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neither the style nor the matter of his speeches | condemned it. Be the guilt of it upon the head of disappointed the expectations which these outward the adviser; God forbid that this committee should signs might have stirred. Butler, in his Remi- share the guilt by approving it!

niscences, says of Lord Chatham, that "his lowest whisper was distinctly heard; his middle tones were sweet, rich, and beautifully varied; when he elevated his voice to its highest pitch, the house was completely filled with the volume of the sound."

His great forte, like that of his immortal son,

seems to have been "invective," the force of

which was much enhanced by the lightning glance of an eye which few could bear, wher turned upon them, without shrinking.

He delivered his maiden speech in Parliament on the 29th of April, 1736, when Mr. Pulteney, then paymaster of the forces, moved an address of congratulation to George II. on the marriage of Frederick, Prince of Wales, with the Princess Augusta of Saxe Gotha. To our less courtly

ears, there is a tone of too much adulation about this speech, which, however, the editors of The Modern Orator have, with great judgment, preserved. And as it lauded the prince on account of his many virtues, among which dutiful obedience to his royal father was not forgotten, the royal father, who hated the royal son consumedly, never forgave the insult. The young statesman was most unceremoniously deprived of his cornetcy of horse, and went, as in duty bound, into violent opposition. As a matter of course, the dutiful Prince of Wales took to his arms the man whom the king his father delighted not to honor. Mr. Pitt was appointed groom of the bedchamber to this royal highness, and forthwith took a prominent part in assailing the policy and person of Sir Rob⚫ert Walpole.

The first heavy blow struck by the ex-cornet at the prime minister was delivered in March, 1739, when he fiercely attacked Walpole's convention with Spain, and contributed not a little, by the force of his eloquence, to bring it into disrepute. The cabinet carried its motion, but by a majority of only twenty-eight votes-a thing quite unprecedented in the good old times of undisguised corruption; and the chief of the cabinet felt the same hour that his power was shaken. Nor is this to be wondered at. There was a vigor in Pitt's onslaught which a better cause might have found it hard to withstand; brought against the truckling of the great whig premier, it was quite irresistible.

This convention, sir, I think from my soul, is nothing but a stipulation for national ignominy; an illusory expedient to baffle the resentment of the nation; a truce, without a suspension of hostilities, on the part of Spain; on the part of England, a suspensión, as to Georgia, of the first law of nature, self-preservation and self-defence; a surrender of the rights and trade of England to the mercy of plenipotentiaries; and, in this infinitely highest and most sacred point-future security, not only inadequate, but directly repugnant to the resolutions of Parliament, and the gracious promise from the throne. The complaints of your despairing merchants, and the voice of England, have

Pitt was now one of the acknowledged leaders of the opposition, and he gave the enemy no respite. On the 19th of October, 1739, war was declared against Spain; and the reluctant minister, having once drawn the sword, seemed resolute to wield it effectively. But here again Pitt stood like a rock in his way. On the 17th of January, 1741, Sir Charles Wager, first lord of the admiralty, introduced into Parliament a bill for the

encouragement and increase of seamen, and for the better and speedier manning of the navy. The measure had more than one very weak side, and they were all pounced upon directly by the prince's

groom of the bedchamber. Among other arrangements proposed, there was one which empowered justices of the peace, upon application under the sign manual, or by the lord high admiral, or the commissioners executing that office, to issue warrants to constables within their jurisdiction, to search either by day or by night for seamen; and for that purpose to enter, and if need were, to force open the door of any house, or other place, in which there was reason to suspect that seamen were concealed. Pitt rose, as soon as the opportunity offered, and thus noticed the arguments of the attorney and solicitor-general, (Sir Dudley Ryder and Sir John Strange,) who had preceded him:

Sir, the two honorable and learned gentlemen who spoke in favor of this clause, were pleased to show that our seamen are half slaves already, and now they modestly desire you should make them wholly so. Will this increase your number of seamen? or will it make those you have more willing to serve you? Can you expect that any man will make himself a slave if he can avoid it? Can you expect that any man will breed his child up to be a slave? Can you expect that seamen will venture their lives or their limbs for a country that has made them slaves? or can you expect that any seaman will stay in the country, if he can by any means make his escape? Sir, if you pass this law, you must, in my opinion, do with your seamen as they do with their galley-slaves in France-you must chain them to their ships, or chain them in couples when they are ashore. But suppose this should both increase the number of your seamen, and render them more willing to serve you, it will render them incapable. It is a common observation, that when a man becomes a slave, he loses half his virtue. What will it signify to have your ships all manned to their full complement? Your men will have neither the courage nor the temptation to fight; they will strike to the first enemy that attacks them, because their condition cannot be made worse by a surrender. Our seamen have always been famous for a matchless alacrity and intrepidity in time of danger; this has saved many a British ship, when other seamen would have run below deck, and left the ship to the mercy of the waves, or, perhaps, of a more cruel enemy, a pirate. For God's sake, sir, let us not, by our now projects, put our seamen in such a condition as must soon make them worse than the cowardly slaves of France and Spain.

Harassed by the ceaseless attacks of his eloquent | February, 1746. But they had felt their own opponent, and deserted first by one and then by weakness from the first, and having again failed to another of his ancient supporters, Sir Robert Wal- overcome the king's disinclination to receive Pitt, pole accepted a peerage, and, as Earl of Orford, they resigned. Mr. Pulteney, now created Earl withdrew from the administration. Mr. Pelham, of Bath, thereupon became first lord of the treasMr. Sandys, Lord Carteret, and their friends, now ury. His effort to form a cabinet broke down, and

took the chief management of affairs. But their policy, and in particular their system of continental alliances, differed in nothing from that of Walpole, and they became, as he had been, the objects of Pitt's vehement denunciations. He attacked their inconsistency on the 9th and 23d of March, 1742, when Lord Limerick moved for an inquiry into the proceedings of the defunct cabinet; and in December of the same year exposed, with equal bitterness and ability, the injustice and extravagance of the Hanoverian alliance. It was proposed by the minister that England should take into her pay 16,000 Hanoverian troops, in order that they might be employed in the Netherlands, in support of Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary. Pitt rose immediately after Henry Fox, who had spoken in support of the arrangement, though with a qualification,

and said

Sir, if the honorable gentleman determines to abandon his present sentiments as soon as any better measures are proposed, the ministry will quickly be deprived of one of their ablest defenders; for I consider the measures hitherto pursued so weak and so pernicious, that scarcely any alteration can be proposed that will not be for the advantage of the nation.

He then went on, in a strain of fiery eloquence, to expose the sophistry of men who did not scruple to seek the support of the crown at the expense of the people's burdens; and summed up his argument

in these words :

If, therefore, our assistance to the Queen of Hungary be an act of honesty, and granted in consequence of treaties, why may it not be equally required of Hanover! If it be an act of generosity, why should this country alone be obliged to sacrifice her interests for those of others? or why should the Elector of Hanover exert his liberality at the expense of Great Britain?

It is now too apparent, sir, that this great, this powerful, this mighty nation, is considered only as a province to a despicable electorate; and that in consequence of a scheme formed long ago, and invariably pursued, these troops are hired only to drain this unhappy country of its money. That they have hitherto been of no use to Great Britain or to Austria, is evident beyond a doubt; and, therefore, it is plain that they are retained only for the purposes of Hanover.

In 1744 another change of administration took place. The Duke of Newcastle was called to the chief management of affairs, and proposed to the king that Pitt should take office as secretary at

Pitt's friends returning to their places, brought him along with them; first, as vice-treasurer for Ireland, and then on the 6th of May as paymaster to the forces, with a seat in council.

As the second son of a country gentleman, William Pitt had always been poor. Indeed, it was the res angusta which alone induced him to accept office in the household of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and he seized the very first opportunity that presented itself of resigning it. In 1744 the celebrated Duchess of Marlborough died, and left him a legacy of 10,0007., "On account," as her will expresses it, "of his merit in the noble defence he has made in the laws of England, and to prevent the ruin of his country." This fortune, though not great, was sufficient to place him in a position of comparative independence, and he immediately ceased to be groom of the bedchamber to the prince. The emoluments of office as paymaster of the forces proved, moreover, an acceptable addition to his income; though, to his honor be it recorded, he did not pocket a shilling beyond the bare salary allowed; and at the period concerning which we now write, this deserves to be accepted as very high praise, for there was no man then in public life, from the highest to the lowest station, but looked upon the appropriation of waifs and strays as fair plunder. Chancellors and prime ministers openly accepted presents, not from foreign courts alone, but from private persons. Till Pitt's incumbency there had never been a paymaster who omitted to appropriate to his own use the interest on public balances, or to exact a fee of one half per cent. from moneys paid in the form of subsidy to any of the continental powers. Pitt refused from the first to enrich himself by any such discreditable means. He paid the balances, as often as they accrued, into the Bank of England, and declined the fee which his predecessors used to expect as a matter of right. Pitt was arrogant, overbearing, and very difficult to manage, but he was quite as disinterested as his son; and we defy any man, in high life or in low, to exceed either of them in that respect.

In November, 1754, Pitt married Hester, daughter of Richard Grenville, Esq., of Wootten, in the county of Buckingham, and sister of Viscount Cobham, afterwards Earl Temple, and of George and James Grenville. In 1755, he received an intimation from the king that his majesty had no further occasion for his services; and, together with Legge,

war; but George II. could not forgive Pitt's the chancellor of the exchequer, seceded from the opposition to the Hanoverian interests, and posi- cabinet. This was owing to the disapprobation tively refused to receive him. Considerable incon- expressed by these two statesmen of the subsidiary venience followed, which was overcome chiefly by treaties with Hesse Cassel and Russia, into which Pitt's disinterested entreaty to his friends not to the king, without consulting his council, had enrefuse office on his account; and the Newcastle tered. But, though deprived of office, they did cabinet continued to hold the reins till the 10th of not enter violently into opposition. On the contrary, when a rupture with France became inevita-head of which stood Lord Bute; and the first opble, Pitt seconded the proposal of Viscount Bar- portunity was taken to force him out of the king's rington, secretary at war, to increase the army, councils. On the 25th of October, 1760, George which was accordingly raised from about 20,000 to II. died. He was succeeded by his grandson,

35,000 men. In spite, however, of this indisposition unnecessarily to embarrass the councils of the government, the war was not well managed. Minorca fell into the hands of the French. Admiral Byng was sacrificed. Oswego in America, and Calcutta in Asia, were both lost. A panic seized the Duke of Newcastle, and after vainly endeavoring to bring Pitt back again, he resigned. A new cabinet was accordingly formed, with the Duke of Devonshire at its head, and Mr. Pitt and Mr. Legge formed part of it-the former as secretary of state, the latter as chancellor of the exchequer.

There was still on the part of the king a rooted dislike to his servant-a feeling which was carried to a still greater extreme by the Duke of Cumberland. The latter, indeed, refused to take command of the army which was to protect Hanover unless Pitt were removed from office; and once more Pitt, with Legge, and this time with Lord Temple, were sacrificed. But the disfavor of the court was more than compensated to the two former by the respect and admiration of the people. Numerous addresses of thanks poured in upon them from all quarters; and cities and boroughs loaded them with deeds of freedom, each enclosed in a gold box. The king's faction could not make head against this stream, the weight of which was further increased by the abortive issue of the Duke of Cumberland's military operations. Another change of administration became necessary, and the Duke of Newcastle assuming the post of first lord of the treasury, Pitt became again secretary of state, and to all intents and purposes leader in

the councils of the nation.

George III.; and Pitt's days of influence and power became numbered. Negotiations for peace had been begun on the side of France, and were proceeding as favorably as an English minister could desire, when Charles III. came to the throne of Spain, with feelings strongly prejudiced in favor of his relative, Louis XV. Pitt was not long kept in doubt respecting the formation of the " family compact," and foreseeing that its consequences would be, not peace with France, but war with Spain, and, perhaps, with Sicily likewise, he determined to anticipate the plans of both. He proposed in the cabinet that the negotiations with France should be broken off, and that England should take the initiative in the inevitable quarrel with them. To his great surprise he found himself outvoted. He tried a second appeal in the council chamber, and was again defeated; whereupon he tendered his advice in writing to the young king, and there, likewise, met with a repulse. No course now lay open to him except resignation. He went with his seals of office to St. James', where the young king received him with such marks of kindness and respect, that the heart of the proud statesman was touched. His resignation could not, of course, be withdrawn; but he accepted, in token of the gratitude of the crown, a peerage for his wife, and was not ashamed (he had no reason to be) of becoming a pensioner to the extent of 3000l. a year.

A retiring statesman, whose descent into private life is softened by a pension, seldom fails to incur at least temporary unpopularity. This was the case with Pitt; but the storm, though sharp for the moment, soon blew over, and he became again the idol of the people. All that he had foretold as about to happen in regard to Spain came to pass. On the 4th of January, 1762, war was declared against that power, under circumstances far less favorable to England than would have attended the measure had Pitt's suggestions been acted upon. On the whole, however, the country had no cause to complain of the results of the contest. Several of Spain's most valuable settlements, of which Cuba was one, fell into the hands of the English, and the tide of success was flowing without a check, when negotiations for peace were entered into. Pitt heard of these, and left his bed, to which he had been confined for several days, to protest against them. Unable to stand, he was permitted to address the house from the bench on which he sat, but he fairly broke down ere he could reach the pith of his argument. His speech produced a great sensaa great and most successful minister, was intolera- tion, though it could not arrest the progress of events. Cuba, the most important conquest

It is unnecessary to dwell at length upon the great events which characterized the interval between 1757 and 1762. However averse he might be to war, Pitt threw himself into the contest which he found raging, with wisdom and vigor. The navies of France were swept from the face of the ocean. Canada was conquered, and numerous islands and stations in the West Indies, in Africa, and in Asia, subdued. Nor was his triumph over the prejudices of the Jacobites either less striking or less creditable to himself. He conquered Canada, and several of the West Indies, by bringing against them the stout right arms of the very clans which had followed Charles Edward to Derby, and fought at Falkirk and Culloden. It was a wise policy this which enlisted the military spirit of the Highlanders on the side of the established government, and consummated by kindness the triumph which Lord Hardwicke's terrible, but necessary, laws of proscription had begun. But Pitt, though

bly overbearing in the cabinet; and showed no disposition to yield, even in manner, to royalty which England had ever made, was restored to itself. He ruled his colleagues with a rod of Spain in exchange for Florida; an arrangement iron, and lost all hold except upon their fears. of which, down to the present day, England has Hence a cabal formed itself against him, at the good reason to regret the improvidence.

THE MODERN ORATOR.

It was about this time, or rather in the early part of the following year, that Sir William Pynsent, a Somerset baronet of ancient family, died and bequeathed to William Pitt the estate of Burton Pynsent, with a rental of 3000l. a year. The baronet had no personal acquaintance with the legatee-it is doubtful whether he had ever seen him; but he was a great admirer of Pitt's public character, and seems to have had no near relatives. So considerable an accession to means not previously abundant proved very acceptable to the recipient; but it did not abate one jot of the mental activity of the man. A martyr to gout, he still played a conspicuous part in Parliament, though he steadily refused to become again a member of the cabinet which had so unceremoniously thrown him overboard.

From 1761 to 1766 Pitt remained excluded from the king's councils. He was, therefore, no party to the ill-judged Stamp-Act, which had well nigh precipitated, by a year or two, the rupture with the North American colonies; indeed, he opposed it when first brought forward vigorously, and contributed largely, by the eloquence and power of his denunciation, in effecting its repeal. The following extract from his speech

on the latter occasion well deserves to be remembered:

Be to her faults a little blind;
Be to her virtues very kind.

Upon the whole, I will beg leave to tell the house what is really my opinion. It is, that the Stamp Act be repealed absolutely, totally, and immediately. That the reason for the repeal be assigned, because it was founded on an erroneous principle. At the same time, let the sovereign authority of this country over the colonies be asserted in as strong terms as can be devised, and be made to extend to every point of legislation whatsoever. We may bind their trade, confine their manufactures, and exercise every power whatsoever, except that of taking their money out of their pockets without their consent.

It was during this interval, likewise, that the famous disputes between the House of Commons and John Wilkes occurred. Pitt was no admirer of Wilkes; but he still less admired the unconstitutional and impolitic proceedings of those who, in their abhorrence of a demagogue and a libeller, forgot what was due to the privileges of Parliament, and the undoubted rights of the constituen

cies. He spoke against the sentence of expulsion, which was, however, as is well known, carried into effect.

The king was by this time heartily tired of the bondage in which the great whig families seemed determined to keep him. His first attempt to emancipate himself, by placing Lord Bute at the head of the administration, had failed. He now endeavored, with the assistance of Lord Rockingham, to shake them off; but Lord Rockingham

A great deal has been said without doors of the power, of the strength, of America. It is a topic that ought to be cautiously meddled with. In a good cause, on a sound bottom, the force of this possessed small influence in Parliament, and was country can crush America to atoms.

I know the

valor of your troops; I know the skill of your offi- quite as much a member of the clique at heart as There is not a company of foot that has many who followed more openly in the wake of

cers.

served in America out of which you may not pick a man of suficient knowledge and experience to make a governor of a colony there. But on this ground-on the Stamp Act-when so many here will think it a crying injustice, I am one who will lift up my hands against it.

In such a cause, even your success would be hazardous. America, if she fell, would fall like the strong man. She would embrace the pillars of the state, and pull down the constitution along with her. Is this your boasted peace? To sheathe the sword, not in its scabbard, but in the bowels of your countrymen? Will you quarrel with yourselves now the whole house of Bourbon is united against you? While France disturbs your fisheries in Newfoundland, embarrasses your slave-trade to Africa, and withholds from your subjects in Canada their property stipulated by treaty; while the ransuri for the Manillas is denied by Spain, and its gallant conqueror basely

the house of Russell. Nothing now remained,
therefore, except to call upon Pitt to form an
He did so, "and produced,"
administration.
says Burke, "such a piece of diversified mosaic,
such a tessellated pavement without cement; here
a bit of black stone, and there a bit of white-
patriots and courtiers, king's friends and republi-
cans, whigs and tories, treacherous friends and
open enemies; that it was, indeed, a very curious
show, but utterly unsafe to touch, and unsure to
stand on." Nor would the state of his own
health permit the framer of the cabinet to watch,
as it was right that he should, over its proceed-
ings. The business of the House of Commons
was too much for him, and he passed into the
Lords as Earl of Chatham. Had he consulted
his own fame more, and what he believed to be
the best interests of the crown less, he would

traduced into a mean plunderer-a gentleman have retired from the cabinet as soon as the truth

whose noble and generous spirit would do honor was forced upon him that physical strength to the proudest grandee of the country. The enough to guide its deliberations was wanting. Americans have not acted in all things with prudence and temper. The Americans have been He failed to do this; and cannot, therefore, escape wronged. They have been driven to madness by his share of responsibility for measures which injustice. Will you punish them for the madness resulted in the catastrophe which he had on which you have occasioned Rather let prudence former occasions contributed to postpone. and temper come first from this side. I will underIn the year 1767, Charles Townsend introtake for America that she will follow the example. duced into the House of Commons bill for There are two lines in a ballad of Prior's, of a man's behavior to his wife, so applicable to you, taxing America, by levying duties on certain articles which the Americans were not permitted to import, except from Great Britain. We need

and your colonies, that I cannot help repeating them,

a

not so much as refer to the consequences of this | dropped a handkerchief the noise would have been

measure; but it is due to Lord Chatham not to place out of record, that, as the scheme was none of his, he hastened, in 1768, to mark his disapproval of it by withdrawing from the government. It is just, also, to bear in mind, that almost from the date of his return to power till his resignation he labored under the pressure of a malady, which though not, perhaps, such as deserves to be described as an aberration of intellect, entirely unfitted him from taking part in public affairs. The portion of blame which attaches to him, as compared with that justly attributable to his colleagues, is very small. But if he erred in suffering himself to be made an involuntary party to the beginning of the strife, he more than made amends by the unwearied zeal which marked his efforts to heal the breach. In 1770, his health being somewhat reestablished, he returned to public life; and as a peer of Parliament advocated measures of conciliation, which were unhappily rejected. At last, as is well known, the government, which had repeatedly declined to entertain fair and honorable propositions from the enemy, gave up all for lost, and resolved to have peace on any terms. This was quite as much at variance with Lord Chatham's sense of right as the original ground of the war. He resolved, therefore, to oppose the motion; and rose from a sick bed, to which he had been long confined in the country, that he might carry his design into force. He proceeded to London, and sat in the lord chancellor's room till informed that the business of the debate was about to begin. Let the editor of the work which we are here reviewing, tell the

rest:

He was then led into the House of Peers by two friends. He was dressed in a rich suit of black velvet, and covered up to the knees in flannel. Within his large wig, little more of his countenance was to be seen than his aquiline nose and his penetrating eye, which retained all its native fire. He looked like a dying man; yet never was seen a figure of more dignity; he appeared like a being of a superior species. The Lords stood up, and made a lane for him to pass to his seat, whilst, with a gracefulness of deportment for which he was so eminently distinguished, he bowed to them as he proceeded. Having taken his seat on the bench of the earls, he listened to the speech of the Duke of Richmond with the most profound attention.

After Lord Weymouth had spoken against the address, Lord Chatham rose from his seat slowly and with difficulty, leaning on his crutches, and supported by his two friends. Taking one hand from his crutch, he raised it, and, casting his eyes towards heaven, said, "I thank God that I have been enabled to come here this day to perform my duty, and to speak on a subject which has so deeply impressed my mind. I am old and infirm -have one foot, more than one foot, in the grave -I have risen from my bed to stand up in the cause of my country-perhaps never again to speak in this house!"

The reverence the attention-the stillness of the house was most affecting; if any one had

heard. At first Lord Chatham spoke in a very low and feeble tone; but as he grew warm, his voice rose, and became as harmonious as ever; oratori

cal and affecting, perhaps more than at any former period, both from his own situation, and from the importance of the subject on which he spoke. He gave the whole history of the American war; of all the measures to which he had objected; and all the evil consequences which he had foretold; adding at the end of each period, "And so it proved."

In one part of his speech he ridiculed the apprehension of an invasion, and then recalled the remembrance of former invasions-" A Spanish invasion, a French invasion, a Dutch invasion, many noble lords must have read of in history; and some lords (looking keenly at one who sat near him) may remember a Scotch invasion."

"My lords," continued he, "I rejoice that the grave has not closed upon me; that I am still alive to lift up my voice against the dismemberment of this ancient and most noble monarchy! Pressed down as I am by the hand of infirmity, I am little able to assist my country in this most perilous conjuncture; but, my lords, while I have sense and memory, I will never consent to deprive the

royal offspring of the house of Brunswick, the heirs of the Princess Sophia, of their fairest inheritance. Where is the man that will dare to advise such a measure? My lords, his majesty succeeded to an empire as great in extent as its reputation was unsullied. Shall we tarnish the lustre of this nation by an ignominious surrender of its rights and fairest possessions? Shall this great kingdom, that has survived, whole and entire, the Danish depredations, the Scottish inroads, and the Norman conquest; that has stood the threatened invasion of the Spanish Armada, now fall prostrate before the house of Bourbon? Surely, my lords, this nation is no longer what it was! Shall a people that, seventeen years ago, was the terror of the world, now stoop so low as to tell its ancient inveterate enemy, Take all we have, only give us peace? It is impossible!

I

"I wage war with no man, or set of men. wish for none of their employments; nor would I coöperate with men who still persist in unretracted error; or who, instead of acting on a firm decisive line of conduct, halt between two opinions, where there is no middle path. In God's name, if it is absolutely necessary to declare either for peace or war, and the former cannot be preserved with honor, why is not the latter commenced without hesitation? I am not, I confess, well_informed of the resources of this kingdom; but I trust it has still sufficient to maintain its just rights, though I know them not. My lords, any state is better than despair. Let us at least make one effort; and if we must fall, let us fall like men!"

When his lordship sat down, Earl Temple said to him, "You forgot to mention what we talked of, shall I get up?" Lord Chatham replied, "No, no; I will do it by and bye."

The Duke of Richmond then replied; and it is said that, in the course of his speech, Lord Chatham gave frequent indications of emotion and displeasure. When his grace had concluded, Lord Chatham, anxious to answer him, made several attempts to stand, but his strength failed him, and, pressing his hand to his heart, he fell backwards in convulsions. The house was immediately

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