of the honorable member may be taken down." The clerk wrote down the words. "Bring them to me!" said Mr. Pitt, in his loudest voice. By this time Mr. Moreton was frightened out of his senses. "Sir," said he, addressing the Speaker, "I meant nothing! King, Lords, and Commons; Lords, King, and Commons; Commons, Lords, and King—tria juncta in uno. I meant nothing! Indeed, I meant nothing!" "I don't wish to push the matter further," said Mr. Pitt, in a tone but little above a whisper. Then, in a higher note, "" The moment a man acknowledges his error, he ceases to be guilty. I have a great regard for the honorable gentleman, and, as an instance of that regard, I give him this advice— a pause of some moments; then, assuming a look of unspeakable derision, he added, in a colloquial tone, "Whenever that gentleman means nothing, I recommend to him to say nothing!"

It has already been intimated that, during the period now under review, Mr. Pitt was called, for a brief season, into the service of the Crown. George Grenville, who succeeded Lord Bute, after acting as minister about two years, and inflicting on his country the evils of the American Stamp Act, became personally obnoxious to the King, and was dismissed from office about the middle of 1765. The eyes of the whole country were now turned toward Mr. Pitt, and the King asked the terms upon which he would accept office. Mr. Pitt replied that he was ready to go to St. James's, if he could “ carry the Constitution along with him." But upon entering into details, it was found impossible to reconcile his views with that court influence which still overruled the King. Lord Rockingham was then called upon to form a ministry; and Mr. Pitt has been censured by many, and especially by his biographer, Mr. Thackeray, for not joining heartily in the design, and lending the whole weight of his influence to establish, under his Lordship, another great Whig administration. This might, perhaps, have been an act of magnanimity. But, considering his recent splendid services, the known wishes of the people, and his acknowledged superiority over every other man in the empire, it could hardly be expected of Mr. Pitt that he should make himself a stepping-stone for the ambition of another. Lord Rockingham, though a man of high integrity and generous sentiments, had not that force of character, that eloquence in debate, that controlling influence over the minds of others which could alone reanimate the Whig party, and restore their principles and their policy under a Tory King. Mr. Pitt did not oppose the new ministers; but he declared, at the opening of Parliament, that he could not give them his confidence. Pardon me, gentlemen," said he, bowing to the ministry, "confidence is a plant of slow growth in an aged bosom !" event justified his delay and hesitation. "The Cabinet," says Cooke, in his History of Party, "was formed from the rear-guard of the Whigs-men who were timorous and suspicious of their own principles; who were bound in the chains of aristocratic expediency and personal interest, and who dared not to loose them, because they knew not the power of their principles or their ultimate tendency." The Rockingham administration performed one important service-they repealed the Stamp Act. But they held together only a year, and were dissolved on the 5th of August, 1766. Mr. Pitt was now called upon to frame a ministry. It was plainly impossible for him to succeed; and no one but a man of his sanguine temperament would have thought of making the attempt. The Rockingham Whigs, forming the wealthy and aristocratic section of the party, might of course be expected to oppose. Lord Temple, who had hitherto adhered to Mr. Pitt in every emergency, now deserted him, and joined his brother, George Grenville, in justifying American taxation. 10 See page 103 for the speech containing this passage, and a description of Mr. Pitt's impressive manner in thus declaring off from Lord Rockingham. This single sentence decided the fate of that ministry.

The

Lord Camden and a few others, the pioneers of Whiggism as it now exists, supported Mr. Pitt, and carried with them the suffrages of the people. But the Tories were favorites at Court. They filled all the important stations of the household; they had the readiest access to the royal presence; and, though Mr. Pitt might, at first, undoubtedly rely on the King for support, he could hardly expect to enjoy it long without gratifying his wishes in the selection of the great officers of state. Under these circumstances, the moment Mr. Pitt discovered his real situation, he ought to have relinquished the attempt to form a ministry. But he was led on step by step. His proud spirit had never been accustomed to draw back. He at last formed one on coalition principles. He drew around him as many of his own friends as possible, and filled up the remaining places with Tories, hoping to keep the peace at the council-board by his personal influence and authority. He had put down Newcastle by uniting with him, and he was confident of doing the same with his new competitors. But he made one mistake at the outset, which, in connection with his subsequent illness, proved the ruin of his ministry. It related to the "lead" of the House of Commons. His voice was the only one that could rule the stormy discussions of that body, and compose the elements of strife which were thickening around him. And yet he withdrew from the House, and gave the lead to Charles Townsend. Never was a choice more unfortunate. Townsend was, indeed, brilliant, but he was rash and unstable; eaten up with the desire to please every body; utterly devoid of firmness and self-command; and, therefore, the last man in the world for giving a lead and direction to the measures of the House. But Mr. Pitt's health was gone. He felt wholly inadequate, under his frequent attacks of the gout, to take the burden of debate; he therefore named himself Lord Privy Seal, and passed into the Upper House with the title of Lord Chatham. As might be expected, his motives in thus accepting the peerage were, for a time, misunderstood. He was supposed to have renounced his principles, and become a creature of the Court. The city of London, where he had ruled with absolute sway as the Great Commoner, refused him their support or congratulations as Lord Chatham. The press teemed with invectives; and the people, who considered him as having betrayed their cause, loaded him with maledictions. Such treatment, in connection with his sufferings from disease, naturally tended to agitate his feelings and sour his temper. He was sometimes betrayed into rash conduct and passionate language. His biographer has, indeed, truly said, that, "highly as Lord Chatham was loved and respected by his own family, and great as were his talents and virtues, he possessed not the art of cementing political friendships. A consciousness. of his superior abilities, strengthened by the brilliant successes of his former administration, and the unbounded popularity he enjoyed, imparted an austerity to his manners which distressed and offended his colleagues."

Such were the circumstances under which Lord Chatham formed his third ministry. It would long since have passed into oblivion, had not Mr. Burke handed it down to posterity in one of the most striking pictures (though abounding in grotesque imagery) which we have in our literature. "He made an administration," says Mr. Burke, in his speech on American Taxation, so checkered and speckled; he put together a piece of joinery so crossly indented and whimsically dovetailed; a cabinet so variously inlaid; such a piece of diversified mosaic; such a tesselated pavement without cement, here a bit of black stone, and there a bit of white; patriots and courtiers, King's friends and Republicans, that it was indeed a very curious show, but utterly unsafe to touch and unsure to stand on. The colleagues whom he assorted at the same boards stared at each other, and were obliged to ask, 'Sir, your name?' Sir, you have the advantage of me.' 'Mr. Such-a-one, I beg a thousand pardons.' I venture to say it did so happen, that persons had a

any other

single office divided between them who had never spoke to each other in their lives until they found themselves (they knew not how) pigging together, heads and points, in the same truckle-bed."""***‹ If ever he fell into a fit of the gout, or if cause withdrew him from public cares, principles directly the contrary were sure to predominate. When he had executed his plan, he had not an inch of ground to stand on. When he had accomplished his scheme of administration, he was no longer a minister.”

Such was literally the fact. Only a few weeks after his final arrangements were made, he was seized with a paroxysm of the gout at Bath, which threatened his immediate dissolution. Having partially recovered, he set out on his return for London, in February, 1767. But he was violently attacked on the road, and was compelled to retire to his country seat at Hayes, where he lay in extreme suffering, with a mind so agitated and diseased that all access to him was denied for many months. It was during this period that Charles Townsend, in one of his rash and boastful moods, committed himself to Mr. Grenville in favor of taxing the colonies; and was induced to lay those duties on tea, glass, &c., which revived the contest, and led to the American Revolution. It is, indeed, a singular circumstance, that such a bill should have passed under an administration bearing the name of Chatham. But he had ceased to be minister except in name. Some months before, he had sent a ver

bal message to the King (for he was unable to write), that "such was the ill state of his health, that his majesty must not expect from him any further advice or assistance in any arrangement whatever." When Grafton became minister, he sent in his formal resignation by the hands of Lord Camden. It is striking to observe how soon great men are forgotten when they fall from power, and withdraw, in the decay of their faculties, from the notice of the public. Lord Chatham's former resignation was an era in Europe. The news of it awakened the liveliest emotions throughout the civilized world. The time of his second resignation was hardly known in London. His sun appeared to have sunk at mid-day amid clouds and gloom Little did any one imagine, that it was again to break forth with a purer splendor, and to fill the whole horizon around with the radiance of its setting beams.12

11 Supposed to refer to Lord North and Mr. George Cooke, who were made joint paymasters. 12 There was a mystery connected with Lord Chatham's long confinement which has created many surmises. A writer in the London Quarterly Review for 1840 has endeavored to show that it was, to a great extent, a thing of pretense and affectation; that he was shocked at the sudden loss of his popularity after accepting the peerage; disconcerted by the opposition which spruug up; mortified at the failure of his attempts to strengthen his government; and that, under these circumstances," he felt some reluctance to come forward in his new character, and perhaps clung to office only that he might find some striking and popular occasion for resignation." To an enemy of Lord Chatham's fame and principles this may seem probable; but it is a mere hypothesis, without the least evidence to support it. It is probably true that Lord Chatham's withdrawal from public business was not owing to direct sufferings from the gout during the whole space of two years. Lord Chesterfield, who was no friend of Chatham, and not the least inclined to shelter him, attributed "his inactivity to the effects of the injudicious treatment of his physician, who had prevented a threatened attack of the gout by dispersing the bumor throughout the whole system. The experiment caused a severe fit of illness, which chiefly affected his nerves." Whether this was the cause or not, it is certain that his nervous system was in a very alarming state, and that his mind became greatly diseased. He was gloomy in the extreme, and perhaps yielded to unreasonable jealousies and suspicions. Such seems to have been at one time the opinion of Lord Camden, who says, in a confidential letter, "Lord Chatham is at Hayes, brooding over his own suspicious and discontents-his return to business almost desperate-inaccessible to every body; but under a persuasion that he is given up and abandoned." But Lord Camden soon after received information which probably changed his views. "On his return to Loudon," says his biographer, "he heard such an account of Lord Chatham as to convince him that the country was forever deprived of the services of that illustrious man.” This refers, undoubtedly, to a report of his being deranged, which was then prevalent. It now appears that this was not literally the fact, though his mind was certainly in such a state that Lady Chatham did not allow him to be master

After an entire seclusion from the world for nearly three years, Lord Chatham, tc the surprise of all, made his appearance in Parliament with his health greatly im proved, and in full possession of his gigantic powers. He was still so infirm, however, that he went on crutches, and was swathed in flannels, when he entered the House of Lords at the opening of the session, January 9, 1770. In commenting on the address, he came out at once in a loftier strain of eloquence than ever in reply to Lord Mansfield on the case of John Wilkes." This speech gave a decisive turn to political affairs. A leader had now appeared to array the Whigs against the Duke of Grafton. Lord Camden, who as Chancellor had continued in the Cabinet, though hostile to the measures which prevailed, came down from the wool-sack at the close of Lord Chatham's speech, and declared against the minister. I have," said he, “hung down my head in council, and disapproved by my looks those steps which I knew my avowed opposition could not prevent. I will do so no longer. I now proclaim to the world that I entirely coincide in the opinion expressed by my noble friend-whose presence again reanimates us-respecting this unconstitutional vote of the House of Commons." He was of course dismissed; and united with Lord Chatham, Lord Rockingham, and the rest of the Whigs, to oppose the Grafton ministry. They succeeded in nineteen days: the Duke resigned on the twenty-eighth of the same month. But the Whigs did not profit by their victory. The hostility of the King excluded them from power, and Lord North was placed at the head of affairs. An attempt was now made to put down Lord Chatham by personal insult. He was taunted before the House, March 14, 1770, with having received a pension from the Crown, and having unjustifiably recommended pensions for others. He rose upon his antagonist, as he always did on such occasions, and turned his defense into an attack. He at once took up the case of Lord Camden, whom he had brought in as Chancellor three years before, with a pension of fifteen hundred pounds. "I could not," said he, "expect such a man to quit the Chief-justiceship of the Common Pleas, which he held for life, and put himself in the power of those who were not to be trusted, to be dismissed from the Chancery at any moment, without making some slight provision for such an event. The public has not been deceived by his conduct. My suspicions have been justified. His integrity has made him once more a poor and a private man; he was dismissed for the vote he gave in favor of the right of election in the people." Here an attempt was made to overwhelm him with clamor. Some Lords called out, "To the bar! to the bar!" and Lord Marchmont moved that his words be taken down. Lord Chatham seconded the motion; and went on to say, "I neither deny, retract, nor explain these words. I do reaffirm the fact, and I desire to meet the sense of the House. I appeal to the honor of every Lord in this House whether he has not the same conviction." Lord Rockingham, Lord Temple, and many others, rose, and, upon their honor, affirmed the same. The ministry were now desirous to drop the subject; but Lord Marchmont, encouraged by Lord Mansfield, persisted, and moved that nothing had appeared to justify the assertion. Lord Chatham again declared, "My words remain unretractof his own actions. It is, therefore, uncandid in the extreme to represent Lord Chatham as feigning illness in order to escape from the responsibilities of his station.

13 Though Lord Chatham had a high sense of Mansfield's learning and abilities, he continued to regard him with aversion and distrust on account of his extreme Tory sentiments. In reply to Mansfield, when the case of Wilkes again came up at a late evening session, he quoted Lord Somers and Chief-justice Holt on the points of law, and drew their characters in his own masterly style. He pronounced them "honest men who knew and loved the Constitution." Then turning to Mansfield, he said, "I vow to God, I think the noble Lord equals them both-in abilities!" He complained bitterly, in conclusion, of the motion being pressed by Lord Marchmont and Lord Mans field at so unreasonable an hour, and called for an adjournment. "If the Constitution must be wounded," said he, "let it not receive its mortal stab at this dark and midnight hour, when honest men are asleep in their beds, and when only felons and assassins are seeking for prey!"

ed, unexplained, and reaffirmed. I desire to know whether I am condemned or acquitted; and whether I may still presume to hold my head as high as the noble Lord who moved to have my words taken down." To this no answer was given. It was easy for the ministry to pass what vote they pleased; but they found that every attempt to disgrace such a man only recoiled on themselves. His glowing defense of the people's rights regained him the popularity he had lost by his accession to the peerage. The city of London addressed him in terms of grateful acknowledgment, thanking him for "the zeal he had shown in support of those most valuable privileges, the right of election and the right of petition." The people looked up to him again as their best and truest friend; and though promoted to an earldom, they felt, in the language of his grandson, Lord Mahon, "that his elevation over them was like that of Rochester Castle over his own shores of Chatham —that he was raised above them only for their protection and defense."

After this session, Lord Chatham was unable to attend upon Parliament except occasionally and at distant intervals. He spent his time chiefly on his estate at Burton Pynsent, superintending the education of his children, and mingling in their amusements with the liveliest pleasure, notwithstanding his many infirmities. He sought to interest them not only in their books, but in rural employments and rural scenery. He delighted in landscape gardening; and, in speaking of its fine arrangements for future effect, called it, with his usual felicity of expression," the prophetic eye of Taste." "When his health would permit," says the tutor of his son, "he never suffered a day to pass without giving instruction of some sort to his children, and seldom without reading the Bible with them." He seems, indeed, to have studied the Scriptures with great care and attention from early life. He read them not only for the guidance of his faith, but for improvement in oratory. tent," says Lord Lyttleton, "to correct and instruct his imagination by the works of men, he borrowed his noblest images from the language of inspiration." His practice, in this respect, was imitated by Burke, Junius, and other distinguished writers of the day. At no period in later times, has secular eloquence gathered so many of her images and allusions from the pages of the Bible.

"Not con

Thus withdrawn from the cares and labors of public life, there was only one subject that could ever induce him to appear in Parliament. It was the contest with America. He knew more of this country than any man in England except Burke. During the war in which he wrested Canada from the French, he was brought into the most intimate communication with the leading men of the colonies. He knew their spirit and the resources of the country. Two of the smallest states (Massachusetts and Connecticut) had, in answer to his call, raised twelve thousand men for that war in a single year. Feelings of personal attachment united, therefore, with a sense of justice, to make him the champion of America. Feeble and decrepit as he was, he forgot his age and sufferings. He stood forth, in presence of the whole empire, to arraign, as a breach of the Constitution, every attempt to tax a people who had no representatives in Parliament. It was the era of his sublimest efforts in oratory. With no private ends or party purposes to accomplish, with a consciousness of the exalted services he had rendered to his country, he spoke "as one having authority," and denounced the war with a prophetic sense of the shame and disaster attending such a conflict. His voice of warning was lost, indeed, upon the ministry and on the great body of the nation, who welcomed a relief from their burdens at the expense of America. But it rang throughout every town and hamlet of the colonies; and when he proclaimed in the ears of Parliament, "I rejoice that America has resisted," millions of hearts on the other side of the Atlantic swelled with a prouder determination to resist even to the end.1

14 Lord Chatham received numerous tokens of respect and gratitude from the colonies. At