"I once heard a great person," added she, "in conversation with him on the subject, and Mr. Pitt's reply was, 'Whenever I can make peace,[1] whether with a consul, or with whosoever it is at the head of the French government, provided I can have any dependance on him, I will do it.' Mr. Pitt had a sovereign contempt for the Bourbons, and the only merit that he allowed to any one of them was to him who was afterwards Charles X., whose gentlemanly manners and mild demeanour he could not be otherwise than pleased with. Mr. Pitt never would consent to their going to court, because it would have been a recognition of Louis XVIII.
"Latterly, Mr. Pitt used to suffer a great deal from the cold in the House of Commons; for he complained that the wind cut through his silk stockings. I remember, one day, I had on a large tippet and muff of very fine fur: the tippet covered my shoulders, and came down in a point behind. 'What is this, Hester?' said Mr. Pitt; 'something Siberian?
- ↑ "Mr. Pitt has always been held up to the present generation as fond of war; but the Harris papers could furnish the most continued and certain evidence of the contrary, and that he often suffered all the agony of a pious man who is forced to fight a duel. The cold and haughty temper of Lord Grenville was less sensitive. Our overtures to France were synonymous with degradation, and he could not brook the delays of the directory."—Diaries and Correspondence, v. iii., p. 516.
