WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM 1708-1778 The seventy years which cover this man's life include an important epoch in the history of England; but there can be no doubt that had this man not lived at that time, the course of events would have been seriously modified. He flourished at a moment when English public men had fallen to low ideals and corrupt practices; the reigns of the two first Georges had marked a decadence in morality from the brief reform begun by William of Orange; and the third George, though a man of conscientious purpose and honest life, was afflicted not only with grave defects of character and temperament; but he was also intermittently insane, and never sound in political judgment. He selected to act for him in government men whose opinions either coincided with his own, or could be bent to accord with them; with the inevitable consequence that he was served by such as were either lacking in principle, or deficient in brains. Had there been no exceptions to this rule, England must have suffered severely in reputation and power. 66 But William Pitt was a man of an altogether superior stamp. While he had that profound reverence and even awe for the representative of royalty on the throne that was natural to the age in which he lived, he combined with it a still higher regard for political integrity and the rights of mankind. Upon his brow shame was ashamed to sit;" and he opened the path and encouraged the development of other statesmen who cared for something better than mere place and favor. During the years of his connection with Parliament some of the most brilliant names in the annals of the remarkable body were inscribed upon its roll; and such oratory was heard in those halls as has perhaps never been equalled in modern times. Pitt was a Cornishman, born in 1708; he graduated at Oxford, and after leaving Trinity, got a cornetcy in the dragoons. Fancy vainly conjectures what his career might have been as a soldier; there were wars enough, and such a man must have won distinction in any line of effort; but Pitt entered Parliament in 1735, in his twenty-eighth year, and from that time his function in life was determined. He was a Whig in politics; and after serving in various capacities, he was driven from office in 1755, after leading a severe attack upon the government. But he was back again almost immediately, and forming a coalition with the Duke of Newcastle, dominated the government as Secretary of State. The glory which England gained from the Seven Years' War was largely due to him, and when he resigned office in 1761 he was already the most eminent statesman in England. In 1766 he entered the House of Lords as Lord Chatham; and his immortality, for Americans at any rate, dates from the period when he began his support of the cause of the colonies against the policy of the King. His last speech, and one of his greatest, was delivered but a month before his death, urging that an end be put to the War of the American Revolution. Chatham was the idol of the people, and the bugbear of the aris WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM tocracy, though personally no aristocrat was prouder and haughtier than he. But he had a great heart and a well-balanced and capacious brain; he had passion and imagination; and an eloquence which, if we may take the verdict of all his contemporaries, friendly and hostile, was almost irresistible. Political liberty was born in the world, and he was among its foremost and most puissant champions. His enthusiasm for the national honor of his country was an undying and consuming fire in his breast; but precisely because his ideal of that honor was so lofty, he would countenance no acts in the rulers of England which tended to prefer a temporary advantage, or a mercenary gain, to a lasting and therefore invincible glory. To talents naturally splendid he added the careful and unremitting training of the public speaker; he was, in a high sense, a consummate actor; every gesture, every intonation of his wonderful voice, had its due effect. In some of his flights he fairly appalled his hearers; at other times he won them by the most persuasive and contagious methods. He never uttered what he did not believe, and the conviction of his honesty which was thus established was one of the surest elements in his wonderful power. The wisdom of his counsel was proved by the outcome of the events to which it referred; and this made it practically impossible, in a constitutional monarchy, to successfully oppose his recommendations. His speeches have the sweep and momentum of some great planetary body; for while he comprehended all minor details of his subject, he never lingered in them, but moved to his aim with a swiftness and passion which carried all with him, while never seeking to surprise their logical judgment. Behind him always loomed that incorruptible and sublime ethical conviction which is after all the strongest element in success of a lasting kind. He believed in himself, because he felt himself to be the instrument of purposes higher than any selfhood; and even his arrogance aided his influence, because it was felt to be animated by devotion to truth and good. He did not, indeed, always prevail, at the moment, against the stupidity or infatuation of his opponents; but the ends he advocated, and the views he inculcated, uniformly prevailed sooner or later. Had George III listened to Chatham's advice, the United States might still have been British colonies; but the political freedom which he urged became their portion in fuller measure than if their independence (which he deprecated) had not been incidentally achieved. ON THE RIGHT OF TAXING AMERICA MR R. SPEAKER: I came to town but to-day. I was a stranger to the tenor of His Majesty's speech, and the proposed address, till I heard them read in this House. Unconnected and unconsulted, I have not the means of information. I am fearful of offending through mistake, and therefore beg to be indulged with a second reading of the proposed address. [The address being read, Mr. Pitt went on:] I commend the King's speech, and approve of the address in answer, as it decides nothing, every gentleman being left at perfect liberty to take such a part concerning America as he may afterwards see fit. One word only I cannot approve of: an "early," is a word that does not belong to the notice the ministry have given to Parliament of the troubles in America. In a matter of such importance, the communication ought to have been immediate! I speak not now with respect to parties. I stand up in this place single and independent. As to the late ministry [turning himself to Mr. Grenville, who sat within one of him], every capital measure they have taken has been entirely wrong! As to the present gentlemen, to those at least whom I have in my eye [looking at the bench where General Conway sat with the lords of the treasury], I have no objection. I have never been made a sacrifice by any of them. Their characters are fair; and I am always glad when men of fair character engage in His Majesty's service. Some of them did me the honor to ask my opinion before they would engage. These will now do me the justice to own, I advised them to do it-but, notwithstanding (for I love to be explicit), I cannot give them my confidence. Pardon me, gentlemen [bowing to the ministry], confidence is a plant of slow growth in an aged bosom. Youth is the season of credulity. By comparing events with each other, reasoning from effects to causes, methinks I plainly discover the traces of an overruling influence. There is a clause in the Act of Settlement obliging every minister to sign his name to the advice which he gives to his sovereign. Would it were observed! I have had the honor to serve the Crown, and if I could have submitted to influence, I might have still continued to serve: but I would not be responsible for others. I have no local attachments. It is indifferent to me whether a man was rocked in his cradle on this side or that side of the Tweed. I sought for merit wherever it was to be found. It is my boast, that I was the first minister who looked for it, and found it, in the mountains of the North. I called it forth, and drew into your service a hardy and intrepid race of menmen, who, when left by your jealousy, became a prey to the artifices of your enemies, and had gone nigh to have overturned the state in the war before the last. These men, in the last war, were brought to combat on your side. They served with fidelity, as they fought with valor, and conquered for you in every part of the world. Detested be the national reflections against them! They are unjust, groundless, illiberal, unmanly! When I ceased to serve His Majesty as a minister, it was not the country of the man by which I was moved-but the man of that country wanted wisdom, and held principles incompatible with freedom. It is a long time, Mr. Speaker, since I have attended in Parliament. When the resolution was taken in this House to tax America, I was ill in bed. If I could have endured to be carried in my bed-so great was the agitation of my mind for the consequences-I would have solicited some kind hand to have laid me down on this floor, to have borne my testimony against it! It is now an act that has passed. I would speak with decency of every act of this House; but I must beg the indulgence of the House to speak of it with freedom. I hope a day may soon be appointed to consider the state of the nation with respect to America. I hope gentlemen will come to this debate with all the temper and impartiality that His Majesty recommends, and the importance of the subject requires; a subject of greater importance than ever engaged the attention of this House, that subject only excepted, when, near |