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Colonel Herbert Taylor to Lord Castlereagh.

Windsor, Dec. 20, 1805.

I have had the honour of laying before His Majesty the various papers which accompanied your Lordship's letter on the subject of the late events in Moravia,1 for the communication of which I am commanded to return

you many thanks. His Majesty considers them extremely interesting, and as all tending to confirm the reports transmitted yesterday of the successful result of the arduous contest of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th instant.

1 The report, which proved utterly unfounded, of a great victory over the French near Austerlitz.

NOTES TO THE SECOND EDITION.

A.

(See vol. iii. p. 3.)

ONE part of this sentence as it stood in the first edition is now altered. I had said that Lord Auckland, on prudential grounds for his daughter, "could not wish any more than Mr. Pitt" that a marriage between them should take place.

But in April, 1862, only a few weeks after my own publication, there came forth the third and fourth volumes of Lord Auckland's Correspondence, containing two separate statements of Mr. Pitt's attachment to Miss Eden: the one at vol. iii. p. 373; the other as a postscript at vol. iv. p. 415.

No. I. of these statements gives an account which corresponds with mine of Mr. Pitt's first letter to Lord Auckland; but adds a new circumstance as follows:"He (Mr. Pitt) blames himself for not having sooner looked into his difficulties, which he now finds have become insurmountable."

No. I. then proceeds to say :-" Several letters passed between Lord Auckland and Mr. Pitt, suggesting arrangements by which the marriage might in time. take place without imprudence; but they were unavailing and Mr. Pitt declared that though he was sacrificing his best hopes and dearest wishes to his conviction and judgment,' further discussion would lead only to prolonged suspense and increased anxiety."

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The statement No. II. then observes, in reference to

what I had said :-" It is entirely incorrect to state that Lord Auckland was in the slightest degree averse to the marriage on account of Mr. Pitt's pecuniary difficulties on the contrary, believing that his daughter was attached to Mr. Pitt, he was naturally anxious that it should take place."

Combining these two statements, we are desired, it would seem, to conclude that the "suggestion of arrange ments" was wholly on Lord Auckland's side. For my own part, as I noticed in my text, I have had no access to these papers, and I am sorry to find that I have on any point misunderstood the account in conversation of the very well informed and accomplished person from whom my statement was derived.

Oct. 1862.

B.

(See vol. iv. p. 382.)

THE last words of Mr. Pitt have been a matter of some misapprehension and much controversy. It may be proper that I should here reprint the explanatory letter which I wrote upon the subject.

"SIR,

To the Editor of the Times.

"I ask permission to state in your columns a misprint, as it turns out to be, of my own, which will have interest for some at least among your numerous readers.

"They may have noticed in the fourth volume of my Life of Pitt an account of his last illness, derived from the papers at Woburn Abbey, and drawn up by my uncle, the Hon. James H. Stanhope, who was present in the room when he died. The handwriting of my uncle was far from good, and this manuscript is by no means easy to decipher. I read in it, as I thought, and my

copyist, under my own eye, transcribed, the last words of Mr. Pitt as these:-'Oh, my country! how I love country!' As such the words have been published.

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"Since the publication, however, I found that the transcript by another person has the word 'leave' instead of love,' referring, as it was natural for Mr. Pitt to do, to the disastrous state of the Continental war produced by the battle of Austerlitz.

"By the kindness of the present Duke of Bedford, I have been enabled to refer once again to the original paper. It reached me only by this morning's post. Having examined it with care, I have now fully convinced myself, no doubt whatever remaining in my mind, that I was mistaken in my first impression, and that 'leave' is the real reading. The last words of Mr. Pitt, as an ear-witness has recorded them, were therefore certainly as follows:- Oh, my country! how I leave my country!'

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"I shall not fail to restore the right reading in the next edition of my book; but I think that it is never too early to acknowledge or correct an error, and I shall be glad if you will permit me on this controverted question to make known at once the real fact to the public.

“I am, Sir, your very obedient, humble servant,

66

Chevening, April 24, 1862.”

"STANHOPE.

C.

(See vol. iv. p. 398.)

I HAVE altered this passage since my first edition in consequence of the following letter which I received from the Marquis of Normanby :

"MY DEAR STANHOPE,

"Hamilton Lodge, May 2, 1862,

"In your fourth volume, and at page 398, you say with reference to the famous portrait of Pitt by Hoppner, 'Pitt on the other hand did not sit to Hoppner till his latter years. Of that portrait also there are numerous replicas and numerous copies. I have been assured that the two following are among the most authentic: the one which belongs to the Marquis of Normanby, and is now at Mulgrave Castle; the other, which belongs to Lord Carington, and is now, or was lately, at Wycombe Abbey.'

I

"This would leave the impression that my picture is among the replicas, instead of being the original. Of replicas, if by that is meant pictures, to which Pitt equally gave sittings, there are none. You say Pitt did not sit to Hoppner till the latter years of his life. He never sat but once; and that was for my father in the early part of 1805, within a year of his death. perfectly recollect as a little boy going with my father to Hoppner's and finding Pitt sitting for his portrait. The picture was finished, but not sent home when Pitt died. Then came applications, some of which I have seen amongst my papers, from the most intimate friends of the deceased statesman for copies. All these, made before the original was sent home, were by express permission of Lord Mulgrave. After that I know copies of copies were multiplied to any that wished them. . . . . . My picture went to Mulgrave before the end of 1806, and has never been away since.

"Yours very truly,

"NORMANBY."

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