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106
Hereditary Genius
claim to be much more than “eminently” gifted, such as Addington,—
“Pitt is to Addington as London to Paddington,”— is very small. The
other selection is Lord Brougham's “Statesmen of the Reign of
George III.” It consists of no more than 53 men, selected as the
foremost statesmen in that long reign. Now of these, 11 are judges
and, I may add, 7 of those judges were described in the appendix to
the last chapter, viz. Lords Camden, Eldon, Erskine, Ellenborough,
King, Mansfield, and Thurlow. The remaining 4 are Chief Justices
Burke and Gibbs, Sir William Grant, and Lord Loughborough. Lord
Brougham's list also contains the name of Lord Nelson, which will be
more properly included among the Commanders; and that of Earl St.
Vincent, which may remain in this chapter, for he was a very able
administrator, in peace as well as a naval commander. In addition to
these, are the names of 9 Premiers, of whom one is the Duke of
Wellington, whom I count here, and again among the Commanders,
leaving a net balance, in the selection made by Lord Brougham, of 31
new names to discuss. The total of the two selections, omitting the
judges, is 57.
The average natural ability of these men may very justly be stated
as superior to class F. Canning, Fox, the two Pitts, Romilly, Sir Robert
Walpole (whom Lord Brougham imports into his list), the Marquess
of Wellesley, and the Duke of Wellington, probably exceed G. It will
be seen how extraordinary are the relationships of these families. The
kinship of the two Pitts, father and son, is often spoken of as a rare, if
not a sole, instance of high genius being hereditary; but the
remarkable kinships of William Pitt were yet more widely diffused.
He was not only son of a premier, but nephew of another, George
Grenville, and cousin of a third, Lord
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