distinction in the Peninsular War. Lady Harriet's letters were not included in the Pitt papers which the late Admiral Pringle bequeathed to the Public Record Office. They are now printed for the first time, and, so far as the descendants of Lady Harriot Eliot can ascertain, Mr. Basil Williams is the only biographer of the Pitt family who has seen them. The letters range from the year 1766 to 1786, the year in which Pitt concluded his Com- mercial Treaty with France. Mr. Eliot, who married Lady Harriot, was an intimate friend and firm supporter of Pitt. Pitt was genuinely pleased with the match, but it is clear ..Tte Letters 1.43, gy11477;111,Zicg,...176,1yr. Edited by Cuthbert Headlum.

that Lord Eliot did not view it in the same light, for the sole reason that be had hoped his son's wife would bring more money to the assistance. bf the family fortunes. After her marriage Lady Harriet was much liked by her husband's relations, as indeed a woman with so much intelligence, kind- ness, vivacity, and humour could not fail to be. Tho came qualities made her an admirable hostess in Downing Street when she acted in that capacity for her brother.

Chatham, who had been careful to give his sons and daughters the same education at home, was no doubt gratified to find his fifteen-year-old daughter quoting Cicero to the point. The following is an extract from a letter written from Baiton Pynaent in June, 1773. The formal elaboration of this exercise for her father's eye contrasts amusingly with the latitude she allowed herself as she grew older:— "Dies Pspn, I make no doubt will easily imagine that it was not without groat regret that I yielded up the pleasure of writing to him first. Indeed nothing ran be a greater satisfaction to us all than to be allowed to correspond with him. I now take up my pen to express in my turn how much joy I feel in reflecting that Lyme Regis seems even to surpass expectations. Happy that your habitation there turns out so well, happier if Burton could be removed to you. If dear Papa could be forgot for a moment, Cicero must have reminded me of him. 'Nee vero iDe in lace mode atque in mulls civium =gnus sed intus domique prae- stantior.'"

In 1776 the "great world" seems to have talked much more of the trial of Elizabeth Chudleigh, Duchess of Kingston, for bigamy than of the Declaration of American Independence. It is amusing to follow the girl's anxiety to be present at the trial without shocking her mother's conception of what were proper pursuits for a young lady. Thus she wrote

Lady Middleton asked me some time ago whether I shoud not like to go to the Dutchess of Kingston's tryal. I gave her an undecisive answer. Since Mrs. Stapleton has wiled me to go. I said the same sort of thing to her as to Lady Middleton, as I did not choose to engage myself to go without your cement, and indeed I imagined the tryal might not be very fit for me to hear. But, however, they both told me there woud be nothing improper in it as the whole that the tryal woud be upon wend be whether she had married two husbands or not. You will be so good as to send me your opinion upon it, became Parties are made early and I may be desired to determine upon whether I will go or not." And, again, a few days later:— "I have desired William to explain to you about the Dutehese of Kingston's tryal, as I think yet when you understand it, you will allow me to go. The first day will be totally taken up in the forms, and that is the only day that I wish to go, as everybody says the might will be finer than a Coronation. All the world are anxious to procure tickets. Everybody I meet with assure me that Lord Chatham has seven tickets which I take to be a genteel hint that you have them to dispose of. Whether you judge it proper at present to do so I don't know if you shoud, it woad be a very welcome politeness to Lady Midleton who is trying every where for one for herself and Miss Brodrick."

Evidently the maternal consent was procured, for in a letter dated April 23rd, 1776, we read:—

" I will now turn my Pen to the tether., you what I have done since I have been here, which has not been anything scarcely except going to the tryal of the poor undocheso'd lady which was really well worth a close attendance. It finished yesterday when she was found guilty by all the Peers except the Duke of Newcastle who did not pronounce her thoroughly no as he said guilty erroneously but not intentionally which seems somewhat curious. Nothing could be clearer proved than her marriage with my Lord Bristol. She spoke yesterday twice. Her Voice and Manner is uncommonly fine the' rather Theatrical. It seems rather a ridiculous conclusion to so solemn and awful a thing as her tryal that she shoud be discharged without anything of punishment, but a mere payment of her fees, and a notification to her that if she committed the same crime again, it wend be found capital, at which, notwithstanding her situation, she rood not forbear smiling. A great many people were much disappointed at the business being concluded yesterday as it was very much wish'd by everybody to be present at the last day, and it was generally imagined that it would not conclude so soon."

A curious point in the letters ie the satisfaction expressed by the writer and her friends that Chatham was suffering from gout. That is the elliptical way in which it is put, the meaning being either that gout was thought to be a beneficial" disease, or that this diagnosis excluded the possibility of some more dangerous illness which had been suspected. As a matter of fact, however, according to Mr. Basil Williams, Chatham was suffering from gout complicated by Bright's disease.

When the great trial was over politically minded persona had time to think of the American Colonies. On May 10th, 1776, Lady Harriet wrote :— " The Guards are not gone yet. When they will sail nobody

knows. I hear the Foreign Troops were all without shoos and stockings which we were obliged to supply them with. Whether they will any reach America is a great Doubt. For if they escape all other perils, it is generally thought that most of them will die of distempers occasioned by the excessive badness of the Provisions. The celebrated Fordyce is the man fiat upon to furnish them, and it is said that he has already put fifty thousand pounds in his pocket. Lord Sandwich said yesterday in the course of his Speeds that He did not expect much good from Sir Peter Parker's squadron which was rather an unguarded and unlucky ex- pression."

Sir Peter Parker's squadron arrived much too late to co- operate with the loyalist rising which had been planned in the Southern States. The "foreign troops" referred to by Lady Harriot were the Hessians and other Germans whom the Government employed for service in America. Chatham pro- tested strongly against the use of these troops. Lady Harriet's amiability was very far from making her inverte- brate, and she could defend herself with vigour as well as be angry on occasion. When Lady Chatham suspected (December, 1777) that ehe and William were paying more attention to their own affairs than to their father's publics state, Lady Harriet retorted from Bath s- " I am certainly hurt beyond expression at the Idea being entertain'd that wo are deficient in any point of sentiment, particularly upon an occasion where it is so unnatural for us to be wanting. My Brother was gone out when I received your Letter, and when he comes home I shall communicate to him what you say on his subject which I am sorry to be obliged to do, as I know (by myself) what a mortification it will be to hien. . . . I am excessively happy that Papa has almost Lost his cold, and I shroud have been quite in high Glee at hearing of his meditating a Visit to Town if I had not at the same time all the reason in the World to imagine that I am not thought to enter into the spirit of his Publick Exertions; and I imagine it is the good of the Whole that carries him to London. There remains nothing for me now to do but to bog you to be convinced that in point of Sentiment I sun never really deficient, and I intreat you to forgive any want of force or impropriety of expression. I return you and my Father a thousand thanks for having prolonged the term of my enjoying the Society of those who are so good to me." Lady Harriet's thoughtfulness for family servants and her devotion to horses and dogs are a very pretty trait in her letters. In 1779 she wrote:— "I am glad you made the offer with regard to Primrose and hope the conclusion of the Negotiation upon the Subject will be his return to his old habitation, as I can not join in the Opinion of his spirits suiting me ever, or of his being the Proper sire, and I have a great deal too much respect and attaelnnent to him to like to me him degraded to a Servant's Horse. I rejoice that the great Bajanet is an well ; but I own for my part I should imagine that he might gain much in his Paces by being well rid, and my Brother Chatham has promised to ride him to see in what he can be made more perfect; no that if you approved of it, I should wish to have the pleasure of seeing him in London. I rejoice that the Dogs are in such good plight. When I come to Burton, I dare say Bangor will resume his Polite way of living. Now I have done with the Horses and Dogs, I will say a word of ourselves."

If we may judge from the number of times it is mentioned, an evening at "Ranalagh " was one of the chief joys of Lady Harriot, and great wan her disappointment whenever her brother William was prevented by the business of the House from joining the party. Our last quotation shall be from a letter in which Lady Harriot, now married, describes her plans as hostess in Downing Street

"I am am sorry My Ambiguous Phrase made you believe we thought of Balls. I don't think indeed they wend at all answer. My Brother's idea was to have three or four or more Assemblies to take in every Body, which I own myself I Mond think woud be very acceptable and ye Young World are very desirous of it. Tho Trouble one must not count against ye Propriety of it, and yo expense will be small.—I hope you will like this Plan, and indeed I believe your having said so much about ye tristesse of our Administration made my Brother think of it."

Lady Harriet's brief married life was a time of profound happiness. There is a passage which describes how the King reassured the young bride by opening a conversation about her new relations, and then telling her that "it could be nothing but money" (referring to the opposition to the marriage), but that she was " in great Favour now."