PITHOM, a town of Rameses, one of the treasure-cities built by the children of Israel in Lower Egypt, now, as discovered by M. Naville, reduced to a small village between Ismailia and Tel-el-Kebir.

PITMAN, SIR ISAAC, inventor of the shorthand system which bears his name, born at Trowbridge, Wiltshire; his first publication was “Stenographic Sound-Hand” in 1837, and in 1842 he started the Phonetic Journal, and lectured extensively as well as published in connection with his system (1813-1897).

PITRE, GIUSEPPE, eminent Italian folk-lorist, born at Palermo, after serving as a volunteer in 1860 under Garibaldi, and graduating in medicine in 1866, threw himself into the study of literature, and soon made the folk-lore of Italy, the special study of his life, and to which he has devoted himself with unsparing assiduity, the fruits from time to time appearing principally in two series of his works, one in 19 vols. and another in 10 vols.; b. 1841.

PITRIS (i. e.  Fathers), in the Hindu mythology an order of divine beings, and equal to the greatest of the gods, who, by their sacrifice, delivered the world from chaos, gave birth to the sun and kindled the stars, and in whose company the dead, who have like them lived self-sacrificingly, enter when they lay aside mortality.  See Rev. vii. 14.

PITACOTTIE, ROBERT LINDSAY OF, proprietor in the 16th century of the Fifeshire estate name of which he bore, was the author of “The Chronicles of Scotland,” to which Sir Walter Scott owed so much; his work is quaint, graphic, and, on the whole, trustworthy.

PITT, WILLIAM.  See CHATHAM, EARL OF.

PITT, WILLIAM, English statesman, second son of Lord Chatham, born near Bromley, Kent, grew up a delicate child in a highly-charged political atmosphere, and studied with such diligence under the direction of his father and a tutor that he entered Cambridge at 14; called to the bar in 1780, he speedily threw himself into politics, and contested Cambridge University in the election of 1781; though defeated, he took his seat for the pocket burgh of Appleby, joined the Shelburne Tories in opposition to North’s ministry, and was soon a leader in the House; he supported, but refused to join, the Rockingham Ministry of 1782, contracted his long friendship with Dundas, afterwards Viscount Melville, and became an advocate of parliamentary reform; his first office was Chancellor of the Exchequer under Lord Shelburne; his reputation steadily rose, but on Shelburne’s resignation he refused the Premiership, and went into opposition against the Portland, Fox, and North coalition; that minority being defeated (1783) on their Indian policy by the direct and unconstitutional interference of the king, he courageously formed a government with a majority of 100 against him; refusing to yield to adverse votes, he gradually won over the House and the country, and the dissolution of 1784 gave a majority of 120 in