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INTERESTS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 459he was only to be seen when going to the Senate House orreturning from it, may with the strictest justice be appliedto him. His policyit will be the object of the followinginquiryto set forth. According to our professed design weare certainly principallyconcerned with his foreign policy ;but this nevertheless stands so closely so almost inseparablyconnected with his domestic administration, that we must bepermitted at least to cast an occasional glance at that. Here,however, alas ! we have too much occasion to regret thescantiness of our materials. 1 Of his public parliamentarycareer our information is sufficiently ample, but for all thatrelates to the whole internal mechanism of his financial adfor all that relates to the manner in which Pittministration,conducted this, and especiallyfor all that relates to the extraordinary simplification of the business of the treasury, hiseminent services in which respect have acquired for himsuch imperishable fame, where can we find any accurate information? The account of his foreign policy, however,must be prefaced by one general observation. His conductthroughout was uniformly in accordance with his own conviction, and this is expressed in every one of his speeches ina manner not to be mistaken. According to this convictionthe summum bonum for England was the maintenance ofher constitution. This is therefore the hinge on which hiswhole domestic policy during that most eventful period revolves. But, in the maintenance of this constitution, whichinvolved the condition of his whole sphere of action, he hadin view merely the means for carrying on his foreign policy ;and thus both stand in the closest reciprocal connexion.When, in the year 1789, the opening of the assembly ofthe states-general ushered in the revolution, the attentionof the minister was more engrossed with domestic than withforeign affairs. The relations of England with the continent1Would it be believed, that in a country so rich in biography, the first ofits statesmen has not yet met with a biographer in any degree worthy of him ?According to the public organs of intelligence we may expect to have thisdesideratum supplied by his tutor and friend the aged bishop of Winchester ;by which also it is hoped a clearer light will be diffused over the simplicity ofhis private life. The genuine portrait of this great man, in which the clearness, composure, and energy of this master spirit are so majestically expressed,is rarely to be met with on the continent whilst most of our readers have;perhaps seen it a hundred times in miserable caricatures. Even the collectionof the speeches of the Bight Hon. William Pitt, in 3 vols. London, 1808, is byno means complete ; still it is one of our principal sources for what follows.