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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924087992198 
 
THE LIFE OF 
 
 WILLIAM PITT 
 
 EARL OF CHATHAM 
 VOL. I. 
 
STATUE OF WILLIAM PITT, EARL OE CHATHAM, IN CORK 
 
 By Joseph Wilton 
 (176G) 
 
THE LIFE OF 
 
 WILLIAM PITT 
 
 EAEL OF CHATHAM 
 
 BY 
 
 BASIL WILLIAMS 
 
 'Lord Chatham was a great, illustrious, faulty human being, 
 whose character, like all the noblest works of human composition, 
 should be determined by its excellences, not by its defects.' 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES 
 VOL. I. 
 
 WITH PORTRAITS AND MAP 
 
 LONGMANS, GEEBN, AND CO. 
 
 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON 
 
 NEW YORK, BOMBAY AND OALOUTTA 
 
 1913 
 
 [All rights reserved] 
 
TJXOEI 
 
 AUXILIANTI 
 
 EILIIS 
 
 AUXILIO 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The Great Commoner's chief glory is not to have won an 
 Empire, but to have united a people. He was understood and 
 loved of EngHshmen, Scot^en, Irishmen, Americans of his 
 day, because he had sympathy with them and called forth 
 what was best in them for themselves and for those whom 
 they were charged to rule. The object of this book is to give 
 a picture of Pitt, true to life and , ' captivating the people,' 
 whom he served and loved. LHe has sometimes suffered in 
 history because the people who appreciated him at his highest 
 were inarticulate and have left the field to the surmises of 
 courtiers. Whig ihagnates and gossips, whom he sought not t&= 
 please. ;By his actions and his speeches, more truly, perhaps, 
 tEaiftey other orator's, the mirror of his soul, he should prin- 
 cipally be judged, if we would understand what he meant and 
 still means for England. This I have attempted in all humility 
 and in the spirit of Browning's traveller, 
 
 ' Here and tere did England help me : how can I help England ? ' — 
 say 
 Whoso turns as I, this evening, turn to God to praise and pray. 
 
 In preparing this biography I have read many books and 
 manuscripts. In the text my references have been principally 
 to unpubhshed authorities, but I have thought that it might 
 be useful to others, anxious to pursue this or cognate sub- 
 jects further, to have authorities for the speeches and a 
 bibhography at the end of the book. I feel, however, that it 
 is not merely from books and manuscripts that one can learn 
 to appreciate Chatham. If this book has any merit, it is 
 
VIU 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 due less to them than to the example of my Father and 
 Mother and to my good fortune in having had some 
 experience of military and civil affairs. 
 
 The work required for the book has been Hghtened by 
 many acts of kindness. To the Marquis of Lansdowne, the 
 Earl of Egmont, Lord Lucas and Mr. Pretyman, I owe warm 
 thanks for unrestricted permission to use their manuscripts ; 
 also to the owners of houses where Pitt Hved for being allowed 
 to roam through them. Prom those in charge of the London 
 Library, the British Museum MSS. Department, the Eecord 
 Office, and the Archives of the Ministere des Affaires 
 Etrangeres I have received that ungrudging help which it is 
 the pride of those great institutions to afford to students. 
 
 To Mr. George Trevelyan I owe much for his inspiring 
 encouragement and to Mr. Brskine Childers for his valuable' 
 suggestions. Mr. Denys Winstanley most generously read 
 through and gave advice on the whole of the proof-sheets : 
 it is difficult to thank him enough for the advantage I have 
 derived from his accurate and extensive knowledge of 
 Chatham and the period. Mrs. Hilary Jenkinson has stood 
 by the book for over a year : for her scholarly researches 
 and her unstinted help I am most deeply grateful. 
 
 BASIL WILLIAMS. 
 
 Bank Farm, Holtye, Sussex. 
 OcUAet 15, 1913. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 OF 
 
 \% 
 
 THE FIR^T VdLUME 
 
 '■'*. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. GovEENOE Pitt, 1653-1726, 
 
 • II. Pitt's Eaely Yeaes, 1708-1734 
 
 III. Pitt and Walpolb, 1734r-1742 . 
 
 IV. Pitt and Caeteeet, 1742-1744 . 
 V. , Pitt and the Eebellion, 1744-1746 
 
 %.^ 
 
 \- 
 
 VI. Pitt as Paymastee . 
 
 :^ I. In Wak, 1746-1748 .... 
 
 n. In Peace, 1748-1764 
 
 VII. Pitt's Peivate Life and Feiendships, 1735- 
 1754 . . . 
 
 VIII. Gloom a^ Sunshine, 17^4 
 I. . . . 
 
 II. .... 
 
 IX. The Geeat^Commonee, 1754r-1756 
 X. The Awakening of the People, 1756-1757 
 
 FASES 
 
 \ 1-27 
 
 \ 28-59 
 
 % 
 
 •60-95 
 '%-122 
 123*150 
 151-189 
 151-168 
 168-189 
 
 190-217\ 
 218-249 
 218-237 
 237-249 
 
 250-286 
 287-316 
 
CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME 
 
 XI. Me. Sbceetaey Pitt at Work, 1757 
 
 I. 
 
 II. 
 
 III. 
 
 XII. The Tide of Victoey sets in, 1758 
 
 I. 
 
 II. 
 
 m. 
 
 XIII. Pitt and Choiseul, 1758-1759 
 
 317-351 
 317-325 
 325-336 
 337-351 
 
 352-382 
 352-364 
 364^376 
 376-382 
 
 383-408 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS TO YOLUME I 
 
 PORTRAITS 
 
 Statue of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, 
 
 IN Cork .... . . Frontispiece 
 
 By Joseph Wilton (1766). See vol. ii, p. 121 note. 
 
 Hester Grenville, Countess op Chatham . To face p. 248 
 
 From a painting in the possession of E. G. Pretyman, Esq, 
 (From Lt. EoUaTid Bos^s ' William Pitt' iy kind per- 
 mission of Messrs. Q. SeU tk Sons, Ltd.) 
 
 MAP AT END OF VOLUME 
 
 Western and Central Europe in 1756 
 
 ^ofe.— For Maps of 
 
 (a) France and England in Nortti America, 1756 
 
 (with insets (i.) West Indies in 1756 
 
 (ii.) Wolfe's Quebec Campaign) 
 
 (b) India — Seven Years' War and Settlement of 1765 
 
 ' (c) The World after Treaty of Paris in 1763 (with inset. West 
 Indies in 1763) 
 
 See Vol. II. 
 
LIFE OF WILLIAM PITT 
 
 CHAPTEE I 
 
 GOVEKNOR PITT 
 
 They well deserve to have, 
 
 That know the strong'st and surest way to get. 
 
 Shakespeaeb, Richard II, lii, 3. 
 
 While William Pitt was still a boy at Eton, it is recorded 
 that his grandfather Thomas, the great Governor of Madras, 
 used occasionally to fetch him over to his house at Swallow- 
 field, and took favourable notice of the boy's capacity. 
 In those days the old man was a gnarled and embittered 
 person, wearied with a long life of toil, soured by the endless 
 feuds of his quarrelsome family, and burdened with the care 
 of his scattered properties. His portrait, which still hangs 
 at Chevening, shows a short, thick-set, determined man, with 
 the diamond — ^no doubt to his mind his greatest acquisition 
 — shining gloriously in the hat by his side, and his left foot 
 with the large heel, in which tradition says he carried it 
 over to Prance, thrust prominently into the foreground. A 
 mighty imperious man, unsparingly laborious ia pursuit of his 
 aims, and full of explosive energy, he was too shrewd a judge 
 of men not to recognise the same strain in his grandson, a 
 strain he had missed bitterly in his own sons. Melted by this 
 sympathy of spirit, he must often have growled out to the boy 
 stories of his own hard fights in youth, and of the stern task 
 accomplished during his anxious years as Governor at Madras. 
 And it must have been from him that WiUiam inherited his 
 
 VOL. I. B 
 
2 GOVERNOR PITT 
 
 stern directness of vision, his love of England, and his peculiar 
 insight into the minds of merchants and traders and sympathy 
 with their aims, a sympathy which gained him the friendship 
 of the Aliens and Beckfords, and that great hacking of City 
 merchants who closed up round him and supported him when- 
 ever the Court or the great Whig families tried to crush him. 
 He also, unfortimately, inherited from the old man that 
 impatience of opposition, which often stood in his way, and 
 that virulent form of gout, which, on one occasion at least, 
 proved a dire calamity to himself and to the country. 
 
 Governor Pitt, the old buccaneer, is best known to history 
 as the owner of the Pitt Diamond, which afterwards glittered 
 in the sword of his great grandson's mighty foe. But he was 
 remarkable for more than this. He broke the ground for the 
 achievements of his descendants, and formed a link in their 
 succession from the bygone Raleighs and Drakes. With all the 
 Elizabethan sailors' audacious disregard for imposing appear- 
 ances he attacked effete monopolies and helped the vigorous 
 current of British commerce and energy to force a new channel 
 to distant parts of the world : like Chatham and Pitt, he 
 showed that the British adventurers who had insolently 
 ravished an empire could hold and rule it. A sturdy ad- 
 venturer was Governor Pitt, as ever set out from England, and 
 yet with a deal of public spirit and love of country mixed with 
 his passion for adventure. There is not one of his forbears 
 that the great, dignified, yet fiery Earl of Chatham takes after 
 so much as ' this desperate fellow, this roughling immoral man ' ; 
 it is worth while, therefore, to know him, and through him to 
 understand more of that lonely and mysterious grandson. 
 
 Thomas Pitt came of a Dorsetshire stock long established 
 in the neighbourhood of Blandfo^d, whence it had thrown 
 out a vigorous offshoot to Hampshire. The Dorsetshire 
 Pitts were of no special eminence in the county, but, to 
 judge from indications in their wills and rent-rolls and 
 in local records, for more than a century before Thomas's 
 birth had been quietly taking their part as country gentlemen, 
 mayors, parsons, doctors, or Government officials with profit 
 to themselves and their fellow-citizens. Their industry, 
 
THE DORSETSHIRE PITTS 3 
 
 helped by some judicious marriages, gradually added to their 
 acres, and strong family feeling kept them knit together. 
 The first member of the family of whom we find notice is 
 Nicholas, of Blandford and Wimborne, who lived in the reign 
 of Henry VIII. One of his grandsons, John, was a clerk 
 of Queen EUzabeth's Exchequer ; he died late in 1601, and 
 appears to have been a man of substance, for besides lega- 
 cies in money he left lands and houses at Blandford, Poole, 
 Charleton, Preston, and Kedcliff, and the Priory of Wareham. 
 His eldest son, WiUiam, who inherited most of the property, 
 like his father sought his fortune at Court, where he rose to 
 be Comptroller of James I's Household, and principal officer 
 of his Exchequer ; he was knighted at Newmarket in 1618, 
 and represented Wareham in several parhaments. But he 
 is chiefly notable in the records of the Pitt family for buying 
 Strathfieldsaye, in Hampshire, and settling the eldest and 
 richest branch there. His descendants, however, still retained 
 much property in Dorsetshire and never lost sight of their 
 poorer Blandford cousins. George, Sir Wilham's great-grand- 
 son, was looked up to as the head of the family by his 
 contemporary the Governor, for whose children he acted as 
 trustee and guardian ; and George's second son, John of 
 Encombe, was a good friend of William Pitt the elder. But 
 though this branch added still further to their wealth by mar- 
 riage, and in the eighteenth century gained the peerage of 
 Elvers, it seems to have bred no men of marked ability after 
 Sir WiUiam. Even financial success deserted them finally, 
 for in Chatham's time they were compelled to sell most of 
 their Dorsetshire property. 
 
 Thomas, a younger son of John, the clerk of the Exchequer, 
 founded the branch with which EngUsh history is most con- 
 cerned. He was left comfortably off by his father, with the 
 property at Charleton, a house and ' shoppes ' at Blandford, 
 and £50. He confined his ambition to municipal politics. In 
 James I's Charter of Incorporation to Blandford, dated 1606, 
 he appears with his brother John as one of the seven ' capital 
 burgesses,' and acted on several occasions as one of its bailiffs. 
 His eldest son, Wilham, became mayor of Dorchester; his 
 
 B 2 
 
4 GOVERNOR PITT 
 
 second son, John, father of the Governor, took orders and 
 became Eector of Blandford St. Mary's, of which he inherited 
 the advowson from his father, with a stipend of £100 a 
 year. He died in 1672, aged sixty-two, after a useful life 
 passed, according to the monument set up many years later 
 by the Governor, as ' a faithful shepherd of his flock, and a man 
 worthy of respect for his integrity, his probity, and his simple 
 faith.' Thomas Pitt, the third of the Eector's nine children 
 by his wife Sara Jay, was born at his father's rectory, two 
 miles outside Blandford, in 1653, the year when Cromwell was 
 called upon to rule by the Instrument of Government. 
 
 Good sturdy citizens these early Pitts appear to have been 
 during the century or more in which they were silently building 
 up the fortunes and the character of the family, both in 
 Dorsetshire and in London.^ Characteristically English are 
 their devotion to the public affairs suited to their station, and 
 their solemn tenacity of family ties. EngUsh, too, the constant 
 care shown by successive generations for parochial charities. 
 Funds for a free school at Wareham were left by one Pitt, 
 the alms-houses were rebuilt by another ; sums of £500 
 were bequeathed by two of the family for charities at Bland- 
 ford, and many smaller legacies by others. While these 
 Dorsetshire Pitts had been gradually establishing a family 
 tradition of public spirit and energy in local matters, and 
 sharpening by constant practice their inborn practical tempera- 
 ment, they were also silently gathering strength for the great 
 task of producing men, of the same strain as themselves, 
 but with that added touch of genius needed to extend their 
 soujid principles of public life to the whole English common- 
 wealth. For experience seems to show that genius is no 
 mere lusus natures, but must spring from a land well 
 tilled and cared for in previous generations ; and, unless 
 the land is exceptionally rich and prolific, the production 
 of one genius apparently exhausts it. It is rare indeed to 
 
 ' Eobert, one of the Governor's cousins, attained eminence as a physician 
 and a Fellow of the Royal Society, wrote some sensible tracts against quack 
 medicines, and attracted Anthony Wood's favourable notice by a learned 
 treatise on the weight of the land tortoise during and after hibernation. 
 
E.I. COMPANY UNDER CHARLES II 5 
 
 find three great men of one stock succeeding one another 
 so closely as Governor Pitt, Lord Chatham and his son. In 
 Governor Pitt we seem to see the first riotous exuberance 
 of a healthy but untutored growth ; in Lord Chatham the 
 glorious and ungrudging plenty of the fullest crop ; and in 
 his son still a fruitful return, but without that bounteous 
 richness of savour that marks in men's memories the noblest 
 years of the land's prosperity. 
 
 Thomas was only nineteen when the Eeotor died leaving 
 his property in trust to his brothers William, the Mayor of 
 Dorchester, and Eobert, of Blandford, to be divided as they 
 should determine among his children. Thomas, whose share 
 could not have been large, determined on a life of adventure 
 as a means of gaining a fortune. In the days of Charles II 
 the East Indian trade offered one of the best openings for 
 adventure and fortune-hunting. During the Commonwealth! 
 the monopoly of the East India Company, granted by charters 
 of Ehzabeth, James I and Charles I, but unsanctioned by 
 ParUament, had been questioned by members of the trading 
 community who were excluded from its benefits. In fact, 
 until Cromwell granted a new charter in 1658, there had, 
 after the rebelUon began, been a general liberty of trade to the 
 Bast Indies.! Charles II confirmed to the Company the 
 privileges granted by Cromwell, but the taste of liberty enjoyed 
 during the Commonwealth had whetted the private traders' 
 appetite for a share in the rich Indian market. In spite of 
 the reactionary fervour of loyalty during the early part of 
 Charles II's reign, there was a growing disposition among 
 commercial and other middle-class folk to question the King's 
 right to grant exclusive trading privileges without the sanction 
 of Parliament. For these reasons it became more and more 
 the practice for private adventurers to charter ships and engage 
 in the Indian trade, in spite of protests or even more drastic 
 methods adopted by the Company, whose history during the 
 reigns of the last two Stuarts is chiefly a record of their quarrels 
 with these so-called interlopers. 
 
 1 See Skinner's plea, which was not traversed by the Company, in the case 
 of Skinner v. The East India Company. 
 
6 GOVERNOR PITT 
 
 In the fight between privilege and freedom of trade the odds 
 were not so entirely on the side of the Company as may app^r 
 at first sight. They had, it is true, the advantages of an estab- 
 lished position, of ships, factories and an organised staff of 
 experienced agents in the East, of the King's favour, and of 
 charters extending back for three-quarters of a century, which, 
 though subject to some question, had never been declared 
 illegal by any constituted authority. They had, too, the 
 powerful support of the Privy Council and of judges such as 
 Jeffreys, who lumped together in one condemnation ' the 
 interlopers against the King's prerogative in this particular, 
 and the horrid conspirators against the King's life in their 
 last hellish conspiracy, who first appeared in Westminster Hall 
 about the same time.' On the other hand the interlopers had 
 the great advantage always enjoyed by freelances over more 
 unwieldy bodies. They were difficult to reach, and had the 
 sympathy of many Bristol and London merchants, and of many 
 members of Parliament. Some of the East India shareholders 
 themselves were inclined to aUow greater liberty to private 
 trade, and the Company had many local difficulties favourable 
 to the interlopers' proceedings. The isolated positions of their 
 Indian factories and their dependence on the goodwill of native 
 princes were a considerable source of weakness. Surat and 
 Bombay on the Malabar coast. Port St. George, Masulipatam, 
 and Vizagapatam on the Coromandel coast, Balasore, and 
 Hugli, Kasimbdzar and Patna in Bengal, and the factories at 
 Bencoolen in Sumatra and Gombroon in the Persian Gulf, were 
 so far apart and so much at the mercy of the native rulers that 
 in moments of sudden danger they could not render one another 
 much assistance. For the same reason the agents, factors and 
 clerks of the Company were not very amenable to control from 
 London, and their fidelity to the Company's interests depended 
 almost entirely on their own good feeling. The scale of salaries 
 was hardly calculated to ensure whole-hearted devotion. A 
 writer began at £10, or even £5 a year, a factor earned £40, and 
 an agent or president of one of the chief factories received no 
 more than £200, with an allowance of £100 a year. To supple- 
 ment these meagre salaries the Company's servants in- 
 
CHILD AND THE INTERLOPERS 7 
 
 variably engaged in private trade, and often actively assisted 
 the interlopers competing with the Company. Even in cases 
 of mutiny the proprietors were almost powerless against them. 
 Thus in the early part of Charles II's reign Sir Edward Winter, 
 a dismissed president of Port St. George, clapped the man sent 
 to supersede him into prison, and continued to carry on the 
 government successfully for three years. All orders from the 
 Company he treated as forgeries, and only submitted finally to 
 two ships flying the King's flag on a guarantee of security for 
 his person and property. 
 
 All these disadvantages might soon have proved fatal to 
 the Company had they not possessed as chief guide in their 
 councils one of the strongest and ablest commercial men in 
 England. Sir Josiah Child, a victualler to the Navy under the 
 Commonwealth, first became a director or ' committee ' (to use 
 the contemporary expression) of the East India Company in 
 1^74, and thereafter with one exception was annually re-elected 
 until his death in 1§99. Thrice Governor and twice Deputy- 
 Governor, he soon became the autocrat of the Company. By 
 his influence at Court, once jeopardised in 1676, but recovered 
 by a timely submission, his business capacity, his credit 
 in the City, and his controversial vigour he overbore most 
 men's opposition. He early recognised that merely defensive 
 measures were unsuited to the Company's needs, and excused 
 his aggressive policy by the observation that ' no great good 
 was ever attained in this world without throes and convul- 
 sions.' For many years he succeeded in defeating all organised 
 attempts by rival companies of merchants to obtain commercial 
 privileges. He was also the private interlopers' implacable 
 antagonist, finding a ready seconder in his brother, Sir John, 
 the President of Surat, who marched several of them through 
 the streets of his presidency with irons round their necks. Sir 
 Josiah prevented many interlopers from ever leaving England — 
 forty-eight it is said in one year alone — by means of Privy 
 Council orders and prosecutions before Jeffreys and other 
 amenable judges. But he was something more than a vigilant 
 guardian of the Company's commercial interests : he looked 
 forward to the time when the British government of India 
 
8 GOVERNOR PITT 
 
 would be still more important than its trade. Under his rule 
 a municipality was established in Madras, and a municipal 
 rate levied for purposes of defence, since the natives ' do live 
 easier under our government than under any government in 
 Asia ' ; and he told the Council of Madras to ' estabhsh such 
 a Politie of civill and mihtary power, and create and secure 
 such a large Eevenue as may bee the foundation of a large 
 well-grounded sure English Dominion in India for all time 
 to come ' ; nevertheless ' we would have you do no wrong or 
 violence to any in amity with us. We would not wrong a 
 worm. Just and Stout is the motto we hope to deserve and 
 wear ' — words which go far to explain the tribute paid to him 
 by Thomas Pitt's grandson, Mr. Secretary Pitt, as ' not only 
 a great mercantile writer, but fit to govern a great Empire or 
 make a little kingdom a great one.' ^ 
 
 No man was a more determined and successful opponent 
 of Child's attempts to preserve the monopoly of Indian trade 
 than Thomas Pitt, son of the quiet country rector of Blandford 
 St. Mary's. At what age he took to a life of adventure is not 
 known ; but his first recorded voyage to India was in 1674, 
 two years after his father's death, when he was only twenty-one. 
 He sailed either as a passenger or as a member of the crew in 
 the Lancaster, one of the Company's ships. He must have 
 started with some trading capital, for in the following year he 
 was already established in trade at Balasore, and had become 
 so notorious an interloper that orders came from Leadenhall 
 Street for him to be confined and sent home by the next 
 year's shipping. But Tom Pitt had already made powerful 
 friends among the Company's servants in India. Edwards, 
 chief of their Balasore factory, entertained the contumacious 
 young interloper at his house ; Matthias Vincent, their chief 
 agent in Bengal, and Bugden, of the Hugli Council, were also 
 his friends. So far from returning, therefore, Pitt carried 
 on a lucrative business in alliance with some of the Com- 
 pany's agents. This aUiance was further cemented about this 
 time by his marriage with Vincent's and Edward's niece, 
 Jane Innes, who belonged to an old Scottish family of that 
 
 ' See below, vol. ii, pp. 53-4. 
 
T. PITT, THE INTERLOPER, 1674-81 9 
 
 ilk, descended on the spindle side from a natural son of 
 James V. '■ 
 
 Pitt was not slow in turning to account the advantage 
 which his influential friends and connections gave him. ' 'Tis 
 here as in all parts of the world — money begets money,' was a 
 favourite expression of his in after life ; and during his first 
 seven years in the East, from 1674 to 1681, he fully justified 
 his right to emphasise this maxim. Before he was twenty- 
 five he had acquired an interest in several merchant ships 
 and was engaged in trading concerns of some magnitude to 
 Persia, to Achm and to the Malay Archipelago. In his business 
 deaHngshe already showed signs of the arbitrary temper which 
 characterised him as Governor of Madras and in his paternal 
 relations. To the ' Worshipfull Matthias Vincent,' his uncle 
 by marriage, he wrote with condescending frankness : 
 
 Sr, — I tumbly beg your pardon for tte freedom I take herein, 
 whicli I thought better soe then doe as some endeavour to, hang men 
 behind theire backs, butt speake faire to their faces, which are 
 like Wolves in Sheepes Cloathing, whose ends I hope wiU bee 
 irrecoverable miserable. I doubt not but in time you will finde 
 them out. Heartily wishing you may . . . ; 
 
 and in spite of a promise, made in 1878 to the Council of 
 Port St- George, to be law-abiding, he was complained of in 
 the following year as still ' huf&ng.' 
 
 Pitt returned to England in the William and John in 1681, 
 at the very moment when specially determined efforts were 
 being made to deprive the Company of its monopoly. Papillon, 
 once Child's patron, was leading the party among the share- 
 holders anxious to widen the Company's trading basis ; but 
 their efforts were frustrated by Child, and they themselves 
 
 ' According to CoUins's Peerage the Governor's wife was a daughter of 
 James Innis, son of Adam Innis of Reid Hall in the shire of Murray in Scotland. 
 Jane's great grandfather, Sir Robert Innis of that ilk, had married Lady Grisel 
 Stewart, a daughter of the Earl of Murray and a granddaughter of Mary 
 Queen of Scots' ' base-brother.' 
 
 A letter of November 1766 in the Chatham MSS. 46 from a James Innes 
 settled in Jamaica, claiming kinship with Lord Chatham, gives a slightly 
 different account of Jane's descent. The Governor's marriage seems to have 
 taken place in India : see Yule, Hedgea's Diary, iii, 27, 28. There is a portrait 
 of Jane Pitt at Chevening. 
 
10 GOVERNOR PITT 
 
 driven out of the Company. The Levant Company was trying 
 to secure a charter which would have admitted them to the 
 Persian Gulf trade. They failed hkewise. Many private 
 adventurers were also foiled in attempts to outwit Child, 
 but a few had better fortune. Among these was Pitt 
 himself. He never showed fear in the course of his life, and 
 was just the man for a daring enterprise, which promised 
 annoyance to those opposed to him and profit to himself. 
 Moreover, he was a sturdy Whig, all the more ready, therefore, 
 to have his fling at privileges unsanctioned by Parliament 
 and defended by questionable acts of prerogative. Materially 
 he was well equipped for the adventure. Seven years in 
 India had given him a good knowledge of Indian trade. The 
 capital he himself could contribute must have been considerable, 
 and he had gained the confidence of friends in the City, 
 many of them old schoolfellows, who took a large share in 
 his present venture. 
 
 By the beginning of 1682, less than a year after his return 
 to England, Pitt had formed a small trading association and 
 had collected a little fleet in the Thames. The Company, 
 discovering its destination, succeeded in arresting some of 
 the ships before they could cast off, and obtained a judgment 
 /against Pitt and another owner. But Pitt himself, in spite 
 of the issue of a writ ne exeat regnum, escaped on February 20 
 on board the Crown (Captain DorreU) ; while six other inter- 
 loping ships, two at least of which belonged to his association, 
 started about the same time. The Court of Directors then 
 took all possible measures to forestall him in India. They wrote 
 to their factories in Bengal, ordering his arrest, and ' when you 
 have got him into your custody be sure to secure him, he being 
 a desperate fellow and one that we fear will not stick at doing 
 any mischief that lies in his power ' ; a warning was also sent 
 to Port St. George against this ' fellow of a haughty, huffying, 
 daring temper.' Instructions were sent to the Company's 
 fleet to make all haste away and arrive in the Bay of Bengal 
 before him. But Pitt's ship was well chosen for speed, and 
 not only outstripped the fleet, but also the ships conveying 
 William Hedges, the new agent for Bengal, which had left 
 
T. PITT'S SECOND VENTURE, 1682 ii 
 
 the Downs a month before him. The Crown actually sighted 
 Hedges's ship about three months out, but soon showed her 
 a clean pair of heels, and dropped anchor at Balasore on 
 July 6, 1682, just eleven days before her. Pitt did not waste 
 those eleven days. He landed in state with guards and 
 trumpets, gave out that the old Company was in a very low 
 condition, and declared himself the agent of a new company. 
 He hired a great house, brought several chests of treasure 
 ashore, and at once began trading with the local merchants. 
 He also raised an armed body of Portuguese and half-castes 
 so formidable of aspect that, when Hedges arrived, he was 
 forced to pay customs on goods landed in tJTe "Company's 
 own factory. At Hugh it was just 11^ same./ Pitt arrived 
 with three ships, ' lands in great stafe with fc^r or five files 
 of soldiers in red coats, well armed, ajid great attendance of 
 Native Soldiers, with Trumpeters, ai^Htakes up his quarters 
 with the Dutch, by the name of the|mw Ccinapany's Agent, 
 bespattering the old Company.' With »ie help of his uncle 
 Vincent, who had been dismissed tlie\Company's service, 
 he established a factory, and, after c|)ta,lning|the necessary 
 permit from the local nabob, carried on a ti)[:^ving trade with 
 the natives. Interlopers such as he had a^4it advantage 
 over the Company in being willing to pay ready money for 
 their goods ; and, unhampered by scitiples^atout creating 
 precedents, they were lavish in their feribe^ to^'^He Indian 
 governors and officials. Thus, when HpdgeS had -.ojj^ained 
 an order for the arrest of Pitt and his associate by Bulb!^und, 
 the native governor of Hugh, they ' compouripledwith Bulchund 
 for a good sum of money and 6 per cent, paid by them for aU 
 their goods ; with other great presents ; thou^ these men 
 are so shameless as to deny it ! ' Seven months after landing 
 at Balasore Pitt had finished his business and, after once more 
 defying Hedges in an armed ship, sailed for England, where 
 he arrived in June 1683. The Company immediately instituted 
 an action for damages against him for ' crimes perpetrated in 
 the Bay.' His wealth at this time may be inferred from his 
 ability to give £40,000 security for his appearance in answer to 
 the claim. The suit dragged on for three years, and resulted in 
 
12 GOVERNOR PITT 
 
 a fine of £1 ,000 on Pitt. But in 1 687 he persuaded the Company 
 to rest content with a payment of £400. This was a cheap price 
 for the seven months' trading, since the Company found that 
 such interlopers, though they ' come to the Bay but for a short 
 time and as it were by stealth, yet they bring home more in 
 proportion of those new desireable goods by far than our ships.' 
 For some years after 1683 Thomas apparently remained 
 in England, still keeping up his connection with the Indian 
 trade.^ He lived with some splendour in a house rented at 
 £120, where he kept open table for his friends and relations 
 and his growing family of children, and had a coach and 
 horses and a due number of servants. He also bought for 
 £1,500 from Lord Salisbury the Manor of Stratford-under- 
 the-Castle, which carried with it the borough of Old Sarum. 
 Though his Whig leanings were not to his advantage during 
 James II's reign, they made him a person of some con- 
 sequence at the sudden Eevolution of 1688^. The East 
 India Company, under Child's influence, had so completely 
 identified itself with James II, who was a shareholder, that 
 his abdication threatened to leave it defenceless. But ChUd 
 took early steps to gain friends at the new Court. It can 
 hardly be mere coincidence that on November 23, 1688, less 
 than a month after William's landing at Torbay, Thomas 
 Pitt, the Whig and interloper, ' was admitted into the freedom 
 of this Company gratis.' The reduction of his fine in 
 the previous year indicated that some approaches had already 
 been made to him by the Company, but it is unhkely that 
 the reconciliation would have been so complete unless they 
 had been anxious to secure for their interest so dangerous 
 a member of the ruling party. Pitt was elected a member 
 of the Convention ParHament for Old Sarum, but being un- 
 seated on petition, came in for Salisbury at a by-election 
 in May 1689, and was re-elected there for William and Mary's 
 first ParHament. He acted on a committee to consider the 
 numerous cases of complaint against the East India Company, 
 but was still chiefly occupied with commercial undertakings. 
 He took shares in a scheme to render the Avon navigable 
 
 ' This appears from Customs records in the Treasury and E. I. Co.'s books. 
 
T. PITT IN ENGLAND, 1683-93 13 
 
 from Christchuroh to Salisbury, no doubt with a view to 
 securing a convenient wharf almost at his back door for 
 loading ships engaged in his ventures. In partnership with 
 eight other London merchants he fitted out the Arcana galley 
 as a privateer in the French War at a cost of £8,000, and with 
 a crew of 160.^ He was also one of the founders of a company 
 of merchant-adventurers trading to the noffch-west of America, 
 estabUshed in 1691. Hitherto the Hu(|son Bay Company 
 had enjoyed the monopoly of the fur| and fish trade in 
 Northern Canada under Charles II's charter of 1670. It 
 is characteristic of the interloper Pitt tci hav4 helped on a 
 project for trenching upon their privil»ed preserves. His 
 company was granted the sole right offtradiagjlfishing and 
 mining over Labrador, the Davis and ^obisher jStraits and 
 Baffin's Bay, with permission to catchy whale arid sturgeon, 
 and fit out men-of-war, also to buy lai^'^and raise; joint-stock 
 in consideration of occasional payments to the Manor of 
 Greenwich of three elks and three black ibeaversli ffhis North- 
 West Company, as it was called, gave ijonsideraple trouble 
 to the Hudson Bay Company, an|i wass in rivalry with it 
 until 1820, when the two united. ■ ■ ' ■; \ 
 
 Elk-hunting and fishing for sturgeon an the isnpw-bound 
 lands of North America offered li|itle attfactioo to |Pitt per- 
 sonally, whereas the East, with it| proj^iSe of easily; acquired 
 wealth, stUl called to him. He r^olve|, thereforej in spite of 
 his respectable position at home, anfl Although |clually a 
 member of the East India Company, to' venture orr one more 
 interloping expedition. He started- in March 1693, with two 
 ships, the Edward, armed with forty-four guiis and commanded 
 by Captain Gifford, and the Seymore, and took with him 
 £60,000 in silver for purposes of trade. The Company, failing 
 to obtain an Order in Council to stop him, wrote to their Bengal 
 factory to warn them against Pitt's schemes. But Pitt and 
 his associates ' who huff and bounce and give out Mountaines 
 on their one side,' had all their old success, gaining over native 
 
 ' This privateer was so large that the Admiralty agreed to send her out 
 under the King's commission, while leaving to Pitt and his friends all prizes 
 she might capture. 
 
14 GOVERNOR PITT 
 
 rulers and former friends in the Company's service, notably 
 the trading chaplain Evans, who afterwards became Bishop 
 of Bangor. At last the directors, moved partly by the outcry 
 raised at their detention of the Bedbridge, belonging to another 
 interloper, and by their unpopularity in Parliament, announced 
 early in January that they had come to terms with Pitt's 
 partners at home, and directed that his stock was to be treated 
 as their own, ' and that we hope is the end of all our long 
 quarrels and contentions.' And so it proved, in spite of the 
 fact that ' Captain Pitts to the last made a great bouncing and 
 have carried himself very haughtily ever since his arrivall in 
 these parts, and has not scrupled to speak very Disrespectfully 
 and uncivilly of your Honours.' 
 
 On his return to England in 1695 he found that the ParUa- 
 ment of 1690 had been dissolved, and in the new House of 
 Commons, which was much more Whig in colour than its 
 predecessor, he appeared as member for his own borough of 
 Old Sarum. His old adversaries of Leadenhall Street were now 
 in great straits : although William III had renewed their 
 charter in 1693, the House of Commons had resolved in January 
 1694 that ' all the subjects of England have equal right to 
 trade to the East Indies unless prohibited by Act of Parlia- 
 ment,' and a rival Dowgate Association had sprung up ; above 
 all, Montague, First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, was against them. The question was no longer 
 one of stopping interlopers, but of maintaining their own 
 existence. Concessions at home they felt to be indispensable ; 
 but they also had the wisdom to see that all was not lost if 
 they could maintain and strengthen their position in India by 
 appointing a representative at once above the temptation of 
 truckling to their rivals for a share in the profits and masterful 
 enough to inspire respect and exact obedience from subordinates. 
 Pitt fulfilled all these requirements. That he had been an 
 interloper and knew all the secrets of the trade, and that he was 
 a Whig member of ParKament who might have done them 
 considerable damage in the forthcoming struggle, were but 
 additional reasons in his favour. Accordingly, on November 
 24, 1697, he was chosen President of the Company's settle- 
 
GOVERNOR OF MADRAS, 1697 15 
 
 menta on the Coromandel coast, in Orissa, Gingee, and the 
 Mahratta countries, and on the coast of Sumatra, and Com- 
 mander-in-chief of Port St. George and Fort St. David. 
 Extraordinary powers of discipline over his own Council and 
 the other servants of the Company were granted to him. ' For 
 the defeating of interlopers,' the Court observed with some 
 humour to their representative in Bengal, ' we thiak our 
 President's advice may be helpful to you, he having engaged 
 to Us to signaUse himself therein.' That there was considerable 
 opposition to his appointment is hardly surprising. The 
 shareholders turned out eighteen of the directors responsible 
 for it, and old Sir Josiah Child deplored, from his retirement 
 at Wanstead, ' the sending of that roughUng immoral man . . . 
 which everybody knows I was always against.' Pitt himself 
 made no bones about accepting the appointment. He was 
 but forty years old, stiU in the prime of life, energy and high 
 spirits. He had many interests in India which the Court could 
 hardly expect him to neglect, since they offered him a salary 
 of only £300 a year and specially sanctioned his eldest son 
 Robert accompanjdng him as a free merchant. Moreover, the 
 impending conflict between the old Company and the new, in 
 which each would have to prove its capacity to hold the privi- 
 leges entrusted to it, was one most likely to appeal to his 
 quarrelsome and dictatorial nature. 
 
 Madras, where Pitt landed as President, or Governor, on 
 July 7, 1698, was not the Madras of to-day. Fort St. George, 
 the European quarter, was an oblong of 400 yards by 100, 
 containing only twelve streets and alleys and 129 dwelhng- 
 houses, bringing in a yearly rental of under £60. On the whole 
 Coromandel coast Pitt had under him only 119 Englishmen 
 and 50 Englishwomen aU told ; the natives and half-castes 
 were more numerous, but did not exceed 300,000 within the 
 limits of the Presidency. Life at the fort was patriarchal. 
 The President and all the Company's servants dined together 
 at a common mess, off Pitt's service of silver plate, which he 
 had sold to the Company for £765 ; and on Sunday mornings 
 the Council would meet and accompany their chief to church. 
 The President exercised a stern discipline over the morals and 
 
i6 GOVERNOR PITT 
 
 manners of his sabordinates, but had cause to complain to 
 the directors that ' here is an Imbibed Notion in some who 
 ought to know better that noe Servant of yours Ought to have 
 Corporall punishment, which has been the Euine of many 
 a Youth in this place.' 
 
 During his eleven years of office Pitt had to meet 
 attacks from English and native adversaries, which called 
 forth all his vigour. Shortly after his arrival, WilUam III, 
 empowered by an Act of 1698, gave a charter to the new 
 ' English Company trading in the East Indies,' authorising 
 them to estabUsh their business in India and terminating the 
 old Company's powers in 1701. The new Company forthwith 
 sent out an ambassador accredited to the Great Mogul, and 
 three Presidents armed with consular authority to Hugli, 
 Surat, and Masulipatam. The three Presidents were all former 
 servants of the old Company, and two of them — Sir Edward 
 Littleton and John Pitt — had once been in association with 
 Governor Pitt. John, the Governor's own cousin, was destined 
 for Masulipatam, and became his chief adversary in the fight 
 between the two Companies. He took up a false position at 
 the outset, refusing to salute the Union Jack when he touched 
 at Madras, and following this up by insolence to the Governor. 
 Thomas paid him back with interest in his own coin. 
 
 The fable of the froggs Suits your prepent temper [he wrote], 
 and the Morall and reflexion I hope will make much impression 
 on you see as to prevent your having the fate of the froggs. I 
 recommend to you allsoe the reading and practising the fables 
 of the Lion and the Mouse and the Wolf and the Stork ... If 
 you passe by here you must behave your self very Civilly, noe 
 Drums, fiSags nor trumpets within our bounds, for here shall be 
 but one Governor whilst I am here ; . . . I think I have now 
 answer'd all your riff rafi Stuff, which I hope will be as tiresome 
 to you to read as 'tis to me to write.' 
 
 In the end John contented himself with strong language, 
 which only brought him reproaches from his own directors. 
 Not so Thomas. He forbade his subordinates to recognise or 
 have any dealings with the new Company's officials ; and when 
 he inadvertently sold a couple of his own horses to John 
 
QUARREL WITH NEW COMPANY 17 
 
 he reflected with some satisfaction that he had obtained double 
 their value, ' both being old and founder'd.' He hindered the 
 new Company's trade, and threatened that if they touched ' a 
 ship belonging to this Presidency we will certainly fit out a briske 
 privateer to make reprisall.' Within the orbit of the Governor's 
 influence the new Company was reduced to impotence. His 
 cousin John died in 1703 and was curtly dismissed by Thomas 
 as ' the ungratefullest wretch that ever was born. He is dead 
 and there's an end.' In Bengal Sir Edward Littleton found 
 his match in the local servants of the old Company, supported 
 by Pitt from Madras, who told him that ' those whose ffronts 
 are cased with Corinthian brass will stick at nothing.' Before 
 John Pitt's death the victory had been won. In April 1702 the 
 new Company agreed to union on terms favourable to the 
 old Company. The defeat of the younger association's project 
 of entirely superseding their rivals was undoubtedly a benefit 
 to the EngHsh in India, for their own inexperience and their 
 agents' foUy were hampering trade and setting the natives 
 against the English nation at a moment when the outbreak 
 of war with France and Spain made it peculiarly necessary 
 for aU Anglo-Indians to show a united front imder a strong 
 government. The satisfactory union was largely the result 
 of Thomas Pitt's vigorous defence of his masters' interest ; 
 and they had the grace to recognise this with unusual warmth. 
 Not only the old Court, so a friend writes to him, ' were very 
 hearty to your interest,' but ' most of the new spoke with great 
 respect of you, soe by this I see you are safe with both sides.' 
 His appointment was confirmed by the joint board, and Pitt 
 thanked the new Company's directors in these dignified terms : 
 
 Wtereas ray gratitude as an Englishman obliges me to pay all 
 Defierence to the Blessed Memory of King William, So allso on this 
 occasion I can't butt remember that great Sayiag of his to the 
 French King's Plenipotentiarys att Eyswick upon concluding the 
 Peace, which furnishes mee with apt words for this address to You. 
 
 ' Twas my Fate and nott my choice that made mee Your Enemy,' 
 and since You and my Masters are united, Itt shall bee my utmost 
 Endeavours to purchase Your Good Opinion and deserve your 
 Friendship. 
 
 VOL. I. C 
 
i8 GOVERNOR PITT 
 
 Pitt also adopted a new tone towards the natives. ' When 
 the Europeans first settled in India,' he wrote in one of his 
 reports, ' they were mightily admired by the natives, beheving 
 that they were as innocent as themselves ; but since,' he added, 
 ' by their example they are grown crafty and cautious ... the 
 more obliging your management the more jealous they are of 
 you.' When he came to India, he found the Company regarded 
 as a convenient milch cow by the natives. In 1690 the Great 
 Mogul, Aurungzebe, had attacked several of the factories and 
 imposed ignominious terms of peace upon them ; provincial 
 nabobs likewise, and a whole chain of subordinate officials, 
 besides wandering Mahratta raiders, used to exact toll on their 
 trade. Pitt tried a less obliging management with the natives, 
 and in his dealings with them showed signs of the same pride, 
 untiring energy and stern consciousness of power so notable 
 in his grandson. To a presuming local nabob he writes : 
 
 I received your impertinent and insolent letter. We all know 
 your King to be great, wise and just . . . but most of his little 
 Governors, amongst whom I reckon you, to be very corrupt and 
 unjust. We would have you to know we are of a nation whose 
 sovereign is great and powerful, able to protect his subjects in their 
 just lights over all the world, and revenge whatever ia justices shall 
 be done them, of which there will be speedy instances given. I am 
 not a Uttle surprised at your saucy expressions, as well as actions in 
 imprisoning my inhabitants, when you know that I can fetch you 
 hither and correct you for both. This is an answer to your letter. 
 
 His chief adversary was Duad Khan, Nabob of the Carnatic 
 and the Gingee country, who in 1702, on Pitt's refusal to offer 
 him the presents he expected, marched with an army to attack 
 Madras. On this menace the Governor answered him firmly, 
 ' We can put no other construction on this than declaring 
 a war with all Europe nations, and accordingly we shall act.' 
 The outlying factories of Fort St. David, Vizagapatam and 
 Masulipatam were wartned of the danger and their inhabitants 
 ordered, if necessary, to retire on Madras. The neighbouring 
 Danish, French, and Dutch factories were invited to send 
 assistance, an invitation to which only the Danes, whom Pitt 
 had previously helped, responded. The Fort St. George 
 
NATIVE WARS 19 
 
 officials were encouraged to raise a troop of horse by allowances 
 for horse-keep. Vigorous sorties were made to protect the 
 Company's cloth-workers and convoys. The siege lasted four 
 months, until Pitt bought off Diiad Khan by an offer of 20,000 
 rupees, a sum, as he shrewdly observes, ' which, considering 
 the very long time they have been here, will be no inducement 
 for him to come again, or any of his successors hereafter ' ; 
 and even this amount was not to be paid until the damage to 
 friendly villages and to the Company's trade had been made 
 good. The Governor celebrated peace by a feast to all the 
 troops in the fort, but abated none of his precautions. With 
 that practical turn, which appears again in his grandson's 
 arrangements for distant expeditions, he ordered a supply 
 of 300 hogs, ready killed and salted, to be always on hand to 
 prevent the recurrence of a scarcity of food, and was thus 
 fully prepared, when war was declared against France and 
 Spain, to give a good account of himself against any hostile 
 fleet. Duad Khan reappeared in 1705, and obtained nothing 
 more from Pitt than cases of cordial waters and Pegu oranges, 
 which he returned as fit only for children. When Aurungzebe 
 died in 1707, Pitt from the outset gave his support to Shah 
 Alam, who by killing all his rivals made good his claim to the 
 empire. By this foresight Pitt obtained for the Company several 
 desirable villages and valuable trading privileges, and greatly 
 enhanced its influence. 
 
 During the intervals of peace he devoted himself ener- 
 getically to developing the Company's resources. He had 
 their possessions surveyed, and an exact plan drawn up 
 of Madras and Fort St. George.^ He encouraged the 
 settlement of native painters and clothworkers, increased 
 the revenue of the town, and farmed the taxes on betel- 
 nuts, arrack and tobacco on advantageous terms. He even 
 tried to raise silkworms, but the heat of Madras killed his 
 mulberry trees. Like his grandson, he was an enthusiastic 
 gardener. ' My leisure time,' he writes in 1703, ' I generally 
 spend in gardening and planting and making such improve- 
 ments which I hope will tend to the Company's advantage and 
 
 ^ This plan is reproduced in Vestiges of Old Madras, by H. D. Love. 
 
 c 2 
 
20 GOVERNOR PITT 
 
 the good of the whole place for that in a little time I hope 
 the place will be able to subsist of itself without much depen- 
 dence from the country for that in the late long siege we were 
 not a little pinched for provisions.' He wound up the affairs 
 of the new Company, left in great confusion by John Pitt, and 
 helped the Bencoolen factory out of difficulties of their own 
 making. He promoted an Anglican mission for half-castes 
 and natives, but when the Eoman Catholic bishop and his 
 priests attempted to set up their authority against his, he took 
 ' occasion to make those Churchmen know that they are under 
 an English Government.' The native tax-coUectors all over 
 the country he found very insolent, ' only those within our 
 reach I keep in pretty good order, by now and then giving 'em 
 a pretty good banging.' ^ Even his manifold activities for the 
 Company's interest did not absorb all his energy. His estates 
 in England, the education of his children and the unsatisfactory 
 conduct of his wife gave material for a vigorous correspondence. 
 He also took endless trouble for his friends, collecting their 
 debts and watching over the interests of their sons and relatives 
 sent out to India to be under his protection. When the sons 
 did well, he gladdened the fathers' hearts by his good reports, 
 and even when one of them married- — a grievous crime in his eyes 
 after his own experience — he relented when he found the wife 
 ■ a vertuous, modest, good humour'd, comely young woman, 
 and I don't doubt, but will make him a good Wife, since he was 
 resolv'd to marry in these parts ; for she justly deserves the 
 character I give her.' A vast private trade also absorbed much 
 of his energy. To forward this, directly he arrived in Madras 
 he dispatched his eldest son, Eobert, on the principle that 
 ' a man's youth is the only time to drudge in busyness,' on an 
 expedition of more than two years to China. Latterly, how- 
 ever, he confined his attention principally to diamonds, as the 
 most portable and convenient form of merchandise. In the 
 course of this business he came into possession of the famous 
 Pitt Diamond, which gave him trouble and annoyance for 
 fifteen years. After three months' haggUng with Jamchund, 
 
 ' It is recorded in the consultation book that the Qovemor himself ' twice 
 or thrice thrashed ' some native harbour official for neglecting his work. 
 
CIVIL ADMINISTRATION 21 
 
 the merchant who brought it from Golconda, he finally obtained 
 it in March 1702 for £25,000 — a quarter of the sum originally 
 asked. It weighed 410 carats in the rough and 136 when cut 
 as a brilliant.^ In October 1702 he sent his son home in charge 
 of the diamond with instructions to have it cut and sold ; and 
 for the remaining seven years before his own return sent letters 
 by every mail pestering him and the two or three friends in 
 the secret with minute directions about ' the great concerne,' 
 and violent upbraiding of their slackness in finding a purchaser 
 at the price he expected. ' I will not part with it,' he told 
 them, ' under £1500 a Carrat, which I am sure is as cheap as 
 Neck-beef, and let any Potentate buy it, the next day 'tis 
 worth a miUion of pounds sterling.' 
 
 Unfortunately Pitt's habit of ' banging ' grew with age 
 and the nervous irritabihty caused by attacks of the family 
 gout. Never of a placid disposition, he at times became 
 outrageous. He mismanaged a serious dispute in the native 
 quarters between the Eight- and Left-hand castes and 
 quarrelled with most of his council, putting one member in 
 irons and threatening to whip and hang another. He 
 himself became anxious to go home, and in September 1709 
 was recalled by the directors. But no disgrace was cast upon 
 him, as upon some former governors after their discharge. 
 
 ' Pope's lines are well known : 
 
 ' Asleep and naked as an Indian lay. 
 An Jionest factor stole a gem away : 
 He pledged it to the knight ; the knight had wit. 
 So kept the diamond, and the rogue was hit.' 
 — the last line of which originally ran : 
 
 ' So robbed the robber and was rich as P .' 
 
 The Governor, however, effectually disposed of the malevolent rumours 
 current in England and India as to his method of obtaining the diamond, in a 
 letter dated from Bergen in the year 1710 (Hedges' s Diary, iii, 137). Many 
 traditions were current at the time about the diamond. One was that it was 
 stolen from the eye of the god Jagrenat at Chandemagor ; another that it was 
 found near Golconda by a slave who concealed it in a gash in his leg, and that 
 this slave was murdered by an English skipper, who sold the diamond to 
 Jamchund for £1000. At SwaUowfield (bought by the Governor on his return 
 to England) there was recently a legend that ' a black man ' walked in Queen 
 Anne's gallery still in search of the diamond, and Wilkie Collins derived his 
 idea for Tlie Moonstone from the stories he heard there. (See Lady Russell's 
 SwaUowfield and its Oiimera). 
 
22 GOVERNOR PITT 
 
 On the contrary, orders were sent that he should receive 
 the ' Great Cabbin ' on one of the Company's homeward-bound 
 ships, and be treated with respect ' suitable to the character 
 you have borne in our Service.' The respect of the directors 
 for their old Governor increased with their experience of his 
 successors' feebleness. Less than two years after his return 
 to England two English officers were captured by a local 
 rajah and ransomed at a cost of 200 pagodas ; ' had the like 
 case happen'd in the late President's time,' wrote the directors, 
 ' he would have recover'd them both at a tenth part of the 
 Money, or rather the Eajah would not have dared to attempt 
 the Surprising of them.' Pitt himself thus summed up the 
 
 results of his work in a letter to his son : ■ 
 
 v' 
 I delivered it [Madras] up in the most flouxishing state that 
 ever any place of the world was in, vastly rich notwithstanding our 
 great losses, and famous throughout all those parts of the world for 
 our honourable and just deahngs ; free from all manner of tyranny, 
 extortion, oppression, or corruption as to mee (I wish I could averr 
 the same of others), which I suppressed as far as it was in my power, 
 and prevented its being very burthensome to the commonalty. I 
 shall give but few instances here of the flourishing condition of 
 Maderass. In May or June last there was at one time fifty sayle 
 of ships in the roade, besides smaU. craft at least 200 ; the revenues 
 of last year amounting between 70 and 800,000 ! pagodas of which 
 above 10,000 arises out of the Mint. The place, when I left it, was 
 not onely admired but in favour of all the kings and princes in those 
 parts ; a regular and peaceable government within ourselves and 
 continued friendship of all about us. I brought the trade of the 
 King of Siam to our port . . . and the favours from the present 
 Great MoguU are without a president. . . . And wee of all Europeans 
 were the only favourites ; the Dutch at the same time were put out 
 of Golcunda. 
 
 When Pitt landed in England late in 1710 after more 
 than a year's leisurely travelling by the Cape of Good Hope, 
 and thence by a neutral ship round to the ' melancholy place 
 of Bergen,' he was nearing sixty, and might well have earned 
 a rest. But rest was the last thing he cared for, and he had 
 become too great a personage to escape the attentions of 
 politicians. The world of London was ringing with the achieve- 
 
RETURN TO ENGLAND, 1709 23 
 
 ments of the ' Great Pits ' in Madras and with rumours of 
 his ' dyomont ... as big as a great egg.' ^ On his way 
 from Bergen to England he was tracked out at Amsterdam 
 by the banker Drummond, an agent of Harley, who was just 
 forming his ministry. Drummond reports to Harley : ' I 
 think I have made him yours, and have drunk your health 
 heartily with him. He will have a powerful purse in England 
 and be a thorn in the side of some great men now at the head 
 of the Bank and the India Company if they should thwart 
 you,' and advises that he should be brought into the House 
 for Cornwall.2 However, Pitt preferred the independence 
 of Old Sarum, which he represented in the ParHament opened 
 on November 25, 1710 ; and, whatever language he may have 
 held under the genial influence of Dutch liquors, he remained 
 firm to his Whig convictions, and expressed much indignation 
 at his son Eobert's lapse into Toryism. ' It is said,' he 
 complained, " you are taken up with factious caballs, and 
 are contriving amongst you to put a French kickshaw upon 
 the throne againe, for no true EngUsh heart as the present 
 Queen has (and pursues no other interest than that of her 
 own nation) can please your party. If I find or hear of any 
 child of mine that herds with any to oppose her present 
 Majesty's interest, I will renounce him for ever.' 
 
 Although he took no prominent part in the debates of 
 the House, he never concealed his disapproval of the Tory 
 ministry. In 1714 he opposed the expulsion of Steele for 
 writing a Whig pamphlet, and spoke several times against 
 the Treaty of Utrecht, once moving that ' an humble Address 
 be presented to her Majesty that her present Ministry shou'd 
 be sent to France to be his Ministry for three years.' On the 
 accession of the Hanover dynasty he was received in audience 
 by George I, in whom he tried to find a purchaser for his 
 diamond, and secured a clerkship of the Green Cloth to the 
 Prince of Wales for Eobert. But he was more in his element 
 when real danger threatened from the Pretender's invasion. 
 He offered to appear with any number of horsemen that 
 
 ' Wentworth Papers (Cartwright), p. 75. 
 
 2 Hist. MSS. Com., XV, iv (Portland), p. 594. 
 
24 
 
 GOVERNOR PITT 
 
 might be required and to equip and arm a company of foot 
 at Blandford within ten days. He exulted that his second 
 son Thomas was out with his regiment of horse, carrying as 
 its motto Amor regis et patrioe tantum valet, and indulged in 
 characteristically ferocious language about the rebels. But 
 for this energy he had to pay : a few days later, for the first 
 time probably in his life, he admits that ' desire of ease and 
 
 ,\ I retirement comes on with age, and it is as much as I can 
 
 ;} compass to write what is necessary for me.' 
 
 This, however, was but a passing feeling of lassitude. In 
 the following year he accepted the governorship of Jamaica, an 
 island troubled with a peculiarly unruly ¥ss'em]HyiIandJbefore 
 
 ,;v starting set himself with characteristic energy to master the 
 subjects of dispute in the island and report on them; but 
 
 , at the last moment he threw up the appointment. The 
 diamond, ' that great concern of Mine,' had at length found 
 a purchaser. It had been hawked round to most of the rulers 
 of Europe, before it was bought by the Regent of France in 
 1717 for the sum of £138,000. In the previous December he 
 had told Robert that he was starting again on his travels in 
 his sixty-fourth year to retrieve the losses due to his son's 
 wasteful management of the estates and to the sums bestowed 
 on his other children, amounting altogether to £90,000, while 
 the capital of over £30,000 expended on the purchase and 
 cutting of the diamond had for fifteen years brought him no 
 return. But this windfall enabled him to realise his ambition 
 to acquire ' such a competency . . . soe as that I should have 
 been able to establish a family as considerable as any of the 
 name except our kinsman,' George Pitt of Strathfieldsaye. 
 
 In his interloping days he had already acquired the Strat- 
 ford-under-the-Castle estate, and on his return from India he 
 bought several manors in his native county, including the 
 Down House near Blandford and the parish where he was 
 born. After the sale of the diamond he bought the Mohun 
 estates, which included Boconnoc, then the finest house in 
 Cornwall, for £53,000 from the widow of the Lord Mohun, 
 killed in a duel by the Duke of Hamilton. From the Earl 
 of Clarendon in 1719 he bought Swallowfield Place, near 
 
PITT DIAMOND SOLD, 1717 25 
 
 Eeading, which became his favourite abode ; and in London 
 he rented a house in Pall Mall to which was attached a close 
 or field of forty-five acres. He was also fairly successful 
 in establishing his family. His eldest son Kobert married a 
 granddaughter of the fourth Viscount Grandison, a member 
 of the great Villiers family ; Thomas married the heiress of 
 the Earl of Londonderry and was himself raised to that title ; 
 the third surviving son married a daughter of Lord Pauconberg. 
 Essex, the elder daughter, married a Cholmondeley, and her 
 sister Lucy, whose gentleness is still a tradition at Chevening, 
 Earl Stanhope, the soldier and statesman. 
 
 But all his property and his family's successful marriages 
 brought the old Governor little peace. The furious energy, 
 which in his younger days had found vent in his Indian ad- 
 ventures, under the influence of gout and a less active Hfe was 
 turned into an almost insane violence. He had always been 
 a severe critic of his own family, had parted with his wife 
 owing to some scandal coimected with a ' scoundrell rascally 
 villain,' and had consistently treated his eldest son as little 
 better than a fool. He became ' extraordinary humorsome 
 and testy ' with his children and grandchildren, whom he 
 alternately petted and chased out of the house. It was no joy 
 for them to be Uving under his tyrannical eye: they could 
 not, for example, go to the ' mascarade ' without leave, for 
 ' the keys were . . . carryed to the old gentleman's bedside at 
 ten o'clock every night,' and they were constantly liable to 
 outrageous abuse and insults from his ungovernable temper. 
 Though very suspicious in money matters, and always on the 
 look-out for robbery by his servants and agents, he was a bad 
 husband of his wealth : he lost heavily by speculation at the 
 time of the South Sea Bubble, and at his death his property 
 was found to be worth much less than was expected. His 
 sons were no comfort to him — Eobert was weak and taken up 
 with the ' hellish acquaintaince ' of Tories ; Thomas was little 
 better than a scoundrel ; and John, he declared, was good for 
 nothing. In his old age this grandfather of Chatham and 
 great-grandfather of Pitt is a pathetic figure. Throughout 
 his long life he was a wUd man ; his hand against every man 
 
26 GOVERNOR PITT 
 
 and every man's hand against him. At the end he became a 
 tyrant, and terribly alone, as all tyrants must needs be. The 
 habit of arbitrary command, fostered in him by his continual 
 fights for wealth and superiority, is an evil pedagogue for 
 character; and for this Governor Pitt suffered and made 
 others to suffer. But, pathetic and savage as he was in his 
 loneliness, he had accomphshed much for his country and his 
 family. Not the least memorable of the old man's traits was 
 his affection for his grandson WiUiam, a lad of eighteen when 
 Thomas died in 1726. 
 
 ' He is a hopefuU lad, and doubt not but he will answer 
 yours and all his friends' expectations,' was the expression of 
 his penetrating judgment. In William were reproduced that 
 impetuous force of language, that directness of utterance, 
 and that rich abundance in the English tongue, which are 
 always apparent in the grandfather's letters. The Governor 
 /also kept before himself high ideals of conduct, even when 
 his roughness and impetuous temper led him furthest 
 astray from their dictates. Chatham's noble ^dignation 
 at oppression and folly sometifaes ^Birds' a parallel in the more 
 untutored and ferocious expressions of the Governor's wrath 
 against evil-doers. Mingled, too, with the violent diatribes 
 to Chatham's father occur such passages as these — which seem 
 to indicate one source of our great statesman's high purpose 
 in public and private life : 
 
 Remember that wee are not borne only for ourselves, nor has 
 God Almighty bestowed this plentifull fortune on me to give it only 
 amongst my own children, but also necessitous relations and friends 
 which I will not fail to doe for His glory and my own comfort and 
 happiness. ... If ever you intend to be great, you must be first 
 good, and that will bring with it a lasting greatness, and without 
 it, it will be but a bubble blown away with the least blast. 
 — - I would have your brothers get some insight into military afiairs, 
 not knowing what revolutions they may have to see, for I beheve 
 that trade will flourish rather than decay. Do you also follow 
 the good advice I give you. Give good example to your family 
 by your life and conversation ; avoid lending money or being surety 
 for others ; be cautious what company you keep, and do not misspend 
 your time. ... If you are in Parhament, show yoiu'self on, all 
 
CHARACTERISTICS 27 
 
 occasions a good Englishman, and a faithful servant to your country. 
 If you aspire to fame in the House, you must make yourself master 
 of its precedents and orders. Avoid faction and never enter the 
 House prepossessed ; but attend diligently to the debate, and vote 
 according to your conscience and not for any sinister end whatever. 
 I had rather see any child of mine want than have him get his bread 
 by voting in the House of Commons. 
 
 Note. — The first writer to identify the interloper Thomas Pitt 
 with Governor Pitt of Madras was Colonel Henry Yule, R.E., in 
 his edition of The Diary of William Hedges (3 vols. 1887-9). 
 This and other authorities for this chapter are referred to in 
 Appendix B. 
 
CHAPTEE II 
 Pitt's early yeaes 
 
 ovK . . . iopriiv &K\o Ti iiyowrat ^ rh ri, Seovra irp5|ai. — ^TflTJC. I, 70.' 
 
 William, the fourth child of Bohsrt and Harriet Pitt, was born 
 at Golden Square in the parish of St. James's, Westminster, 
 about eight o'clock on the morning of Monday, Novem ber 1 5, 
 17Q8. His birth was impetuous, like most of his life. Koberfc, 
 in announcing it to the Governor on the same day, says that 
 his wife intended to have written to him, but was suddenly 
 prevented by the unexpected arrival of this son. He was 
 christened in the parish church of St. James's, Piccadilly, 
 where the entry in the register runs : ' 1708 December 13. 
 William, of Eobert Pitts, Esq., and Henrietta, born Novem- 
 ber 15 ; baptized.' His godfathers were George Pitt of Strath- 
 fieldsaye and his grandmother Grandison's second husband, 
 General William Stewart, after whom he was named. 
 
 Through his grandfather, the Governor, Pitt was of Enghsh 
 yeoman stock and belonged by right of conquest to the newly 
 rising class of great City merchants. He was not, however, 
 as Glover described him in after years, ' without the parade 
 of birth.' On his mother's side he was of the great families 
 of Villiers and Fitzgerald. His grandmother, Katharine 
 Fitzgerald of Dromana, Lady of the Decies, handed down to 
 him the hot rebellious blood of her Irish race. Married as a mere 
 child by the Archbishop of Canterbury to her cousin of seven, 
 son of the Earl of Tyrone, she soon repudiated this marriage, 
 and three years later, in defiance of civil and spiritual authority, 
 
 ' ' They look on duty as their only holiday.' 
 
 28 
 
PARENTAGE AND BIRTH, 1708 29 
 
 made a runaway match with the man of her choice, Brigadier 
 Edward Villiers, son of Viscount Grandison. He was a daunt- 
 less soldier but, according to tradition, a man of wild and cruel 
 humours, who had died fifteen years before Pitt's birth. His 
 widow, created Viscountess Grandison in her own right, had 
 married again and had many years yet to live, a notable woman 
 in London. Though intensely proud of her own and her 
 husband's famihes, she had a fellow-feeling with the masterful 
 old adventurer, whose son had won her daughter's love. He 
 also had respect for her and allowed himself sometimes to be 
 softened by her pleadings for her extravagant son-in-law. 
 The quaUties and sympathies inherited by Pitt from his grand- 
 father were none the worse for being tempered with old Lady 
 Grandison's pride of race : and EngHsh, Scottish and Irish 
 strains were happily blended in the first great statesman to 
 recognise the claims of Scotland and Ireland to share equally 
 in the liberties and responsibihties of Englishmen.^ 
 
 WiUiam Pitt caught none of his fire and mastery from his 
 father. Eobert went through hfe oppressed by the Governor's 
 dictatorial character and had no success either in business 
 or as a poUtician. In 1715 he was employed by his brother- 
 in-law, Lord Stanhope, to persuade the Duke of Ormond to 
 leave the country to avoid impeachment ^ ; but beyond that 
 little is heard of him as a public character. The few letters 
 of his extant give the impression that he had inherited all his 
 father's querulousness without any of his vigour ; he certainly 
 inherited and transmitted to his children his father's gout. 1 
 His persistent Toryism, which was original, was probably 
 due more to social than to political considerations. For he 
 was a handsome man, and popular in good society, where 
 his marriage with Lady Harriet Villiers gave him an assured 
 position. This marriage was his most fortunate venture. 
 Pitt's mother was declared to be ' as beautiful, as sensible 
 and as well-behaved as most I have seen in my life ' by one 
 of the Governor's cross-grained correspondents ; and another 
 
 ' For Lady Grandison's history and her correspondence with Governor 
 Pitt see T. Muir Mackenzie, Dromdna. 
 
 2 EgmorU MSS., vol. 80, 3vb August 27, 1733. 
 
30 PITT'S EARLY YEARS 
 
 could not make up his mind 'whether her beauty, under- 
 standing or good humour be the most captivating.' The 
 report of her beauty and wisdom is confirmed by her portrait, 
 and even the Governor, averse as he had been to the marriage, 
 was won over by her charm and good sense. 
 
 Most of Pitt's early childhood was spent _ait_Jiawarden 
 Court, given to his parents by the Governor in the year of his 
 birth. Mawarden Court — Parva sed Apta Domino, says the 
 inscription on the portal — is a substantially built house, now 
 inhabited by the rector of Stratf or d-under- the- Castle ; it lies 
 a few yards back from the road to SaUsbury, and faces towards 
 the little church. Within a stone's throw of the nursery 
 windows rose the grassy moimds and circles of Old Sarum, with 
 their mysterious legends of buried treasure and fairy folk. Be- 
 hind the house, at the end of the long garden, flowed sedately 
 the river Avon. It was a quiet English spot, full of 
 
 . . . tlie silence and tte calm 
 Of mute insensate things, 
 
 with a sweet and soothing influence for a nature fiery as Pitt's. 
 Here he had a troop of brothers and sisters, all much of 
 an age with himself, for happy play in grassy places. His 
 eldest sister, Harriet, was four years older than he, Thomas 
 and Catherine were separated from him by two or three years 
 only, and within four years of his birth came two more sisters, 
 Ehzabeth and Ann. Every week their grandfather's dominant 
 personaUty was obtruded on them by the pompous inscription, 
 ' Thos. Pitt Esq. Benefactor,' in big letters right across the 
 tower of the parish church, which he built in 1711 ; and 
 occasionally the ' infantry,' as he called them, paid him a 
 visit in Pall Mall, but not often, for he believed that ' all 
 children are best under the eye of their parents.' Even before 
 he went to school, young William must have been torn between 
 the conflicting claims of Eevolution Principles and the Jacobite 
 'Succession, for in 1715, when the children were staying with 
 their grandfather, he and Eobert had a violent explosion 
 about the latter's ' cursed Tory principles,' and neither of 
 them were men to hide their differences. There, too, he must 
 
CHILDHOOD 31 
 
 have gained an unfortunate impression of family life, for the> 
 house in Pall Mall was used as a meeting-place by his brawUng 
 uncles and aunts to fight out their quarrels among themselves 
 and with the Governor. 
 
 At the early age of ten or eleven ^ William was sent to Eton 
 in company with his brother Thomas, no doubt on the advice 
 of the Governor, who had sent his youngest son, John, there 
 ten years before. At that time Eton shared with Westminster 
 the almost exclusive privilege of educating those sons of peers 
 and men of family who were not taught at home by private 
 tutors. It was a school of politics, all the better for not being 
 confined to one party. Dr. Godolphin, Provost of Eton from 
 1695 to 1732 and a munificent benefactor, was uncle of the 
 powerful Whig minister, and in his own person well maintained 
 the College's aristocratic dignity and coimections. Eton also 
 owed much to the energy of Andrew Snape, head master from 
 1711 to 1720, who by the time he left had brought the numbers 
 up to the unprecedented figure of 399. He was a Tory and High 
 Churchman, and his zeal for the school did not blunt his ardour 
 as an ecclesiastical controversialist. But he loved and was 
 beloved by his boys, and, in parting from them in 1720 to 
 become Provost of King's, ' made a most affectionate speech to 
 the scholars which drew tears from their eyes.' His successor, 
 Henry Bland, head master during the greater part of Pitt's Eton 
 career, was of the opposite school in religion and politics, but 
 displayed the same unscholarly zeal in extraneous controversy. 
 He was a great friend of Sir Eobert Walpole, whom he 
 brought to his house to meet the Dutch adventurer, Eipperda, 
 exiled from Spain, and whose administration he supported by 
 Whig pamphlets. The education then given at Eton was 
 very much what it remained in Gladstone's days exactly a 
 century later^ — severely classical from the lowest form, where 
 only Latin grammar was taught, to the sixth, where only 
 Latin and Greek authors were studied in school hours. 
 
 ' The exact year is not known. He was certainly there in 1719, when he 
 was eleven, since an Eton bill to his account is preserved for that year (Max- 
 well-Lyte, History of Eton College, p. 274). In Austen Leigh's JEton College 
 Lists 1678-1790 two Pitts occur in 1718 — one in ' Lower Greek,' the other in 
 the ' First Form.' These were probably Robert Pitt's sons Thomas and WiUiam. 
 
32 PITT'S EARLY YEARS 
 
 Spelling, mathematics, and geography were relegated to 
 half-hohdays, when they were taught by inferior masters. 
 Nevertheless the intellectual discipUne was thorough ; and 
 after allowance is made for the difference of fashions in teach- 
 ing, the ideal of Eton education seems to have been then very 
 much what it still remains — to give a minimum of sound 
 groundwork and leave plenty of scope for the development 
 of a boy's genius during his leisure hours and under his tutor's 
 direction. As Gladstone said of bis own day, a boy might 
 learn nothing at Eton, but he could not learn anything 
 inaccurately. 
 
 While some on earnest Business bent ; 
 Their murmuring labours ply, 
 
 as Gray sang in his stately verse ; others, to quote Walpole's 
 no less enthusiastic prose, had full liberty to take a course of 
 ' Jawing and Blackguard ' from ' My Lord the Bargeman ' or 
 to loaf at ' The Christopher ' and the coffee-houses. 
 
 At an early age William Pitt showed promise of ability. 
 '< His uncle. Lord Stanhope, who died before he was thirteen, 
 A was impressed by his spirit and used to call him ' the young 
 marshal,' and his school-fellows looked up to him and his 
 contemporary Lyttelton as prodigies of genius. Starting in 
 the lowest form but one, he followed the normal course of 
 gaining a remove almost every half-year until he reached the 
 sixth ; in that respect he was a great contrast to his brother 
 Thomas, who began four forms above him. In a letter to their 
 father of February 1722-23 the two boys' tutor, Burchett, 
 after lamenting Thomas's loss of time by negUgence, especially 
 in the study of Greek, and expressing a somewhat chastened 
 hope of his ability to profit by a university course, concludes 
 with this very different verdict on Wilham : 
 
 Youi younger son has made a great progress since his coming 
 hither, indeed I never was concerned with a young gentleman of 
 so good abilities, and at the same time of so good a disposition, 
 and there is no question to be made but he will answer all your 
 hopes. 
 
 To the same year belongs the earliest extant letter of 
 
ETON, 1718-26 33 
 
 William himself, interesting as a confirmation of Burchett'a 
 high opinion of his industry and capacity. It is docketed 
 by his father ' Prom my son WilUam, Sept. 29th, received 
 Octr. 10th, 1723,' and rmis as follows : 
 
 Eaton, September the 29th. 
 Hon»* Sir, 
 
 I write this to pay my duty to you, and to lett you know that 
 I am well. I hope you and my mama have found a great benefit 
 from the Bath, and it would be a great satisfaction to me to hear 
 how you do ; I was in hopes of an answer to my last letter, to have 
 heard how you both did, and how I should direct my letters to you ; 
 for not knowing how to direct my letters has hindered me writing 
 to you, my time has been pretty much taken up this three weaks, 
 in my trying for to gett into the fiveth form, and I am now removed 
 into it ; pray my duty to mama and service to my uncle and aunt 
 Stuart if now att the Bath. I am with great respect; 
 
 Hon* Sir, 
 
 Your most dutiful son, 
 
 W. Pitt.' 
 
 To Eton Pitt owed his first connection with many of those 
 with whom he had Hfelong dealings. At one period there were 
 said to be four grandsons of Governor Pitt together at Eton — 
 William and his brother Thomas, the young Lord Stanhope, 
 and the fourth probably a son of Lord Londonderry. When he 
 went to the school in 1718 he found there two of Sir Eobert 
 Walpole's sons and the two Eoxes (afterwards Lord Echester 
 and Lord HoUand), a Hanbury, better known by his later name 
 of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, one of the St. Johns, and 
 three sons of Lord Townshend, all Oppidans like himself. 
 Henry Fielding, George Lyttelton, Wyndham, Eichard Grenville 
 (afterwards Lord Temple), and his brother George, Sir Francis 
 Dashwood, a future president of the Hell-Fire Club and Chancel- 
 lor of the Exchequer, and Pratt (who became Lord Camden and 
 Lord Chancellor) were later contemporaries. Henry Fielding, 
 George Lyttelton, Hanbury and Pratt are said to have been 
 Pitt's special friends at Eton, and three of them remained so 
 long afterwards. 
 
 Pitt left Eton in the middle of 1726. He kept no tender 
 
 ' This and Burohett's letter are quoted by Maxwell-Lyte, loc. cit. 
 VOL. I. D 
 
34 PITT'S EARLY YEARS 
 
 I memories of the place in after life. None of his own three sons 
 ! was sent there ; they were all educated by a tutor under their 
 fatker's eye. The reason of his antipathy to the school was 
 given in later years to Lord Shelburne : ' that he scarcely 
 observed a boy who was not cowed for life at Eton ; that a 
 public school might suit a boy of turbulent disposition but 
 would not do where there was any gentleness.' This hatred 
 of Eton may be partly accounted for by the tradition that even 
 there he began to suffer from the family gout, which would 
 • prevent him from joining in school games and adventures. 
 This alone would make him lonely and unpopular with the 
 other boys. Moreover, though it is obviously untrue that he 
 himself was cowed for life, he had a rare claim to speak for 
 those of a gentle nature, for none was tenderer than his 
 own. How tender appears from the extraordinary devotion 
 he aroused among his early friends, from unguarded words of 
 his sister Ann, from his perfect marriage, and from his own 
 and his children's mutual love. Yet in later days, to those 
 who knew him but slightly, he appeared a composition of 
 unapproachable pride, affectation and parade ; and no doubt 
 natural pride and a tendency to cloak his dearest feeUngs and 
 adopt an attitude of haughty reserve were encouraged by the 
 rebuffs he endured at Eton. As Thomas Arnold said, ' The 
 more we are destitute of opportunities for indulging our 
 feeUngs, as is the case when we live in uncongenial society, the 
 more we are apt to crisp and harden our outward manner to 
 save our real feelings from exposure.' ^ Nevertheless, in spite 
 of Pitt's own regrets, Eton gave him such a training in the 
 classics as he would hardly have obtained elsewhere ; ittaught 
 ' him method and industry, fostered his gift for politie&^d 
 : oratory, and, though it may have left him an unhappier man 
 . than he would otherwise have been, it did not injure the deep 
 tenderness of his nature, which, for all his love of pomp and 
 circumstance, left him to the end a more human person than 
 his son. 
 
 About the time he left Eton Pitt was suddenly thrown 
 almost entirely on his own resources by the early loss of most 
 
 1 Stanley's Ufe (6th ed. 1846), p. 274. 
 
FAMILY LOSSES, 1726-7 35 
 
 of those to whom he would expect to look for loving counsel 
 and guidance. In the two years 1726 and 1727, before he 
 was nineteen, five deat hs in his family occurred in rapid suc- 
 cession. First, in January 1726, came that of his grandmother. 
 Viscountess Grandison, from whom, besides his love of the, 
 Irish, Pitt doubtless inherited his love of parade. The funeral 
 was characteristic. Having married a ViUiers she was en- 
 titled to rest in the great Duke of Buckingham's vault in 
 Westminster Abbey, and thither her body was borne with all 
 imaginable pomp after lying in state for three days in the back 
 parlour hung with rusty velvet. Her coffin was covered with 
 crimson velvet edged with gold lace ; four dukes acted as 
 pall-bearers, assisted by eight earls, all cloaked ; sixteen 
 mourning coaches and seventeen noblemen's and gentlemen's 
 coaches, with a footman to every coach door and eight branches 
 to every coach, besides forty men on horseback, each with a 
 branch, came in the procession, which was duly marshalled by 
 the heralds. Five months later came the death of her second 
 husband, General Stewart, a sensible, kindly man, who had 
 often been a good friend to Eobert Pitt and his family when 
 relations with the Governor were strained. But the greatest 
 loss to William was the death of his grandfather, the Governor, 
 on April 28 of the same year. The boy's visits with some of his 
 ' comrogues ' to Swallowfield must have been welcome, if some- 
 times terrifying, alleviations of school trials. For the old man 
 evidently loved this grandson', who had no one else of such ripe 
 and varied experience to advise him, and no one of all his 
 kindred with so much insight into his character and sympathy 
 with his ideas. In the following January his other grand- 
 mother, the Governor's widow, also died. On the death of the 
 grandfather the family dissensions burst out afresh. William's 
 father, Eobert, quarrelled with his brothers as to the division of 
 the property and began an angry correspondence with his eldest 
 son about his allowance. Then on May 20, 1727, shortly after 
 William had gone to Oxford, Eobert also died suddenly. 
 William's mother, who died in Paris in October 1736, seems 
 thereupon to have devoted herself almost exclusively to her 
 youngest daughter, Mary, and came very little more into his life. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 PITT'S EARLY YEARS 
 
 Before his father's death a suggestion had been made by 
 some of his relations that Pitt should take Orders and settle 
 down to the family living of Abbot's Anne. Fortunately 
 nothing came of this idea, but in January 1727 he had been 
 entered as a gentleman-commoner at Trinity College, Oxford.^ 
 Among his predecessors at the College were his uncle. Lord 
 Stanhope, and the great Revolution lawyer. Lord Somers — as 
 Pitt was reminded thirty years later in the dirge on the death 
 of George II, addressed to him by Thomas Warton, fellow of 
 Trinity and Poet Laureate. The poet begged him not to refuse 
 
 This humble present of no partial Muse 
 
 From that calm bower which nurs'd thy thoughtful youth 
 
 In the pure precepts of Athenian truth ; 
 
 Where first the form of British Liberty 
 
 Beam'd in fuU radiance on thy musing eye ; 
 
 That form whose mien subhme, with equal awe, 
 
 In the same shade unblemish'd Somers saw. 
 
 Oxford in the early eighteenth century was hardly the 
 place to choose for musing on the form of Liberty. At no time 
 was our ancient University more stagnant and illiberal. Almost 
 the only vestige of an idea left there was the obstinate Toryism 
 of men like Hearne and Dr. King, and even their Toryism had 
 perforce to content itself with such mild acts of insubordination 
 as the setting of a penitential psalm in cathedral on George I's 
 birthday or describing him in their private diaries as ' the 
 Duke of Brunswick, commonly called King George.' The state 
 of learning was lamentable, according to the uncontested testi- 
 mony of such diverse men as Bishop Burnet in 1714, Amhurst 
 {Term Filius) in 1720, Whitefield in 1732, Adam Smith in 
 1740, and Gibbon in 1754. But even in the degraded Oxford 
 of those days there was some good stirring. At Christ Church, 
 where Pitt's solemn and respectable friend George Lyttelton had 
 
 1 His name appears on the Admission Register of Trinity CoUege under 
 date of January 10, 1726-7, with the foUowing description in his own hand • 
 ' Ego GugUelmus Pitt FiHus Rob« Pitt armi : de Old Sarum in comitatu Wilts' 
 natus Lond"! in Par : Sancti Jaoobi, annorum circiter ootodecim admissus 
 sum primi ordinis oommensahs sub tutamine mag^ StookweU, J^^nrfi decimo 
 die anno Domini 1726/7.' Some of StockweU's letters to Robert Pitt about 
 William's fees and rooms are quoted by Lord Rosebery. 
 
OXFORD, 1727 37 
 
 preceded him by a year, the two Wesleys had already begun 
 their Hfe-work by taking spiritual and material consolation 
 to the poor and the prisoners in Oxford, much to the scandal 
 of the dons, who dishked any such exhibition of enthusiasm. 
 They were even awakening religious feeling among a small 
 band of undergraduates, whom, as we learn from Whitefield, 
 they were taking to the weekly Sacrament at St. Mary's, 
 the only place in High Church Oxford where it could then be 
 received more than once a term. Samuel Johnson, also, who 
 came up a year after Pitt, records that his thoughts were first 
 turned seriously to religion at Oxford. Another Pembroke man, 
 Eichard Graves, afterwards Lady Chatham's chaplain, tells 
 us that about this time there were four sets at the University — 
 the sober little party of students who read Greek and drank 
 water; the jolly west-country lads who drank ale, smoked 
 tobacco, punned and sang catches ; the gentleman-commoners, 
 ' bucks of the first head,' who drank port wine and arrack and 
 concluded with claret, a set appropriate to one of Pitt's Oxford 
 contemporaries and future colleagues, Eobert Henley, who is 
 said to have laid the seeds of his gout by his excessive drinking 
 at the University ; and lastly ' the flying squadron of plain, 
 sensible, matter-of-fact men, confined to no club, but associating'' 
 occasionally with each party. They anxiously enquired after 
 the news of the day and the politics of the time.' 
 
 Pitt, as a gentleman-commoner, was entitled to associate 
 with the set of ' bucks of the first head,' and had the privi- 
 lege of dining at high table and, if he chose, of taking wine 
 with the Fellows and listening to their scandal and Tory politics. 
 He is much more likely, however, to have attached himself to 
 the flying squadron of anxious inquirers, both from taste, 
 and because his means would hardly have permitted constant 
 libations of port wine, arrack and claret. His university 
 dues and other necessary expenses amounted to about £60 
 a term, which left him little to spare from his allowance of some 
 £200 a year from his father. His health also inclined him to a 
 studious life, for at Oxford, as at Eton, the gout tormented 
 him — a calamity which, according to Lord Chesterfield, proved 
 a blessing in disguise, since ' he employed the leisure which that 
 
38 PITT'S EARLY YEARS 
 
 tedious and painful distemper either procured or allowed him 
 in acquiring a great fund of premature and useful knowledge,' 
 while ' his constitution refused him the usual pleasures, and his 
 genius forbade him the idle dissipations, of youth.' 
 
 Chesterfield's assertion about Pitt's studious habits is borne 
 out by the comparatively large proportion accounted for m 
 the term's expenses by his fees to tutors and his bookseller's 
 bill.i His fidelity to his classical studies is attested by a Latin 
 poem on the death of George I, sent up for the prize offered by 
 the University during his first year. The hexameters of which 
 it is composed do credit to Pitt's knowledge of the classical 
 Pantheon and his familiarity with the Mantuan bard's language 
 and sonorous rhythm, but they show no trace of genius. Still 
 there is a touch of originaUty in his suggestion that 
 
 Vel Berecyntliia Mater 
 Centum enixa Deos ! 
 
 might envy the new King George II and his Queen Carolina 
 their ' inclyta progenies,' and some precocious acumen in 
 the courtly phrase hinting at the new King's dependence 
 on his consort's judgment ; while it is characteristic 
 that even in those early days he should have picked out 
 ' Libertas atque Alma Themis ' from so many possible gods as 
 ■ prsesentia numina Angliacse gentis '■ — a belief which remained 
 till the end the basis of his political system. Pitt did not win 
 the prize, but was beaten by William Murray, a young B.A. of 
 Christ Church, with whom this was not destined to be his last 
 encounter. 
 
 Oxford appears not to have impressed Pitt more favourably 
 than Eton. After a year's residence he was compelled by his 
 persistent gout to leave without taking his degree, carrying 
 away as his chief recollection of the University a deep conviction 
 of its inveterate Toryism. Both his nephew, whose education 
 he directed, and his son William were sent to Cambridge. 
 In the following year he went to Utrecht, where he probably 
 
 ' The account is quoted by Lord Roaebery (p. 37). It includes £5 to the 
 bookseller, £4 is. for courses in French and experimental philosophy, while 
 the washing bill amounts to only £2 2s. 
 
OXFORD AND UTRECHT, 1728 39 
 
 acquired the knowledge he afterwards displayed of Grotius 
 and other writers on international law and diplomacy. How 
 long he studied at Utrecht is not known ; he was certainly 
 there during the first quarter of 1728, in company with his 
 cousin Lord Villiers and Lord Buchan and two other Brskines.^ 
 Pitt had received help from his brother Thomas for his 
 expenses at Utrecht,* and during the first year or two after 
 his return to England lived chiefly at one of the family houses 
 at Boconnoc, Blandford or Swallowfield. His personal income 
 was very small. His grandfather had left him only £100 a 
 year ; his father had bequeathed to him and to each of his 
 sisters a dividend on the estate amounting, perhaps, to another 
 £100 a year, to be supplemented on their mother's death by 
 a further share of his landed estate. The bulk both of the 
 Governor's and Kobert's properties in Cornwall, Dorsetshire, 
 Hampshire and Berkshire went to Pitt's elder brother Thomas, 
 who soon dissipated his fortune.* William Pitt was thus in 
 the unfortunate position of a man brought up in circum- 
 stances of considerable wealth and lavish expenditure and then 
 left with comparatively straitened means. But the way to 
 advancement was opened by eager friends, whose admiration 
 for him disposed them to do aU they could to forward his 
 plans. Lyttelton, above all, whose serious bent of mind, real 
 scholarship, and turn for commonplace verse gave him a 
 considerable reputation among the young men of wit and 
 fashion in the political world, was enthusiastic in proclaiming 
 his friend's capacity. In some trifling verses on Good Humour, 
 composed at Eton, he noted that 
 
 This magic power can make e'en folly please, | 
 
 TMs to Pitt's genius adds a brighter grace j 
 
 --And sweetens every charm in Coelia's face. , 
 
 ' See the letters quoted by Lord Rosebery (pp. 40-6). 
 
 2 Ibid. p. 42. 
 
 ^ The Governor's and Robert's wills are to be found in the Probate Registry 
 at Somerset House (Plymouth, 88, and Farrant, 146). The abstract of the 
 Governor's will in Yule, Hedges, iii, is not quite accurate in every particular : 
 e.g. it is wrong in saying that the Governor left William Pitt £200 a year. 
 Under the Governor's will William Pitt had certain reversionary claims on the 
 estate which were never realised, as his elder brother's issue did not fail, 
 
40 PITT'S EARLY YEARS 
 
 When Pitt was only twenty the bonds between the two had 
 been drawn closer by the marriage of Christian, Lyttelton's 
 eldest sister, to Pitt's brother, Thomas, on which Lyttelton 
 writes to his father : 
 
 I heartily congratulate you upon my sister's marriage and wish 
 you may dispose of all your children as much to your satisfaction 
 and their own. Would to God Mr. P. had a fortune equal to his 
 brother so that he might make a present of it to my pretty little M. ! 
 but unhappily they have neither of them any portion but an 
 imcommon share of merit which the world will not think them 
 much the richer for. 
 
 George Lyttelton was instrumental in bringing Pitt to 
 the notice of his uncle, Lord Cobham, whose family had a 
 lasting influence on Pitt's career. Sir Eichard Temple, 
 created Lord Cobham at George I's coronation, with 
 remainder to his sister Hester Grenville, had distinguished 
 himself in the Queen's wars, notably when in command of 
 the expedition which captured Vigo, and had all the coarse, 
 roystering bluffhess of the hardened old campaigners of 
 that time. In addition to his real merits as a soldier he had 
 pohtical ambition and pretensions to literary and artistic taste. 
 He patronised Congreve and Gay and was a friend of Pope's. 
 In the grounds of his country seat of Stowe in Buckinghamshire 
 he initiated the practice of building monuments to his dead 
 friends, and temples to abstract virtues, pursued with so much 
 zeal by his successor Lord Temple. He loved to think of 
 himself as the patron of youthful merit, and to act as mentor 
 to his clever nephews, the Grenvilles and Lyttelton, who, with 
 their connection, Pitt, soon became known as the Cobham 
 Jlousinhood or Cobham's Cubs. Shelburne used to say of him 
 that Cobham passed his time in clapping young men on the 
 back, and in telling stories at table which nobody else would 
 tell in private. At this time he was Governor of Jersey (an 
 island which he is not known to have visited), and Colonel 
 of the King's Own Regiment of Horse, then commonly known 
 as Cobham's Horse, and after 1747 by its present title of 
 1st Dragoon Guards. 
 
 From an early age Pitt had a bent towards the profession 
 
CORNET OF HORSE, 1731 41 
 
 of arms ; and the army seemed to offer the best field for his 
 -youthful energy. Moreover, it so happened that a commission 
 in the regiment of his patron, Lord Cobham, provided an 
 avenue to Court favour and was no obstacle to the political 
 ambition he also cherished. At the age of twenty-two, 
 therefore, he accepted a commission, dated ^February 9, 
 1730-1, as cornet iii Cobham's Horse. The £1,000, being 
 the cost of the commission according to the official scale, 
 was probably waived in his case by Lord Cobham, since he 
 could hardly have afforded it. 
 
 The regiment shared with the Life Guards the duty of 
 providing travelling escorts for the royal family and was 
 occasionally called upon to repress civil disturbance.'- During 
 his five years of service Pitt was quartered at Northampton, 
 Newbury and Towcester. His pay was small, amounting to 
 eigEt shillings a day, of which six shillings was devoted to 
 the maintenance of two horses and a servant. On the other 
 hand the duties were not exacting. From his letters to his 
 sister it appears that the recognised method of passing the 
 time for young of&cers of his station was in drinking bouts, 
 lasting sixteen hours, or in flirtations with Dolly at the inn, 
 ' who, young at the bar, is just learning to score.' When nomin- 
 ally quartered at Towcester he lived most of the time with his 
 friends at Stowe, some ten miles distant, and he was even 
 able to spend nearly a year away from his regiment in foreign 
 travel. But, although httle was expected from a cornet in 
 Cobham's Horse beyond keeping up an agreeable appearance 
 and waiting to get drunk until one o'clock in the afternoon — 
 the hour after which, as Macaulay observes, court-martials 
 were not allowed to continue — from the first Pitt took his 
 military duties seriously and, hke Wolfe, set himself, so he 
 afterwards told Lord Shelbume, to read every mihtary book 
 on which he could lay his hands. The number of such books 
 of any value was then not very great. There were of course 
 many dissertations on the military art of the Greeks and 
 Romans, and dry technical books, such as Turner's ' Pallas 
 
 ^ See Historical Becords of 1st D. 0., 1836. Lord Rosebery quotes several 
 of Pitt's letters preserved at Dropmore about his military career. 
 
42 PITT'S EARLY YEARS 
 
 Armata or Military Instructions,' which were more concerned 
 with the structure of an army and the mysteries of gabions, 
 fascines, and counterscarps than with practical lessons of 
 tactics and strategy. The numerous chronicles of Wilham 
 Ill's and Marlborough's campaigns, such as D'Auvergne's 
 'Relations' and Brodrick's ' Compleat History,' were more 
 enlightening. Brodrick's work, pubUshed in 1713, must have 
 been famiUar to Pitt from his childhood, since both his father 
 and grandfather subscribed for it and in return had the family 
 arms engraved on one of the maps, where they are still to be 
 seen. Two volumes of miHtary memoirs by the foreign soldiers 
 Montecucculi and Feuquieres were on a higher plane. From 
 Montecucculi, who was a general in the imperial service against 
 Gustavur Adolphus and the Turks, Pitt possibly gained his first 
 notions of the value in war of sudden raids an d diversions, an d of 
 tEeuseto which ij6a- power caji be put r^Fom Pe uguieres , one of 
 L bms XiTs generals, whose'book wis long es teemed amo ng the 
 best on mihtary art, he would learn to take account of tEe moral 
 and polTEicar considerations which must weigh with a statesman 
 directing hostilities. He also studied Vauban, and probably 
 had useful hints in his reading from his own heutenant- colonel, 
 --inland, who afterwards pubUshed a ' Treatise on Military Dis- 
 cipline.' ^ 
 
 But books, even the best, are of sHght value compared 
 with the practical teaching of those who have actually 
 borne a part in war ; Pitt was fortunate in his opportunities 
 for getting such teaching. In 1730 the countryside of England 
 
 1 Wolfe, in a letter of July 18, 1756 (Beokles WUson, Wolp, p. 295), gives 
 a list of the books which he recommends for a young officer. A great many of 
 them were no doubt familiar to Pitt, and some were in his library. In 1773, 
 for example, his son mentions that he found a treatise of Vauban's among 
 his father's old hooks.— {Lansd. Ho. MS8., P. 27 ; October 1773). Wolfe's 
 list is : Turpin's Eseai sur I'art de la guerre ; K. of Prussia's Begulations 
 for his Horse and Foot ; Memoirs of Marquis de Santa Cruz ; Feuqui^res ; 
 Montecucculi ; Folard's Commentaries upon Polybius ; Projet de Tactique ; L'At- 
 taque et la Defense des Places (by Vauban) ; Memoires de Coulon ; L'Inginieur 
 de Gampagne ; Le Sieur Renie on Artillery : Of the ancients : — Vegetius, Caesar, 
 Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius : Of later days : — Davila, Guicciardini, Strada, 
 Sully's Memoirs : Lives o/Gustavus Adolphus, Charles XII, Zisca the Bohemian, 
 Soanderberg : L'Art de la Ouerre Pratique ; Traiti de la Petite Querre ; Puysegur ; 
 lAfe of Suetonius ; Bland's Treatise on Military Discipline (1743). 
 
MILITARY EDUCATION 43 
 
 was still full of the old soldiers who had fought under the 
 Great Duke or even under the Great Deliverer ; and Sterne's 
 ' Tristram Shandy,' published thirty years later, shows how 
 long-Hved was the fascination of the camp stories and miUtary 
 jargon in which Uncle Toby and Corporal Trim luxuriated. 
 The wars in the Netherlands and in Flanders were then some- 
 thing more than a glorious tradition — they were a personal 
 and a living memory to half the population. On all sides 
 Pitt would have heard every siege and battle of these wars 
 fought over anew by veterans who had triumphed at Blenheim 
 or lain before Lisle, and countless suggestions from them for 
 mending our strategy and improving our victories. Such 
 common talk would have given him the atmosphere of the 
 camps and of war ; from his own relations and friends would 
 have come an insight into the considerations that move a 
 great commander in the field or in council ; from the Governor 
 he would have gained some notion of the difficulties of Indian 
 wars ; and from Lord Stanhope, Lord Cobham, and above 
 all from their friend Lord Peterborough, so apt a pupil would 
 have caught the secret of the commander's flashing eye and 
 lightning vision. At one time he had many talks with Lord 
 Tyrawley who ' attended the Great Duke as his aid-de-camp 
 at the battle of Malplaquet, when he gained the victory in 
 his postchaise,' ^ and he was even admitted to the confidence 
 of Marlborough's widow, the grim old Duchess Sarah, who was 
 a friend of his grandmother Grandison and loved the young 
 man for his spirit and his devotion to England. , 
 
 His studies and his duties as cornet of horse left him 
 ample leisure to gain the firm footing in that social and 
 poUtical world necessary for the development of his genius. 1 
 In 1733 his military training was interrupted by a tour in ' 
 France and Switzerland which lasted from May to the end 
 of the year. After spending a few days in Paris and obtaining 
 letters of introduction from the ambassador, Lord Waldegrave, 
 he stayed at Besan^on till August ; thence he went through 
 Marseilles, Montpeher, and Lyons to Geneva. From Geneva 
 he travelled along the Ehine to Strasbourg and to Lun^ville 
 
 ^ Chatliam MSS. 64 (Lord Tyrawley to Chatham). 
 
44 PITT'S EARLY YEARS 
 
 in Lorraine, where, following the example of his brother and 
 his friend George Lyttelton a few years earlier, he spent the 
 winter. Such a tour was usual with young men of family 
 in the eighteenth century, and there was good reason for it in 
 the case of those who intended to take a part in pohtics or 
 cultivated society. Travelling was then so tedious and ex- 
 pensive that a young man's one Grand Tour often had to 
 suffice for his life and afforded him his only chance of under- 
 standing anything of Continental conditions, manners and 
 points of view. In the words of Mr. Nugent, the ingenious 
 author of a guide to the Grand Tour through the Netherlands, 
 Germany, Italy and France, this was a custom ' visibly 
 tending to enrich the mind with knowledge, to rectify the 
 judgement, to remove the prejudices of education, to compose 
 the outward manners, and, in a word, to form the complete 
 gentleman ' ; or, to quote George Lyttelton's experience, 
 
 By foreign arts domestic faults to mend, 
 Enlarge my notions and my views extend ; 
 The useful science of tte world to know 
 Which, books can never teach, or pedants show. 
 
 One of Pitt's objects in travelling was evidently to improve 
 his French, for most of his letters from abroad to his sister 
 Ann are written in that language ; and he succeeded so well 
 that in later hfe a French ambassador declared that he spoke 
 the language perfectly.^ These letters to Ann give little 
 information about his occupations except that at Besan^on 
 he fell in love with a French lady of whom all he tells is 
 that ' quoique son coeur fut certainement neuf, son esprit ne 
 I'etoit point . . . sa taille etoit grande et des plus parfaites, 
 son air simple avec quelque chose de noble . . . suffit que 
 vous sachiez que ce fut de ces beautes d'un grand effet, et 
 que sa physionomie prononcat quelque chose des qualites 
 d'une ame admirable ' ; but ' elle n'a point de titre ni de grand 
 nom qui impose ; et c'est 1^ le diable.' The affair cannot have 
 been very serious, for even at the first pang of parting he says 
 ' je n'en ai pas tout a travers le coeujr, mais toutefois j'en ai ' ; 
 
 ' Giierohy to Choiaeul, November 21, 1766, Aff. Etr. Anal. Corr. Pol. 471, 
 f. 352. 
 
FOREIGN TRAVEL, 1733 45 
 
 and three months later he could write quite heart-free : ' c'etoit 
 de ces flammes passageres, un eclair qui a passe si vite qu'il 
 n'en reste pas le moindre vestige.' The visit to Lyons is 
 memorable for the use he made of it twenty years later, when 
 he compared the meeting of the Rhone and Saone, which he 
 saw below the town, to the alliance of Pox and Newcastle' — 
 ' the one a gentle, feeble, languid stream, and though feeble 
 of no great depth, the other a boisterous and impetuous 
 torrent.' ^ 
 
 During the later part of his sojourn abroad he had a good 
 chance of studying French mihtary methods and diplomacy, 
 for on October 10 the war of the Polish Succession was declared ; 
 French troops were hurried into Italy, and Luneville itself 
 was destined by the peace of Vienna, which concluded the 
 war, to fall into the hands of Stanislaus of Poland and, after 
 his death, into the possession of France. 
 
 When Pitt returned from abroad, early in 1734, the poli- 
 tical world was divided into two distinct camps, so opposed 
 to one another that even social intercourse between them 
 was almost impossible. On the one side was the Court of 
 George II and Queen Caroline, of which the annals and the 
 scandals are to be found at fuU length in the Memoirs of 
 their Vice-Chamberlain, Lord Hervey. The great strength of 
 this camp was that it represented the established govern- 
 ment of the realm, and had on its side all the valuable 
 patronage and most of the territorial influence of the great 
 Whig landowners. Its mainstay in Parliament was the cunning 
 and experienced old statesman at the head of the govern- 
 ment, Sir Robert Walpole, who then bore the weight of office 
 almost alone, for he had gradually lost or discarded all 
 the men of ability who had once been his colleagues. 
 Carteret, the most brilhant and ungovernable minister of the 
 century, had been superseded in 1724 ; Pulteney, able and 
 ambitious, but unstable, had left the ministry in the same 
 year ; Townshend, Walpole's loyal and capable brother-in-law, 
 had been driven to resign in 1730 because Walpole feared that 
 his mastery of foreign affairs might change the firm's name 
 
 1 See below, pp. 270-1. 
 
46 PITT'S EARLY YEARS 
 
 from ' Walpole and Townshend ' to ' Townshend and Walpole.' 
 To replace these the minister had gathered to his cabinet men 
 of second-rate abiUty, who neither supported him efficiently 
 nor served him with that devotion which was the least that 
 might have been expected from their mediocrity. The secre- 
 taries of state were WilUam Stanhope, Lord Harrington— a 
 cousin of Pitt's uncle, Lord Stanhope— a brave soldier and 
 a successful diplomatist, but as a minister ' absolutely nothing 
 — nobody's friend, nobody's foe, of use to nobody and of 
 prejudice to nobody,' and the Duke of Newcastle, whose 
 want of political sagacity was patent, but whose unrivalled 
 power of organising favourable elections made him of service 
 to the ministry he supported. Besides these were ill-natured 
 nonentities such as Lord Wilmington and the Duke of Dorset, 
 the Duke of Grafton— -a vainglorious Lord Chamberlain, ' the 
 natural cloud of whose understanding, thickened by the 
 artificial cloud of his mistaken Court policy, made his meaning 
 always as unintelligible as his conversation was unentertaining,' 
 and the brilliant Vice-Chamberlain, who raised more difficulties 
 by his biting tongue than he allayed by his controversial 
 gifts, his poUtical acumen, and his loyalty to Sir Eobert. But 
 though Walpole found little support in his colleagues, in 
 the King and Queen he had alhes who for many years enabled 
 him to snap his fingers at all the talents of the opposition. 
 Of the two. Queen Caroline was the master spirit. Fond of 
 power from a consciousness of her own capacity to exercise 
 it, she cared nothing for its show, and governed her husband 
 by an apparent submission to his authority. The old King 
 George I, who was shrewder than his son, recognising this 
 quality in her, used to speak of her as ' cette diablesse Madame 
 la Princesse.' With a woman's wit and sympathetic under- 
 standing she appreciated the conversation of men cleverer 
 than herself, especially divines of unorthodox tendencies. 
 Unfortunately for her husband and for Walpole, she died in 
 1737 of a cruel illness heroically endured. George II himself 
 had considerably greater merits as a king than are generally 
 credited to him. Like all the monarchs of his race, except 
 his eldest great-grandson, he had a strong sense of public 
 
THE COURT AND WALPOLE, 1734 47 
 
 duty and, to a limited degree, a just idea of where that duty 
 lay. He had proved his personal bravery in the War of the 
 Spanish Succession and was to prove it again at the expense 
 of his discretion at Dettingen ; and he resembled all the 
 other princes of his house in combining some discernment 
 of his officers' military qualities with an exaggerated and 
 meticulous attention to the uniforms and trappings of his 
 soldiers. He had no subtlety of perception and no statesman- 
 like views, but he had a considerable share of that blunt 
 common sense on which his adqpted subjects pride themselves. 
 He also possessed to the full that quality of dogged obstinacy, 
 often degenerating into nari;6w prejudice, which is not alien 
 to the English character an^ which in his case proved to have 
 a serious influence on Pitt'sr career. To his obstinacy he added 
 a choleric but not malevolent temper, characteristic of such 
 short, strutting, self-satisfied men. He had little love for 
 England or the English, yand much preferred his native Hanover, 
 with his obsequious little court at Herrenhausen, where every 
 inch of his kingship was flattered and magnified. In his habits 
 he was regular, in Ms expenses parsimonious, and in his 
 pleasures no less dull and unromantic, if more discriminating 
 than his father. At his levees he never shone in conversation 
 and was rarely gracious ; more often he cast a gloom on his 
 courtiers by sulking oler some tremendous trifle. 
 
 Pew courts, iadeed, have been more tedious and uninspiring 
 than his. Even Lord Hervey's wit and the Queen's sprightly 
 flow of talk could not dissipate the gloom which, after their 
 death within six years of each other, must have been almost 
 intolerable. This dreariness also had its pathetic side, especially 
 during the last years of Walpole's ministry, when the Prince 
 of Wales was in open rebelUon against his parents, and 
 the ablest men had fled to his camp, leaving the Court a 
 solitude. Even the most respectable tastes of the King and 
 Queen were turned to ridicule. Because they admired Handel 
 the wits would only applaud Handel's rival Buononciai, and 
 the royal pair were left to sit freezing in an empty opera house, 
 whence my Lord Chesterfield once hastily withdrew, feariug 
 to intrude upon their majesties' privacy. But for all his 
 
48 PITT'S EARLY YEARS 
 
 dulness George II did a good turn to the English nation in 
 maintaining a standard of stolid sohdity, vastly more effective 
 against the designs of discontented Jacobites than would have 
 been more brilliant gifts. 
 
 Pitt, as an officer in a favoured regiment, and from his 
 family connections, could no doubt easily have acquired royal 
 favour and political success through the dismal avenue of the 
 Court. His father's service as Clerk of the Green Cloth would 
 have made his name familiar to George II ; the Stanhopes were 
 his kin ; his maternal uncle. Lord Grandison, had been raised to 
 an earldom on account, says the Peerage, ' of his personal merits 
 and noble descent ' ; and the only extant letters of his mother, 
 asking for a lordship of the bedchamber for her brother, show 
 that she was a person of some account in the circle of Queen 
 Caroline when Princess of Wales. His sister Ann, who inherited 
 her parents' good looks, and shared with Wilham the legacy 
 of passionate vigour, masterfulness, and a somewhat dour and 
 disconcerting wit beqeathed to his family by the Governor, cast 
 in her lot with the Court by accepting in the year 1733 the 
 post of maid- of -honour to the Queen. Pitt, who was travelhag 
 abroad at the time, approved and sent her some sage advice, 
 still in French, on the conduct she should hold in the slippery- 
 ways of a court. Difficulties he admitted there were, but for 
 those one loves, he added, what better could be wished than 
 that they should be forced to rely on their own prudence and 
 good sense to deliver them from such perils ; moreover, he 
 characteristically refused to take the traditional view of the 
 unrelieved evils of a court. This appointment no doubt helped 
 Pitt to keep in touch with the ruling powers, for Arm was his 
 favourite sister, and at this period their relations were particu- 
 larly tender. Pitt's letters between 1730 and 1735 to his 
 ' dearest Nanny ' are, save for a few written to his wife, the 
 only intimate letters of his that have been preserved. ' Oh 
 for the restless tongue of dear httle Jug ! ' he writes when bored 
 with the dulness of country quarters, and he confides to her 
 his hopes and troubles, raUies her on her admirers, and shows 
 the tenderest brotherly feeling when she is in doubt or distress. 
 To write to her he resists ' the gentle Impertinencies, the 
 
ANN PITT AT COURT 49 
 
 sportly soKcitations, of two girls not quite despicable ' who are 
 ' thundering at the door ' of George Lyttelton's room, into 
 which he has locked himself, ' as if Heaven and Earth would 
 come together.' ^ Ann seems to have followed his sage directions 
 as to conduct at Court, for she is praised in some contemporary- 
 verses for her careful and circumspect behaviour : 
 
 By Honour, Eeason, and by Suffolk led. 
 
 These verses also aUude to the deep affection she felt for her 
 brother, concluding with the prophecy : 
 
 Long shall lie Hve and every Hour improve 
 His fame and merit, our Esteem and Love, 
 Live in the Senate or tke Field to stand 
 Firm and unskaken for his native land. 
 Live to admit a Rival in your Heart 
 To yield a Husband ev'n the warmer Part, 
 To see the Wife and Mother's happier Fame 
 Compleat whate'er adorns your Virgin Name.^ 
 
 But in spite of some temptations to join the Court party 
 Pitt chose the rougher path of Opposition. It was the natural 
 course for a young man of spirit when he found that aU the best 
 brains of the country were on that side ; and, as Lady Louisa 
 Stuart observed, ' Opposition ... is almost always a much ^\^ 
 more sociable body than the partisans of Government. The part / 
 of attacking raises people's spirits, gives them the spring of a 
 vigorous courser on rising ground, makes them all hope and~, 
 animation.' The Opposition centred round Frederick Prince 
 of Wales, who ever since his belated arrival in England in 1729 
 had been discovering fresh causes of disaffection to his royal 
 parents, not the least being the small allowance made to him by 
 his father. Being supported in his complaints by the leading 
 
 ' See Rosebeiy, p. 63. Chatham's daughter Harriot was writing under 
 similar distractions fifty years later to her brother. ' You must not expect,' 
 she writes in June 1783, ' a very correct performance from me at this moment, 
 for the gentlemen are making such a noise in the next Toom and laughing so 
 heartily that I really hardly know what I write.' 
 
 ' The verses occur in B. M. Add. M8S. 22629. They must have been 
 written in 1734, since in August of that year Lady Suffolk retired from Court. 
 Pitt was not elected to Parliament until 1735. 
 
 Ann never yielded to a husband the warmer part. 
 VOL. I. E 
 
50 PITT'S EARLY YEARS 
 
 members of the Opposition he gradually identified himself with 
 all their measures. He found a grievance in his sister's marry- 
 ing before himself in 1733, especially as he was not allowed to 
 marry his hvely cousin Wilhelmina of Prussia, with whom, 
 though he had never seen her, he was madly in love. In revenge 
 he encouraged his household to vote against Walpole's Excise 
 Bill, and on all occasions showed distinctions to Lords Cobham, 
 Stair and Chesterfield, some of its most violent opponents. 
 But though able to inflict cruel wounds on his parents by his 
 favour to the Opposition, the Prince personally gave little 
 strength to his own side. He was weak and ill-educated, 
 susceptible to the grossest flattery and quite unfit to deal with 
 affairs of State. 
 
 The real organizer of the Opposition was Bohngbroke. In all 
 English history there is hardly a figure more pathetic than 
 that of Henry St. John, Viscount Bohngbroke, the clinging 
 charm of whose name seems exactly fitted to his wonderful 
 genius. Exuberant in all the outpourings of his nature, he 
 had scandahsed the town in King WilHam's reign by his extra- 
 vagant and dissolute life, as he had captured the imagination of 
 his countrymen under Queen Anne by the briUiancy of his 
 intellect, by his speeches — one of which Chatham's son would 
 rather have recovered than the best compositions of antiquity — 
 and by the audacity of his political career. When Pitt first 
 came under his influence the bhght of twenty years' exile and 
 disgrace had settled upon him. Though he never seems to have 
 become soured by misfortune or quite to have lost his buoyancy 
 of nature, this leader once petted by Fortune and courted by 
 his fellows was now reduced to courting those younger or 
 inferior in attainments to himself. The spring of Bolingbroke's 
 activity at this time was personal hatred of Walpole, to whom 
 he owed the bitterness of a favour in his recaU from exile and 
 the lasting injury of exclusion from political hfe in Parliament. 
 But, though personal ui its origin and often factious in its 
 manifestations, BoHngbroke's hatred was in the main turned 
 to national ends. 
 
 While it is difficult to exaggerate Walpole's service to the 
 country as an economist and in accustoming the people to a 
 
BOLINGBROKE ORGANIZES OPPOSITION 51 
 
 stable and quiet government, his system had a grave poKtical 
 defect in fostering the belief, sedulously encouraged by most 
 governments that have held office long, that all opponents of the 
 Ministry were enemies of the State. When Walpole came to 
 power there was some ground for this belief, since there was a 
 danger that the Opposition might become identified with rebels, 
 whose main object was to restore the Eoman Catholic dynasty, 
 or with discontented Whig politicians, preoccupied with their 
 own thwarted ambitions. Bolingbroke's merit was to attempt 
 a fusion between these two classes on the ground of a common 
 national policy in harmony with the existing institutions : 
 the extreme Tories he taught to understand that a change of 
 dynasty was no longer possible even if desirable, and indi- 
 vidual malcontents among the Whigs that personal pique or 
 a desire for of&ce were not a sufficient basis for opposition. 
 He thus completed Walpole's system of making the Adminis- 
 tration national and constitutional by forming an Opposition 
 equally national and constitutional in the aims it professed. 
 However malevolent and shortsighted Bolingbroke's attacks 
 m The Craftsman on Walpole's Excise BUI of 1733 may have 
 been, they at any rate trained his Whig and Tory allies to treat 
 politics from a practical standpoint and to formulate a broad 
 and consistent poUcy. By a strange paradox the man who 
 by his writings professed himself most anxious to abolish 
 party government did as much as anybody to establish the 
 English party system on a sure basis. Bolingbroke himself 
 was pre-eminently fitted to inspire this new creed of opposi- 
 tion. Though wanting in stability and persistence and 
 superficial in his writings he was an adroit politician, while 
 his knowledge of domestic and foreign affairs was grounded 
 on long practice and constant study of new circumstances. 
 Of the elder men who helped him with their experience the 
 most capable were Sir William Wyndham, William Pulteney 
 and Lord Carteret. Wyndham was a Tory, but, as Boling- 
 broke told Lyttelton in later years, was the first of that party 
 to cast off his feelings for the Pretender and to take up the 
 idea of a coalition against what seemed to him a bad govern- 
 ment for England. He was respected on both sides of the 
 
 e2 
 
52 PITT'S EARLY YEARS 
 
 House for his honesty and his judgment ; ' he was,' said 
 Speaker Onslow, ' the most made for a great man of any one 
 that I have known in this age. Everything about him seemed 
 great.' Of Pulteney, more infirm of purpose and less public- 
 spirited, it was said that his speeches began like Demosthenes 
 and ended with Billingsgate : he was nevertheless the ablest 
 debater in the House, and, as a pamphleteer and writer on 
 The Craftsman, second only to Bolingbroke. But Carteret was 
 the finest genius of them all as a scholar, a man of the world, 
 and a diplomatist. When Pitt first came into Bolingbroke's 
 circle Carteret was in the full vigour of his powers, and 
 willingly imparted some of his own political lore to the young 
 cornet, in whom he must have recognised a kindred fire. 
 The two afterwards parted company, but forty years later 
 Chatham still recalled what he owed to Carteret in noble 
 words of gratitude : ' In the upper departments of govern- 
 ment Lord Granville had not his equal ; and I feel a pride 
 in declaring that to his patronage, to his friendship and 
 instruction, I owe whatever I am.' 
 
 The Excise Bill of 1733 enabled Bolingbroke and his three 
 chief adherents to create the formidable party against Walpole 
 which finally compassed his downfall. The Bill was nowhere 
 popular, but it was finally killed by The Craftsman. This was 
 Bolingbroke's first triumph, and Walpole proceeded to play 
 into his hands by the savage revenge he took upon all his own 
 supporters who had expressed disapproval of the measure, 
 thus driving them into Bolingbroke's and Pulteney's camp. 
 The dangerously witty Chesterfield had to yield up his staff as 
 Steward of the Household, dukes and earls lost their places, 
 and Pitt's patron, Lord Cobham, was even deprived of his 
 regiment. Walpole's very success in the following general 
 election of 1734, when his henchman, the Duke of Newcastle, 
 first displayed his unrivalled skill as a political manager, only 
 confirmed the growing impression that Walpole's sole art in 
 government lay not in representing the popular opinion but in 
 securing personal pre-eminence by all the arts of corruption 
 and the unscrupulous abuse of political pressure. Outwardly 
 the Government was strong as ever. Walpole still affected 
 
COURT V. OPPOSITION 53 
 
 to laugh at his enemies' attacks, and sneered at the young 
 ' Patriots/ as they were called, telling them they ' would soon 
 come o£f that and grow wiser.' But his task was done ; his 
 policy, ' quieta non movere,' had acted as a sorely needed 
 sedative to a nation wrought up by all the changes of the 
 Stuart Period and had given the comfortable House of Han- 
 over time to take firm root. England had now recovered her 
 balance and was begiiming to suffer from lethargy. 
 
 Boliugbroke, Pulteney, Wyndham and Carteret on the 
 other hand opened out a field of inquiry and discontent which 
 impUed some hfe and energy. They began to ask the reason 
 for institutions and lines of policj'- which the Government 
 treated as accepted facts. What, for example, was the good 
 of a standing army at the very time when the fixed principle 
 of government appeared to be peace at any price, if not to 
 bolster up an arbitrary power by ' those casuists in red who, 
 having swords by their sides, are able at once to cut those 
 Gordian knots which others must untie by degrees ? ' The out- 
 cry against an excise and excisemen gained much plausibility 
 when it was seen what a powerful instrument for electoral 
 corruption was provided by places in the Customs : the numer- 
 ous tales of unredressed wrongs from Spain and the apathy 
 of the Government during the war of the Polish Succession ; 
 the King's manifest preference for Hanover and Hanoverian 
 interests, and his contemptuous treatment of the Prince of 
 Wales, all lent weight to the Opposition clamours against the 
 Government. Then the grinding dulness of the Court and 
 ministerial circles, their gross and stupid pleasures, and their 
 soulless indifference to all the nobler intellectual and spiritual 
 cravings of the country drove all the young men of promise 
 and ambition into the ranks led by Bolingbroke. Pope, the 
 poet of the age and the high priest of taste, writing to Swift, 
 shows the spirit which animated the men with whom his friend 
 Bolingbroke had brought him into touch : 
 
 I have acquired without my seeking a few chance acquaintances 
 of young men, who look rather to the past age than the present, 
 and therefore the future may have some hopes of them. If I love 
 them, it is because they honour some of those whom I and the world 
 
54 PITT'S EARLY YEARS 
 
 have lost or are losing. Two or three of them have distinguished 
 themselves in Parliament, and you will own in a very uncommon 
 manner, when I tell you it is by their asserting of independency 
 and contempt of corruption. 
 
 Earely indeed in our history has such a galaxy of eager 
 and public-spirited young men been gathered together for 
 a common object as the Boy Patriots who learned their 
 politics from Bolingbroke and his friends. The oldest of 
 them was Chesterfield, just forty when dismissed by Walpole 
 in 1734, and already experienced in the mysteries of Court 
 etiquette and diplomacy. His wit and his cynicism in private 
 hfe have often obscured to later generations bis soimd poUtical 
 sense and the important part he took in bringing to an end 
 Walpole's ministry. The first two letters printed in the 
 Chatham Correspondence show that he could inspire younger 
 men with a conviction of his patriotism and statesmanship, 
 and that Pitt himself turned for guidance to one who afterwards 
 partly justified this confidence by his enhghtened toleration 
 and the wisdom of his government in Ireland. Among the 
 younger men one of the ablest was Murray, whose success 
 at the bar soon fulfilled the promise of his Oxford days, and 
 who was made famous when barely thirty by Mr. Pope's 
 dedication to him of an ' Imitation of Horace.' Quarendon, 
 whom Lady Louisa Stuart remembered as Lord Lichfield, 'a 
 red-faced old gentleman . . . who had almost drunk away his 
 senses,' was then ' a bud of genius fostered by the opposition 
 chiefs as likely to prove the future pride of their garland.' 
 Polwarth, Marchmont's son, noted for his impetuous honesty 
 and independence and for the affection of Pope and Bolingbroke, 
 was also of the band ; and Cornbury, to whom Bolingbroke 
 addressed his ' Letters on the Study of History,' a great- 
 grandson of the Chancellor Clarendon and grandson of Dryden's 
 Hushai. With them Cobham, after his dismissal, finally 
 cast in his lot, bringing with him his ' cubs,' Lyttelton, the 
 Grenvilles, Eobert and George, and William Pitt. The extra- 
 ordinary regard in which the last was held by his fellows in 
 this company is shown by the opinion frequently expressed 
 of him by Lyttelton, Chesterfield and the Grenvilles, and such 
 
THE BOY PATRIOTS 55 
 
 testimony as this from Lord Combury : ' For the good of 
 others I form many wishes about you ; for your own I can wish 
 you nothing but to continue the same man ; whether Happyness 
 or Vanity be your aim, that will secure either ' ; 1 while his 
 patron, Cobham, could hardly put his ' talent of insinuation ' 
 too high : ' in a very short quarter of an hour,' he said, ' Mr. 
 Pitt can persuade a man of anything.' 
 
 Nor was the band composed solely of men whose primary 
 interest was political ambition. At times of political ferment 
 such as occurred during the concluding years of Walpole's 
 administration and such as exists to-day, a wave of pohtical 
 feeling seems to carry along all that is best in the youth of the 
 nation to think and talk of Httle but the urgent evils of our 
 state and how to remedy them. The great Mr. Pope himself 
 set the fashion in Hterary circles by entering whole-heartedly 
 into the political schemes of his friend Bolingbroke. Largely 
 by his influence Burlington, famed for his building and his 
 gardens, Cobham, Marchmont and Chesterfield were first 
 attracted to the movement, and his own loyalty to it was 
 confirmed by the Prince of Wales's judicious visit to Twicken- 
 ham in 1735. Later he made a meeting-place for the con- 
 cihabula of the Opposition at his own villa, in that 
 
 Egerian grot 
 Wliere nobly pensive St. Jolm sate and thought ; 
 Where British sighs for dying Wyndham stole, 
 And the bright flame was shot from Marchmont's soul ; 
 
 and he expressed in the ' Epistle to Augustus ' and the ' Epilogue 
 to the Satires ' all that the most poUshed invective and irony 
 in our Hterature could convey of the feelings of the Opposition. 
 All the great stars of the hterary world were on the same 
 side : Swift of coiu:se sympathised ; and Gay had suffered 
 persecution for the political innuendoes in his ' Beggar's Opera ' 
 and its unacted sequel ' Polly.' Thomson, a frequent visitor 
 at Stowe, to comply with the spirit of his surroundings wrote 
 a poem on Liberty, of which Johnson unkindly said ' no 
 man felt the want.' However, its dedication to the Prince of 
 
 ' Chatham MSS. 27 (Combury to Pitt, NoTember 3, 1736). 
 
56 PITT'S EARLY YEARS 
 
 Wales earned him a pension and the commission to compose 
 with Mallet the masque ' Alfred,' which was performed at Clif- 
 den and is notable for its ode ' Eule Britannia.' Pitt had ' a 
 sincere value for the amiable author,' and in later years busied 
 himself with Lyttelton in getting his ' Tancred and Sigismunda ' 
 produced by Garriok at Drury Lane. Another, greater than 
 Thomson, took a more active part in attacking Walpole. 
 Henry Fielding, who in early youth had with Pitt worshipped 
 learning ' in her favourite fields, where the Hmpid, gently- 
 rolUng Thames washed her Etonian banks,' had come back 
 from Leyden with no less ardour for the political fray than 
 for the joys of conviviahty. Li 1735 he took the small theatre 
 in the Haymarket and produced ' Pasquin,' which earned a 
 great success and amused the town by its attacks on Walpole 
 and ' Lord Fanny.' Li 1737 another attack on Walpole in 
 ' The Eegister ' led to the establishment of the censorship, which 
 put an end to the attempts of Fielding and others to 
 ridicule the Ministry on the stage. Thereupon Fielding 
 turned to journalism, and, as ' Captain Hercules Vinegar ' 
 in his paper The Ghamfion, continued his anti-ministerial 
 campaign. Of minor poets there was no dearth among the 
 members of the Prince of Wales's Court. One of his equerries, 
 James Hammond, as a man of pleasure was ' the joy and 
 dread of Bath,' and as a poet sang the charms of Kitty 
 Dashwood the Oxfordshire toast. Another ' whiffler in 
 poetry,' David Mallet, ' alias Malloch,' is better remembered in 
 coimection with a contemptuous phrase of Dr. Johnson about 
 Bolingbroke's unbeHef. He and Brooke, a friend of Pitt's, 
 served the cause by writing plays which earned the censor's 
 condemnation. Better remembered is Glover for the name 
 of his play ' Leonidas ' and for his ballad on ' Admiral Hosier's 
 Ghost ' ; he afterwards made a mark in politics and in commerce. 
 Three women, as different from one another as possible, 
 were peculiarly identified with the Patriots. The terrible old 
 Duchess Sarah sought their aid to satisfy a personal pique, 
 and signalled out two of them, Chesterfield and Pitt, to benefit 
 under her will. Her arrogance made her a bad counsellor, 
 but in her grim way she showed shrewdness as a judge of 
 
OPPOSITION POETS AND GREAT LADIES 57 
 
 character. Lady Suffolk was gentle as Atossa was savage, 
 and, in her pleasant home at Marble Hill, Twickenham, adorned 
 for her by poets and statesmen, she made welcome Pope 
 and all his friends, charming them with her amiability and 
 her accurate, if lengthy, stories of events at Court.i The 
 third was Prior's and Gay's Kitty, Duchess of Queensberry, 
 Cornbury's sister, and the most impertinent and daintiest 
 of rogues. ' Whenever vexation is in question,' she once 
 wrote petulantly to Pitt, ' I hardly met with anybody who 
 could outdo me.' 2 She it was who had sent the saucy answer 
 to the King, when he forbade her the Court for collecting 
 subscriptions in his own palace on behalf of Gay's ' Polly.' 
 Later she attacked the second estate of the realm, when 
 peeresses were excluded from their debates, spending half 
 a day with the Duchess of Ancaster and other sprightly dames 
 knocking at the doors of the House, into which they finally 
 gained admittance by a ruse. Used from her childhood to the 
 compliments and pettings of all the wits and poets, she was 
 unspoiled by their incense, and returned them the greatest 
 benefit that can befall such high mortals by frankly teasing 
 and rallying them and teaching them that a pretty woman 
 has no respect for outward dignities. She even exchanged 
 banter with the great Dr. Swift. She was an intimate friend 
 of Ann Pitt and especially distinguished William by her 
 friendship. 
 
 I do think [she wrote to him, when he was obliged to forgo 
 a promised visit to Amesbury] Mr. Pitt should come at some other 
 time, and that because he may be morally sure to be wellcome . . . 
 I too am extreamly in character, for I am not certain whether I 
 am most angry or sorry for being disappointed. I pout extreamly 
 and have not got to the top of the hUl yet. This man and this 
 
 ' To the end Lady Suffolk remained Pitt's faithful friend. There are two 
 charming letters written some thirty years later, when she was old and blind, 
 to Lady Chatham about her and her husband {Chatham MSS. 60). The 
 scandal about Lady Suffolk's relations with George II is baaed on very slender 
 evidence and is probably untrue. Lord Egmont said that her reputation was 
 very unjustly aspersed, the whole fact being that the King, like many of his 
 subjects, enjoyed her conversation (Egmont MSS. vol. 82) ; this view is also 
 confirmed by the Suffolk Papers (Hist. MSS. Com.). 
 
 2 To Pitt in 1742 (Chatham MSS. 54). 
 
58 PITT'S EARLY YEARS 
 
 woman I find agree extreamly in their very sincere regard for 
 Mr. Pitt, for itt has not yett been a matter of dispute the which 
 of them has the greatest regard. ... I fancy the Dute will not 
 give it up and I am very sure I will not. 
 
 ' This light and easy wit of the Duchess, joined to her 
 sincerity and hearty loyalty to those she cared for, made 
 her just the friend needed by Pitt at this stage of his life 
 to drive out of him some of the stiffness and coldness due to 
 his early training. 
 
 Such were the influences that had helped to form Pitt 
 when, at the age of twenty-seven, he took the plunge into 
 full political life. His own disposition, his ailments, and his 
 education at Eton, Oxford and Utrecht encouraged in him 
 a studious disposition ; his early losses forced upon him habits 
 of self-dependence. While still a child his kinship with Stan- 
 hope had made him famihar with men versed in affairs of State 
 and accustomed to command, and his grandfather had shown 
 him an example of ruthless energy and uncompromising 
 plainness. His mihtary training, though not put to the 
 test of practice, also helped to fit him for his future task. 
 In politics, with a Tory father and a grandfather who was 
 a. furious Whig, he had a training in both schools ; and this 
 training, with the doctrines he imbibed from Bolingbroke and 
 Wyndham, disposed him throughout Ufe to think far less of the 
 ordinary party distinctions than most of his contemporaries. 
 But, though he never became a strong party man, he always 
 regarded the glorious Eevolution as a fundamental fact of the 
 British constitution. This could not well be otherwise, since 
 from his Oxford days he had formed his guiding principles 
 pn Lo^ke^s philosophy and politics. One of his notebooks 
 contains an elaborate analysis of the reasoning of the ' Essay 
 concerning the Human Understanding.' In moral philosophy 
 Locke's great service to the men of the eighteenth century was 
 to create a confidence in their own understanding and their 
 ability to judge of facts ; to use Pitt's own words, he taught 
 us that we must ' use our own reason and not that of another, 
 if we would deal fairly by oiurselves and hope to enjoy a peace- 
 ful and contented conscience.' For constitutional questions 
 
EARLY INFLUENCES ON PITT 59 
 
 Locke's treatises on Government and on Toleration were the 
 political bible of the eighteenth century, and as such were 
 pondered over deeply by Pitt. Locke's theory of the perfect j 
 balance of the English constitution, with distinct functions 
 for the three constituent members of the Legislature — King, 
 Lords and Commons — his triumphant defence of our polity on 
 utilitarian grounds, and his vindication of reUgious tolerance, 
 are apparent by their fruits in almost every speech and action 
 of the Great Commoner.^ 
 
 In spite of cricket matches that we hear of at Stowe, of 
 rollicking games in camp or at Lyttelton's, and of the society 
 of his ' dearest Nanny,' the sprightly Duchess of Queensberry, 
 and the restful Countess of Suffolk, Pitt's was a grave up- 
 bringing. In after years he quoted as a guide to his nephew 
 the text, ' Eemember now thy Creator in the days of thy 
 youth,' giving it the most ascetic interpretation, and in his 
 own early years there are few signs of that careless rapture in 
 the passing hour which gives to youth its happiest moments 
 and its greatest charm. Such moments have their uses in 
 forming a man's character : they make him more supple and 
 give him tact in dealing with individuals, which Pitt never 
 possessed. He was brave and steadfast in upholding beforS 
 his countrymen what seemed to him noblest, and he could' 
 impose his will by the force of his character, but he sometimesi 
 failed from lack of buoyancy and ability to give and take withj 
 men inferior to himself. But with all its Hmitations there 
 was nothing mean or paltry in his education. ' Guided by faith 
 and matchless fortitude,' he schooled himself to fine ideals ; 
 he disciplined himself to an intense, almost passionate, belief 
 in England's greatness, to a knowledge and love of her ancient 
 traditions and her happy constitution, and to that over- 
 mastering sense of duty which ranks him with Cromwell alone 
 among our statesmen. 
 
 (i Even in details Pitt showed his intimate acquaintance with Locke : 
 witness his letter to Warburton re-echoing Locke's exception of Roman 
 Catholicism from general toleration Acts as ' a subversion of all civil as well 
 as reUgioua liberty,' and his quotation of the first paragraph of the chapter ' Of 
 Prerogative ' in his speech defending the embargo on the export of com. (See 
 vol. ii, p. 228.) 
 
CHAPTEE III 
 
 PITT AND WALPOLE 
 
 ; ^ Ehrgeiz ist die Leuohte die alien grossen'^^Handlungen voraufgeht. 
 
 Waixenstein. 
 
 On Pitt's return from abroad at the beginning of 1734 England 
 was on the eve of a general election. Walpole had wisely not 
 dissolved upon the defeat of his excise scheme in April 1733. 
 After punishing insubordinate followers he had allowed the 
 excitement in the country to cool down during a quiet session 
 and had called in the Duke of Newcastle to prepare the ground 
 by a judicious dressing of gold and beer. The result of the 
 elections in May 1734 justified this caution. When Newcastle 
 began operations in the previous August he found the irrita- 
 tion against the ministry's excise scheme almost universal. 
 It was acute in Sussex, Newcastle's own county, which then 
 returned twenty-eight members to Parliament. Here grossly 
 exaggerated rumours were afloat. Voters were convinced that 
 their bread and meal would cost them more, and that their 
 pork would have to be accounted for to the Treasury. The 
 country grocer was seriously alarmed at the trouble he foresaw 
 in weighing out tobacco under the scheme, and truculent 
 shopkeepers vowed they would kill any exciseman that offered 
 to come into their houses. Ministerialists going to church or 
 to race meetings were greeted with cries of ' No excise, no 
 dragoons ! ' and the slumber of honest citizens was disturbed 
 by vulgar fellows beating drums and hoarsely shouting ' No 
 excise ! ' at dead of night. The methods of dealing with these 
 prejudices were nicely calculated to meet the special circum- 
 
 60 
 
GENERAL ELECTION, 1784 6i 
 
 stances of each case. The influence exercised by the bishops on 
 their clergy, and by the great landowners on their tenants and 
 dependents was called into play by Newcastle, who had created 
 half the bishops and was connected with a considerable pro- 
 portion of the nobility. The patronage of the Crown and even 
 its prerogative of mercy to prisoners condemned to death for 
 smuggling were employed to influence votes, and at need the 
 voters' roll was manipulated by obsequious officials. But the 
 most effective appeal was to the stomach. A typical letter from 
 one of the Duke's agents gives an insight into this method. 
 Twenty-six freeholders of Worth in Sussex, accompanied by their 
 wives, were invited to a dinner succeeded by punch-drinking. ' By 
 nine in the evening they were all fully con vine' d y' ye clamour 
 of a gen' Excise was false and scandalous, and were perfectly 
 satisfied of the abUity, honour, and honesty of their present 
 members, and express'd their indignation and concern y' any 
 credit had been given to the many misrepresentations y' had 
 lately been so industriously spread about y" country.' At a 
 later stage they all adjourned ' to the most Eminent place on 
 the hUl, where with loud huzzas and in full glasses ' they pro- 
 claimed their conversion to the Government's policy ' in the 
 most PubHck manner they then could.' 
 
 By such means the Duke of Newcastle was directly 
 responsible for the return of sixty or seventy members favour- 
 able to the Government's interest from counties where his 
 influence was either paramount or one of the forces to be 
 reckoned with ; and in other places where he did not employ 
 his own personal agents his part in tuning the voice of the 
 constituencies to a favourable key must have been con- 
 siderable, owing to his extensive patronage and his unfailing 
 energy as an electioneer.^ Even in the election of Scottish 
 
 ' Newcastle's love of electioneering cost him dear. Though his estates brought 
 in or^inally £32,000 a year and from various official sources he had an 
 income of £19,000 in addition, he was deeply in debt in 1741-2 from his profusion 
 in granting pensions to J.P.'a and others, and electoral bribery. (See Egmont 
 MSS. vol. 88, sub January 18, 1741-2.) Nor were his lavish methods always 
 appreciated. According to d'Eon he once regaled some voters with cham- 
 pagne, at which they complained that his cider was sour. {Aff. El/r. Angl. 
 Con. Pol. 454.) 
 
62 PITT AND WALPOLE 
 
 representative peers, the Duke of Newcastle helped Lord Isla 
 to secure the nomination of sixteen men favourable to Sir 
 Eobert. The result of the elections was an ample reward for all 
 these exertions. Some disappointments there were, such as 
 the loss of Walpole's own county of Norfolk by a few votes, 
 and the more natural triumph of the Opposition in Somerset- 
 shire, a stronghold of Pulteney and Sir William Wyndham. 
 But, though his majority was reduced, on the whole Sir Eobert 
 found the new Parliament as docile as he could have expected, 
 or indeed required.^ At any rate, Bolingbroke, who had 
 inspired the determined attack on him, and had once seemed 
 within grasp of victory, was so disgusted at the result that he 
 abandoned politics for the time being, and in January 1735 
 retired to France. 
 
 Throughout Pitt's life elections were conducted on the 
 same Unes as in 1734, the only change being that after 1760 
 the King took Newcastle's place as chief organizer of victory. 
 It would not indeed be true to say that public opinion had no 
 weight in the composition of the House of Commons or in 
 directing its action. Walpole's refusal to proceed with the 
 excise scheme, though it was still undefeated in the House of 
 Commons, and the extraordinary precautions taken at this 
 election show that the people was to be feared when its interest 
 was aroused ; and, in spite of the preponderance of rotten 
 boroughs, the counties and a few boroughs, where the judgment 
 of the freeholders was comparatively unfettered, were important 
 enough to secure the expression in the House of Commons 
 of any violent outburst of popular feeling. But Newcastle's 
 resources for working on the self-interest of an electorate were 
 manifold ; and, given ample time, such as he had before the 
 election of 1734, it would have been a serious excitement indeed 
 which he could not have quelled. It is significant that before the 
 next election, in 1741, the Duke had already begun intriguing 
 against Sir Eobert, and that the new Parhament soon reflected 
 this archplotter's change of view. In later years even Pitt 
 
 ' Walpole reposed such confidence in Kewcastle that, acording to Hervey, 
 he troubled hi m self not at all about the election, but spent the time in daUianoe 
 with his mistress, Mrs. Skerrit. 
 
PITT, M.P., 1735 63 
 
 was constrained to admit that with Newcastle against him 
 httle was to be done either in or out of Parliament. 
 
 Pitt has left it on record in one of the characteristically 
 frank admissions of his later speeches that, though he after- 
 wards came to see the merit of Walpole's excise scheme, 
 had he been in Parhament at the time, ' he would probably 
 have been induced by the general and groundless clamour to 
 have joined with those that opposed it.' Already his abilities 
 were so marked, and his opposition to the Government so 
 notorious, that Walpole himself thought it worth making an 
 effort to silence him. First he attempted to bribe him with 
 the offer of the troop afterwards given to Conway. When 
 that method failed, he tried to keep him out of Parliament. 
 At the general election Pitt's brother, Thomas, had been elected 
 for Okehampton as well as for Old Sarum, and, choosing to 
 sit for the former, he had the seat at Old Sarum to give away. 
 He had apparently promised it to WilHam, but Walpole, 
 anxious to keep out WilUam Pitt as a dangerous young 
 man, put forward the claims of a certain T. Harrison, who 
 had sat for it in the last Parliament.^ The suggestion now made 
 to Thomas through his sister Harriet, and at first favourably 
 regarded by him, was that Harrison should be again elected 
 on condition that he paid WiUiam a sum of money in com- 
 pensation for his disappointment. Pitt was indignant at the 
 proposal. From his quarters at Newbury he wrote to Ann 
 of his ' thorough contempt of the . . . ridiculous offer ' made 
 by their sister Harriet. It was not even to Thomas's advan- 
 tage, he pointed out, for if he let the seat go out of the family 
 he might at least have expected to recover from his nominee 
 the £2000 he had spent on the Okehampton election, whereas he 
 was personally to obtain nothing.^ This consideration perhaps 
 weighed with Thomas, who ignored Walpole's appeal and 
 fulfilled his promise of the seat to WilUam. On February 
 18, 1735, therefore, Wilham was duly chosen member for 
 Old Sarum. His election did not then involve loss of active 
 
 ' He had been elected at a bye caused by Lord Londonderry's resignation 
 in 1728, probably because there was no Pitt in want of a seat. 
 
 2 Pitt's letters on the subject are quoted in Eosebery, pp. 74-7. For Wal- 
 pole's part in the business Lord Camelford is the authority. (See ibid. p. 159.) 
 
64 PITT AND WALPOLE 
 
 service with his regiment, and for another year he performed 
 such military duties as were incumbent upon him. He found 
 many friends and relations in the new Parliament : his brother 
 Thomas, John Pitt of Encombe, Lord Oobham's nephew 
 Eichard Grenville, and Lord Marchmont's twin sons, Polwarth 
 and Hume Campbell. His future opponents, Lord Egmont and 
 Henry Pox, also took their seats for the first time, and two 
 months later George Lyttelton came as Thomas Pitt's colleague 
 for Okehampton. AU these, save Fox, were then united 
 against Walpole under the banner of the Princ e of W ales, 
 who had recently dismissed the time-serving Dodington and 
 taken Pitt's friend Lyttelton in his stead. Bolingbroke, had 
 he known, need not have despaired of the prospects of the 
 Opposition with such an infusion of young blood, led by 
 Pulteney and Wyndham in the Commons, and by Bedford, 
 Carteret, Chesterfield, Cobham, Gower and Bathurst in the 
 Lords. 
 
 Walpole had already marked him down, but few others 
 in the House that February afternoon of 1735 could have 
 guessed that the tall, slim young cornet, with the long neck 
 and the great nose, going up to shake hands with Speaker 
 Onslow, was to hold them all by his voice in a few years and 
 that he would rule every succeeding House for the next twenty- 
 fiv£ years by his voice, his flashing glance and his very presence. 
 Without title or fortune with which to open the charmed 
 circle of the Whig governing class, with no traditions of soldier 
 or statesmen ancestors to arouse curiosity and interest, he 
 could only boast the name of old Diamond Pitt, the eccentric, 
 coarse-mannered adventurer, of whom strange stories were 
 put about, and who had cut no figure in Parliament or polite 
 society. In his first session Pitt kept silence and was content 
 to learn the traditions, customs and procedure of an assembly 
 where, for the next thirty years, the chief part of his Ufe was 
 to be spent. But he took an early opportunity of showing 
 that he meant to enrol himself with the Opposition, by acting 
 as teller for the minority on the navy estimates. No very 
 important debates occurred to tempt him to break silence, 
 for, as often happens at the beginning of a new Parliament, 
 
MAIDEN SPEECH, 1736 65 
 
 the minister had no formidable attacks to meet from an 
 Opposition which had not yet come to feel its strength. 
 
 An unexpected opening for a speech occurred to Pitt on 
 April 29, 1736, towards the end of his second session. For 
 many years his patron, the Prince of Wales, had been restive 
 under the parsimonious tutelage imposed upon him by his 
 father and mother. At length, in June 1734, he had demanded 
 an interview with the King, and submitted three requests : 
 to serve under the Emperor in the war of the Polish Succession ; 
 to have a fixed allowance ; and, lastly, to be permitted to marry. 
 After more than a year, the King had complied with the last 
 demand, but gave his son no voice in the choice of his bride. 
 She was a Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, whom the King 
 had noticed with favour on one of his Hanoverian journeys, 
 and whom the Prince saw for the first time only a few days 
 before his marriage. On April 27, 1736, the marriage took 
 place with scant ceremony. No courtier dared even allude 
 to the event in Parliament, for the King and Queen had in- 
 timated that any show of respect to the Prince would be taken 
 as an act of disrespect to themselves. It was left to Pulteney 
 to move a dutiful address to the King, expressing the con- 
 gratulations of the House, mingled with some unseasonable 
 allusions to the hberties of this nation : Lyttelton supported 
 it. Then came Pitt. 
 
 The chief points in Pitt's maiden speech, as reported by April 29, 
 Guthrie, are the satirical allusions to royal dissensions, clothed ^''^^• 
 in language of almost oriental submission ; the hints at the 
 King's delay in satisfying the Prince's reiterated wishes for 
 marriage — ' this so desirable and long-desired measure . . . 
 which the nation thought could never come too soon ' ; and 
 the grim observation that, however great may be the nation's 
 joy, ' it must be inferior to that high satisfaction which His 
 Majesty himself enjoys in bestowing it : — and, if I may be 
 allowed to suppose that to a royal mind anything can trans- 
 cend the pleasure of gratifying the impatient wishes of a 
 loyal people, it can only be the parental delight of tenderly in- 
 dulging the most dutiful application, and most humble request 
 of a submissive indulgent son.' This is followed by a deUcate 
 
 vol,. I. I' 
 
66 PITT AND WALPOLE 
 
 insinuation that the merit of the son, who asked for a means of 
 continuing the succession, was greater than that of the father 
 who granted it so reluctantly. The prince's domestic hfe he 
 only hghtly touches upon for fear of ' offending the deHcacy 
 of the virtue he so ardently desires to do justice to. . . . But, 
 Sir, fiUal duty to his Eoyal parents, a generous love of hberty, 
 and a just reverence for the British constitution — these are 
 pubhc virtues, and cannot escape the applause and benedictions 
 of the pubhc : they are virtues, Sir, which render His Eoyal 
 Highness not only a noble ornament, but a firm support, if 
 any could possibly be necessary, of that throne so greatly 
 fiUed by his Eoyal father.' He then significantly reminds 
 the King and ministers that the spirit of hberty dictated the 
 Hanover succession, and concludes with the prayer that this 
 marriage ' may afford the comfort of seeing the Eoyal 
 Family (numerous as I thank God it is) still growing and 
 rising up in a third generation : a family. Sir, which I most 
 sincerely wish may be as immortal as those liberties and that 
 constitution it came to maintain.' 
 
 The covert irony of Pitt's allusion to King George's 
 domestic and patriotic virtues, and to the Prince of Wales's 
 dutiful behaviour, seem sufficient in the circumstances to 
 account for the delight with which this speech was received 
 by the Opposition. But that it should have been compared 
 favourably with the best orations of Cicero and Demosthenes 
 is obviously the result of political partiality and the fame 
 which its punishment brought, unless Guthrie grievously mis- 
 represented his words. Lyttelton's speech, which was on the 
 same lines as Pitt's, seems at first to have attracted more 
 attention ; ^ but Lyttelton was beyond the reach of Walpole's 
 vengeance, while Pitt was not. He was already a marked man 
 for his constant support of Opposition measures, and for the 
 favour he enjoyed from the Prince of Wales ; by this display 
 of oratorical capacity and cool impertinence he had shown 
 that he might be dangerous. ' We must muzzle,' said Walpole, 
 ' this terrible cornet of horse,' and forthwith dismissed him 
 
 ' For example, the French envoy in London sent to Paris a full account of 
 Lyttelton's speech, but did not mention Pitt. {Aff. Etr. Angl Corr Pol 393, 
 f. 379.) 
 
DEPRIVED OF CORNETCY, 1736 67 
 
 from the army. No more effective way of unmuzzling the 
 cornet, and giving him the prominence his ambition sought, 
 could have been devised by Pitt's greatest friend. The army, 
 already alarmed at the removal of Lords Stair and Cobham, 
 saw in this vengeance on a mere subaltern a blow struck at all 
 liberty of opinion in the commissioned ranks, and warmly 
 took up Pitt's cause. The Opposition naturally made the 
 most of it. Lyttelton celebrated his friend's honourable dis- 
 grace in his usual vapid verses ; 1 Lord Cornbury wrote an ode 
 on the same subject, enclosing it in a letter expressing the 
 confidence felt by the young Patriots in Pitt's extraordinary 
 merit ; 2 Lord Cobham showed increased favour to the young 
 man ; Lady Suffolk's husband, George Berkeley, wrote him 
 a warm letter of sympathy ; and the Prince of Wales counten- 
 anced him with the most gracious and flattering marks of 
 distinction. Nor was the incident allowed to rest in the House 
 of Commons. Li the following session a member, alluding 
 to Pitt's punishment, said : ' I know the danger I am in by 
 appearing in favour of this motion [against the ministry]. 
 I may, perhaps, have a message sent me, I may lose the 
 command I have in the army, as other gentlemen have done 
 for the same reason before me.' Pulteney and Lyttelton 
 attacked Walpole for his action, and especially for descending 
 so low in his vengeance as to cashier a cornet of horse for his 
 vote. But Walpole was quite unabashed and cynically avowed 
 that ' if an ofl&cer, of whatever rank or merit, wished to meddle 
 with affairs of State . . . which were outside his sphere, or 
 even show aversion to a minister, that minister would be the 
 most wretched of creatures if he did not cashier him, and he 
 left the practice as a legacy to his successors.' ^ 
 
 ' Long had thy virtues marked thee out for fame 
 Far, far superior to a Comet's name ; 
 This generous Walpole saw, and grieved to find 
 So mean a post disgrace that noble mind. 
 The servile standard from the free -bom hand 
 He took, and bade thee lead the patriot band. 
 ^ See above, p. 55. 
 
 ^ This debate was on February 18-Maroh 1, 1736-7, when the Opposition * 
 moved to reduce the army from 17,000 io 12,000. Pitt made his second 
 speech on this occasion ; but no record of it remains. {Egmont MSS. vol. 84 ; 
 and Aff. Mr. Angl. Corr. Pol. 394, f. 109.) 
 
 72 
 
68 PITT AND WALPOLE 
 
 Febraary Pitt himself showed a becoming spirit. Two years later 
 4, 1738. jjj ^{jg House of Commons he emphasised the dangerous effect 
 of Walpole's doctrine on any freedom of opinion in Parliament. 
 ' As the laws now stand,' he said, ' an old officer . . . may be 
 dismissed and reduced, perhaps, to a starving condition, at 
 the arbitrary will and pleasure, perhaps at the whim of a 
 minister ; so that by the present establishment of the army 
 the reward of a soldier seems not to depend upon the services 
 done to his country, but upon the service he does to those 
 who happen to be ministers at the time.' He was evidently 
 touched by the tokens of affection lavished on him by his 
 friends, and answers Berkeley, ' from the abundance of a 
 heart full of gratitude for the kind concern you take in my 
 situation,' that he and Lady Suffolk ' think a great deal too 
 highly of my talents ' — their friendship ' is the surest means 
 for me to acquire . . . and deserve the esteem of the world, 
 and attain in any degree the worth or talents you are willing 
 to suppose in me . . . though I should not be a little vain to 
 be the object of the hatred of a minister, hated even by those 
 who call themselves his friends.' He made no concealment of 
 this form of vanity. During the summer of 1736 he travelled 
 about the country in a one-horse chaise without a servant, as if 
 to emphasise the narrow straits to which he had been reduced, 
 and to appeal from a corrupt ministry to a generous people. 
 Wherever he went, it is related, he was received with acclama- 
 tion, partly no doubt due to the general discontent with the 
 ministry, which in some places manifested itself in riotous 
 outbreaks. Such an appeal to popular sentiment was then 
 almost unprecedented ; with Pitt it soon became a settled 
 principle to look beyond the House of Commons to the people 
 of England, not only for personal support but as the true 
 source of a national policy. 
 
 On his return in the autumn of 1736 he entered with zest 
 into the Prince's continued campaign of annoyance against 
 his parents. While the King was in Hanover, Frederick 
 quarrelled with his mother, because he was required to take 
 up his abode with her in the damp palace of Kensington. He 
 yielded finally with some grace in a letter, which, on account 
 
FREDERICK'S ALLOWANCE, 1737 69 
 
 of its terse vigour, Lord Hervey suspected to have been Pitt's ^'^ 
 composition. Next year a more serious question arose. The 
 fixed allowance which the Prince had demanded in 1734 had 
 never been granted, nor had any jointure been paid to the 
 Princess ; they both depended on the King's bounty for an 
 income of £50,000 a year, which might be withdrawn at any 
 time. On the advice of Pitt and his other young men, Frederick 
 determined that a motion for a fixed allowance of £100,000 
 out of the Civil List should be suddenly brought forward in 
 ParUament. The scheme was elaborated with great secrecy. 
 Almost every member of the Opposition, and even shifty 
 members of the ministerial party, like Dodington, were sounded, 
 before a hint was allowed to reach the ear of Walpole, or of 
 the King and Queen. So admirably was the secret kept that 
 the Ministry heard of the plan only a few days before the motion 
 was to be sprung upon the House. An attempt at compromise 
 made at the eleventh hour failed, and on February 22 Pulteney 
 proposed the humble address to the King. The Prince of 
 Wales's friends had a strong argument in the facts that the 
 King had a larger Civil List than his father, but allowed his 
 son only half what he had himself received as Prince of Wales ; 
 and that Frederick's expenditure, including an ostentatiously 
 large allowance for charity, exceeded his income by £21,000. 
 Walpole escaped defeat by a majority of only thirty, which 
 would have been a minority had not Wyndham and forty- 
 four Tories abstained from voting. In this engagement Pitt 
 had his first practical lesson in political organisation ; he also 
 made another speech, not reported, which added to his growing February 
 reputation and to his friends' enthusiasm for his abilities. ^^' ^'^^'^• 
 So unmeasured were they in their praises, and in their com- 
 parisons of him to the greatest orators of antiquity, that The 
 Gazetteer, a ministerial paper, attacked him as a young man 
 of little consequence, who ' has the vanity to put himself in 
 the place of Tully,' and warned him that, though he might 
 have Tully's natural imperfections, a long neck and a slender 
 body, he had not his advantages of a sonorous voice and just 
 action. The Craftsman, in prophetic vein, retorted to this 
 attack by comparing him with Demosthenes : 
 
70 PITT AND WALPOLE 
 
 Let us consider the great Demosthenes returning from the bar, 
 discontented at his own performances, meeting such an adviser as 
 this, persuading him, already too much prejudiced against his own 
 imperfections, not to attempt to establish his reputation, as an 
 orator, for which he was no way designed by nature. Such advice, 
 in the situation he was in, might perhaps have had its fatal effect ; 
 but what, Athenians, would you have lost in this case ? Not 
 only the reputation of producing one of the brightest orators that 
 ever lived, but the boldest defender of your liberties, and the greatest 
 check to the Macedonian monarch : a man of whom Philip, by his 
 own confession, stood more in awe than of all the Grecian states 
 he fought to oppress. 
 
 Such newspaper controversies increased Pitt's importance, 
 and the Prince of Wales shortly afterwards found room in 
 his household for so rising a politician. In the summer of 
 
 1737, after his act of insolence and folly in withdrawing his 
 wife from his parents' roof on the eve of her delivery, Frederick 
 had been forbidden the Court ; and several of his household 
 resigned. He immediately appointed Lyttelton his private 
 secretary and Pitt a groom of the bedchamber. The French 
 ambassador thought Pitt prominent enough to inform his 
 Court of the appointment and to regard it as an indication 
 that no reconcihation between the Prince and his father was 
 likely.i Pitt's salary was £400 a year — no doubt a welcome 
 addition to his small private income of about £300, and his 
 duties about the Prince's person were light. Attendances 
 at Chfden were the most onerous, and it is recorded that he 
 accompanied the Prince on a state visit to Bath in November, 
 
 1738, and was himself admitted to the freedom of the town 
 he was afterwards to represent. But the office was useful to 
 him in other ways : it secured him a recognised position in the 
 ranks of the Opposition and gave him a voice in their plans 
 against the Government, which were generally concocted under 
 the Prince's eye. In accepting the post he had no intention of 
 
 February Surrendering his independence. In a speech made soon after- 
 
 4, 1738. ^ards in answer to a colleague in the Prince's household, ' I 
 
 think it my honour to be a " placeman," ' he boasted ; ' but,' 
 
 he added, ' I should not think it, if I were not as free to give 
 
 ' Aff. Mr. Angl. Corr. Pol. 397, f. 138. 
 
IN FREDERICK'S SERVICE, 1737 71 
 
 my opinion upon any question that happens in this House, 
 as I was before I had any such place.' 
 
 The Queen's death in November 1737 removed the Princess 
 bitterest critic from his father's Court and produced a lull in 
 the domestic squabbles, and Pitt was not again called upon 
 to bring forward in Parliament his master's sordid disputes 
 with the King. Foreign policy, a subject more worthy of~ 
 his genius,- once more forced itself upon pubhc attention. 
 The war of the PoHsh Succession, of which Pitt had seen the 
 beginning at Luneville, had come to an end in October 1735. 
 Walpole boasted that although 50,000 men had fallen in 
 battle during a single year of that war, not one of these was 
 an Englishman. Nevertheless the death-blow had been given 
 to his constant policy of alliance with the two branches of the 
 House of Bourbon. In 1733 the first Family Compact, with 
 provisions directed against England, had been signed by the 
 Kings of France and Spain, and by the Treaty of Vienna in 1735 
 the allied Bourbon Powers had gained the Hon's share of advan- 
 tage. To France had fallen the reversion of Lorraine ; to Don 
 Carlos, the King of Spain's son, the kingdom of Naples and 
 Sicily ; while the Emperor, England's traditional ally, had to rest 
 content with empty promises to observe the Pragmatic Sanction. 
 Since that time the enmity of Spain, only held in check by the 
 Spanish Queen's hope of English assistance in carving out 
 appanages in Italy for her sons, had shown itself more openly 
 and found a ready excuse in the chronic disputes about trade - 
 with the English merchants. These disputes arose from the j 
 English attempts to poach on the preserve of Spain's vast Ameri- 
 can possessions. The Spanish monarchy had always claimed 
 the right of excluding foreign traders from her colonies in the 
 West Indies and South America, butinJUS had granted two 
 privileges for the benefit of th e English Sout h Sea Company), 
 (1) trafficking in slaves and (2) sending an annual ship withj 
 merchandise for sale in the Spanish colonies. The Company) 
 derived little satisfaction from these concessions, which on ' 
 various pretexts were being constantly interfered with. On 
 the other hand the ^nglish_freebooters of commerce refused 
 to respect the Spanish attempts af exclusion. They carried on 
 
72 PITT AND WALPOLE 
 
 their contraband trade with the Spanish Main, principally from 
 Jamaica, a veritable smugglers' nest, underselling the legitimate 
 Spanish traders as well as the South Sea Company and bringing 
 much wealth to their English ports of origin, Bristol and 
 London. In reprisal the Spanish governors gave Hcences 
 indiscriminately to Spanish privateers to act as guarda-costas — 
 licences interpreted with the utmost latitude by the privateering 
 captains. They claimed a right of search, even on the high 
 seas, over all vessels anywhere within reach of Spanish posses- 
 sions, and carried them off to the nearest Spanish port. A 
 few Spanish coins or products of South America in the cargo, 
 which might well have been brought from the EngHsh islands, 
 were there treated as sufficient justification by the prize courts 
 for the adjudication of such vessels to the captor. Nor were 
 trade losses the worst grievance. Reports of English sailors 
 being loaded with chains and cast into filthy Spanish dungeons 
 recalled tales of the Inquisition in Ehzabeth's time. The 
 most notorious story of outrage was that of Robert Jenkins, 
 master of the sloop Rebecca, who declared that his ship was 
 attacked by Spanish guarda-costas, that his ear was cut off, 
 and that he was told to carry it to his King George. 
 
 In spite of these difficulties the South Sea trade, both above- 
 board and illegitimate, went on merrily — proof enough for 
 Walpole of its value ; and he made a cardinal point in his 
 .foreign poUcy of maintaining it at all costs. For this trade 
 he had always been willing to go great lengths in humour- 
 ing Spain and the Spanish Queen's Itahan ambitions, and 
 regarded the close alliance with France from 1717 to 1733 
 as chiefly valuable for the hold it gave us on Spain. But 
 the Family Compact and the Treaty of Vienna had taught 
 France and Spain they could obtain all they needed without 
 England. Spain no longer feared offending her commercial 
 rival, and the French traders were becoming restive under 
 England's commercial superiority. Though both Fleury and 
 Walpole grew more and more peace-loving with "agir they 
 found it more and more difficult to curb three exasperated 
 nations. And as the arrogance of Spain grew, so did the in- 
 dignation of the English merchants. Petitions from London, 
 
SPANISH GRIEVANCES 73; 
 
 Bristol, Liverpool, Lancaster, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Dun- 
 fermline, Dundee, Montrose, Stirling, Lauder, Cupar, and 
 Kinghorn, even from Kingston in Jamaica and from the 
 trustees for the new settlement of Georgia, came pouring in 
 to swell the clamour against Spain. The great days of Ehzabeth 
 and Cromwell were recalled in countless broadsheets and news- 
 papers to stir up a languid generation against the hereditary 
 foe. Johnson himself added fuel to the flame of resent- 
 ment against ' Oppression's insolence ' when, in his poem 
 ' London,' he sought for some ' peaceful desert yet unclaimed 
 by Spain.' 
 
 In this dispute the English with their smuggling pro- 
 pensities were technically as much, if not more, to blame than I 
 the Spaniards. But it was something more than a technical 
 dispute about treaty rights. Spain claimed more territory in 
 South America and the West Indies than she could really 
 control or supply with European goods, and, ever since the days 
 of Queen Elizabeth, English seafaring men had been protesting 
 against this dog-in-the-manger policy and fighting for the 
 privilege of doing what Spain could not. Treaty concessions 
 had been gradually wrung from Spain, principally in Charles II's 
 and Queen Anne's reigns, but she always attempted to 
 compensate herself for concessions by exacting exaggerated 
 penalties for every small infraction of a treaty and by winking 
 at the excesses of guarda-costas, whom the Madrid government 
 was neither able nor willing to control. For nearly twenty 
 years Walpole had been attempting to arrive at a satisfactory 
 settlement, but always in vain. Spain had become a nuisance 
 in the West Indies from her weakness and inability to maintain 
 her rights by direct methods ; and the merchants of London 
 and Bristol, who had long been piUng up grievances against 
 her, were now set on obtaining more satisfactory conditions, 
 and the abolition of the vexatious right of search, if need be 
 by force of arms. The Opposition certainly encouraged the \ 
 popular indignation against Walpole for what seemed to be 
 dilatory methods, but they did not manufacture it ; and Pitt, 
 who now for the first time took a leading part on a great 
 question, was naturally moved to adopt their view not only 
 
74 PITT AND WALPOLE 
 
 ,y by his hatred of Walpole and his methods, but also by his 
 hereditary associations with the mercantile classes.^ 
 
 Before taking in hand the serious business of the session 
 of 1738 the Opposition had their usual fling at the standing 
 army, which they moved to reduce from 17,704 to 12,000. 
 A proposal to weaken the army on the eve of a war which 
 they were themselves urging on the nation seemed inconsistent, 
 but they defended their action on the ground that the struggle 
 with Spain would be purely naval, and that a standing army 
 was likely to become an engine of domestic despotism. The 
 days of the Stuarts were recalled, and the House was reminded 
 that some special emergency was the sole justification for its 
 existence. Even Walpole had to defend the demand for the 
 larger number of troops by having recourse to the danger 
 from ' his old friend, the Pretender,' and by pointing to the 
 unsettled state of the country. This argument only confirmed 
 his opponents in their belief that Walpole wanted the army for 
 purposes of oppression. When Sir Thomas Saunderson compared 
 the Opposition to the fat man in the crowd, who muttered 
 February at the pressure caused chiefly by his own bulk, Pitt rose to 
 4, 1738. administer a solemn reproof to those who made merry on a 
 subject ' of so much importance with respect to our constitution 
 and the happiness of our country,' and turned the laugh against 
 Sir Thomas by retorting that the army, or rather those who 
 kept it up, should more properly be compared to the fat man, 
 since its size was the principal cause of muttering and dis- 
 content. ' Eemove the army or but a considerable part of it, 
 and the discontents complained of will cease . . . the loading 
 of our people with an additional expense of £200,000 or £300,000 
 is in my opinion an affair of too affecting a nature to be treated 
 in a ludicrous manner.' 
 
 Next month the petitions against Spanish outrages came 
 pouring in. The House spent several days in Committee 
 hearing evidence from aggrieved merchants and sea-captains. 
 Among others Eobert Jenkins came up, and after displaying 
 
 ' For the disputes with Spain, see H. W. Temperley on ' The War of 
 Jenkins's Ear ' in B. Hist. Soc. Trans. 3rd Ser. vol. iii ; Keitz. British Imperialism 
 in ISth Century, and articles on ' The Foreign Policy of Walpole ' in Engl. Hist. 
 Rev. vols. XV, xvi. 
 
JENKINS'S EAR, 1738 75 
 
 the famous ear,^ carefully preserved in a bottle since 1731, 
 he declared that at the time of the outrage he had ' com- 
 mitted his soul to his God, and his cause to his country ' — words 
 which, as Pulteney said, would raise volunteers at the mere 
 name of Jenkins. On March 28, in a House of 468 (stated 
 to have been the largest attendance since the Union), the 
 evidence was concluded and summed up for the petitioners 
 by Murray, then one of the leading counsel below the bar. 
 Pulteney thereupon rose, and in one of his best speeches 
 proposed six resolutions declaring our complaints and our 
 rights. Walpole, on the ground that too much particularity 
 might hinder further negotiation, proposed to substitute 
 one resolution declaring our right of navigating unhindered 
 to our own colonies, and requiring redress of outrages inflicted 
 by Spain. Pitt, speaking late in the debate after Pulteney March 28, 
 and Wyndham, pointed out that a similar proposal had been 
 made eight years before and had produced nothing but a series 
 of useless solicitations for eight years : doubtless Walpole's 
 resolution would have exactly the same effect — solicitations for 
 eight more years equally without result.^ Nevertheless, Walpole 
 carried his proposal by a majority of forty-seven. 
 
 This debate in the House encouraged the warlike party \ 
 in the Cabinet, represented by Newcastle, who had accurately \ 
 gauged public opinion in England. In May Admiral Haddock | 
 was sent with a squadron to cruise in the Mediterranean, a 
 regiment was shipped to Georgia, where there was a boundary 
 dispute with Spain, and peremptory despatches were presented 
 by Keene to the Spanish Court. The Spaniards began feverish 
 preparations, repairing their fortifications and overhauling 
 their ships. War seemed inevitable. But Haddock's fleet 
 was more imposing than the Spanish defences, and Spain 
 offered a financial accommodation, which Walpole welcomed 
 eagerly. During the autumn negotiations were carried on \ 
 between the two Courts, resulting in^e Ctovention of the | 
 
 ' His own ear or somebody else's. Doubt has been cast on Jenkins's 
 story, and it was asserted that, if his wig had been removed, both his ears would 
 have been found intact. 
 
 ^ The only account of Pitt's speech is in Aff. Mr. Angl. Corr. Pol. 398, 
 f. 23. 
 
76 PITT AND WALPOLE 
 
 ' Pardo on January 3-14, 1739, which Walpole boasted was 
 one of his greatest services to the State, and Haddock was 
 recalled. But on examination the merits of the Convention 
 were not so apparent to the country. Spain promised to pay 
 a sum of £95,000 in satisfaction of claims for outrages on 
 British shipping, an amount ludicrously inadequate to the 
 estimate of over £340,000 made of British losses ; and even that 
 £95,000, it was soon discovered, was to be whittled down to 
 £27,000 on account of a claim against the South Sea Company, 
 which they did not admit. The separate disputes between 
 the King of Spain and the South Sea Company were left un- 
 determined, while the root of all the mercantile community's 
 grievances — the Spanish claim to an unrestricted right of search 
 even on the high seas — was left to stand over to a further 
 treaty. As soon as these terms were made known they were 
 received with mingled protest and derision. The agitation 
 throughout the country was redoubled : caricatures and satires 
 against Walpole and his Convention stirred the people to fury ; 
 and the West India merchants and the City of London again 
 presented petitions to Parliament, denouncing the sacrifice of 
 national interest and honour. 
 
 Pitt now for the first time learned his power of giving voice 
 March 8, to the people. In the memorable debate of March 8, 1739, in 
 1739. which twenty-five speakers discussed the Convention till one 
 o'clock in the morning, he made his first great speech under the 
 eyes of his master, the Prince of Wales, who remained through 
 the whole sitting. Old Horace Walpole, Sir Eobert's brother, 
 had moved an address to the King, thanking him for the Con- 
 vention, and in the course of his speech had dwelt on the 
 weakness of England, unbefriended abroad, and oppressed by 
 excessive taxation at home. 
 
 Here [cried Pitt] is all the confidence, tare is tte conscious sense of 
 the greatest service that ever was done to this country : — to be 
 complicating questions ; to be lumping sanction and approbation 
 like a commisary's accompt ; to be covering and taking sanctuary 
 in the Royal name, instead of meeting openly and standing fairly 
 the direct judgment and sentence of Parliament upon this Convention. 
 ... We are told of our low, unallied condition abroad : to what is 
 
CONVENTION OF PARDO, 1739 77 
 
 ttat condition due if not to your policy of giving kingdoms to Spain, 
 and all to briQg her back again to ttat great branch of the House 
 of Bourbon, which is now thrown out to you with so much terror. . . . 
 Is this any longer a nation ? or what is an English Parliament if, 
 with more ships in your harbours than in all the navies of Europe, 
 with above two millions of people in your American colonies, you 
 will bear to hear of the expediency of receiving from Spain an 
 insecure, unsatisfactory, dishonoui-able Convention? You tell us 
 that our right of sailing unmolested by Spanish searchers will be 
 submitted to plenipotentiaries : the mere submission of such a 
 right is an indignity. . . . Does a man in Spain reason that those 
 pretensions must be regulated to the satisfaction and honour of 
 England ? No, Sir ; they conclude, and with reason, from the high 
 spirit of their administration, from the superiority with which they 
 have so long treated you, that this reference must end, as it has 
 begun, to their honour and advantage. . . . This Convention, Sir, 
 I think from my soul, is nothing but a stipulation for national 
 ignomiuy ; an Ulusory expedient, to baffle the resentment of the 
 nation ; a truce without a suspension of hostiUties on the part of 
 Spain ; on the part of England a suspension : . . . a surrender of 
 the rights and trade of England to the mercy of plenipotentiaries, 
 and, in this infinitely highest and sacred point — ^future security, not 
 only inadequate, but directly repugnant to the resolutions of Parlia- 
 ment and the gracious promise from the Throne. The complaints 
 of your despairing merchants — the voice of England — has condemned 
 it. Be the guUt of it upon the head of the adviser. God forbid that 
 this Committee should share the guilt by approving it ! ^ 
 
 This speech, as may well be believed, created a great stir 
 in the ministerial camp. Of the twenty-five speeches delivered 
 in the debate Sir Eobert took notes of only three, of which 
 this was one ; and two of his young men, Fox and Liddell, 
 made a special attack upon Pitt for his abuse of the Ministry ; 
 Winnington, a Lord of the Treasury, remarked that Pitt's were 
 ' the prettyest words and the worst language he had ever 
 heard.' The Opposition were correspondingly dehghted, and 
 
 ^ The general accuracy of this report from Chandler's Debates is confirmed 
 by the notes of the speech taken by Sir Robert Walpole during the debate. 
 John Selwyn wrote that ' Mr. Pitt spoke very well, but very abusively, and 
 provoked Mr. Henry Fox and Sir Henry Liddell both to answer him.' Pitt's 
 abuse — no doubt in the passage contrasting Spain's Ministry with our own — ^is 
 confirmed by Orlebar. 
 
78 PITT AND WALPOLE 
 
 the Prince of Wales kissed Pitt in the House.' The 
 importance of the speech hes in its direct appeal to the 
 people from the Ministry and the House of Commons — a 
 new note in parliamentary debates, and the most insistent 
 in all Pitt's oratory and statesmanship. Hardly less im- 
 portant and characteristic is the recollection that there were 
 men in America ready to help us fight our battles. In 
 the division the Ministry carried their address by 260 to 232, 
 and after an almost equally long debate on Eeport next day 
 by 244 to 214. Thereupon Wyndham declared his intention 
 of seceding from Parliament with most of the minority. He 
 accused the House of being a faction uninfluenced by the 
 universal opinion outside against the Convention, an opinion 
 much strengthened by the calculations made at the time that 
 no less than 234 members had places under the Court, with 
 salaries amounting in the aggregate to over £200,000. But 
 secession was no more help to a cause then than it has ever 
 been, and Walpole openly rejoiced at the ease with which he 
 carried his measures for the rest of the session. 
 
 Neither the Convention nor Walpole's success in Parliament 
 were of any avail in averting war. The people of England were 
 set upon it ; in the Ministry Newcastle was almost as bellicose 
 from fear of losing his place ; and the King of Spain made 
 matters no easier for Walpole by refusing all accommodation 
 with the South Sea Company. Finally, on October 19, 1739, 
 the heralds solemnly proclaimed war at Temple Bar and the 
 Mansion House, amidst the frantic applause of the citizens 
 and the ringing of church bells. The Prince of Wales himself 
 joined the procession and testified to his share in the enthusi- 
 asm by stopping outside the Eose Tavern and drinking to the 
 
 ' These details are to be found in another letter of J. Selwyn printed in 
 Coxe'B Sir R. Walpole, iii, 607, printed as of March 17, 1739-40. This letter haa 
 hitherto been taken to refer to the debate on Wager's first bill for manning the 
 fleet, introduced in 1739-40, but it obviously refers to 1738-9 and to the debate 
 of March 8, 1738-9. Mention is made in the letter of the secession of the Opposi- 
 tion (see text above), and a call of the House ordered for March 19, which was 
 avoided by an adjournment from March 10 to the 20th. From the Journals it 
 appears that these events happened in March 1738-9, not in 1739-40. Selwyn 
 probably wrote the date 1739 (in the New Style), and Coxe must have thought 
 this was intended for the Old Style, 1739-40. 
 
WAR WITH SPAIN, 1739 79 
 
 success of the British arms. No war was ever entered upon so 
 light-heartedly by the people of this country. 
 
 Tte most leading politicians [in Burke's words], the finest orators, 
 and the greatest poets of the time were for it. . . . For that war 
 Pope sang his dying notes. For that war Johnson, in more energetic 
 strains, employed the voice of his early genius. For that war 
 Glover distinguished himself in the way in which his merit was the 
 most natural and happy. The crowd readily followed the politicians 
 in the cry for a war which threatened little bloodshed, and which 
 promised victories that were attended with something more solid 
 than glory. 
 
 But though the war was in a sense, as Burke said, one of 
 plunder, it also touched deeper issues in the half-conscious 
 striving of the nation to free its trade from the foreign obstruc- 
 tion which was strangling it. And in perceiving this truth 
 Pitt and his friends saw deeper at the time than Burke half 
 a century later. 
 
 When Parhament met in November 1739 the Opposition 
 returned to their duty somewhat shamefacedly. But if they 
 had lost some credit by their secession, Walpole had lost 
 more by continuing in office to carry on a war of which 
 he thoroughly disapproved. The Opposition granted the sup- 
 plies without difficulty, but showed their distrust of Walpole 
 as a war minister by various motions directed against him. 
 They proposed an address, which was supported by Pitt, 
 that no peace should be made with Spain unless the right of 
 search were entirely abandoned. They picked holes in his 
 warUke measures so effectively that in several respects he was 
 constrained to modify or abandon them. An attempt was 
 made to weaken his majority by reducing the scandalous 
 number of placemen in the House of Commons, to which 
 attention had been pointedly drawn after the division on the 
 Spanish Convention, and was only defeated by a majority of 
 sixteen, in spite of a vigorous speech against it by Walpole 
 himself. Prom the reports of the debate it does not appear 
 whether Pitt spoke ; probably he did, for among his papers 
 is a draft of a speech obviously intended for this occasion. In it 
 he meets the objection, that a Place Bill had often before been 
 
8o PITT AND WALPOLE 
 
 brought in unsuccessfully, by recalling Livy's phrase about the 
 Samnites : ' adeo ne infeliciter quidem defensae libertatis 
 taedebat, et vinci quam non tentare victoriam malebant ' ; 
 and he has this striking phrase about corruption : ' it must cut 
 up Liberty by the root and poison the Fountain of Publick 
 security ; and who that has an EngUsh heart can ever be 
 weary of asserting Liberty ? ' ^ 
 
 Meanwhile the war went but ill for England. After twenty 
 years of peace the fleet, though imposing numerically, was 
 lamentably unready. The ships were undermanned, and a 
 large part of the time of Cabinet councils was devoted to 
 discussing methods of scraping together their proper com- 
 plements. Pressing, laying an embargo on merchant ships, 
 drafting regiments of foot into the sea-service, were each 
 rejected in turn. The garrison of Minorca, too, was far below 
 its proper strength, and half the officers were on leave in Eng- 
 land for over a year after war had begun.^ The plans of attack 
 on Spain were equally futile. The only success attained 
 during the first year of the war was the easy capture of Porto 
 Bello by Admiral Vernon in December 1739, and that was 
 regarded almost as a rebuff to Walpole, since Vernon was a 
 prominent member of the Opposition. 
 
 You do me justice [writes Gower to Pitt] in thinking that no 
 one feels a more sincere joy than I do upon our honest Admiral's 
 glorious triumph over Sir Robert and Spain ; I most heartily wish 
 he may continue to persecute them with victories until he has 
 completely revenged all the injuries they have both done this most 
 abused, insulted Nation.' 
 
 The coast of Spain was supposed to be watched by Admirals 
 Haddock and Balchen ; but so ill equipped were their ships 
 and so contradictory their orders from home that the Spaniards 
 were able to sail without hindrance. In the second half of 1740 
 two grand expeditions were projected against the Spanish 
 possessions in the West Indies. Vernon, to whom large 
 reinforcements in ships and men were dispatched, was to 
 
 ^ Chatham MSS. 74. ' Add. MSS. 37934 (Windham Papers). 
 
 ' Chatham MSS. 33. 
 
PITT ON THE WAR, 1739 8i 
 
 attack Cartagena on the eastern coast of Central America, 
 and Anson was sent with a small squadron to round Cape 
 Horn and co-operate from the western side of the Isthmus 
 of Panama. Anson's ships had to be manned partly by- 
 Chelsea pensioners ; but in spite of all difficulties he circum- 
 navigated the globe, an achievement which ranks among the 
 proudest annals of the navy, though it had no serious effect 
 on the war. Vernon's attempt was more disastrous. He 
 was a vain blusterer, and quarrelled with General Wentworth, 
 the commander of the troops, like ' Csesar with Pompey,' 
 says Smollett. BQs fleet was ill-found, many of his captains 
 were ignorant of their business, and the dissensions of the 
 commanders took the heart out of all ranks. The attack 
 on Cartagena failed miserably, and the subsequent miseries 
 of the wounded and plague-stricken crews have been made 
 notorious by Smollett in ' Eoderick Eandom.' Pitt, whose 
 notes show that he studied carefully the details of this expedi- 
 tion, no doubt learned from them what to avoid when planning 
 expeditions for himself. 
 
 The Opposition had justification enough for attempting 
 to turn out so incompetent a government. But when the 
 attempt seemed most promising they received a heavy blow. 
 The death of Wyndham in June 1740 deprived them of their 
 best and most uncompromising leader, and left them a divided 
 party. Carteret, Pulteney and Sandys were becoming luke- 
 warm in Opposition, as Walpole's weakness seemed to offer the 
 prospect of an invitation to join the Ministry ; Carteret at any 
 rate was known to be in close communication with Newcastle 
 and Hardwicke.i On the other hand Boliagbroke from his 
 French retreat, and the old Duchess Sarah of Marlborough, 
 stimulated the young men of the party to an increasingly active 
 policy. The leader of this section in Parhament was Chester- 
 field, who saw clearly the need of a thorough change of men and 
 measures and of a new spirit in the councils of the nation. The 
 Duke of Argyll, Cobham, Lord Marchmont, Pope and Lyttelton 
 were all of the same mind, and Pitt, who was then much in 
 Chesterfield's confidence, was one of the foremost on this side. 
 
 ' Aff. Mir. Angl. Corr. Pol. 408, f. 264 (Bussy to Fleury, November 1740). 
 VOL. I. G 
 
82 PITT AND WALPOLE 
 
 Whatever may have been Walpole's merits in the past, Chester- 
 field and his friends were right in thinking the time had come, 
 for the good of the country, to drive him out of office, for he had 
 entirely lost control of his own Ministry and as a war minister 
 showed none of the aptitude which had made his long career 
 as a peace-maker illustrious. ' We ought to be very sorry to see 
 him defeated,' wrote the French envoy, ' for no minister could 
 suit us better. He makes war on his enemies at enormous cost 
 without hurting them, and is prodigal to his friends without 
 doing them any benefit.' ^ 
 
 The forward party of the Opposition had their way in the 
 November session which began in November 1740. On the Address Pitt 
 
 18. 1740. g^j^^ Lyttelton were ' very warm,' and Walpole answered them 
 January with equal warmth. In January, a motion that the in- 
 
 26. 1741. structions to Haddock should be produced, together with any 
 other papers that might throw light on the mismanagement 
 in the Mediterranean command and the escape of the Spanish 
 fleet, was opposed by Sir Eobert on the ground that it would 
 be a mere waste of time. 
 
 On the contrary, [retorted Pitt] our time cannot be more use- 
 fully employed, dui'ing a war, than in examining how it has been con- 
 ducted, and settling the degree of confidence that may be reposed in 
 those to whose care are entrusted our reputations, our fortunes, and 
 our lives. . . . We are now to examine whether it is probable that 
 we shall preserve our commerce and our independence, or whether 
 we are sinking into subjection to a foreign power. 
 
 The Opposition's transient victory in obtaining Haddock's in- 
 structions was soon thrown into the shade by their overwhelming 
 defeat in both Houses on the motion made on February 13, 1741, 
 for an address to the King to remove Sir Eobert Walpole from 
 his presence and councils for ever.^ The attack, which appears 
 to have been instigated by Bolingbroke, was feebly supported. 
 Many of the Tories and some of the Prince's household did not 
 vote, and the want of vigour noted in Carteret and Pulteney's 
 
 1 Aff. Etr. Angl Gorr. Pol. 414, f. 21. 
 
 2 The celebrated bet between Walpole and Pulteney as to the line 
 
 NiloonBoiresibij-Jf|pallesoere}-JPy 
 was made when Sandys gave notice of this motion. 
 
ATTACKS ON WALPOLE, 1740-1 83 
 
 speeches seems to have commiiiucated itself to most of the 
 Opposition speakers in both Houses. Although Walpole again 
 paid him the compliment of taking a note of his speech, Pitt February 
 was not at his best. According to Sir Eobert, ^^' ^^*^' - 
 
 Pitt observed in his emphatic language that during the administra- 
 tion that was the object of censure, at home debts were increased and 
 taxes multiplied and the sinking fund alienated ; abroad the system 
 of Europe was totally subverted, and at this awful moment, when 
 the greatest scene was opening to Europe that has ever occurred, 
 he who had lost the confidence of all mankind should not be per- 
 mitted to continue at the head of the King's government. 
 
 According to the more detailed account in Cobbett, he made 
 a sweeping attack on Walpole's past policy of alUance with the 
 Bourbon Powers, and made great play with the sacrifice of 
 Admiral Hosier's fleet to the worms in 1727 and of the admiral 
 himself and a large part of his crews to the poisonous climate 
 of Porto BeUo, then fresh in his hearers' minds through the 
 recent publication of Glover's ballad. The speech contained 
 too a curious anticipation of his future change of attitude 
 to the minister he was then attacking. ' I shall be ready,' 
 he said, ' to declare my approbation of integrity and wisdom, 
 though they should be found where I have long suspected 
 ignorance and corruption.' According to all accounts the 
 honours, not only of the majority but of eloquence, rested 
 with Walpole. As usual when he was at his best, his tone 
 was frankly cynical. One characteristic gibe at Pitt and his 
 young friends is recorded : ' A patriot. Sir ! Why, patriots 
 spring up Uke mushrooms ! I could raise fifty of them within 
 the four-and-twenty hours. I have raised many of them in 
 one night. It is but refusing to gratify an unreasonable 
 or insolent demand, and up starts a patriot.' ^ 
 
 ' Pitt's rough notes of this debate are preserved in Chatham M88. 74, 
 of which here are a few extracts : ' What has been the conduct of the war, &o. 
 ... To what but to the exorbitance of one man. ... If gentlemen are 
 convinced upon this experience of things that measures have been wise and 
 able, that the Plan, &c. But, Sir, if they think a load of debt perpetuated by 
 destructive schemes, a subversion. . . . What is the voice of the People ? is J 
 a lye that travels. Abhor Patriotism as long as he Uves.' A curious confirma- 
 tion of one of these phrases occurs in Bussy's report of the debate [Aff. Etr. 
 
 g2 
 
84 PITT AND WALPOLE 
 
 Walpole might raise patriots, but he could not suppress 
 
 March 10, this one by flouts or gibes. A few weeks later Pitt was once 
 
 ^'^*^- more in his most fiery mood, re-echoing the popular indignation 
 
 at an outrageous bill of the Government to secure the men who 
 
 were not forthcoming for the fleet, and calling the extra- 
 
 ' ordinary powers of inquisition and of pressing, which were to 
 
 be given to magistrates and constables, ' cruelties ... as are 
 
 yet unknown among the most savage nations ; such as slavery 
 
 has not yet borne, or tyranny invented ; such as cannot 
 
 be heard without resentment, nor thought of without horror.' 
 
 To prevent competition with the Eoyal Navy a clause was 
 
 proposed restrictiag the pay that might be offered in the 
 
 merchant service. This clause, Pitt remarked contemptuously, 
 
 may be considered with, less ardour and resentment, and fewer 
 emotions of zeal ; because, though not perhaps equally iniquitous, 
 it will do no harm ; for a law that can never be executed can never 
 be felt. That it will consume the manufacture of paper and swell 
 the Book of Statutes is all the good or hurt that can be hoped or 
 feared from a law like this : a law which fixes what is in its own 
 nature mutable, which prescribes rules to the seasons and limits 
 to the wind ; 
 
 but he warned Walpole and his brother that even ' those who 
 have only their own interest in view, will be afraid of adhering 
 to those leaders, however old and practised in expedients, 
 however strengthened by corruption, or elated with power, 
 who have no reason to hope for success from either virtue or 
 abihties.' Thereupon old Horace Walpole rose to reprove him 
 for ' formidable sounds and furious declamation, confident 
 assertions and lofty periods,' suggesting that his vehemence of 
 
 Angl. Corr. Pol. 411, f. 151). Lyttelton had said that puhUo rumour was a 
 sufficient ground for accusation, to which one of the Court party repUed : 
 ' You are yet young and don't know that pubUc rumour is a wandering he, 
 bom in London, sent to the provinces, and thence returned to London as an 
 instruction.' Pitt seems to have been taken by the phrase. In his second 
 speech for an inquiry on Sir Robert Walpole' s administration he used the phrase 
 ' Common fame is a sufficient ground for an inquisition at common law, and 
 for the same reason the general voice of England ought always to be looked 
 on as a sufficient ground for a parUamentary inquiry.' 
 
 The fiasco of the Opposition was satirised in a popular caricature of the 
 time entitled ' The Motion.' 
 
DUEL WITH H. WALPOLE, 1741 85 
 
 gesture, theatrical emotion and exaggerated expressions might 
 have been corrected had he conversed with ' such as have had 
 more opportunities of acquiring knowledge and more successful 
 methods of communicating their sentiments.' 
 
 Tte atrocious crime of being a young man — wHcli tbe bon. gentle- 
 man bas witb sucb spirit and decency cbarged upon me [retorts 
 Pitt witb ready impertinence] I sball neitber attempt to palbate 
 nor deny, but content myself witb wisbing tbat I may be one 
 of tbose whose follies may cease witb tbeir youtb, and not of tbat 
 number wbo are ignorant in spite of experience. Wbetber youtb 
 can be imputed to any man as a reproacb 1 will not assume tbe 
 province of determining. . . . Mucb more is be to be abborred wbo, 
 as be bas advanced in age, bas receded from virtue and becomes 
 more wicked witb less temptation ; wbo prostitutes bimself for 
 money wbicb be cannot enjoy, and spends tbe remains of bis Ufe 
 in tbe ruin of bis country. 
 
 The charge of acting a theatrical part he answered more 
 seriously, with a recollection, perhaps, of Sir Eobert's sneer: 
 
 I am at Uberty, Uke every otber man, to use my own language ; 
 and tbougb I may, perbaps, bave some ambition, yet ... if any man 
 sball, by cbarging me witb tbeatrioal bebaviour, imply tbat I utter 
 any sentiments but my own, I sball treat bim as a calumniator and 
 a villain. ... I sball, on sucb an occasion, without scruple trample 
 upon all tbose forms witb wbicb wealth and dignity entrench them- 
 selves ; nor sball anything but age restrain my resentment ; age 
 wbicb always brings one privilege, tbat of being msolent and super- 
 cilious without punishment. But witb regard to tbose whom I 
 bave offended . . . tbe beat tbat ofiended tbem is tbe ardour of con- 
 viction, and tbat zeal for tbe service of my country wbicb neither hope 
 nor fear sball influence me to suppress. I will not sit unconcerned 
 while my hberty is invaded nor look in silence upon pubhc robbery. 
 
 As he was expatiating on this topic, Winnington rose and 
 called him to order in violent terms. Pitt turned in a flash 
 on the new aggressor : 
 
 If this be to preserve order, there is no danger of indecency from 
 tbe most hcentious tongue. . . . Order may sometimes be broken 
 by passion or inadvertency, but will hardly be re-estabbsbed by a 
 monitor like this, wbo cannot govern bis own passion whilst he is 
 restraining tbe impetuosity of otbers. . . . 
 
86 y PITT AND WALPOLE 
 
 '^^ This sjirited. bout gives the first taste on record of Pitt's 
 quaUty in the rapier play of quick retort and passionate invec- 
 tive. There is a touch of cruelty, perhaps, in this picture 
 
 '-0* the splendid young man with his proud mien and his rush 
 of eloquence thus confounding the pompous old diplomatist. 
 But, to do Pitt justice, it must be remembered that his 
 adversary was buttressed with all those forms vfith which 
 wealth and dignity entrench themselves and seemed fair 
 game after his stinging sneers at himself, unconnected 
 and fighting desperately for what he beheved to be justice 
 and liberty. After this fling at one of its most influential 
 members, the House soon came to recognise in Pitt the 
 master who could silence his opponents with a word or 
 scorch them with a look.^i 
 
 This is Pitt's last recorded speech in his first Parliament. 
 In six years he had become, if not the leader, at any rate 
 the most pertinacious and most dangerous of the Walpole- 
 baiters in the House of Commons. But eloquence and invec- 
 tive made no impression on the minister's docile band of 
 placemen, and Pitt took a sombre view of the state of 
 England : 
 
 The scene abroad is most gloomy [te wrote to Ctesterfield in 
 August 1741] ; wlietlier day is ever to break fortb again or destruc- 
 tion and darkness is finally to cover all — impiaque CBternam 
 meruerunt scBcula noctem — must soon be determined. ... I only 
 wish, in this great crisis, every man in England may awake. 
 
 Prance, then as powerful to appearance as at any previous 
 period, especially alarmed him, and he believed that ' by 
 her influence and her arms she means, to be sure, to undo all 
 Europe.' Yet, when he wrote these words, Walpgle, the chief 
 obstacle to a vigorous poUcy, was doomed. The general 
 election of May had been a great triumph for the Opposition. 
 Cornwall with its forty-four members had been won over by 
 the Prince of Wales, assisted by Pitt and his brother,^ and 
 
 ^ The actual words of Pitt's retort may have been adjusted by Johnson, 
 as he claimed, in his garret, but the dignity of his self-defence rings true, 
 and the sarcastic invective is in keeping with all his known speeches. 
 
 ' In Chatham M88. 83 is a bundle of papers referring to the two brothers' 
 help in the Cornish elections. 
 
FALL OF WALPOLE, 1742 87 
 
 through the apathy of the Duke of Newcastle, as well as by 
 the exertions of the other side, Walpole's majority had almost 
 vanished. In the new Parliament Pitt himself was again 
 nominated for Old Sarum and had as his fellow-member one 
 of his friends the Grenvilles, four of whom altogether found 
 seats. For two months of the session of 1742 Walpole, game 
 to the last, clung to office in spite of dwindling support or even 
 defeat. In a great debate on the Spanish war on Januar^21 
 he saved himself by a majority of only three votes,'^ and a 
 week later, being beaten on the Chippenham election petition, 
 he resigned. 
 
 The victory was more apparent than real, and the dreams 
 of the young men, Pitt, Lyttelton and Chesterfield, that 
 with Walpole's fall corruption and oppression would cease 
 and the arch-criminal be signally punished, were speedily 
 dispelled. The new Earl of Orford's influence was almost 
 as great as Sir Eobert Walpole's ; he became reconciled with 
 the Prince of Wales, had secret interviews with Carteret 
 and Pulteney within a few days of his resignation, and arranged 
 the new Ministry to suit his wishes. Pulteney called a great 
 meeting of the Opposition at the Fountain Tavern to talk over 
 the disposal of offices, but it was merely to throw dust in 
 their eyes, for everything had been settled behind their backs. 
 Wilmington, a nonentity, took the Treasury ; Pulteney com- 
 mitted poUtical suicide by accepting a peerage and declining 
 office ; Carteret, the new Secretary of State, had no desire 
 to take vindictive measures against the late Prime Minister ; 
 Sandys, the maker of motions, was silenced by the Exchequer ; 
 and the Prince of Wales was gratified by the of!er of Court 
 appointments to two of his household. An attempt was 
 even made to secure Waller, the nominal leader of the Young 
 
 ' It is not recorded whether Pitt spoke in this debate, but it is clear 
 that he intended to, from notes for a speech to be found among his 
 papers (Chatham M3S. 74). These notes, after 'Thanks for his Royal 
 care in the prosecution of the war agst. Spain ' and his ' Paternal concern for 
 the affairs of Europe,' dwell on the complaints of the merchants, on the vast 
 consequence of Leghorn to us, of our unallied condition, and of ministers 
 ' talking big when the fate of Europe and [...?] of other countries are in 
 suspense,' 
 
88 PITT AND WALPOLE 
 
 Patriots in the Commons,! but he refused to join without 
 knowing what the measures of the new Ministry were to be. 
 Walpole's chief object was to retain sufficient interest in the 
 Government to prevent the same fate being meted out to him 
 which he had contrived for Oxford and Boluigbroke. The 
 only men he feared and excluded were those who by their 
 energy and determination within the last few years had most 
 contributed to his fall — ^Argyll,^ Cobham and aU the Grenvilles, 
 Chesterfield, Lyttelton and Pitt. 
 
 The country was barely considered in these arrangements. 
 The stories, largely exaggerated, of Walpole's methods of cor- 
 ruption, retailed week by week in The Craftsman, the attacks 
 on his foreign poUcy, and the obvious failure of the Spanish 
 war, had produced their effect on the nation. Petitions flowed 
 into the House of Commons for inquiry into the charges so 
 freely made against him, and the poUticians who formerly had 
 never ceased abusing him as a rogue and traitor were called 
 upon by their constituents to make good their statements and 
 arraign him for his misdemeanours. No less than eighteen 
 counties and twenty-seven cities and boroughs sent up 
 instructions to their members, calling upon them to restore 
 triennial parliaments, limit placemen, and ' strictly inquire 
 into the conduct of those who have insulted the merchants, 
 sacrificed the trade, and prostituted the lionour of Great 
 Britain, that their punishment upon due conviction may be as 
 exemplary as their crimes are notorious.' But Walpole's friends 
 in the new Ministry were too numerous and under too much 
 obligation to him to contemplate taking serious notice of these 
 complaints of the people. It was left to the outcasts to press 
 for the inquiry demanded by the nation. Pitt and Lyttelton 
 at any rate were determined, in the words of one of Walpole's 
 
 ' Egmont MSS. 88 (February 12, 1742). There appears no solid ground for 
 the story told by Glover, and repeated on his authority by Coxe and Maoaulay, 
 that Lyttelton, Pitt and the GrenviUes offered terms to Walpole. Glover 
 is not very trustworthy, and the Prince of Wales, whom he quotes as his 
 authority, still less so. The Hagley MSS. are silent on the subject, and 
 all the evidence tends to disprove it. 
 
 ^ Argyll at first accepted the Board of Ordnance at the request of his 
 party, but, on finding the hollowness of the reconstruction, rejoined his old 
 friends. 
 
FIRST MOTION FOR INQUIRY, 1742 89 
 
 supporters, ' to blow up Carlton House, rather than not have 
 a chance to do more mischief.' 
 
 When, on March 9, 1742, Lord Limerick, one of the Young 
 Patriots, moved for an inquiry into Sir Eobert's administration 
 during the last twenty years, it was noticed that both Pulteney 
 and Sandys were absent, and that Sir John Barnard, who had 
 been a prominent antagonist of the late minister, did not 
 speak. Pulteney had a good reason for absence in the illness 
 of his daughter, but a hint was given to his friends by Carteret 
 that their absence would not be taken amiss. Nevertheless 
 the debate called forth some vigorous speeches, of which the 
 ablest and the most eloquent was Pitt's. Nettled by a request 
 of Pelham for no long harangues or flowers of rhetoric, he March 9, 
 retorted that ^'*2. 
 
 a man wio speaks from his heart and is siacerely afiected with the 
 subject he speaks on, as every honest man must be who speaks in 
 the cause of Ms country — such a man, I say, falls naturally into 
 expressions which may be called flowers of rhetoric, and therefore 
 deserves as httle to be charged with affectation as the most stupid 
 serjeant-at-law that ever spoke for half a guinea a fee. 
 
 A large portion of the speech was naturally taken up with 
 a criticism of Walpole's home and foreign policy. He passed 
 in review his tenderness to the South Sea directors in 1721, 
 the lavish and secret expenditure from the Civil List, the excise 
 scheme, encroachments on the sinking fund, and the large 
 army maintained in time of peace. He attacked his foreign 
 poUcy, especially his alienation from the Emperor since the 
 Treaty of Hanover of 1727, and his constant subservience to 
 the Bourbon Powers, Pitt's bugbear on the Continent. Com- 
 menting on Walpole's complacency at steering the country clear 
 through the war of the Polish Succession, ' It was not our 
 preparation,' he declared, ' that set bounds to the ambition 
 of France, but her getting all she wanted at that time for 
 herself, and all she desired for her allies.' The principle, too, 
 which he always upheld, of Parliament's unfettered right of 
 advice and inquiry, already found clear expression in his answer 
 to the objection that the proposed inquiry should not be 
 instituted, since no definite charges had been formulated : 
 
90 PITT AND WALPOLE 
 
 Sir, the very name given to tUs House of Parliament shows 
 the contrary ! We are called the Grand Inquest of the Nation, 
 and as such it is our duty to inquire into every step of public 
 management, either abroad or at home, in order to see that nothing 
 has been done amiss. 
 
 To another objection that an inquiry was inopportune at a 
 time of distress at home and abroad Pitt also had his answer : 
 
 According to this way of arguing, a minister that has plundered and 
 betrayed his coimtry, and fears being called to an account in Parha- 
 ment, has nothing to do but to involve his country in a dangerous 
 war or some other distress, in order to prevent an inquiry into his 
 conduct. . . . Thus, hke the most villainous of all thieves, after he 
 has plundered the house, he has nothing to do but to set it ia a 
 flame that he may escape in the confusion. . . . But, say these 
 gentlemen, if you found yourself upon a precipice, woidd you stand 
 to inquire how you was led there, before you considered how to get 
 o£E ? No, Sir ; but if a guide had led me there, I should very 
 probably be provoked to throw him over, before I thought of anything 
 else ; at least, I am sure I should not trust to the same guide for 
 bringing me off. 
 
 Even Parliament was not the ultimate tribunal, unless it 
 was a true mirror of the nation ; and, because he believed 
 it was not, Pitt pleaded even then for a more representative 
 system in words that find an echo in some of his latest 
 speeches : 
 
 The murmurs of the people against the conduct of the Adminis- 
 tration are now as general and as loud as ever they were upon any 
 occasion ; but . . . gentlemen who are in Administration or in 
 any oflSce under it, can rarely know the voice of the people. The 
 voice of this House was formerly, I shall grant, and always ought to 
 be, the voice of the people. If new parliaments were more frequent, 
 and few placemen and no pensioners admitted, it would be so still ; 
 but if long parhaments should prevail, not only at elections, but 
 in this House, the voice of this House wiU generally be very different 
 from — nay, often directly contrary to — the voice of the people. 
 
 A consciousness that he was himself the mouthpiece of this 
 voice of the people gave him the right to demand Walpole's 
 punishment in stern and uncompromising language : 
 
 Let it be ever so severe, it will be but a small atonement to his 
 
PITT ON WALPOLE INQUIRY, 1742 91 
 
 country for what is past. But his impunity will be the source 
 of many future miseries to Europe, as well as his native country. 
 Let us be as merciful as we will, as any man can reasonably desire, 
 when we come to pronounce sentence ; but sentence we must pro- 
 nounce, and for this purpose we must inquire, unless we are 
 resolved to sacrifice our own liberties and the liberties of Europe 
 to the preservation of one guilty man. 
 
 On the division, the motion was defeated by only two votes. 
 A fortnight later Pulteney, aware that his credit would be 
 ruined for ever if he failed to avert the suspicion that he was 
 privy to this miscarriage, encouraged Lord Limerick to renew 
 his motion, confining the examination to ten years instead of 
 twenty. In this debate Pulteney himself made a hard-hitting 
 speech, and young Horace Walpole defended his father with 
 skill and modesty, drawing from Pitt the artful compliment 
 that ' his speech must have made an impression on the House. March 23, 
 But if it is becoming in him to remember that he is the child 1742. 
 of the accused, it also behoves the House to remember that 
 we are the children of our country.' Otherwise Pitt's speech 
 was little more than a re-capitulation of the arguments he had 
 used on March 9. 
 
 On this occasion Walpole's adversaries carried the motion 
 for inquiry by a majority of seven. The House immediately , 
 proceeded to elect the secret committee of twenty-one, each 
 member handing in his own list of names. The work of 
 scrutinising these lists occupied a committee uninterruptedly 
 from 5 p.m. on March 26 to 4 p.m. on March 27. At the head 
 of the list came Sir John St. Aubyn with 518 votes ; the most 
 notable among the other members were Sandys, Lord Quaren- 
 don, Sir John Barnard, Lord Limerick and Lord Cornbury ; 
 Pitt came almost last of those elected, with 259 votes. For the 
 last two places four tied at 258, of whom the Speaker selected 
 two members stated to be Walpole's only friends among the 
 twenty-one. The committee set to work without delay, 
 and continued their labours during April and May. These i / 
 were much impeded by the steady refusal of the Treasury 
 officials to answer questions which might incriminate 
 themselves or the minister. Scrope, Secretary of the 
 
92 PITT AND WALPOLE 
 
 'treasury, a testy old gentleman who had fought in"^ 
 Monmouth's Eebellion, so highly resented a peremptory inquiry 
 from Pitt that he was hardly restrained from challenging him 
 to a duel. Finally, the committee asked the'' House to pass 
 a Bill of Indemnity covering witnesses who should incriminate 
 -themselves. It passed the Commons, but, largely by Carteret's 
 influence, was rejected in the Lords. The committee did, 
 however, elicit the total amounts of Secret Service money 
 issued during the last ten years of Walpole's Administra- 
 tion. These were so high as to go far to justify the accusations 
 of corruption. The average amount expended had risen from 
 £45,900 a year between 1707 and 1720 to £145,390 between 
 1730 and 1740, and during the year of the Excise Bill, as Pitt 
 specially noted,i it had stood at the large' sum of £165,112. 
 But the committee was cut short by the prorogation before it 
 could investigate fully the purposes to which these amounts 
 were devoted, and although WaEer, supported by Pitt, pressed 
 for its revival in the next session, the motion was rejected by 
 a large majority. 
 
 Pitt was highly indignant at the way in which the inquiry 
 was shelved, recurring to it several times in succeeding 
 sessions ; but he made no more attacks on his first great 
 adversary. Some things about Walpole's administration he 
 never forgave, and thirteen years later recalled that during this 
 December period ' this nation was brought to its distressed condition by 
 2, 1755. ^jjg French being allowed to make their establishments on the 
 Mississippi and the Great Lakes, to acquire Lorraine, and to 
 found two Bourbon lines in Italy.' Nor did he ever withdraw 
 his criticisms on Walpole's use of corruption, his cynical 
 disregard of public opinion, and his contempt of patriotic 
 sentiment, so alien to his own generous belief in the ready 
 response his countrymen would make to an appeal for union 
 and public spirit. But as years went by the feelings of the 
 two men softened to one another. In 1743 Or ford wrote to 
 his disciple Pelham, ' Pitt is thought able and formidable ; 
 try him or show him.' Pitt came to see that in many respects 
 
 ' Chatham M88. 81, which ooutaina notes taken by Pitt during the 
 proceedings of the committee. 
 
PITT'S VIEWS OF WALPOLE 93 
 
 the cautious old statesman had been in the right, and 
 avowed his changes of opinion with his accustomed frankness, 
 thereby exposing himself to the absurd charge of insincerity 
 and faction in his former attacks. Speaking of the claim, January 
 declared by Walpole to be impracticable, to abolish the ^'^' ^''^^• 
 Spaniards' right of search even on their own coasts, he said : 
 
 I once was an advocate for that claim ; it was when I was 
 very young and sanguine. But now I am ten years older ; I 1 
 have considered public aSairs more coolly and am convinced that 
 the claim of no search respectiag British vessels near the coast | 
 of Spanish America can never be obtained, unless Spain were so 
 reduced as to consent to any terms her conqueror might think proper 
 to impose. 
 
 His quixotic confession about his change of view on the ■ 
 excise scheme has already been noted. Little wonder that at 
 first the zealous young patriot could see only the obvious faults 
 of a system which was outworn and resting mainly on corrup- 
 tion ; as he grew older he was better able to appreciate the 
 great work of Walpole's first ten years in the consolidation of j 
 the Protestant dynasty. No doubt the troubled days of 1744, 
 when he, Orford and the King kept their heads better than 
 anyone in England, brought him to see that Walpole's fear of 
 the Pretender was not imaginary, and that for all his cynicism 
 he had a true love of his country. By 1755 he was able to 
 glory in the reflection that Walpole, ' a truly English minister, 
 thought well of me and died at peace with me,' and on another December 
 occasion he boasted : 2; 1765. 
 
 I constantly opposed him as a minister and yet after he resigned 
 I always spoke weU of him as a man. Gentlemen may laugh 
 if they please, but I can perceive no joke in what I have said. 
 It is only a proof that my opposition did not proceed from any 
 personal resentment, nor my praise from any desire to flatter. 
 
CHAPTEE IV 
 
 PITT AND CAETBRET 
 
 Bpoyrav p.ev avrhv Kal ^ffrpd-jTretv tire STjfj.7jyopeiTi, ^eiyhv 56 Kepavfhv iv 
 yXdaari (f>€piiv — ^Pltjtakch, Pericles} 
 
 After the Queen's death in 1737 Pitt's sister Ann had lost her 
 employment at Court, and the two had kept house together 
 while he was in London for the session. She soon, however, 
 showed symptoms of the restless disposition which became 
 more marked with age. In 1741 she went off to Spa and 
 settled for some time in France with friends recommended by 
 Lady Suffolk. William not only approved, but expressed 
 strong resentment to Lady Suffolk against a meddlesome lady 
 who ventured to question the wisdom of his sister's conduct. 
 To Lord Chesterfield he also wrote approving of this expedition, 
 though the whimsical artificiality of his comparison between 
 her journey and current political topics suggests that he may 
 have felt her loss more than he cared to say. 
 
 I am extremely obliged to your Lordship [he writes on August 6, \ 
 1741] for the account you are so good as to give me of my sister's 
 journey to France. I am perfectly satisfied with this m.easure which 
 as her minister you transmit to me. ... I like the state y"^ Lordship 
 gives me of her foreign affairs as much as I dishke that of another 
 great Power ; first she knows where she is going and what she is 
 going about, the recovery of what is essentially necessary to her, 
 her health : in the next place she is in good company strengthened 
 
 ' ' He thundered and lightened as he spoke, and his tongue was armed with 
 the thunderbolt.' — (This is quoted of Pitt in The English Pericles, a pamphlet 
 of 1759.) 
 
 94 
 
ANN'S JOURNEYS, 1741-2 95 
 
 with proper alliances whict will be both agreeable and usefull to her 
 in her designs ; and lastly, far from burdening her People with 
 extraordinary votes for credit she will be able to live very well 
 within her Civil list, ... I wish half so much could be said for all 
 foreign journeys.^ 
 
 But when, in the following year, Ann conceived the idea of 
 setting up for herself alone in Paris, he objected strongly. 
 To Lady Suffolk, who was consulted by both of them on the 
 proposal, he writes that he told Ann, 
 
 that I could not see the scheme proposed to her in any hght that let 
 me think it fit for her ; that I thought Paris the most improper place 
 for a single woman to live at, nor could I Uke her settling abroad 
 anywhere, if her health did not make it necessary ; that I made 
 no doubt but the society my lady Bolingbroke's protection (which 
 was the best in France ^) must place her in, would be, to all the world 
 on that side the water, the most reputable advantageous thing 
 imaginable ; but that the world here would not know (and perhaps 
 part of it not choose to know) anything more of her situation than 
 that she was living at Paris, a single woman. 
 
 Although Ann gave up the idea of a solitary establishment 
 in Paris, Pitt must have felt deeply the separation from his 
 dearest Nanny, a separation which seems to have perman- 
 ently weakened the tenderness of their early relations. This 
 
 ' Chatham MSB. 6. It is interesting to trace the development of this 
 stilted language — still more characteristic of Pitt's later correspondence. A draft 
 of another letter to Chesterfield of the same year (1741) shows by its erasures 
 and corrections the extraordinary care with which Pitt would sometimes elabor- 
 ate even the most unimportant letters. The draft runs as follows : ' Your 
 lordship wUl have performed your revolutions round the Provinces and 
 
 {Jvisiblel 
 that you are now\ sees- / again at Paris and"! 
 win bo . in your moridian of ploacuro a t j Versailles .^gaiir where we 
 
 {really talk of you ) 
 aro ac. much otruoli - [ . bo - ^rit h- \ 
 
 hear \ you aro yoaUy look'd at ) as astronomers would id» of / a «ew 
 f of uncommon magnitude ) J appeared ^ 
 
 \ Star 'not ' Jino^^Ti that had j just \ diocovcrcd /in that hemisphere. . . . 
 
 feet to descend \ j of tho oolootial bodioB ' 
 
 My Lord \ I- will not maho /from this high-flown \ metaphor anyfiwthor .. . . ' 
 Even for relatively trifling afEairs Pitt took infinite pains* 
 * Lady Bolingbroke was a Frenchwoman. 
 
96 PITT AND CARTERET 
 
 \ interruption of their happy union was a serious loss to him at a 
 i time of special strain, when a man stands most in need of 
 something more than poUtical friendships. 
 
 Pitt himself had now taken lodgings in Cork Street, Bur- 
 lington Gardens, but as usual spent most of the summer and 
 autumn visiting friends in the country. He had his turn of 
 attendance on the Prince of Wales at Clifden, but found 
 a coolness there owing to his opposition to Carteret, stiU a 
 favourite with the Prince. He was invited to the Queens- 
 berrys at Amesbury, and stayed with Lord Cobham at 
 Stowe, with Lady Suffolk at Marble Hill, with Lord Cornbury, 
 and at Hagley to meet Lyttelton and his newly wedded 
 bride, Lucy Fortescue. At several of these houses he 
 found William Murray, with whom he had his last 
 intimate talks ; soon afterwards their ways parted, for 
 Murray joined the Ministry and began his life-long antagonism 
 to Pitt. 
 
 Meanwhile the Spanish war had sunk into the background, 
 partly owing to the half-hearted way in which it was waged, 
 partly owing to the more exciting scene unrolled upon the 
 Continent since the death of Frederick William of Prussia in 
 May and of the Emperor Charles VI in October 1740. Charles, 
 foreseeing the troubles which would befall his daughter and 
 heir, Maria Theresa, had spent a considerable proportion of his 
 long reign in obtaining the adhesion of the Powers to the 
 Pragmatic Sanction, which guaranteed her the succession to the 
 heredita]^ dominions of the Hapsburgs, Austria, the Tyrol, 
 Silesia, Transylvania, Bohemia, Hungary, the Milanese in the 
 north of Italy, and the Low Countries. AU the Powers, by 
 solemn treaties,^ adhered to the Pragmatic Sanction ; but the 
 breath had hardly left Charles's body before the emptiness 
 of most of these promises was manifest. Frederic II, within 
 two months of the Emperor's death, invaded and occupied 
 Silesia, to part of which his house had ancient claims. Belle- 
 
 ' Spain in April 1725 ; EuBsia in August 1726 ; Prussia in December 1728 ; 
 England in March 1731 ; the Empire (including Hanover) in February 
 1732; Holland in February 1732; Denmark in May 1732 ; France in November 
 1738. 
 
WAR OF AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION BEGINS, 1740 97 
 
 isle and other hot-heads at the French Court brushed aside 
 old Cardinal Fleury's feeble scruples about breaking a solemn en- 
 gagement, and persuaded Louis XV that a suitable method of 
 reviving the glories of the Grand Si^cle would be to attack the 
 young princess while she was stiU weak and unsupported. Louis 
 came to an understanding with Frederic ; the Elector of Bavaria 
 was encouraged by the promise of French aid to assert his claims 
 to parts of Bohemia and Austria ; and BelUsle was sent on a 
 gorgeous embassy to impress the German princelings with 
 French magnificence and persuade them to choose the Elector 
 of Bavaria as Emperor, instead of Maria Theresa's husband. 
 The Queen of Spain was not one to neglect so favourable an 
 opportunity of providing for her own brood. Don Carlos, her 
 eldest son, was already established in the two Sicilies, but the 
 second, Don Philip, was without an appanage. A claim 
 was accordingly made on part of the unlucky Hapsburgs' 
 dominions in North Italy and a Spanish army dispatched to 
 enforce it. Maria Theresa, attacked by hungry freebooters 
 on all sides, appealed with success to the chivalry of her dis- 
 contented Hungarian subjects and called for aid from Holland, , 
 Russia and England. Holland, though sympathetic, would 
 not budge. Russia was willing enough to help but was crippled 
 for the first years of the struggle by a Swedish war and the 
 dynastic troubles, which followed the death of the Empress 
 Anne. 
 
 England alone remained true to her engagements. The 
 hard fate of the young Queen of Hungary aroused a chivalrous 
 feeling in the people, and the aggressive spirit of the Bour- 
 bon Powers confirmed the politicians' affection for the ' Old 
 System ' of alliance with the Hapsburgs. Unfortunately, these 
 right inclinations were not guided by any clear perception of 
 our proper function in a continental war or by any consistent 
 poUcy. Old Horace Walpole's criticism on his brother's 
 system at the beginning of the war applies to EngHsh pohcy 
 throughout : ' We have no great plan in view, or sysUme 
 suivi ; we act by fits and starts ; we will have this and that ; 
 another shall not have anything without giving us what does 
 not belong to us ; . . . there are no two powers of a mind, 
 
 VOL. I. H 
 
gS PITT AND CARTERET 
 
 about measures to be taken to save England.' ^ Instead of 
 carrying on a vigorous campaign against Prance and Spain 
 at sea, where we were strong, and encouraging the Queen of 
 Hungary by timely concessions to create a powerful confederacy 
 in Germany against France, we frittered away our resources, 
 sending useless little armies of our own to the Continent and 
 paying large subsidies to hire half-hearted mercenaries. 
 Walpole began this system in 1741 by a subsidy of £300,000 to 
 Maria Theresa, and a promise to hire 12,000 Danes and Hessians 
 for her, while he encouraged her to resist Frederic of Prussia to 
 the utmost. Then, as soon as Prance became menacing, he per- 
 suaded her, too late, to make a temporary truce with Frederic. 
 The French had already captured Prague and were threaten- 
 ing Vienna when Carteret took over the direction of foreign 
 affairs. Among the statesmen of the eighteenth century 
 Carteret's personality is one of the most engaging. Frank 
 and jovial, he never showed a trace of vindictiveness even 
 to his bitterest opponents. From Oxford, according to his 
 friend Swift, ' with a singularity scarce to be justified, he 
 carried away more Greek, Latin, and philosophy than pro- 
 perly became a person of his rank.' This love of the classics 
 he kept to the last, and solaced his dying moments by 
 quoting to an under-secretary, who brought him the Treaty 
 of Paris to sign, the rolling lines of Sarpedon's speech in the 
 ' Hiad.' He had a greater knowledge of continental politics 
 than any Englishman of his time ; he could express himself 
 in most foreign languages, and in his own was an accompUshed 
 orator. He was also an eminently courageous man. ' As 
 
 ^ The same sentiment was more flippantly expressed by Hanbury Williams 
 in his ballad on the year 1743 : 
 
 ' Who is there but the Lord above 
 That knoweth what this nation's doing; 
 Whether the war goes on with Spain, 
 In which so many Britons fell ; 
 And what our fleets do on the main. 
 The Lord, and only he, can tell. 
 
 The Lord knows how our army '11 fare, 
 We 're governed by the Lord knows who ; 
 Our King is gone the Lord knows where. 
 And the Lord knows what we shall do.' 
 
CARTERET'S CHARACTER 99 
 
 I have courage enough,' he thanked God, ' to risque in a good 
 cause my natural life; I am much less solicitous about my 
 political life, which is all my enemies can take from me ' ; 
 but he would have done better for himself and his country 
 had he taken more thought of his political life, if by that he 
 meant the confidence of his countrymen. ' What is it to me,' 
 he once said, ' who is a judge or a bishop ? It is my business 
 to make kings and emperors, and to maintain the balance 
 of Europe.' This spirit would, as Chesterfield said, have 
 enabled him to become a Richelieu in France, but with a 
 parhamentary government would not do. Twenty years 
 earlier his bad judgment in paying court to the younger instead 
 of the older mistress of George I had lost him his post of 
 Secretary of State. And age had not improved his judgment. 
 Secure in the favour of George II, who was pleased and flattered 
 by his knowledge of German pohtics and the German language, 
 Carteret now made the mistake of despising his fellow- ministers, 
 to whom he displayed ' an obstinate and offensive silence,' 
 often leaving them ' in entire ignorance . . . both with respect 
 to the operations of the war, and the sources from whence they 
 arose ; and to any negotiations that may have been carrying 
 either for peace or war.' ' Vigorous he undoubtedly was, 
 but with little method in his vigour, making treaties or 
 conducting warUke operations without any clear plan of action 
 or consideration of details. His main idea, like Pitt's, was 
 aversion to France. In words reproducing the very spirit of 
 the younger man's letter to Chesterfield in 1741, 2 he declared in 
 1743 that the sole issue in foreign affairs was, ' Will you submit 
 to France or not ? I will always traverse the views of France 
 in place and out of place ; for France wiU ruin this nation 
 if it can.' But these words, unlike Pitt's, were not fruitful 
 in action, for his success in humbUng France was slight. Again 
 like Pitt he rejected the word ' impossible ' from his vocabu- 
 lary, but was less fortunate in excluding it from his practice- 
 
 ' He was reported to have said of Pelham : ' he was only chief clerk to Sir 
 Robert Walpole. Why should he expect to be more under me ... he did 
 his drudgery and he shall do mine.' {Egmont MSS. vol. 88 ; January 6, 1743-4.) 
 * See above, p. 86. 
 
 h2 
 
100 PITT AND CARTERET 
 
 In spite, therefore, of all his charm and accomplishments he 
 remained to the end little more than a type of the dilettante 
 statesman so common in our history. Such men try many 
 methods of attaining the desired results without any certainty 
 of the goal to which these methods wiU lead them. They often 
 succeed after a fashion if they are given time. Carteret was 
 unlucky in never having had enough time. At this crisis his 
 very understanding of German pohtics proved his undoing, 
 for instead of simplifying the issue it encouraged him to plunge 
 the country irrevocably into the mazes of continental 
 complications. 
 
 In the course of 1742 Carteret displayed vigour and resource 
 in marked contrast to Walpole's lethargic methods. He 
 promptly raised the Queen of Hungary's subsidy from £300,000 
 to £500,000, told the French ambassador the King would allow 
 no diminution of the Hapsburg dominions, and tried to form 
 a great German confederacy to expel the French from the 
 Empire. He even went over to Holland himself for a week to 
 arouse the Dutch to action. At first aU seemed to promise 
 well. In June, after Frederic's victory at Chotusitz in Bohemia, 
 Maria Theresa was induced, chiefly by Carteret's mediation, 
 to sign the Treaty of Breslau with Prussia. The French were 
 hard pressed in Prague, and Bavaria was invaded by the 
 Austrian armies. In Italy Maria Theresa was temporarily 
 relieved of one enemy by an English squadron under Martin, 
 who in August appeared in the Bay of Naples and, watch 
 in hand, gave Don Carlos half an hour to decide whether he 
 would withdraw his troops from North Italy or have his capital 
 bombarded. Don Carlos yielded, but never forgave England, 
 as Pitt had cause to know eighteen years later, when Carlos 
 succeeded to the throne of Spain. But, so far as England was 
 concerned, Carteret's measures were a failure. He planned a 
 great campaign in the Low Countries against France, and 
 sent oyer 16,000 English troops to join with 6000 Hessians and 
 16,000 Hanoverians. These he hired from George II as Elector 
 without the consent of Parliament. Lord Stair, the fiery 
 veteran of seventy placed in command, proposed to march on 
 Dunkirk or even Paris, but was held back for want of the 
 
ENGLAND LOYAL TO MARIA THERESA loi 
 
 Dutch troops, which, though promised to Carteret, were never 
 dispatched. The army consequently spent the autumn in 
 Ghent, ' idle, unemployed, and quarrelling with the inhabitants,' 
 the Hanoverians on English pay and doing nothing. 
 
 The hiring of these Hanoverian troops, far more than the 
 idleness of the army during the campaign of 1742, brought on 
 Carteret unmeasured obloquy. ' The Ministry,' wrote Edward 
 Montagu, ' have got theinselves more enemies in the short 
 time they have been in, than Lord Orford in his long reign, for 
 they are ruining the country faster than ever he did, and this 
 infamous job of the Hanoverian troops, it's thought was what 
 he never would give way to.' The Enghsh of the eighteenth 
 century had a tendency to savage national antipathies far more 
 marked than to-day, when the population of this kingdom has 
 vastly increased and the bounds of the Empire embrace almost 
 every quarter of the globe. These antipathies were manifested 
 at different times against the French, the Scots, and the Jews, 
 but never perhaps more strongly than against Hanover during 
 the reigns of the first two Hanoverian kings. This prejudice, 
 however unreasonable, is intelligible. Neither George I nor 
 his son concealed their disUke of a kingdom where they were 
 ridiculed or at best tolerated, and their devotion to an electorate 
 where they were understood and venerated. ' There are kings 
 enough in England,' fretfully exclaimed George II ; 'I am 
 nothing there ; I am old and want rest, and should only be 
 plagued and teased there about that d d House of Com- 
 mons. ' ^ Accordingly they went to Hanover as often as possible, 
 regardless of the state of business in England, and at great 
 inconvenience to the English ministers. This inconvenience 
 might have been borne had it not been suspected that English 
 interests abroad were habitually sacrificed to those of Hanover, 
 and at no time more so than when the King was in his own 
 electorate away from the control of the aforesaid House of 
 Commons. The very general belief in England that our 
 national interests had been subordinated to those of Hanover 
 found utterance at this time in a celebrated pamphlet, ' The 
 case of the Hanover Forces in the pay of Great Britain,' which 
 » Add. MS3. 32857, f. 553. 
 
102 PITT AND CARTERET 
 
 was probably written by Chesterfield and Waller, but is some- 
 times attributed to Pitt, and certainly represents his views. 
 In this pamphlet the superiority of France, the Hapsburgs' 
 weakness and our own impotence were all ascribed to Walpole's 
 system of alliance with the Bourbons, of which the chief motive 
 was found in the quarrels of the electorate with the Emperor. 
 In the present conjuncture the writers admitted our obhgation 
 to support the Queen of Hungary with subsidies and auxiliary 
 troops, but protested against our taking a direct part in the 
 continental war that did not concern us ; the Low Countries, 
 in which alone our merchants and our allies the Dutch were 
 vitally interested, were not threatened by French operations 
 in Bohemia. Least of all should we hire Hanoverian troops. 
 In the previous year Hanover had shufiled off her own obliga- 
 tions to Maria Theresa by signing a treaty of neutrahty with 
 France. If Hanover desired to fulfil her engagement to 
 guarantee the Pragmatic Sanction, let her do so at her own 
 expense, not at ours.' On Walpole's policy Pitt and his friends 
 were unjust. The acquisition of Bremen and Verden by the 
 electorate and some obscure quarrels with the Emperor about 
 Mecklenburg were not the reason of Walpole's devotion to the 
 French alliance, but a well-founded belief that England needed 
 rest for the consolidation of the Protestant dynasty. Against 
 Carteret the charges had more substance. Being anxious 
 to secure the favour of a sovereign who looked on the affairs 
 of the Empire as the only subject of serious interest to mankind, 
 he forgot that England was primarily a maritime, not a conti- 
 tinental, power. In the war of the Austrian Succession he lost 
 all interest in the national war with Spain and plunged Ught- 
 heartedly into the European struggles. 
 
 Pitt had not reached the clear conception of British policy 
 that he afterwards attained : he was still in the critical rather 
 than the constructive stage. But his criticisms touched vital 
 issues. He was constantly asking himself and his countrymen 
 what they were aiming at ; what they were fighting for ; and 
 
 ' Hanbury Williams's profane wit once more supplies an indication of the 
 popular feeling. A sufficient taste of his Old England's Te Deum may be given 
 by the line : ' Vouchsafe, King, to keep us this year without thy Hano- 
 verians." 
 
THE CAS5S OF THE HANOVER TROOPS 103 
 
 refused to take jargon about the ' old system ' for an answer. 
 On one conclusion he was clear — that if we were to fight, we 
 should fight with all our might for ourselves instead of trusting 
 to Hanoverian or other mercenaries. When a minister of 
 the Chancellor's eminence defended the employment of 
 Hanoverians on the ground that ' to hire foreigners of whatever 
 country, only to save the blood of Englishmen, is in my opinion 
 an instance of preference which ought to produce rather 
 acknowledgments of gratitude than sallies of indignation,' 1 
 it was indeed high time for a Pitt to raise his voice in protest. 
 While groping for the light he uttered many sentiments in 
 his impulsive way which his maturer judgment did not confirm ; 
 but he never cared greatly for verbal consistency and never 
 hesitated afterwards to admit his errors. Later he frankly 
 stated his early obligations to Carteret's knowledge of state- 
 craft, but never recanted the savage phUippies he gave vent to 
 at this time against the ' desperate rhodomontading minister. 
 He objected to Carteret's absorption in purely continental policy, / 
 to his ill-digested schemes, to the narrow basis of his adminis- ( 
 tration, and to his want of confidence in the English people, \ 
 who were dragged blindly behind his car instead of marching 1 
 joyfully at the call of a trusting and trusted leader. Ever_J 
 since Carteret's first parleyings with Walpole's Ministry in 
 1738 Pitt had mistrusted him. In a letter of advice to the 
 Prince of Wales, written when there was some talk of 
 reconciliation with the King, Pitt had told him ' to resolve 
 to set quite stUl,' and above all not to trust himself to Carteret, 
 who was always chopping and changing to suit his own interest 
 and passion. ^ This advice had not been taken, consequently 
 Pitt, in his growings opposition to Carteret, found himself 
 as much at variance with the Prince of Wales as with the King. 
 But thanks to the reputation he had acquired by his attacks 
 on Walpole he was now strong enough to stand by himself. 
 In the session which opened in November 1742, the Boy 
 Patriots were nominally under Waller, but ' Pitt,' says Glover, 
 ' the most distinguished among the younger sort, and by 
 
 ^ Harris, HardwicJce, ii, 38. 
 
 * The draft of this letter is in Chatham MSS. 74. 
 
104 PITT AND CARTERET 
 
 his pompous and sarcastical oratory reputed an excellent 
 orator, took the lead ' ; Philip Yorke, too, the Chancellor's 
 son, calls him ' the most popular speaker in the House of 
 Commons and at the head of his party.' This impression 
 November was Confirmed by his speech on the Address, which his friend 
 ' ^^'^' Grenville likened to that of ten thousand angels, and the 
 cooler French agent declared to be distinguished by eloquence 
 and knowledge in a debate otherwise tumultuous and ill 
 informed.i 
 
 A few days later he had the first of many encounters 
 with ' the English Cicero,' Murray, who had disowned all his 
 old connections with Pitt, Lyttelton, and the Grenvilles and had 
 accepted from Carteret the post of Solicitor-General for the 
 December express purpose of standing up to Pitt. ^ On December 7, 
 '' ' on the motion for maintaining the English army in Flanders, 
 Murray made his maiden speech both as minister and as 
 member, and gained great applause by his attack on what 
 he called the factious inconsistency of the Opposition in 
 demanding a vigorous policy and then turning on the 
 minister who gave it. Pitt, ' the new Demosthenes,' rose 
 to reply amid the hushed expectation of the House of 
 Commons, then as now delighted at the prospect of a personal 
 encounter. The House was not disappointed. Pitt spoke 
 in his best manner. He used all Murray's arguments and 
 turned them against him. The inconsistency, he retorted, was 
 not in the Opposition but in ministers who were now engaged 
 on an aggressive policy on their own account, whereas in the 
 previous session all they had asked for was a provision to 
 support the Queen of Hungary with money and auxiliary 
 troops. Pitt's triumph was immediate. 
 
 The one [said a fellow-member] spoke like a pleader, and could not 
 divest himself of a certain appearance of having been employed by 
 
 ' Aff. Etr. Angl. Corr. Pol. 416, f. 60. 
 i ^ Murray had married in 1738 Lady Elizabeth Finoh, daughter of Lord 
 
 Winchilsea, who was one of Carteret's few personal supporters in the Ministry, 
 and he was probably chosen by Carteret for this reason as well as for his ability. 
 He proved disloyal to his patron as he had been to his friends, an in the 
 following year made several revelations of Cabinet secrets to the leaders of the 
 Opposition. 
 
PITT CROSSES SWORDS WITH MURRAY, 1742 105 
 
 others. The other spoke like a gentleman, like a statesman, who 
 felt what he said, and possessed the strongest desire of conveying 
 that feeling to others, for their own interest and that of their country. 
 Murray gains your attention by the perspicuity of his arguments 
 and the elegance of his diction. Pitt commands your attention and 
 respect hy the nobleness, the greatness of his sentiments, the \ /' 
 strength and energy of his expression, and the certainty you are in 
 of his always rising to a greater elevation both of thought and style. \ 
 For this talent he possesses beyond any speaker I ever heard — of j 
 never falling from the beginning to the end of his speech, either in , 
 thought or in expression. And, as in this session he has begun to \ 
 speak like a man of business, as well as an orator, he wiH in all ' 
 probability be, or rather at present is, allowed to make as great an 
 appearance as ever man did in that House. . . . I think him sincerely^ .- 
 the most finished character I ever knew. 
 
 Oswald, the writer of this passage, adds that Murray, after 
 this first defeat by Pitt, never opened his lips on the same 
 subject for the rest of the year. Murray was always a timorous 
 creature. ~~ 
 
 During the rest of the session 1742-3 Pitt thundered against February 
 the useless army in Flanders and the Hanoverian troops. 2*» ^'^*^- 
 He had another bout with old Horace Walpole, who accused 
 him of ' inciting the dregs of society to insult their superiors,' 
 and he made a telling point against Carteret's ill-considered 
 policy by producing a letter of Frederic II to show that any 
 army we sent into the Empire would have to reckon with him 
 as well as with France. He even attacked the King in a December 
 great speech of December 10 on the pay of the Hanover troops. ^^' l''*^- 
 
 * Neither justice nor policy [he began] required us to engage in the 
 quarrels of the Continent : . . . the confidence of the people is abused 
 by making unnecessary alliances, they are then pillaged to provide the 
 subsidies. Let us be better husbands of the people's money and then 
 show OUT gratitude for the confidence they repose in us. . . . 
 We are already tired of seeing a large idle army here. Will it profit 
 US more that it is doing nothing on the Continent ? We are told 
 the Dutch would join us, but they say that was never their intention. 
 Now to remedy this deficiency we have taken Hanoverian troops.* ^ 
 
 * In the Magazin des Nomdks Anglaises of December 29, 1742, published 
 at the Hague, this speech of Pitt's is given at length and no other speech in 
 the debate is reported. The reports in this sheet are interesting as they profess 
 to be sent direct from London and indeed are the only reports published at the 
 
io6 PITT AND CARTERET 
 
 How will it telp us to hire these troops to eat and sleep ? I will 
 readily allow that we should inviolably observe our treaties and 
 observe them though every other nation should disregard them; 
 that we should show an example of fidelity to mankind and stand 
 firm though we should stand alone in the practice ; yet is Hanover 
 to be prevented from sending her quota to the Queen of Hungary 
 because we hire all her available troops ? For it is not to be imagined 
 that his Majesty has more or less regard to justice as King of Great 
 Britain than as Elector of Hanover ; or that he would not have sent 
 his proportion of troops to an Austrian army, had not the tempta- 
 tion of greater profit been industriously laid before him. . . . But 
 why should the Elector of Hanover exert his hberahty at the expense 
 of Great Britain ? It is now too apparent that this great, this 
 powerful, this formidable kingdom is considered only as a province 
 to a despicable electorate. . . . We need only look at the instances of 
 partiality which have been shown ; the yearly visits that have been 
 made to that delightful country ... all the sums that have been 
 spent to aggrandize and enrich it. 
 
 He concluded with a solemn adjuration to the House to re- 
 member ' the duty of the representatives of the people . . . 
 and to show that, however the interest of Hanover has been 
 preferred by the ministers, the Parliament pays no regard but 
 to that of Great Britain.' 
 
 This speech and others like it in succeeding years were httle 
 calculated to allay George II's growing aversion to Pitt. Nor 
 for the moment did they avail to shake the position of Carteret, 
 who, strong in his master's confidence, was still able to impose 
 his will on his colleagues. In the House of Lords he defended 
 his pohcy with vigour, and, contrary to expectation, had open 
 support even from the Duke of Newcastle for his Hanoverian 
 measures. In the ensuing campaign a transient success 
 seemed for a while to justify his policy. 
 
 In the spring of 1743 the aUied army under Stair was at 
 last put in motion. One French army under the Due de 
 BrogHe was in great straits in Bavaria, and another of 60,000 
 under the Due de Noailles was ordered to cross the 
 
 time. The reports in the London and Gentleman's Magazines were generally 
 published over a year after the speeches were delivered. A few copies of the 
 Magazin are in Aff. Etr. Paris. The passage within the marks * ... * 
 is taken from the Magazin. 
 
DETTINGEN, 1743 107 
 
 Ehine and go to his assistance. Stair's plan was to cut off 
 Noailles and then close in on Broglie. Leaving his winter 
 quarters at Ghent he marched up the Ehine to Coblenz, 
 where he crossed over to the right bank and took up a position 
 at Aschaffenburg on the Main, opposite Noailles. The state 
 of his army was not satisfactory. The English troops had 
 constant bickerings with the Hanoverians ; the Hessians 
 refused to fight on the side opposed to the Bavarian Emperor ; 
 and the Dutch had not sent their promised contingent. In 
 June the King, his second son, the Duke of Cumberland, and 
 Carteret joined the army at Aschaffenburg ; but, though 
 the Kiug was able to restore some measure of discipline and 
 harmony between the Enghsh and Hanoverians, a lack of 
 supplies forced him to retreat to the magazines at Hanau, 
 sixteen miles north of Aschaffenburg. On June 27, 1743, at 
 Dettingen, midway on his march, the King found a strongly 
 posted detachment under Grammont sent round by Noailles to 
 waylay him. The allied army would infalUbly have been des- 
 troyed had Grammont trusted to the strength of his position, 
 but he advanced too soon on to ground favourable to his adver- 
 saries.i On seeing the advance of the French, George II, ] ^ 
 the last King of England to appear in the fighting line, had all/ 
 his martial instiucts aroused. When the Due d' Arenberg begged ' 
 him not to expose himself to danger, he replied, ' What do 
 you think I came here for ? To be a poltroon ? ' Discarding 
 his horse, which had become unmanageable, he stepped forward 
 at the head of the English and Hanoverian foot and, sword 
 in hand, met the onslaught of the French cavalry. Some of 
 the English cavalry, including Pitt's old dragoon regiment, 
 did not show to great advantage on this day, but the English 
 and Austrian infantry and some Hanoverian regiments of 
 foot behaved with the utmost gallantry. After a short engage- 
 ment the French were routed and driven headlong into the 
 river with the loss of over five thousand men. Carteret, who 
 
 ' The French dispositions at Dettingen may be compared with those of the 
 Boers at Sanna's Post in the South African War. De Wet in his donga corre- 
 sponds to Grammont, and the Boers at Thabanchu to Noailles at Aschaflfenburg, 
 and Broadwood's force, taken between the two forces, to George 11' s. But De 
 Wet had more patience than Grammont. 
 
io8 PITT AND CARTERET 
 
 had been sitting in his coach and six by the roadside, 
 immediately scribbled off a triumphant note announcing the 
 victory to his colleagues. But it was not followed up. 
 December ' Instead of pursuing the enemy,' said Pitt in the following 
 ^' ^'*^" session, ' we ourselves ran away in the night time, and in such 
 haste that we left all our wounded to the care of the enemy, 
 who had likewise the honour of burying our dead as well 
 as their own.' 
 
 Dettingen, though it increased the King's popularity, gave 
 point to all Pitt's and his friends' criticisms of the war. For 
 what national purpose was an English army wandering about 
 the Spessart Wald and fighting two French armies in the centre 
 of Germany when we were nominally at peace with France ? 
 After this quixotic adventure Carteret, in spite of Stair's 
 protests, kept the army idle at Hanau for the rest of the cam- 
 paign, while he contrived fantastic schemes of alliance against 
 France, accompanied with promises of English subsidies. By 
 the convention of Hanau he offered the Bavarian Emperor the 
 I restoration of his dominions and a subsidy on condition he 
 abandoned the French alliance ; but this agreement was never 
 ratified, because Maria Theresa was not inclined to give up her 
 conquests, and Carteret's colleagues refused to pay the subsidy .^ 
 By the Treaty of Worms he gained the King of Sardinia as 
 an ally for Maria Theresa in North Italy at a cost to England 
 of a £200,000 subsidy and the promise of the Enghsh fleet's 
 support in the Mediterranean ; as a result Frederic of Prussia 
 at once took alarm, and began fresh intrigues against Maria 
 Theresa, while the Bourbon Powers cemented their alliance 
 more closely in the second Family Compact of October 1743. 
 Carteret rarely condescended to explain the reasons for his 
 intricate negotiations, but his idea in the treaties of Hanau 
 and Worms appears to have been to secure peace in Ger- 
 
 ' Pitt and his friends thought favourably of this treaty, which seemed to 
 promise a relief to Maria Theresa, and they poured much unmerited obloquy 
 on Carteret for its breakdown. It appears from Marohmont's diary that it 
 became known only a year later in England that Carteret's colleagues — ^not 
 Carteret himself — ^had refused to ratify the treaty. It was characteristic of Car- 
 teret that he was either too proud or too careless to trouble himself about 
 setting the facts ia their true light. 
 
CARTERET'S TREATIES, 1743 109 
 
 many and concentrate the efforts of the maritime powers 
 on France and Spain. Unfortunately he took too little 
 account of Frederic, who was the real arbiter of peace 
 in Germany, and had failed to secure the co-operation 
 of the Dutch, then regarded as necessary allies against 
 France. 
 
 In the meantime, while he was breezUy negotiating treaties 
 on the Continent, of which he deigned to inform his colleagues 
 only after they had been' signed, a formidable opposition was 
 springing up against him in England. The national exulta- 
 tion at the first news of Dettingen and of the King's personal 
 bravery was soon tempered by later intelligence from English 
 officers at headquarters. It was reported with truth that 
 on the day of the battle the English Guards had been put 
 under the command of the Hanoverian general, Uten, who had 
 kept them with the Hanoverian Guards on a wooded hill safe 
 out of reach of the fighting ; that the advice of English generals 
 was put aside for that of Hanoverians ; and that the King 
 had gone into action wearing the Hanoverian colours. The 
 army's long inaction and the neglect of Stair's proposal to 
 strike a blow, which might have annihilated Noailles's retreat- 
 ing army, added fuel to the discontent against the King and 
 Carteret. The first serious check to the masterful Secretary 
 came in July 1743, on the death of Wilmington, the nonentity 
 at the head of the Treasury. Carteret was anxious for his 
 old friend Pulteney, now Lord Bath, to succeed him ; but 
 Lord Orford, still keenly observant of politics from his retreat 
 at Houghton, advised the King to choose Henry Pelham, the 
 Duke of Newcastle's brother ; and his advice was followed. 
 Pelham, described as ' a moderate man, who pleased by as- 
 suming no airs of superiority,' was an able financier and one 
 eminently quaUfied to conciliate opposition. Without Car- 
 teret's brilliance, of which the country was already surfeited, 
 he could be trusted to conduct affairs with safety. He remams 
 a shadowy figure in our history, yet deserves some remem- 
 brance as the first minister to appreciate and have dealings with 
 the terrible Mr. Pitt. 
 
 On the advice of his mentor, Lord Orford, who urged him 
 
no PITT AND CARTERET 
 
 ,/to gain strength by obtaining recruits from the Cobham 
 squadron, Pelham entered into communication with the 
 Opposition. Cobham and Waller would have no dealings with 
 a ministry containing Carteret, but Pitt, Lytteltori, Bedford, 
 Chesterfield, and even Cobham's nephew, George Graiville, 
 were less uncompromising. One of their grievances against 
 Carteret was the restriction of government to a narrow clique, 
 the same clique in fact as Walpole's, as if all other sections 
 were unworthy of confidence. Already Pitt, inspired no 
 doubt by Bolingbroke's teaching, had adopted the maxim 
 , ■ measures not men ' as his criterion of governments ; and in 
 I this year, 1743, Chesterfield had started Old England, or the Con- 
 
 ■ stitutional Journal, in which ' Jeffrey Broadbottom ' advocated 
 an administration embracing~airparties.i Pelham was quite 
 prepared for a ' Broadbottom ' administration, and as ap- 
 prehensive of Carteret's impetuosity and secret methods as 
 any Patriot. He waS' anxious, says Chesterfield, ' to soften 
 people and save himself from Pitt in the House of Commons,' 
 and saw the danger of continuing to ignore the nation's wishes 
 in foreign politics. He hoped by a treaty with the young men 
 to find a method of reconcihng ' the minds of men to the 
 management of the war and making it in some degree popular. 
 This could not possibly be done without taking the nation to 
 a certain degree along with them.' Although this guarded 
 expression of Pelham' s ally, Hardwicke, feU considerably short 
 of Pitt's new and audacious claims for the people, it was a great 
 advance on Carteret's system. On the strength of it Pitt and 
 the majority of the Patriots made an informal alliance with 
 Pelham on his promotion to the Treasury in July 1743. Neither 
 side was committed to definite engagements. Pelham would 
 not oppose his colleagues publicly, whatever might happen 
 in the Cabinet ; and the Patriots retained full liberty to attack 
 
 ' In a caricature of March 1, 1743, probably the first in which Pitt figures, 
 
 ■ the ' Claims of the Broadbottom Administration ' are satirised. Pitt and 
 Lyttelton appear very thin and gaunt and afraid they will not find a place, 
 Pitt saying, ' Who knows but I may be pufEed into something by and bye. 
 
 Am not I an Orator ? Make me Secretary at War. Murray is a fool to me.' 
 The idea of a Broadbottom Administration was in the air at the time of 
 Walpole's fall. (See Egmont MSS. vol. 88, sub March 8, 1741-2.) 
 
PITT AND PELHAM ON BROADBOTTOM, 1743 iii 
 
 measures of the Government, of which they disapproved. 
 Concessions, however, were made on both sides. Pelham 
 convinced Pitt of the necessity for an Enghsh army in the 
 Low Countries to protect our interests in that vital corner of 
 Europe against France. Pitt indeed hardly needed convincing 
 on this point. His objection had been to English troops 
 aimlessly wandering over Germany ; as soon as the French 
 under Maurice de Saxe seriously threatened the Low Countries 
 he recognised that we should, in conjunction with the Dutch, 
 defend a point of access to the Continent so essential to our 
 commerce and our navy.^ On the other hand he was unyield- 
 ing about taking the Hanoverians into English pay and finally 
 brought Pelham over to his view. He also insisted that in any 
 future engagements with foreign princes no subsidies should 
 be paid unless we retained a controlling voice in the conduct 
 of operations. 
 
 Carteret, against whom this formidable alhance had been 
 concerted, was never so magnificent as in the session of 1743-4, 
 fighting with his back to the wall. With hardly a follower 
 left in the Ministry he was more contemptuous of his col- 
 leagues than ever, more full of resource and more brilliant 
 in the House of Lords. His troubles seemed to make him 
 younger and more reckless. In the thick of the struggle, less 
 than a year after his first wife's death, he found time to 
 woo and win Lady Sophia Fermor, one of the beauties of the 
 Court, for whom young Horace Walpole and Lord Lincoln, 
 the Duke of Newcastle's heir, had sighed in vain. That he 
 and Pitt never met in debate is one of the great losses in our 
 history, for they were worthy antagonists. Pitt himself felt 
 the loss, if we may judge from the exclamation with which 
 he concluded one of his invectives : ' But I have done : ii \ ^ 
 he were present I would say ten times more.' I 
 
 On the first day of the session Pitt renewed his attack. December 
 He began quietly by a criticism of Walpole for not having 1. 1743. 
 at the outset of the war urged the Queen of Hungary to 
 buy off her most redoubtable opponent, Frederic of Prussia, 
 
 ^ It is sometimes forgotten that even to-day we guarantee the neutrality 
 of the Low Countries (Belgium). 
 
112 PITT AND CARTERET 
 
 'both because his claim was the smallest and because he 
 was one of the most neutral, as well as one of the most 
 powerful allies we could treat with ' — a sentiment which was 
 reported to Frederic and not lost on him. Instead we en- 
 couraged her to fight, and then, ' having led that Princess upon 
 the ice, ... we left her there to shift for herself ' directly 
 Prance began to bluster against Hanover. But if Walpole 
 ' betrayed the interest of his country by his pusillanimity^ our 
 present minister sacrifices it by his quixotism,' running aU 
 over Europe for alhes who do Httle for us beyond taking our 
 subsidies, and thinking of 
 
 notHng but war, or at least the resemblance of it ; . . . for we have 
 no reason to hope for success, if war be not prosecuted with more 
 vigour than it was during the last campaign. . . . Nay, I doubt much 
 if any action would have happened ... if the French had not 
 by the misconduct of some one or other of our generals caught our 
 army in a hose net, from which it could not have escaped if the 
 French generals had all observed the directions of their commander- 
 in-chief ; . . . a lucky escape you may caU that action, but I shall 
 never give my consent to call it by the name of a victory. 
 
 Even the King's personal courage did not escape a somewhat 
 unworthy sneer : 
 
 Suppose it should appear that his Majesty was exposed to few or no 
 dangers abroad but what he is daily exposed to at home, such as 
 the overturning of his coach or the stumbling of his horse — would 
 not the address proposed be an afiront and an insult upon our 
 Sovereign instead of being a compliment ? . . . What then should be 
 our poUcy ? Everything with the Dutch and nothing without them, 
 and no more war of equivalent and acquisition, for which we pay 
 nearly a million in subsidies and are heading straight for bankruptcy.^ 
 If the present system is continued our credit will be ruined, our 
 troops will be obliged to live upon free quarters, the farmer will 
 no longer sow nor reap, to have the produce seized by the starving 
 soldiers, the Pretender will land and will be joined by a despairing 
 people as a last hope against an execrable, a sole minister, who 
 had renounced the British nation and seemed to have drunk of the 
 
 ' This was in the day of ten-miIh"on budgets, 
 
P ITT ATT ACKSJHEJKING & CARTERET, 1748-4 113 ~i 
 
 potion described ia poetic fictions, whicli made men forget their 
 country.^ 
 
 Five days later Waller formally proposed that the King 
 should be asked to dismiss the Hanoverians at the end of the 
 year. ' Disaffection to His Majesty's person and Government 
 is at the root of this indecent proposal,' said a speaker for the 
 Court. 
 
 I tave always looked upon it as a principle of tie British con- December 
 stitution [retorted Pitt] that the King can no more do wrong in 6, 1743. 
 camp than in the Cabiaet ; that, whatsoever is done in either, 
 his advisers are accountable for it. But, imhappily for his Majesty, 
 unhappily for Great Britain, while he was at the army he was 
 hemmed in by Hanoverian generals and one infamous English 
 minister, who seems to have renounced the name of an English- 
 man. With regard to the decency of this address, I say that the 
 people of Britain are discontented but not yet disaffected. What 
 the continuance of such measures might produce, I tremble to 
 think of. His Majesty is now situated upon the brink of a precipice. 
 At such a time at least it little becomes his faithful Commons to be 
 strewing flowers of flattery and panegyric under his feet. They 
 should rather, with a rough but friendly hand, snatch him from the 
 abyss he is ready to fall into, and with their timely aid place him 
 again upon the secure basis of the afiections of his people.^ 
 
 On January 18 and 19 Pitt made his last onslaughts on January 
 the Hanoverians, speaking three times in the discussions on ^^^ ' 
 
 ^ Philip Yorke, Horace Walpole, and Edward Montagu all allude to this 
 final phrase. Montagu's version dififers slightly : ' Pitt said what he meant 
 was not against the Ministry but against one who was a minister and had re- 
 nounced Great Britain, who had eat of a certain tree that the poet tells us makes 
 people forget everything, even their own country, but he hoped the people 
 would never taste of the same tree, nor after his example forget their country.' 
 (Climenson, Montagu, i, 171.) The London Magazine has yet another version : 
 ' They will dream on till they have dreamed Europe and their country, as well 
 as themselves, into perdition.' 
 
 A rough note for this speech is to be found in Chatham MS8. 74. 
 
 ^ The general authenticity of this passage is also well attested : Philip 
 Yorke gives an almost similar version ; instead of ' who seems . . . name of 
 Englishman ' he reports ' one English minister without an EngUsh heart.' 
 The version in the text is from a letter of E. Mure in Caldwell Papers, ii, 55. 
 It explains the context rather better than Yorke's. 
 
 VOL. I. I 
 
114 PITT AND CARTERET 
 
 their pay. Knowing that Pelham and his friends in the 
 Ministry had no love for these mercenaries, he opened with 
 a cunning appeal to ' the amiable part of the Administration 
 to give up so odious a point, which, if carried, will do them no 
 service with the nation and only tend to advance another's 
 power in the Closet.' He then turned to the more congenial 
 task of abusing Carteret : ' a Hanover troop minister, a 
 flagitious taskmaster, whose only party are the sixteen 
 thousand Hanoverians, the placemen by whose means he has 
 conquered the Cabinet, . . . the source whence these waters 
 of bitterness flow.' Why, it had been asked, should not the 
 King follow the timid advice of his German velt-marshal as 
 weU as Lord Stair's ? — 
 
 a monstrous and unconstitutional doctrine [ttundered Pitt] for it 
 takes away the control and inquiry of parliament, and justifies 
 the Austrian general's sneer that a bold course ' n'est pas du gout 
 de votre cour '. . . I have a contempt for the abilities as weU as 
 the honesty of any minister in this country who wiU not endeavour 
 to gain the confidence of the people. Their sense about any point 
 was never more strongly or universally declared than against taking 
 these troops. . . . The passing the question wiU be to erect a 
 triumphal arch to Hanover over the mili tary honour and inde- 
 pendence of Great Britain.^ 
 
 Pitt's speeches, and still more the feeling in the country, 
 to which he appealed, were beginning to tell. In December 
 the address to dismiss the Hanoverians was defeated by only 
 fifty ; in January, although Lord Orford came up specially to 
 talk over the waverers, the Government majority sank to 
 forty-five. In the following year the pay of the Hanoverians no 
 longer appeared on the estimates. In judging the part played 
 by Pitt's violent, often outrageous, tirades towards this result, 
 it is fair to distinguish between his methods of controversy 
 and the principles inspiring him. Some of his methods are 
 indefensible. To attain his object he made himself a party to 
 the ignorant and panic-stricken clamour of the day — that we 
 
 ' This account oombinea the main points of Pitt's speech on the 18th, 
 and his two speeches on the 19th, as given by Philip Yorke and Walpole. 
 
HANOVER TROOP MINISTER, 1744 115 
 
 were being constantly betrayed for the electorate; he con- 
 descended to most unjust sneers at the King's personal courage ; 
 and repeated unfounded stories of the Hanoverians' cowardice. 
 His willingness to employ such arguments shows little states- 
 manship, and he soon had bitter cause to regret it. But in 
 principle his objection to hiring Hanoverians was sound. The 
 violent opposition of the English people, who were called upon v^ 
 to pay for these troops, was in itself a mighty argument against 
 it. Still more justified was Pitt's courageous expression of his 
 view that England must learn to fight her battles for herself 
 and determine her own foreign policy without regard to the 
 separate interests either of Hanover or of any other continental 
 state. However questionable his methods, his aim was a 
 noble one — to arouse a sense of national unity and self- 
 dependence. 
 
 Pitt was not always so successful as he was in his fight 
 against the Hanoverians. He then belonged to what Yorke 
 calls an anti-mioisterial cabinet, with Lyttelton, Chester- 
 field, Waller and Dodington. Their first attempt to ' regu- 
 late the Opposition in Parliament' was a failure. On 
 December 15, 1743, they put up George Grenville to move a 15, 1743. 
 wordy address praying the King '. . . in consideration of the 
 exhausted and impoverished state of this kingdom . . . not 
 to engage this nation any further . . . without first entering 
 into an alUance with the States- General ' — ^which, during the 
 debate, Pitt himself admitted to be so undignified that he 
 tried to amend it. Even with his own party he did not always 
 have his way. At a meeting held at the Fountain Tavern 
 in January 1744 he could not convert the Opposition to the 
 necessity of an English army in the Low Countries, of which 
 Pelham had convinced him, and in order not to break with his 
 friends, agreed to vote but not speak with them on the motion. ^ 
 But these minor disappointments did not affect his growing 
 position in the House and the country. The French agents 
 
 ^ The speech in this debate, attributed by Almon and Thackeray to Pitt, 
 was really George GrenviUe's, who on this occasion followed the lead of his 
 uncle, Lord Cobham. Thackeray also post-dates the debate from January 
 U to January 17. 
 
 l2 
 
ii6 PITT AND CARTERET 
 
 speak of him as ' the famous Mr. William Pitt, so well known 
 for his patriotic zeal.' ^ One member's opinion of his oratory- 
 has already been quoted ; another, the husband of his friend 
 Mrs. Montagu, wrote of him after the Hanoverian debates 
 '■ that ' none has [distinguished himself] so eminently as Mr. Pit, 
 ' who ia the opinion of several, as weU as me, is a greater man 
 / than ever I have sat with, and if he preserves his integrity, 
 i will be transmitted to posterity in the most illustrious of 
 
 \ chara,c±ers»l-.^ Even the "Speaker's fulminations began to have 
 
 December no terrors for him. On one occasion he had alluded to the 
 6, 1743. ' ]iand of power ' over the officers in the House, and on being 
 called to order explained that he alluded to ministerial, not 
 royal, power. This brought up the Speaker who ruled it out 
 of order to speak of the King and mean to insinuate that 
 ministers had such power. Pitt, unabashed, lamented that 
 ' his train of thought was disordered by the interruption,' 
 and proceeded to give further instances of a great person's 
 partiality to the Hanoverians and of the delinquencies of the 
 minister ' who seemed to have renounced the name of an 
 Englishman.' 
 
 But Pitt's power had soon to be turned to a better use than 
 iavective, and his constant appeals for vigour and unity in 
 the national councils were justified. Even our navy felt the 
 need of a new spirit. In February 1744 Admiral Mathews's 
 fleet met a combined French and Spanish fleet off Toulon in an 
 engagement which showed a lamentable want of discipline and 
 even courage among the senior officers. Lestock, Mathews's 
 second-in-command, made no attempt to assist his chief ; 
 several of his captains hesitated to bring their ships alongside 
 the enemy ; Mathews himself abandoned a promising chase 
 and even allowed the enemy to recover one of the English 
 prizes. Almost the only redeeming feature of the battle was 
 the courage displayed by Captain Cornwall of the Marlborough 
 and by Captain Hawke of the Berwick, whose valour was 
 afterwards put to good use by Pitt. A few days before this 
 battle Captain Brodrick, cruising in the Channel, had sent 
 the alarming news to London that, although England and 
 
 ' Aff. Etr. Angl. Corr, Pol. 418, f. 472, &c. 
 
FRENCH INVASION THREATENED, 1744 117 
 
 France were still nominally at peace,^ a French fleet of twenty- 
 one sail was on its way from Brest to the English coast, and 
 that a flotilla with the Pretender and an army under Maurice 
 de Saxe were making ready at Dunkirk. This news found 
 the Ministry totally unprepared. The garrison of London 
 was barely 3000 strong, and, if all available troops were called 
 in, 9000 was the most we could muster to meet the force of 
 10,000 expected from France. So out of touch were those 
 in authority with the feeling in the country that fears were 
 freely expressed lest, when the troops were concentrated 
 about London, ' the people might rise in Devonshire, Cornwall, 
 Somerset, Dorset, Lancashire, Cheshire, Denbigh, North Wales, 
 Scotland, not to say Ireland.' There was panic in political 
 circles. The safety of England seemed to hang on the 
 quarter frbm which the wind blew. Would it enable the 
 Channel fleet under Admiral Norris to come up with the Brest 
 fleet in time ? At White's the members sat up till the early 
 hours of the morning noting and betting on the quarter of the 
 wind. The House of Commons met in permanent session. 
 Happily the wind, once again in our history, saved us. Norris 
 came upon the Brest fleet off Dungeness on February 17-28 ; 
 the Enghsh shore was Hned with spectators, and one 
 enthusiastic member of Parliament climbed the steeple of 
 Hythe to see the expected battle. But Norris postponed the 
 attack and next morning woke to find the French fleet in 
 full flight under a strong north-easterly gale. The same 
 gale destroyed a large part of the Dxmkirk flotilla and put an 
 end to Maurice de Saxe's plans. The panic-stricken Londoners 
 were further comforted by the landing of Dutch soldiers at 
 Sheemess to defend them. ^ 
 
 While the evidence of the ministers' unreadiness and in- 
 competence was alarming, the national peril proved how sound 
 at heart were the people, who had so Httle voice in government. 
 The merchants of London came to St. James's in a procession 
 of ninety coaches to proffer a loan of £6,000,000 to the King. 
 
 ' War between England and France was not formally declared untU the 
 following month. 
 
 ^ Interesting details of the panic aroused by this fear of invasion, some of 
 which are quoted in the text, are to be seen in Egmont Papers, vols. 88 and 212. 
 
ii8 PITT AND CARTERET 
 
 Loyal addresses were sent up from all parts of the kingdom, 
 and so unfoimded were the apprehensions of a rising among 
 the humbler sort, that the regiments marching to London were 
 everywhere received with enthusiasm and treated at the public- 
 houses along the road, because, they were told, ' you are 
 going to defend us against the French.' Pitt on this occasion 
 did not belie his growing reputation as the representative 
 February of the people's true feelings. On February 15, when a 
 15, 1744. jjjgggage came from the King, aimouncing the plan of an 
 invasion by the Pretender ' in concert with disaffected persons 
 in England,' Pitt, while supporting a proposal by Waller to 
 inquire into naval mismanagement, did so 
 
 not with any view of damping the zeal and loyalty of gentlemen 
 at this dangerous crisis ; for even were the amendment thrown out 
 he should concur most heartily in the address and take that and 
 every other occasion of expressing the most disinterested duty to 
 the present royal family ; . . . but, since we are involved in these 
 difficulties by the neglect of our natural strength at sea it is incumbent 
 on Parliament to intimate their opinion to the Crown, and seek out 
 the remedy as soon as possible. 
 
 He also protested against the suggestion of disaffection to 
 the dynasty : 
 
 If there are any groimds for asserting it, what could be more impolitic 
 than to animate the French with such an encouragement to prosecute 
 their design ? If there are none, as I am inclined to believe, how 
 monstrous is it in any minister to poison the fountains of truth, and 
 fiU the nation with mutual jealousies and distrust ? 
 
 With the nearer approach of danger, and while the issue of 
 Norris's encounter with the French was still uncertain, he 
 ostentatiously separated himself from the factious opposition 
 February of some of his friends, supported a temporary suspension of 
 ^^^'^'^ ^^'' the Habeas Corpus Act on evidence of treasonable practices 
 by Lord Barrymore and other Jacobites,^ and declared ' if 
 ever confidence should be reposed in ministers, it was at this 
 time ; and as they were accountable to ParUament for the use 
 
 * When Lord Barrington from the Opposition benches was speaking against 
 this suspension, Pitt marked his disapproval by walking contemptuously out 
 of the House. 
 
PITT ON NATIONAL DANGER, 1744 119 
 
 they made of it, he was for agreeing with their proposals.' 
 
 He deprecated panic in words that drew a high compliment February 
 
 from Pelham : ^4. 1744. 
 
 It is a time to be alarmed, to be on our guard [he said] . . . but not 
 to be teni&ed as if tbe danger was of the extremest sort. Our fleet is 
 out and may intercept the embarkation. But suppose tbe worst — 
 that troops were landed (which God forbid) ; . . . surely no military 
 man could in this situation be imeasy about the event. . . . My 
 hope is that good may be drawn out of evil by this event, as it will 
 tend to unite the nation ; for I cannot think any so desperate or so 
 mad as to think of joining in the attempt.^ 
 
 This confidence in the soundness of the nation made him 
 resist the pusillanimous idea of bringing over Dutch soldiers 
 to defend our shores. He refused, too, to be led away by May 3, 
 panic to sanction vindictive measures of repression proposed ^^^' 
 not only against those guilty of correspondence with the 
 Pretender but against their children also. When the imme- 
 diate danger was past he returned with undiminished zest Apra 3, 
 to his attacks on Carteret — ' whom perdition would infallibly " " 
 attend as the rash author of those measures which had produced 
 this disastrous impracticable war,' and whose Treaty of Worms January 
 he had already denounced as containing sufficient matter for ' 
 an impeachment, demanding to see an unratified clause ' which 
 that audacious hand had signed, but to which the noble lord 
 who had the custody of the seal refused to set it, as knowing 
 he should be called to account by Parliament if he did it.' On 
 a particularly glaring instance of irregular payments to a April 10, 
 foreign general, sanctioned not only by Carteret but even 1744. 
 by Pelham, he denounced the 
 
 prerogative administration ... In cases of extreme necessity ex- 
 traordinary measures might be resorted to, and the utmost stretch of 
 prerogative is then constitutional ; 2 but there is no such extremity 
 
 ' On February 24, the same evening that Ktt made this speech. Lord 
 Orford broke his silence for the first and last time in the House of Lords, adopt- 
 ing much the same line as his former adversary in the House of Commons. 
 He attacked the Ministry for their unreadiness and apathy in presence of a 
 national danger, to avert which he had devoted his whole life. 
 
 ^ This doctrine was called upon by Chatham in 1766 to defend one of his 
 own acts of prerogative (see vol. ii, p. 228). 
 
I20 PITT AND CARTERET 
 
 here. ... If tHis mettod of conducting business goes on, a seat in 
 the House will not be the way to power or favour, and I tope tbat 
 for their own sakes, if not for that of the public, gentlemen will 
 concur in putting a timely stop to it. 
 
 He even found time in the last months of this laborious 
 session to take a leading part in debates on commercial subjects. 
 There is a story that Pitt once expressed an ambition to be 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer, but this may be doubted, for 
 he never showed a special turn for finance. On commercial 
 regulations, however, particularly in their political effect, he 
 always showed great interest. To provide the interest for a 
 new loan Pelham proposed an additional duty on West Indian 
 February Sugar. But it was pointed out by Pitt and his friends that 
 I3,20j 22, ^]jg Molasses Act of 1733 had already hampered West Indian 
 trade to such an extent that many sugar-planters from Jamaica 
 had emigrated to the Dutch islands ; and they proposed a tax 
 on foreign linens exported to the Plantations instead of the 
 new sugar tax, partly as an encouragement to English and 
 Scottish Unens. Finally, Pelham adopted a spirit tax as a 
 compromise and agreed to a committee to consider the question 
 of protection for linens. Pitt also, recaUing perhaps his grand- 
 father's early struggles with the East India Company's mono- 
 April 24, poly of trade, supported a proposal to extend the privileges of 
 the Levant Company's close corporation to all merchants 
 willing to pay £20 and observe the Company's rules. During 
 this session Pitt showed a more versatile activity than at 
 any other time of his life except one, when he was again fighting 
 an incompetent minister at a time of danger.^ But it nearly 
 killed him. Immediately after the session he was seized with 
 violent gout in the stomach, and was obUged to spend the 
 summer and autumn at Bath. The waters did him so little 
 good that in October his friend Grenville almost despaired of 
 his hfe. 
 
 When Pitt first retired to Bath, iU and exhausted, his 
 efforts seemed to have Httle prospect of success. Carteret, 
 secure of the King's favour, was cheerful as ever. Every 
 
 ' Pitt's speeches during this session are well reported by Philip Yorke, 
 whose verbal aoouraoy is often confirmed by Walpole and other writers. 
 
PITT'S STRENUOUS SESSION, 1744 121 
 
 one else had the gloomiest anticipations for the future of the 
 country. Even the courtiers, who knew the want of any 
 connected plan abroad, had little hope from the next cam- 
 paign of any victory likely to infuse a better spirit into the 
 services. Events thoroughly justified this pessimism. The 
 navy, instead of attacking the enemy's fleet, was chiefly em- 
 ployed in convoy duty; and the Admiralty had so poor an 
 opinion of the chief flag officers ihat when a fleet was sent to 
 convoy ships to the Mediterranean, the admirals on the active 
 list were passed over in favour of Sir John Balchen, a retired 
 veteran of Wflliam Ill's days. There were stories of captains 
 coming into action drunk, and of ships needlessly surrendered, 
 or capsizing owing to faulty construction in the dockyards. The 
 state of the army was no better. The command in Flanders 
 was given to General Wade, a superannuated invalid of 
 seventy-three, who required two days to recover from the 
 fatigue of four hours on horseback. ArtiUery needed for the 
 army was allowed to remain three months on the quays at Ant- 
 werp and Ostend. In the campaign of 1744 the allied army, 
 though at last reinforced by a Dutch contingent, was so torn 
 with hesitations and dissensions that it hardly attempted any- 
 thing against Maurice de Saxe, who, in a brilliant campaign of 
 six weeks, captured the chief fortresses in the Low Countries. 
 The French and Spaniards were equally successful in Italy 
 in spite of Carteret's £200,000 to the King of Sardinia ; and 
 Frederic of Prussia once more joined Maria Theresa's enemies. 
 The only glad sight to English eyes this year was the return 
 of Anson in June from his three years' circumnavigation of 
 the globe and his triumphal procession from Portsmouth to 
 London with wagons drawing the treasure of the Acapulco 
 galleon. But for this Uttle credit was due to the Ministry. 
 
 Instead of attempting to impart some of his own vigour to 
 the national services, Carteret was meditating fresh subsidies 
 and planning another great alliance with Eussia, Saxony and 
 Poland. He had a wild idea of sending the Hanover troops in 
 English pay to defend their own country at our expense, if 
 France invaded Westphalia.^ But the bankruptcy of his 
 
 ' Af. Etr. Angl. Corr. Pol. 418, f. 400. 
 
122 PITT AND CARTERET 
 
 policy was becoming evident ; all his expensive allies were 
 found to be broken reeds, and Frederic, the only prince worth 
 securing in Germany, was hopelessly alienated. His haughti- 
 ness and reputation for insincerity with his colleagues had left 
 him with hardly a friend ; the other ministers, timorous as 
 they were, at last rose in open revolt. In October Carteret, 
 with the King's sanction, made one last despairing effort to 
 retain power by an offer of places to Pitt and his friends. The 
 offer was contemptuously rejected, ' for fear of losing the people,' 
 it was reported, ' and above all from distrust of him.' ^ On 
 November 1, 1744, the Duke of Newcastle presented to the 
 King a long memorial drawn up by Lord Hardwicke, recapitu- 
 lating the grievances against Carteret felt by most of his col- 
 leagues, and stating the policy they recommended. This 
 document admitted almost everything for which Pitt had 
 been contending : a formal treaty of alliance with the Dutch, 
 a concerted plan of operations, and the employment of Great 
 Britain's strength and resources to the best advantage of the 
 country. The King put off a decision for three weeks and 
 asked Lord Orford for his advice, in the hope that it would 
 be favourable to his chosen minister. Orford, though at the 
 point of death, set out at once for London and sent a message 
 urging the King to yield to the Pelhams. The King sorrow- 
 fully acquiesced, and on November 23, 1744, four days before 
 the meeting of Parliament, took back the seals from Carteret. 
 For the second time within three years Pitt's attacks had been 
 a principal cause of a great minister's fall. Pitt had shown 
 the King and the Whig clique that when he represented the 
 people he could make a ministry impossible ; he had still to 
 prove that, strong as he was as the people's mouthpiece in 
 opposition, he could be equally strong as their minister. 
 
 > Bgmont Papers, vol. 212. See also Aff. Etr. Angl. Corr. Pol. 418, f. 442 : 
 Intelligence from London. 
 
CHAPTEE V 
 
 PITT AND THE BEBBLLION 
 
 ETs oiavbs &piiTTOs afiiveffBai irepl vdrptis. 
 
 HoMBE, Iliad xii. 243. 
 Nature, Sir, is the best teacher : she will teach us to be men. 
 
 William Pitt. 
 
 Pitt's long illness at Bath, which lasted during most of the year 
 1744, was the first of a series of attacks which prostrated him 
 at ever shorter intervals and returned with increasing severity 
 throughout his Ufe. In the succeeding ten years before his 
 marriage his state of health was so serious that he was obliged 
 to make an annual pilgrimage to Bath or Tunbridge to drink 
 the waters and dose himself with Ealeigh's cordial and other 
 fashionable specifics. These attacks took various forms, 
 affecting his bowels, his arms, and his legs ; during one of them 
 ' my sleep continues very broken,' he complains, ' and the 
 irritation not yet off my nerves and out of my blood.' A 
 temporary cure was sometimes effected by a sharp attack of 
 gout, which the doctors' treatment aimed at inducing ; but 
 his friends became alarmed at his condition. In May 1744 he 
 went to Bath, and in October of that year George Grenville 
 writes to his brother that 
 
 Pitt is still at Bath and ... in a very bad way, having never been 
 able to get rid of the gout in his bowels ever since it first seized him 
 before you left London, in the spring. The Bath waters have done 
 him no good. This is a grievous misfortune to him, since, if it does 
 not afiect his life, it may perhaps disable him, and make a cripple 
 of him for ever ; though for my own part I cannot help thinking 
 
 123 
 
124 PITT AND THE REBELLION 
 
 that Ms youth and ease are most likely to get the better of it in a great 
 degree. 
 
 Even as late as the following January the French secret 
 agent, who saw him carried to the House of Commons, spoke 
 of him as ' the great patriot, who, though young, seems almost 
 dying ' ; and twice within the next ten years he was reported 
 to be in the utmost danger. — 
 
 I His enemies, on the other hand, saw nothing but parade 
 ■J ' and hypocrisy in these illnesses, and insinuated that on occasion 
 he and his hereditary enemy, the gout, understood each other^-. 
 The accepted view has been taken chiefly from the pages of 
 one of the bitterest of his detractors, Horace Walpole, from 
 whose sneers none of his contemporaries save his own father 
 and his worthy friend Conway was sacred. He accounts for 
 Pitt's silence during 1753, a year of almost constant suffering, 
 by the insinuation that it was ' a year of sullen illness,' and 
 is never tired of finding some deep purpose in Pitt's long 
 absences and sudden returns. No doubt his frequent appear- 
 ances in the House with all the trappings of the gout — 
 a flannelled foot, a monstrous boot, crutches — and a face 
 drawn with pain, lent themselves to the ridicule of those 
 unable to believe in the genuine patriotism which drew Pitt 
 from his sick bed on momentous occasions. In their view the 
 sufferer's gout was not so bad as it was made to seem, and 
 his pathetic appeals to the sympathy of his audience were 
 merely the stratagems of the practised orator. Pitt may have 
 made little effort to conceal his sufferings at such times, and 
 have had no objection to enforcing his arguments by personal 
 touches Hkely to produce an effect. But there can be Uttle 
 question of the serious nature of his affliction, and it is evi- 
 dent from the correspondence of his closest friends that his 
 gout was a very real torment and often barely allowed him 
 to crawl to the House. As to his diplomatic absences, as they 
 were called, if they were really prompted by sinister motives 
 of intrigue, it must be allowed Pitt was singularly Ul-judged 
 from his own point of view in some of the occasions he chose 
 to absent himself. 
 
 During his retirement at Bath in 1744 his old friend, 
 
PITT'S GOUT 125 
 
 Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, died, and her will brought 
 him one of his first pieces of good fortune. For some years 
 she seems to have been meditating a provision for him, for 
 in 1740 Chesterfield, writing to one of her executors, Lord 
 Marchmont, urged him to ' encourage her Grace in so right 
 and generous a resolution,' since ' I share the marks of your 
 friendship to Mr. Pitt, looking upon everything that concerns 
 him as personal to myself.' He added, ' I have not yet had 
 an opportunity of speaking to him on that subject, and when 
 I have, shall break it gently, knowing his delicacy.' The 
 Duchess's resolution did not, however, take effect until four years 
 later, for her last wiU and the codicil benefiting Pitt were dated 
 August 1744, only two months before her death on October 18. 
 In this codicil £20,000 was left to Lord Chesterfield, and £10,000 
 to ' WiUiam Pitt of the Parish of St. James, within the Liberty 
 of Westminster, Esq., . . . upon account of his merit in the 
 noble defence he has made of the laws of England, and to 
 prevent the ruin of his country.' In addition to this she made 
 him co-heir presumptive to part of her estates. Her daughter 
 Anna, Countess of Sunderland and Duchess of Marlborough, 
 had two sons — Charles, third Duke of Marlborough, and John 
 Spencer. To the latter, her favourite grandson, and after 
 him to his son John, she left all the residue of her unsettled 
 estates, with a proviso that on the failure of this line Chesterfield 
 should inherit her Wimbledon property and Pitt her property 
 in Buckinghamshire, Staffordshire and Northamptonshire, 
 formerly the estates of Eichard Hampden, Lord Fauconberg 
 and Nathaniel Lord Crewe respectively : she also persuaded 
 John Spencer to make a wiU leaving all his Sunderland estates 
 to Pitt in case his own son died without issue. Pitt seemed 
 at first to have a good chance of succeeding to this noble 
 inheritance. Within two years John Spencer died of self- 
 indulgence, leaving only an infant between Pitt and the 
 succession, which was taken seriously into account when his 
 marriage settlement was drawn up some years later. The 
 infant, however, survived and Pitt never succeeded to the 
 Marlborough and Sunderland estates. Nevertheless, the pro- 
 visions of this will gave him added consideration and brought 
 
126 PITT AND THE REBELLION 
 
 him nearer the charmed circle of aristocratic Whig families 
 who treated the government of England as their pecuhar 
 appanage. At one stroke, also, he was released from the com- 
 '"parSSvF poverty, galhng to a man of his tastes and ambition, 
 of a younger son's portion of just £300 a year, and put into 
 possession of an assured income of £700 or £800 a year. Either 
 as part of this income or in addition to it he received an 
 annuity of £300 from the Duke of Bedford under a deed 
 executed in March 1745.^ The Duke of Bedford's first wife 
 was Lady Diana, sister of John Spencer ; and this arrangement 
 may have been made in view of Pitt's prospective claims to 
 the estate. 
 
 The will containing this and other characteristic exhibitions 
 of the old Duchess's prejudices was immediately pubhshed, 
 with appropriate comments, and became the talk of the town. 
 i Pitt's stroke of good fortune was welcomed with joy by old 
 ! friends Uke the Grenvilles, Chesterfield and Marchmont, but 
 it gave occasion for cavilling to the less well-disposed. 
 His alliance with the Pelhams, entered into a year previously, 
 but only recently made public, was seized upon as a proof that 
 his attacks on Walpole and Carteret and his philippics against 
 the Hanoverians were made simply ia order to curry favour 
 with the Duchess. That the Pelhams had virtually., yielded 
 to all Pitt's demands on policy was ignored by Pitt's enemies. 
 A characteristic expression of their views is to be found in a 
 letter, written in her bad French, by Lady Bolingbroke to 
 Lady Denbigh: ' VoUa, ma chere comtesse, les jeux de la 
 fortune etlecombledeliniquitedecettevieilleMalborough . . . 
 Le patriotisme est une belle chose quand il rend bien, car 
 on pent quitter ensuite quand on veut pour quelque autre 
 recolte.' It so happened that at this very time Pitt was 
 
 * See Bedford Correspondence, i, 34, and a letter to Chatham's banker, 
 Coutts, of June 30, 1778, in Chatham MSS. 28 : 
 
 ' Mr. Palmer presents his compliments to Mr. Coutts, acquaints him that the 
 annuity granted by the late Duke of Bedford to the late Earl of Chatham was 
 made payable at the four usual quarter days. . . . The security ... is dated 
 23rd March, 1744 [probably O.S.].' The librarian of the present Duke of 
 Bedford kindly made a search in the Wobum Papers, but found no further 
 information about this annuity. 
 
PITT'S LEGACY 1744 127 
 
 feeling sore with the Pelhams, suspecting them of weakness 
 to Carteret, and quite ignorant of the memorial they had 
 presented to the King. Bolingbroke, who saw Pitt 
 on November 6, was angry with him for his suspicion of 
 the Pelhams and found him ' extremely supercilious ' ; he 
 complained that, when he himself was a young man, 'Sir 
 Edward Seymour and Musgrave and such heard him with 
 more deference than Pitt had done ' ; and he attributed his 
 arrogance to the legacy. Cobham re-echoed this charge of 
 arrogance on the same occasion. ' Mr. Pitt is a young man 
 of fine parts,' he confided to Chesterfield, ' but he is narrow, 
 does not know much of the world, and is a Kttle too dogmatical.' 
 Pitt may well have ruffled the dignity of Cobham and 
 Bolingbroke, who were accustomed to unmeasured adulation,^ 
 but that the legacy had anything to do with this exhibition of 
 independence or with his alliance with Pelham is out of the 
 question. He was never of an accommodating temper, 
 and, Hke most men of genius, was inclined to be dogmatical 
 and pertinacious in having his own way. At a time when 
 Carteret's fall was impending, and Bolingbroke and Cobham 
 may have hoped for a considerable voice in the new 
 arrangements, they probably became especially sensitive to 
 the independent spirit of their young ally: hence their 
 anxiety to account for it by a discreditable motive. 
 
 At the close of 1744 Bolingbroke's pet project of a non- 
 party government, or a Broadbottom administration, as 
 Chesterfield called it, was at last accomplished. In those days 
 the party system, as we understand it, was not developed. 
 Nomiually there was a broad division between Whigs and 
 Tories, which Walpole had accentuated for his own purposes, 
 calhag all who did not support the Ministry by the invidi- 
 ous name of Tories. But, except for those Tories who were 
 
 ^ Cobham's conceit was well known. Lord Granville once gave as an 
 instance of it that 'when he was speaking in the House of Lords (as he thought 
 very weE) he overheard Lord Cobham whispering his neighbour," Very well, but 
 why does he not say so and so ? " Upon which Lord Granville, at the end of the 
 speech, produced Lord Cobham's argument (a mighty absurd one), who there- 
 upon cried out, " What an incomparable speaker Lord Granville is ! " ' ( Wrest 
 Park MSS. ; Hon. T. Robinson's memoranda.) 
 
128 PITT AND THE REBELLION 
 
 Jacobites and had hardly any representation in Parliament, there 
 was little real difference of principle between the two parties. 
 Pitt and Chesterfield were among the few Whigs who admitted 
 this frankly. 
 
 Tte distinction between the Court and Country of Great 
 Britain [says tHeir mouthpiece, Jeffrey Broadbottom,] does not 
 subsist in the nature of things, but in the mismanagement of per- 
 sons and therefore may be done away by a virtuous ministry or 
 an uncorrupted people. ... As to Whig and Tory I know no real 
 distinction between 'em ; I look upon them as two brothers, who 
 in truth mean the same thing tho' they pursue it difierently. 
 
 On the other hand the various cUques, to which most 
 members of the House were attached, were of great import- 
 ance. Each clique followed some great personage, who owed 
 his position chiefly to his command of influence in parHamentary 
 boroughs and to the number of votes he could in consequence 
 muster in the House of Commons. The Prince of Wales, 
 strong in Cornwall, had his personal following, and his brother 
 the Duke of Cumberland already had a section attached to him. 
 Granville (as Carteret had recently become through his mother's 
 death) commanded a small group consisting chiefly of Pulteney, 
 Earl of Bath, Lord Winchilsea and his tribe of ' black funereal 
 Pinches.' Another important group was the Duke of Bed- 
 ford's, which included his father-in-law Lord Gower, once a 
 notorious Jacobite, Lord Sandwich, the cricketer and the 
 godfather of 'sandwiches,' and Rigby, prototype of all the 
 Tadpoles. Cobham's set comprised the GrenviUes, Lytteltons 
 and Pitt, with Chesterfield as a free-lance. Bubb Dodington^i 
 who had some dozen seats at his disposal, prowled about from 
 set to set like a jackal on the look-out for pickings. Last and ' 
 chief of all were the Pelhams, who reckoned as their foremost 
 supporters the Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, Harrington and 
 MuLxray : they were indispensable as a basis for any ministry, 
 partly owing to the enormous parUamentary interest possessed 
 by the Duke of Newcastle, partly owing to their strict alUance 
 with Archibald, Duke of Argyll, formerly Lord Isla, who 
 was practically king of Scotland, and returned aU the sixteen 
 Scottish peers and a very large number of the Scottish members. 
 
PARTIES IN 1744 129 
 
 These subdivisions had not been so clearly marked until 
 Walpole's fall. The Pelhams had formed the mainstay of his 
 power in ParKament : the other groups had been held together 
 by Bolingbroke under the nominal leadership of the Prince 
 of Wales. On the break-up of Walpole's Ministry, the Prince 
 of Wales still adhered to Carteret, while most of the other 
 groups separated under their respective leaders, who roamed 
 about the poUtical world, like condottieri bent on securing the 
 largest spoUs for themselves and their followers. On Gran- 
 ville's fall, Pelham, left undisputed head of the Ministry, 
 contrived another way of uniting them. Walpole had brought 
 them together against him by the open contempt he showed 
 to any man who dared oppose him ; Pelham, conciHatory by 
 temperament, secured their almost united support by a judicious 
 distribution of favours to all the groups. What Pelham did — 
 principally, it may be suspected, from love of ease — happened 
 to coincide exactly with Pitt's conviction that government 
 should not be the business of one chque, but representative j 
 of all those who were faithful to Eevolution principles. 1 
 
 In the Broadbottom Administration formed by the Pelhama 
 in November 1744,Jihe Bedford group was represented by the 
 Duke himself, as First Lord of the Admiralty, by Gower, as 
 Lord Privy Seal, and by Sandwich, who was given a place at 
 the Admiralty. Lord Chesterfield, in spite of the King's 
 dishke of him, was made Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland ; Cobham 
 was restored to the command of a regiment ; while his • cubs,' 
 George Lyttelton and George Granville, joined the Treasury 
 and Admiralty Boards respectively. The Prince's friend, Lord 
 Middlesex, got a household appointment ; Sir J. Hynde Cotton, 
 a notorious old Jacobite, became Treasurer of the Chambers ; 
 and Bubb Dodington was appeased with the lucrative post of 
 Treasurer of the Navy. The nominal leader of the Opposition, 
 Edmund Waller, became Cofferer, and one man of pre-emiaent 
 merit. Admiral Anson, was put in his right place at the Navy 
 Board. Walpole's Secretary of State, Lord Harrington, resumed 
 the seals laid down by Granville, and he,~with Pelham, the 
 Duke of Newcastle and Hardwicke, represented the ' old corps ' 
 of Walpole's era. Thus the only man of importance left out 
 
 VOL. I. K 
 
130 PITT AND THE REBELLION 
 
 I was Pitt himself. In the negotiations for forming the new 
 Ministry carried on between the Pelhams and Lords Chester- 
 field, Gower and Cobham, Pitt was proposed as Secretary at 
 War, the post which he had long marked out for himself.^ 
 But the King, who had already made a difficulty about ad- 
 mitting Chesterfield, absolutely refused to have Pitt in an 
 office requiring frequent attendance on himself. Considering 
 Pitt's attacks on the beloved electorate and his sneers at 
 George II's behaviour at Dettingen, this veto is hardly sur- 
 prising and seems to have been regarded as natural by Pitt 
 himself. At any rate he contented himself with a promise 
 from the Pelhams that the King's prejudices should be over- 
 come and agreed at once to support the Ministry ; he even 
 persuaded his friend George Grenville, who had qualms about 
 taking office while Pitt had nothing, to accept the post offered 
 him at the Admiralty. In April 1745 he gave a final mark of 
 his adherence to the Ministry by resigning his appointment in 
 I the Prince of Wales's household. Friendly relations between 
 I himself and the Prince were never entirely broken off, but his 
 master's continued favour to Carteret had for some time caused 
 a coolness between them. 
 
 On measures as well as men the Pelhams showed a con- 
 ciKatory spirit. Two of Pitt's chief charges against Carteret 
 \ were his failure to secure the vigorous co-operation of the 
 5 Dutch and his employment of Hanover troops. The Pelhams 
 did their utmost to meet his views on both these points. One 
 of their first acts was to send over Lord Chesterfield to The 
 Hague in the hope that a man of his rank, who had previously 
 been ambassador there, might wake the Dutch out of their 
 torpor. The Dutch, however, said — ^and there was some force 
 in the contention — that so long as George II persisted in main- 
 taining the neutrality of Hanover they saw no reason for 
 declaring war in a cause which affected them but slightly. 
 George II was persuaded to abandon this neutrality in the 
 autumn of 1745, whereupon the Dutch came forward as belli- 
 gerents. MeanwhUe Chesterfield had obtained from them pro- 
 
 ^ la the caricature o£ March 1, 1743, mentioned above (p. 110, note), Pitt 
 is represented saying, ' Make me Secretary at War.' 
 
BROADBOTTOM MINISTRY, 1744 131 
 
 mises of fixed quotas of troops and ships ; and they agreed 
 to contribute part of the subsidy payable to the Elector of 
 Saxony as his price for joining a quadruple alliance signed in 
 January 1745 between England, Holland, Saxony and the 
 Queen of Hungary. The Pelhams also, after a fashion, got rid 
 of the Hanover troops. In deference to the popular agitation 
 they obtained the King's permission not to take these 
 troops directly into the pay of Great Britain for the year 
 1745 ; but recognising that without them it would be difficult 
 to find enough men for the allies, they agreed to increase 
 the Queen of Hungary's subsidy by £200,000, on the under- 
 standing that she should engage them. By this subterfuge 
 England, while really paying for Hanoverians as before, 
 would not have them on her pay-sheets. It was not an 
 heroic method of dealing with the difficulty, but it removed 
 a great cause of unpopularity from the dynasty, while not 
 impairing the strength of the continental coalition against 
 Prance. 
 
 Parliament met for a month on November 27, 1744, but 
 Pitt, still taking the waters at Bath, was too ill to attend. 
 On January 23, a fortnight after the Christmas recess, he sud- 
 denly appeared, ' with the mien and apparatus of an invalid,' 
 to speak in committee on the vote of 28,000 men for Flanders. 
 It was a critical moment for the ministers. In spite of their 
 apparent success in bringing the chief members of the Opposi- 
 tion within their fold, they were almost on the verge of dis- 
 ruption, for ' there is not a half-witted prater in the House,' 
 wrote Horace Walpole, ' but can divide with every new minister 
 on his side, . . . and on the first tinkling of the brass, all the 
 new bees swarm back to the Tory side of the House ' ; while 
 Bath, Granville and the King himself were eagerly on the look- 
 out for any false step they might take. Maurice de Saxe's over- 
 whelming success in last year's campaign in the Low Countries 
 had made it essential to resist his further progress, and a defeat 
 on the question of voting the necessary force would be the 
 signal for the Pelhams' downfall and the triumphant return 
 of Granville. 
 
 Yonge, the Secretary at War, opened the debate, and 
 
 k2 
 
132 PITT AND THE REBELLION / 
 
 Pelham supported the motion with unusual force and earnest- 
 ness. Two speakers opposed the Government : one of them, 
 Sir Eoger Newdigate, taunted ministers with pursuing the 
 same poUcy as their predecessors, and described it as a series 
 of ' old measures by a new ministry.' Before any further 
 January I criticisms could be offered, Pitt rose in his most majestic mood 
 ^' ^'*^' to crush opposition. Alluding to his illness, he declared that 
 if this was to be the last day of his life he would spend it in 
 the House of Commons, since he judged the condition of 
 his country to be worse than his own. Pleading his weak- 
 ness as an excuse for not entering into details, he expressed a 
 hope that Pelham would already not only have persuaded but 
 awed the House into an approbation of the measure. Taking 
 up Sir Eoger Newdigate's objection he showed that the whole 
 question had changed from the last year, when 
 
 a certain fatal influence prevailed in His Majesty's councils. Then 
 tte object seemed the multiplying of war upon war, expense upon 
 expense, and the abetting the House of Austria in romantic schemes 
 of acquisition such as the recovery of the avulsa imperii, without 
 regard to the interest of Great Britain. Now the object is, by 
 connecting ourselves closely with Holland, to arrive at a situation 
 which might enable us to hold out fair and reasonable terms of peace 
 both to our friends and enemies and not to pursue the war a moment 
 longer than we could obtain an equitable and sufficient security for 
 our rights and those of our alhes pursuant to public treaties. Already 
 there are symptoms of a better disposition in the States, and if they 
 complete their last augmentation of twelve thousand men, they 
 wiU have a more numerous army on foot than they kept up during 
 King William's war. 
 
 As he brought out each point of his version of a changed policy 
 he faced round on Sir Eoger and demanded with an air of 
 disdain, ' Can this be called an old measure for a new ministry ? ' 
 Then, contrasting Lord Granville's policy with that of the 
 present -Sninisters, he described him as one who flattered the 
 King's dominant passions and fed him with false hopes of 
 aggrandizing non-English States at the expense of national 
 objects, supporting himself in the closet on that broken reed, 
 an opinion of his credit with foreign princes ; one who kept 
 
PITT'S SUPPORT 133 
 
 the people in misery by heaping up crushing debts and charges 
 and had not ten men in the nation to follow him : the present 
 Ministry, on the other hand, were devoted to the King's and the 
 country's interests. He paid a marked comphment to Pelham 
 for his just and reasonable measures of finance : 
 
 He and those acting with, him are to be commended for pursuing 
 moderate and healing measures and such as tend to set the King 
 at the head of his people. I believe a dawn of salvation has broken 
 forth : I shall follow it as far as it will lead me. If those now at 
 the helm do not mean the honour of their master and the good of 
 the nation I am the greatest dupe in the world. If I find myself 
 deceived, nothing will be left but an honest despair.^ 
 
 The fulminating eloquence of Pitt's attack on Granville 
 and his sarcasms on poor Sir Eoger silenced all opposition. 
 But the speech, dehvered throughout, says Philip Yorke, with 
 much grace of action and elocution, was something more than 
 a debating triumph. Even Horace Walpole declared it to be 
 ' a very strong but much-admired speech for coalition.' By 
 his allusions to the country's danger, by his earnest pleading 
 for national unity and his high hopes of the Ministry's 
 capacity and success, he raised the tone of the proceedings 
 above the petty personal issues which had long been so 
 prominent, and produced, it was said, such unanimity as had 
 not been seen in Parliament for a century. By this speech 
 Pitt, the most prominent member of the old Opposition, who 
 alone had been passed over, gained for the Administration a 
 victory such as they had not dared to expect, and in it gave 
 a foretaste of that constructive genius to which within twelve 
 years the harmonious action of a united nation so gloriously 
 responded. 
 
 A better opening for damaging the Ministry occurred on 
 February 18, when Pelham proposed an increased grant to 
 
 ^ In Chatham MSS. 74 are undated notes in Pitt's handwriting for a speech 
 which appears to be this one. Some of these notes are : ' My confidence . . . 
 change in the administration now wrought 7 upon measures . . . abandoning 
 the allies ruin and infamy . . . hazard of the experiment in popularity ; 
 honest hazard uncertainty this way, sure inevitable ruin the other. . . ,' 
 
134 PITT AND THE REBELLION 
 
 the Queen of Hungary, defending it on the ground that, ' out 
 of the King's paternal regard to the jealousies and heart- 
 burnings ' in the nation, the Hanover troops would no longer 
 be paid by England. Lord Granville's friends had little diffi- 
 culty in exposing the subterfuge whereby the Queen was to 
 February be paid to hire the same troops. But once more Pitt, with 
 18, 1745. g^jjjjQg^ quixotic courage, went out of his way to defend the 
 Ministry and awed the House into submission : the with- 
 drawal of the Hanover troops was a meritorious and popular 
 measure, which did honour to the minister who advised it and 
 the prince who so graciously vouchsafed to follow it, a measure 
 which must give pleasure to every honest heart. It had been 
 thrown out that the Queen might take them into her pay when 
 they were dismissed from ours, but who could object to that ? 
 The Queen, he supposed, was at liberty to take them or refuse 
 them : 
 
 God forbid that they should be forced on the one hand, or on the 
 other that those vmfortunate troops should by our votes be proscribed 
 at every court in Europe. It is sufficient for us that the ill con- 
 sequences which were apprehended from the voting them year by 
 year as part of our own army . . . have been removed by His 
 Majesty's wisdom and goodness. 
 
 In his zeal for unity Pitt, contrary to his habit, refused to be 
 drawn into a personal altercation with a member who had 
 warmly attacked him for his depreciation of the Hanoverians 
 and for suggesting that they were unworthy to be on the roll 
 with English troops. 
 
 Pitt in his reply [says Yorke] carried himself with all the art 
 and temper imaginable ; he soothed and comphmented Sir H. Liddell 
 and at the same time put the question in a more just and acceptable 
 light. The honourable gentleman had quoted his words exactly, 
 but mistook his meaning, which was not to give offence to a heart so 
 honourable and honest as his. He considered the question as an 
 expedient for xmanimity, without making any invidious retrospect 
 to what had passed in former debates ; and he heartily wished 
 all the differences they had occasioned might be buried in oblivion 
 and not revived again to the reproach of any gentleman whatever. 
 
 The irate member was so impressed by this mild answer that 
 
LOUISBURG CAPTURED, 1745 135 
 
 he rose to apologise and thanked Pitt for telling him of his 
 warmth ; the House again passed the Government's proposal 
 almost unanimously. 
 
 The King's Goverimient needed all the support they could 
 obtain, for this was a year of nearly uninterrupted disaster. 
 On the Continent, in spite of English subsidies amounting to 
 over a million sterling, England and her alhes could not muster 
 an army of half the number of men poured into Flanders by 
 Prance, and their generals were no match for Marshal Saxe, the 
 military genius of the age. At Eontenoy in May 1745 the alHes 
 attempted to cover the important fortress of Tournai but were 
 defeated, not ingloriously, by the French, led by Saxe and 
 encouraged by the presence of their ' well-beloved ' monarch. 
 Tournai fell in June, Ghent and Oudenarde in July, and, at 
 the end of August, Ostend, the port of approach to the Nether- 
 lands from England, was surrendered by the Austrian com- 
 mandant. In Italy the allies fared no better : the EngHsh 
 fleet won a few sHght successes over the Genoese allies 
 of France, but on land the French, Spanish and Neapohtan 
 forces carried aU before them in North Italy. In Germany 
 alone France gained nothing, but then neither did Maria 
 Theresa. Her one gleam of comfort was the death of the 
 Bavarian Emperor in January, when her husband was allowed 
 to succeed him without objection from Frederic or France ; 
 but her attempts to recover Silesia were ignominiously defeated. 
 Frederic played his usual game of keeping in with both sides. 
 In June he signed a new treaty with France, but in August 
 was so alarmed at the French successes in the Low Countries, 
 that the Pelhams induced him to enter into an alliance with 
 England, after overcoming their own King's aversion to bis 
 nephew. 
 
 Our only inilitary success during 1745 was the capture 
 of Louisburg, ' the Dunkirk of North America,' and even 
 that was due chiefly to the enterprise of the New England 
 colonists in raising a land force of four thousand men under 
 PeppereU to co-operate with a small fleet under Commodore 
 Warren. To the Duke of Newcastle and other timorous 
 spirits in the Ministry this solitary conquest seemed a source 
 
136 PITT AND THE REBELLION 
 
 of embarrassment rather than congratulation.^ With Httle 
 appreciation of its importance their first thought was to hand 
 it back to Prance as a set-off to her Flemish conquests. The 
 nation, with surer judgment, had acclaimed the capture of 
 the fortress as the greatest triumph of the war ; ' it is become,' 
 says Chesterfield, ' the darling object of the whole nation ; it 
 is ten times more so than ever Gibraltar was.' Pitt also saw 
 its importance from the first : ' I heartily wish your Grace 
 joy of Cape Breton,' he wrote to Bedford at the Admiralty ; ' I 
 know you feel national success.' Thirty years later he still 
 recalled the impression made on him by the colonists' brave 
 dash under Pepperell, and answered the question, ' What have 
 May 30, these rebels done heretofore ? ' by the retort : ' I remember 
 1777. when they raised four regiments on their own bottom and 
 took Louisburg from the veteran troops of Prance.' 
 
 The final calamity in this unfortunate year was the Jacobite 
 rising, which Walpole had always dreaded. Happily that 
 great statesman did not Uve to see it : he was laid to rest 
 five months before July 26, when the young Pretender landed 
 on the west coast of Scotland with the ' seven men of Moidart.' 
 In less than a month Charles Edward rallied 2,000 High- 
 landers to his standard ; by the middle of September he 
 had entered Perth and Edinburgh and put to flight two 
 English cavalry regiments at " the Canter o' Colt Brig.' On 
 September 21 at Prestonpans he defeated the only troops 
 in Scotland xmder Sir John Cope. The EebeUion found the 
 Government as unprepared as it was to meet a French invasion 
 in the preceding year. The King was away in Hanover and 
 did not return until August 31 ; there were scarcely any 
 regular troops in the country, and even ministers had the 
 gloomiest apprehensions. The Paymaster thought the Pre- 
 tender would be successful, and Pelham did not find the zeal to 
 venture purses and hves he had expected.^ It was fortunate 
 that the French, being unprepared for the EebeUion, did not 
 attempt another invasion. ' Had 5,000 landed a week ago in any 
 
 "^ Even Pelham thought it would be ' a stumbling-block to negotiation.' 
 (Coxe, Pelham Administration, i, 282 : Pelham to Trevor.) 
 
 * See Historical MSS. Commission, xiv, 9 (Pelham to Trevor), and EgmovJt 
 MSS. 277 (for Winnington the Paymaster's views). 
 
PRETENDER'S INVASION, 1745 137 
 
 part of this island,' wrote Henry Fox in September, ' I verily 
 believe the entire conquest would not have cost them a battle.' 
 Prompt measures, however, were taken to restore confidence. 
 Most of the EngUsh troops in Flanders were recalled, the Dutch 
 were asked to send an auxiliary force, and 6,000 Hessians were 
 landed in the country. A camp of the Guards with militia 
 and trained bands was formed at Finchley, and by the end of 
 October Wade had an army of 10,000 men at Newcastle and 
 Ligonier another at Lichfield. Chesterfield sent over two 
 regiments from Dublin, and on his own authority called out 
 the Irish militia and issued beating orders in Ulster. The 
 London bar offered to enrol themselves as a body-guard to the 
 King, and the Duke of Bedford, with thirteen other noblemen, 
 volunteered to raise regiments for the defence of the Protestant 
 succession. Parhament was summoned early — on October 17— 
 when the Pretender had most of Scotland at his mercy, and 
 England lay weU-nigh undefended before him. In such a 
 crisis character tells more than eloquence. Men began to 
 feel that in Pitt was something greater than his words, and 
 instinctively turned for the word of command — ^not to the 
 Treasury bench but to this young, untried man. On the first 
 day of the session Sir Francis Dashwood, with misplaced 
 zeal, had chosen the moment to move an amendment to the 
 Address, praying for purer elections, shorter parliaments, and 
 the prevention of undue influence on members. His motion October 
 was shortly disposed of by Pitt : ^''' ^''*°" 
 
 I shall always be a real friend to any regulation whicli may appear 
 to me to be efiectual for preventing tHe fatal effects of corruption ; 
 but at a time wten our all is at stake, whatever opinion we may 
 have of our ministers for the time being, surely it is unseasonable 
 to attempt anything that may raise discontents among the people, 
 or lessen their confidence in those who are placed in authority over 
 them. Whilst the nation is engaged in a most dangerous and 
 expensive foreign war, a rebellion breaks out at home. Those 
 rebels have abeady gained a victory over the King's troops, which 
 has made them almost wholly masters of one part of the United 
 Kingdom. ... In such circumstances shall we amuse ourselves 
 with contriving methods to prevent the efiects of corruption? 
 Shall we spend our time in projects for guarding our liberties against 
 
138 PITT AND THE REBELLION 
 
 corruption when they are in such immediate danger of being trampled 
 under foot by force of arms ? 
 
 The people without doors, he reminded the House, were not 
 troubling themselves about corruption then, or sending up 
 letters, instructions, and remonstrances in favour of shorter 
 parliaments ; all they were thinking of was ' how to defend 
 their sovereign and themselves against those who have traitor- 
 ously conspired to rob him of their crown and them of their 
 liberties, properties and religion.' Such a people, he believed, 
 could well be trusted to defend themselves. Instead, therefore, 
 of relying on the Dutchmen and Hessians brought over by the 
 Government, he moved on October 23 to recall the English 
 troops stiU remaining in Flanders as ' the most proper and 
 surest means to suppress and entirely to extinguish this de- 
 testable rebellion, effectually to discourage any foreign power 
 from assisting the rebels, and to restore the peace of the 
 kingdom ' ; and the House was so much impressed by his 
 October eloquent pleading and the respect he showed the King that 
 23, 1745 Pelham only averted defeat by a majority of twelve on the 
 ' previous question.' ^ 
 
 The most remarkable sign of confidence in Pitt came from 
 the Scottish peers and members of Parliament. They were having 
 an unhappy time, with rebellion aflame in their own country and 
 black looks directed against them from all quarters in England. 
 They were anxious to demonstrate the real loyalty of Scotland by 
 a parliamentary inquiry, which would make it appear ' that the 
 country was zealously affected to the present Government ' ; to 
 prove their own attachment to the Throne Jay being allowed to 
 raise similar volunteer regiments to those sanctioned in England ; 
 and to air their grievances against the Duke of Argyll, and 
 Lord Tweeddale, the Secretary for Scotland, for the inefficiency 
 of their measures against the rebels. But they had no fixed 
 plan of action ; conferences of their chief men, Lords Stair 
 and Marchmont, the Dukes of Queensberry and Montrose, and 
 Oswald and Hume Campbell, resulted in nothing. In their 
 despair they turned to Pitt, one of the few men in England 
 
 * Malmesbury, Letters, i, 7, and Commons Journal. 
 
SCOTTISH MEMBERS TURN TO PITT 139 
 
 ■who never countenanced the popular prejudice against Scots- 
 men. ' I would walk barefooted from one end of the town to 
 the other to gain Mr. Pitt,' said Lord Marchmont, whose appeal 
 to him was not in vain. Pitt first proposed meeting them 
 with Barrington and Lyttelton, but this, they said, would be 
 ' only multiplying himself,' as his two friends were sure to 
 agree with him : so Pitt came alone. He made the Scotch 
 peers and members first define clearly what they wanted, 
 asked them pertinent questions about the evidence they 
 expected to produce at an inquiry, and finally agreed to support 
 their demand for a committee, on condition it were open and 
 not secret, and that they entertained no idea of embarrassing 
 the Government. But after Pitt had talked to his friends and 
 induced Pelham to agree to the committee, Oswald broke the 
 understanding by a violent attack on the Government in 
 seconding the motion for a committee on October 28. Pitt 
 accordingly withheld his support, and the motion was rejected 
 by a large majority .^ 
 
 Three days after this incident the young Pretender began 
 his march on Carlisle, which he captured on November 17 with 
 the loss of one man killed and one wounded. Wade's army 
 at Newcastle could not reach him, as there were no roads 
 from the east to the west of that part of England ; it was, 
 therefore, not a time to discourage those who were attempting 
 to raise fresh men to meet the emergency. But Hume Camp- 
 bell, embittered perhaps by the failure of his motion on October 
 28, thought otherwise, and on November 4 made an attack 
 on the fourteen regiments that were being raised by the Dukes 
 of Bedford and Eutland and other patriotic noblemen, under 
 cover of a motion not to grant army rank to the officers. He 
 found some sympathy in the House owing to a prevalent 
 
 In the Marchmont Memoirs there is an unfortunate gap between October 
 24 and November 6, 1745. On the 24th Pitt is said to have agreed to support 
 the motion of the 28th. All that is recorded of the debate is to be found in 
 Pari. Hist. xiii. No speech of Pitt's is there given, and it appears just to assume 
 that he did not speak owing to Oswald's attack on the Government, contrary 
 to the agreement. On November 4 Pitt was on bad terms with Hume Camp- 
 bell, who moved for the committee of inquiry on October 28, and with 
 whom Pitt had previously discussed the matter. 
 
140 PITT AND THE REBELLION 
 
 suspicion that these noblemen made their offer from sordid 
 
 views and had no intention of raising the men, when they 
 
 had drawn the pay and levy-money. Horace Walpole even 
 
 went so far as to assert that not six of the regiments 
 
 were ever raised. ^ This suspicion was afterwards proved 
 
 to have no foundation whatever ; a Committee of the 
 
 House investigated the charge and reported that none of 
 
 the regiments fell below 100 of their proper effectives-S* 
 
 Pitt at least, who knew the zeal of his friends the Duke of 
 
 Bedford and Lord Granby, was not going to allow loyalty to 
 
 be damped down at such a conjuncture. Hume Campbell's 
 
 November proposal he condemned as 
 4. 1745. 
 
 unequitable, because it would iajure those who have engaged, at 
 this time of danger and distress, in the service of their country ; 
 and imprudent because it would discourage them from offering to 
 serve it, if the same danger should at any time return. The noble 
 Peers, who have undertaken to raise regiments for the public service 
 at this time, have signalized themselves by a very laudable and 
 eminent degree of zeal, and such zeal deserves to be rewarded. They 
 have stood like men of fortitude and integrity in the gap at which 
 war and confusion were breaking in upon us, and have by their 
 influence and example raised the same spirit in others, who, had 
 they not been thus animated to resistance and resolution, would 
 inevitably have sunk under their fears, and sufiered all the calamities 
 of an invasion without daring to attempt the means of opposing or 
 preventing them. ... I cannot but think such a spirit of more 
 importance on the present occasion than the pomp of alliances and 
 the prospect of succours, and it may with justice be concluded that 
 such men contribute more to the public security than so many 
 battalions in the service of his Majesty. 
 
 He treated with scorn Hume Campbell's unconstitutional 
 
 1 His friend Hanbury Williams expressed the same view in his ballad, Tht 
 Heroes, which opens in this strain : 
 
 Of all the jobs that e'er had past 
 Our house, since times of jobbing : 
 
 Sure none was ever like the last, 
 Ev'n in the days of Robin. 
 
 See Gentleman's Magazine, xvi, p. 403, quoted in Manners, Lord Qranhy, 
 p. 25. 
 
PITT ON NATIONAL UNITY 141 
 
 argument that the regular army might object to these new 
 commissions : 
 
 The right of inqxiiiing what measures may conduce to the advantage 
 and security of the Public belongs not to the army, but to this House ; 
 to this House belongs the power of constituting the army, or of ad- 
 vising his Majesty with regard to its constitution ; our armies have 
 no better right to determine for themselves than any other body of 
 men ; nor are we to sufEer them to prescribe laws to the Legislature, 
 or to govern those by whose authority they subsist. . . . And to set 
 aside the King's promise of these commissions as of no value would be 
 to weaken him at a time when he wants an addition of strength, 
 and to show our enemies that he is at variance with his Parliament, 
 when we should endeavour to exalt him by new acts of confidence 
 and regard. 
 
 With the Pretender advancing almost unopposed through 
 Lancashire and the King in constant ill-humour and as 
 eager as ever for an excuse to replace them by Granville, 
 the Pelhams were casting about for support to their tottering 
 Administration. The Prince of Wales offered to support them 
 on the scarcely alluring condition that they turned out all 
 their own friends to make room for Granville's. But the 
 Pelhams' object was " to fix a solid scheme with those they 
 had always wanted to unite with ' ; in other words, they came 
 cap in hand to the great orator, who had shown more capacity 
 than any man to rouse the country to a sense of its danger 
 and its duty, and had more than once saved the administra- 
 tion. This was the first but not the only occasion of national \ 
 danger on which Pitt, uncormected and comparatively poor \ 
 and with no boroughs to sell, saw himself approached as the 
 saviour of his country. He himself had shown his willingness 
 to support the Pelhams in necessary measures of defence, but 
 he was not so eager for office as to join the Ministry without 
 conditions. Newcastle, in a letter to Chesterfield,^ gives a 
 detailed account of the Government's attempt to secure Pitt, 
 and of Pitt's own conception of a national pohcy. 
 
 Pirst Pelham had an interview alone with Pitt, who stated 
 the following to be his conditions for joining the Ministry : 
 '■ November 20, 1745. {Add. M8S. 32705, f. 318.) 
 
142 PITT AND THE REBELLION 
 
 (1) a Place Bill to be introduced, excluding all officers under 
 the rank of lieutenant-colonel or captain in the navy from 
 the House of Commons ; (2) the removal of all Granville's 
 remaining friends, notably the Finches, from their places at 
 Court ; (3) a total alteration of the foreign system : while 
 we had the Eebellion on our hands our part in the continental 
 war was to be confined to sending an auxiHary force of not 
 more than 10,000 troops to the support of the Dutch ; on 
 the other hand no efforts were to be spared in carrying on the 
 naval war with France and Spain ; and peace with France, 
 of which there had been rumours, was not to be thought of. 
 
 After some further conferences between Pitt and the Duke 
 of Newcastle, a formal meeting was arranged at Lord Gower's 
 house on the night of Saturday, November 16, at which the 
 Lord Chancellor, Lord Harrington, Pelham and the Duke of 
 Newcastle represented the Pelham interest. Lord Gower, 
 the Duke of Bedford, Lord Cobham (though aU three already 
 in the Ministry), together with Pitt, represented the former 
 Opposition. The Pelhams opened with an appeal for union, 
 declamig that they would never have been instrumental 
 in removing Granville had they not relied on the support of 
 Pitt and his friends. On Pitt's two first demands they made 
 no difficulty. All agreed with Chesterfield that the House 
 could well spare the ' puppey subalterns ' ^ who used their 
 votes to obtain promotion — some, perhaps, with a Hvely 
 recollection of the trouble a certain ' puppey cornet ' had once 
 given them ; the only objection to removing the Finches 
 seemed to be the fear of still further irritating the King. The 
 chief difference appeared on the third point — of foreign policy. 
 
 All present were pleased at the recently concluded Prussian 
 treaty and determined to support it ; and all were equally 
 agreed that the Queen of Hungary, by her obstinacy in refusing 
 to come into that treaty, had lost aU claim to English subsidies 
 or troops. So far so good ; but Pitt was supported by Cobham 
 alone in his proposal to abandon the continental war. The 
 arguments put forward by the Duke of Newcastle on behalf 
 of the others were that Holland would never support the war 
 1 Add. MSS. 32705, f. 379. 
 
PELHAM SEEKS TO GAIN PITT, 1745 143 
 
 in Flanders with a paltry auxiliary force of 10,000 men, but 
 
 would at once make peace with France and leave us without 
 
 a friend in Europe : France and Spain would then be able 
 
 to concentrate their energy on their fleets and beat us even at 
 
 sea, especially if the Duke of Bedford was right in asserting 
 
 that our fleet could not be augmented or improved. Pitt, 
 
 supported by Cobham, took a bolder view of what England 
 
 could do : a defensive war in Flanders would never, he said, 
 
 bring the French to their knees ; but if, without distractions 
 
 on the Continent, we took a vigorous offensive at sea, our 
 
 proper element, France and Spain would soon be brought to 
 
 reason. In our present circumstances 10,000 men seemed to 
 
 him ' a generous and noble succour ' to the Dutch ; anything 
 
 more would simply tempt them to leave all the fighting to 
 
 us, and commit us to a war as expensive as that of helping 
 
 the Queen of Himgary. From this stalwart attitude Pitt 
 
 and Cobham would not budge ; Newcastle recognised that 
 
 • to bring in Mr. Pitt against his own will is impossible ' ; 
 
 accordingly the conference broke up without result, though 
 
 'with much civihty and apparent friendship.' But Pitt would 
 
 not give up his point about the navy. Failing to impress 
 
 the Cabinet by his arguments, he attempted to convince the 
 
 House of Commons. On November 21 he brought forward a November 
 
 motion to increase our fleet, arguing that, even to suppress ^l. 1745. 
 
 the Eebellion, we must depend on our strength at sea. The 
 
 argument seemed paradoxical, but Pitt was clearly referring to v 
 
 the prospect of assistance from France, which could alone 
 
 give the rebels any chance of ultimate success. Old Horace 
 
 Walpole once more ventured to sneer at the wisdom of the 
 
 modern young man, and suggested sarcastically that his own 
 
 son of twenty-two was young enough to give even better 
 
 advice. Pitt was annoyed and retorted on his grey-headed 
 
 experience, but joined heartily in the laugh when Walpole 
 
 lifted up his wig to prove the hteral justice of the retort. He 
 
 found, however, only thirty-six to join him in the lobby, being 
 
 left, as young Horace Walpole contemptuously observed, to 
 
 ' his words, his haughtiness, his Lytteltons, and his Grenvilles.' 
 
 Meanwhile events were driving the Pelhams to gain Pitt 
 
144 PITT AND THE REBELLION 
 
 by accepting his views. The young Pretender reached Derby 
 on December 4, and the Duke of Cumberland, who had 
 succeeded Ligonier in command at Lichfield, left him a 
 clear road to the capital. When the news reached London on 
 December 6, there was ' a terror scarce to be credited,' says 
 , Fielding ; there was a run on the Bank of England, which 
 saved itself only by paying all demands in sixpences ^ ; and 
 a wild rumour was afloat that the King's yacht was in the 
 Thames ready to carry him back to Hanover. Even Pitt, 
 
 AprU 21, courageous as he was, confessed in a speech to the House of 
 
 ^''*^- Commons four years later that though 
 
 convinced tliat the spirit of England was sincere and true, yet I 
 am afraid if the rebel leader could have persuaded his people to 
 have ventured a battle against the Duke in Staffordshire, or to 
 have given him the sUp, marched towards London, and fought a 
 battle near this city, the fate of England would have depended on 
 the issue of that battle ; for if they had obtained a victory, and 
 made themselves masters of London, I question if the spirit of the 
 populace would not have taken a very different turn. 
 
 But Charles Edward, sorely against his will, was persuaded to 
 advance no farther than Derby, whence he began his retreat 
 to Scotland, closely pressed by the Duke of Cumberland. He 
 had one more victory over Hawley at Falkirk on January 17, 
 1746, but was finally routed by the Duke of Cumberland at 
 Culloden on April 16. 
 
 ' Black Friday,' December 6, appears to have convinced 
 Pelham that Pitt's views on the continental war, at any rate, 
 were sound. ' Whatever puts a speedy end to the Eebellion,' 
 he wrote a few days later to the English minister at the Hague, 
 • is the best measure for our aUies as well as ourselves. Till 
 that is done, we are not a nation : and whatever good words 
 we might send you, I am sure it would not be in our power 
 to keep them." 2 Accordingly the Dutch were to be told that, 
 as Pitt had required, only a hmited auxihary force would be sent 
 
 1 Egmont in his diary states that there was a similar run on the Bank on 
 September 25, after the news of Prestonpans {Egmont MSS. 277). 
 
 * Coxe, Pelham Administration, i, 282: Pelham to Trevor, December 11. 
 1745. 
 
END OF REBELLION, 1746 145 
 
 them — a measure which was made easier by the accession of 
 Maria Theresa to the Anglo-Prussian alhance in December, 
 enabhng her to direct all her forces against France. Under 
 these altered conditions Pitt went in January to see the Duke 
 of Bedford, and on receiving a satisfactory explanation of the 
 minister's plans, agreed to support them if he could obtain 
 the consent of his ally Lord Cobham. To this Cobham made 
 no objection, provided posts were given to two more of the 
 ' cubs ' and Pitt made Secretary at War. Pelham was 
 delighted, but the next stage was not so easy. George II was 
 already deeply annoyed with his ministers for curtailing 
 England's part in the continental war, and was being secretly 
 encouraged by Lords Granville and Bath to adopt William Ill's 
 Grand Alhance as the model for a more ambitious policy. His 
 indignation knew no bounds when, on February 6, Pelham again 
 suggested that a man he regarded with so much aversion as 
 Pitt should be made Secretary at War. He refused point- 
 blank to have him in an office requiring constant access to his 
 person. He did not know the man by sight, he said, and only 
 knew of him by his insolence and impudence : if he were forced 
 to submit, he promised Pelham he would use Pitt ill nor 
 ever transact business with him: nay, he would publish 
 in every market town in England how he was used by his 
 minister, and was sure his people would stand by him.^ Argu- 
 ments were of no avail with the choleric old gentleman. Sir 
 Eobert's brother, Horace Walpole, had been brought to see 
 that the young orator of ' the formidable sounds and furious 
 declamation ' had become the indispensable statesman, and 
 told the King so in a long epistle. 
 
 Should his majesty, [he wrote] although unwillingly, condescend 
 (and a very great condescension it would indeed be) to take a certain 
 person into a certain place, it seems to be the only probable measure 
 to carry on his business efiectually in parUament, especially in regard 
 to foreign affairs. Should his majesty, as is now currently reported, 
 absolutely refuse to come into this measure, it is to be apprehended 
 that things woidd run into confusion in parHament, as the House 
 is now constituted.^ 
 
 1 Egmmt MSS. 277 and Aff. Mr. Angl. Corr. Pol. 422, f. 66. 
 " Cose, Memoirs of Lord Walpok, ii, 138. 
 VOL. I. IJ 
 
146 PITT AND THE REBELLION 
 
 The Pelhams, who, according to Marchmont, thought Mr. 
 Pitt the only man they need fear, threatened to resign, and the 
 King told them they might for all he cared. Pitt, with the 
 Pretender still imbeaten in the kingdom, was too patriotic 
 to desire the fall of the Ministry, and immediately offered 
 to resign all pretension to the post of Secretary at War ; but 
 the ministers were on their mettle, and demanded a signal 
 mark of royal confidence. Instead, the King met them with 
 violent reproaches, whereupon they resigned on February 10. 
 Bath and Granville, who had promised that ' a party behind 
 the curtain' would support the King, were called on to 
 fulfil their promises. After four days of futile attempts to 
 form a party or even to find enough supporters to fill the 
 public of&ces, they ignominiously abandoned the task and 
 were thenceforward known as the heroes of the shortest 
 Administration.^ 
 
 The Pelhams returned to power and were able to dictate 
 terms. GranviUe's remaining friends were turned out and 
 two more of Gobham's ' cubs ' admitted. Pitt still declined 
 to insist against the King's wish on the office he coveted, and 
 on February 22 accepted the sinecure of Vice-Treasurer of 
 Ireland^Tn ^HelDeHef that this would soon lead to a post more 
 worthy of his capacity. One of his first duties as a minister 
 was anything but agreeable. Since no EngHsh troops could 
 then be spared for the auxihary force promised to the Dutch, 
 the Ministry had decided to hire 18,000 Hanoverians to make 
 up the numbers. On April 10 the vote for these Hanoverians 
 was proposed, and Pitt was called upon to support it. Cir- 
 cumstances had materially altered since he had thundered so 
 eloquently and so successfully against a similar vote. Hanover 
 had now entered the war as a principal and could no longer be 
 said to be fulfilhng her obhgations solely at our expense ; the 
 Dutch were in such imminent danger from Maurice de Saxe 
 that even in our own interest it was imperative to help them ; 
 and, since no BngUsh troops could be spared from the Eebellion, 
 foreign troops, of which the Hanoverians were the best avail- 
 
 1 See allusion to this Ministry in Pitt's speech of November 13, 1755 
 (bfclow, pp. 269-70). 
 
PITT A MINISTER, 1746 147 
 
 able, had to take their place. Nevertheless Pitt's former 
 opposition to the Hanoverians had been uncompromising and 
 unconditional : he had declared, or was said to have declared, 
 ia an extravagant outburst that he would consent to be branded 
 on the forehead as a traitor if he ever consented to pay Hano- 
 verian troops ; and the numerous enemies his eminence" and 
 haughtiness had raised did not allow him to forget it. All 
 his old speeches were brought up against him in the debate : 
 he was racked, it was said, with the question both ordinary 
 and extraordinary. According to all accounts Pitt felt these 
 attacks acutely ; ^ but he was not the man to give a silent vote 
 on such an occasion, as did the GrenvUles and Lyttelton, who 
 had been equaUy violent in the past. His speech was differently AprU 8,' 
 regarded according to his critics' point of view : it cannot have 1746. 
 been unduly humble, for Walpole says it added impudence to . 
 profligacy^. On the other hand Pelham said that he showed 
 ' the dignity of Sir WilUam Wyndham, the wit of Mr. Pulteney 
 and the knowledge and judgment of Sir Eobert Walpole.' 
 ' In short,' adds Newcastle, ' he said all that was right for the 
 King, kind and respectful to the old corps, and resolute and 
 contemptuous for the Tory Opposition.' It pleased the King 
 so much that he suggested Pitt for the honour of proposing 
 the parhamentary grant to the Duke of Cumberland in 
 acknowledgment of the victory at Culloden,^ and a fortnight 
 later allowed bim to succeed Winnington as Paymaster of the 
 forces and to be sworn of the Privy Council.* But he still 
 maintained his veto on the Secretaryship at War, which was 
 given to Pitt's future rival, Henry Fox. 
 
 Pitt had to suffer far more obloquy for accepting a post 
 under Government than for his support of the Hanover troops. 
 Pive days later a caricature was published with the legend, 
 ' A ghost of a D— h— s to W m P Esq.,' in which 
 
 ' The French agent's account states that ' on I'emporta de la Chambre 
 plus mort que vif,' which, however, is an obvious exaggeration in view of what 
 Pelham and Newcastle said of his speech. 
 
 ' At the Duke's express request, however, the motion was proposed by 
 Pelham. 
 
 ' Pitt was appointed Paymaster-General on May 6, and sworn of the Privy 
 Council on May 28, 1746. 
 
 1,2 
 
148 PITT AND THE REBELLION 
 
 Pitt appears with ' Hanover T s ' branded on his brow.^ 
 
 His friend Lyttelton did not mend matters by addressing 
 him as ' Blest Genius ' in a laudatory poem, which declared, 
 
 To prove your justice you must greatness bear 
 And suffer honours you are doomed to wear. 
 
 This poem was the signal for a host of ribald parodies, of which 
 the most famous was Hanbury Wilhams's ' Unembarrassed 
 Countenance,' containing the lines. 
 
 When from an old woman, by standing his ground. 
 He had got the possession of ten thousand pound, 
 He said he car'd not for what others might call him. 
 He would show himself now the true son of Sir Balaam. 
 
 Derry Down, &c. 
 
 Whilst Balaam was poor, he was full of renown ; 
 But now that he's rich, he's the jest of the town. 
 Then let all men learn by his present disgrace, 
 That honesty's better by far than a place. 
 
 Derry Down, &c.2 
 
 On the other hand, the greatest living statesman outside 
 England was glad to recognise a kindred spirit in Pitt and 
 welcomed his accession to the Ministry. Frederic the Great's 
 envoy in London had spoken of Pitt as ' the greatest orator 
 in the House of Commons ... a man universally beloved 
 by the nation ' ; whereupon his master replied : ' From yom: 
 report I can see that Mr. Pitt has the feelings of a true 
 Englishman, you are therefore to compliment him from me 
 and inform him that I wish his views were generally held : 
 England and Prussia would then be closely united, a thing 
 impossible as long as England is directed according to tte 
 special interests of Hanover.' ^ Pitt himself took care that 
 
 ^ Pitt's reputation at this time may be estimated from the fact that the 
 French secret agent in London procured a copy of this print to send to the 
 French Foreign Office (Aff. Etr. Angl. Corr. Pol. 422, f. 182). 
 
 ^ Hanbury Williams's poem suggested a caricature of Pitt's ' Unembarrassed 
 Countenance ' depicted in a style uncongenial to modern taste. Hanbury 
 Williams also wrote A Duchess's Ghost to Orator Hanover Pitt, and Short Verses 
 ■in Imitation of Long Verses in an Epistle to William Pitt Esq. (a parody of 
 Xyttelton's poem). 
 
 3 Pol. Oorr. V, 45. 
 
ATTACKS ON PITT, 1746 149 
 
 attacks to his face were not repeated in the House of Com- 
 mons. In the following November George Selwyn's father 
 attempted it, but it resulted in ' the great mirth of the whole 
 House and the mortification of the major's oratorship.' ^ 
 
 The violent attacks on Pitt are intelligible at a time when 
 a post in the Government was more commonly regarded as 
 the price of silence than as a means of advancing the national 
 interests. Inconsistency, too, has always been a popular cause 
 of reproach to pohticians, whether the inconsistency applies 
 to details or to fundamentals ; and Pitt undoubtedly laid 
 himself open to the charge of inconsistency. He had used 
 the Hanoverians as a whip wherewith to chastise Carteret for 
 his un-EngHsh schemes of continental adventure, and, though 
 the circumstances had changed since Hanover had taken an 
 active part in the war and England needed alHes for her own 
 protection, Pitt's attacks had been too sweeping to be reconciled 
 with his present attitude. To do him justice, he did not 
 attempt to reconcUe them. Throughout life he looked on 
 charges of inconsistency with Olympian indifference, and often 
 suffered from his impetuous habit of using any arguments 
 that came to hand to drive home his point, however dangerous 
 they might prove afterwards. But on the fundamental issue 
 of husbanding the national resources for national objects and 
 not wasting them on objects which did not concern England he 
 was always consistent. Although the Pelhams were not very 
 courageous men, he felt that on the whole they represented 
 this view better than any other school of politicians. He 
 realised, too, that at this crisis, when England was smarting 
 from the disgrace of the Jacobite rebellion and France was 
 carrying her victorious arms all over Flanders, a ministry 
 founded on a broad basis and disinclined to a policy of 
 adventure deserved the support of every patriotic man. As 
 a member of such a government he would have more chance 
 of influencing their decisions than in opposition. He had 
 already succeeded in limiting the continental war to the single 
 object of turning the French out of Flanders, and his vigorous 
 
 ^ Chatham MSB. 34 : Elizabeth Wyndham to Hester Grenville (Pitt's future 
 wife), November 1746. 
 
150 PITT AND THE REBELLION 
 
 naval policy had some chance of fulfilment under Bedford, 
 who had the good sense to rely on Anson's advice. In accepting 
 office at this time his anxiety for the country may best be 
 told in his own words in answer to Trevor's congratulations 
 from The Hague : 
 
 I heartily wish I had as much reason to be contented with the 
 state of the Public, as I have to be with my own. ... I wiU not 
 trouble you with anything more than a wish in return for yours : 
 may our good friends where you are, learn of you to feel for us, for 
 Europe, and for themselves.^ 
 
 * Historical MSS. Commission, XIV, ix, 146, 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 PITT AS PAYMASTER 
 
 Treiflopx'a 7<^p ^cti tijj dirpa^las 
 
 ^SCHYLTTS, 8. c. Thebas, 224.^ 
 
 I— In War 
 
 Pitt was Paymaster of the Forces for over_mne ^ears, eight 
 of which were the most peaceful in his stormy Ufe. Pelham'a 
 bland sway allayed the discontents which Walpole and Car- 
 teret's forcible personalities had aroused, and at few periods in 
 our history were politics so dull or so harmonious. Pitt, himself 
 in the Government but outside the Cabinet, had no temptation 
 to oppose, no counterbalancing responsibility to absorb his 
 energies. In contrast to the notoriety his philippics against 
 Walpole and the ' Hanover troop-minister ' had brought 
 him and the glory he afterwards attained, this intervening 
 period was one of obscurity. The lampoons and caricatures 
 and the public eulogies aUke died down. 
 
 But these years of obscurity were not wasted. Even in 
 his own office he learned something of the business of 
 administration, and, from the confidence reposed in him by 
 the Pelhams, gained an insight into affairs of State that years 
 of zealous industry in opposition could never have supplied. 
 Convinced after twelve years in politics that, though much 
 could be said, little could be done for the public good by a 
 man labouring under the royal displeasure, he put a curb on 
 
 * ' Obedience breeds success and is mated to safety.' 
 151 
 
152 PITT AS PAYMASTER 
 
 his impetuosity, and in spite of occasional lapses conscientiously- 
 set himself to gain the royal favour and thereby earn the right 
 to serve his country fully. His efforts were poorly rewarded 
 at first, but they strengthened his character. And in this 
 period he had the leisure, rarely granted him, to enjoy a 
 private Kfe of his own, to have long spells with his friends, 
 to read copiously, plan gardens, and talk at large — humanities 
 all good for thd! growth of a man's soul, which is apt to languish 
 if confined to asingle sphere, even so full of human interest 
 as politics. 
 
 The Paymaster-General of the Guards, Garrisons and 
 Marching Forces was in Pitt's time a minister with little 
 business but large opportunities of profit. The work of 
 his office, Uttle more than routine, was to issue regimental 
 pay and the half-pay of the pensioners connected with Chelsea 
 Hospital, and to settle the bills of army contractors. The 
 Paymaster also had some patronage as ex officio Treasurer of 
 Chelsea Hospital and paid over to their London agents sub- 
 sidies voted by Parliament to foreign princes. One means of 
 irregular emolument^ to the Paymaster was the commission 
 - of one-fourth per cent, which it was the custom to exact on 
 all these subsidies, a considerable perquisite in such a year as 
 1745, when over £1,250,000 was paid to secure allies abroad. 
 But the chief opportunity for profit arose from the Treasury 
 practice of issuing to the Paymaster the money voted by 
 Parliament in lump sums, irrespective of the calls on him for 
 payment.^ Under this system the Paymaster's office was one 
 of the ' subordinate treasuries,' as Burke called them in his 
 speech on Economical Eeform of 1780, and not merely an 
 
 ' For example, in the year 1755 a King's Warrant of January 24 directed 
 the Treasury to pay over to Pitt £300,000 ' by way of imprest and upon 
 account for the service of our said guards, garrisons and land forces or any 
 other publick services under his care of payment for the year 1755 according 
 to such establishments and pursuant to such warrants and orders as are or 
 shall be signed by Us on that behalf ' ; while on February 21 a King's War- 
 rant ordered ' the clerk of the Signet attending ' to ' prepare a bill to pass 
 under Privy Seal,' granting Pitt £839,548. Thus within one month the whole 
 of the £1,139,548 granted by Parliament for guards, garrisons, and marching 
 forces for the current year was issued. (See Record Office, King^s Warrant 
 Booh 47.) Thanks are due to Dr. W. A. Shaw for his kindness in giving 
 references to documents in the Beoord Office relating to Pitt's accounts. 
 
PAY OFFICE SYSTEM 153 
 
 accounting department, as the corresponding office now is 
 and as Burke wished to make it by his EstabUshment Bill. 
 ' The great and invidious profits of the Pay Office,' he declared 
 in the same speech, ' are from the bank that is held in it.' 
 It often happened that the amount voted largely exceeded 
 the actual payments made in one year, with the result that 
 large balances remained in the Paymaster's hands. The 
 amounts he received from the Treasury at the beginning of 
 the year he could put out to interest for his own account until 
 payments fell due, as well as all the unexpended balances of 
 previous years, which were never returned to the Exchequer 
 until his accounts had been finally audited, long after he had 
 left office.^ As examples of the large amount of these balances, 
 it is related that -the Duke of Chandos built Canons from his 
 emoluments as Paymaster in Queen Anne's war ; and that in 
 1760, when the Government found a difficulty in raising a loan, 
 Pox, then Paymaster, was able to start the subscription with 
 £80,000 out of his balances.^ Undoubtedly also Pox, from his 
 profits in the office, secured comfort for his old age and the 
 means of starting his sons generously on their career of dissi- 
 pation. For the time being all issues to the Paymaster, as well 
 as all the office books and papers, were treated as his personal 
 property.^ These abuses lasted until 1782, when Eigby's 
 balances were the subject of a series of debates.* Eigby and 
 others openly admitted the practice of using these balances 
 for private profit and defended it strenuously ; but the House 
 of Commons thought otherwise, and resolved ' that from 
 henceforward the Paymaster- General of His Majesty's land 
 forces and the Treasurer of the Navy for the time being shaU 
 
 ^ In Record Office, King's Warrant Book 48 (December 20, 1756), a retiring 
 Paymaster is ordered to pay over part of his balance to his successor, with the 
 express proviso, however, that in the following year, when the financial strain is 
 relaxed, he is to be repaid. 
 
 2 See Torrens, ii, 539, and Add. MSS. 32907 (January 1760). Fox's reputa- 
 tion in these loan transactions was not savoury (see Add. MSS. 32998, f . 290, 
 and his own account in Life and Letters of Lady Sarah Lennox, 72). 
 
 ' Burke incidentally mentioned in a speech of 1783 that Pitt's Pay Office 
 books were still in the hands of his executors. They are not, however, among 
 the Ghaiham MSS. at the Record Office. 
 
 * Pari. Hist, xxiii, pp. 115 sqj., 127 sqq. 
 
154 PITT AS PAYMASTER 
 
 not apply any sum or sums of money imprested to them or 
 either of them to any purpose of advantage or interest to, 
 themselves either directly or indirectly.' 
 
 Such was the system when Pitt took office, such the facili- 
 ties for making private profit out) of pubhc funds. Pitt reso- 
 lutely set his face against these practices, though they were 
 sanctioned by long custom. When the Sardinian envoy offered 
 him the usual commission on the subsidy of £200,000, Pitt 
 refused to touch it, and he also dechned a large present, which 
 the King of Sardinia, marvelling at his disinterested conduct, 
 pressed upon him.^ So with his balances. All sums issued 
 to him from the Treasury he lodged in the Bank of England | 
 at call for the public service, and never touched a penny of 
 interest from them. When his accounts were audited in 1767' — 
 twelve years after he had left the Pay Office, according to 
 the lax system ' of the time — it was discovered that he had a 
 balance of £90,000, which he had never made the least use 
 of, ' though it might have been worth,' it was surmised, 
 ' in interest to him £30,000 to £40,000 since that time.' 2 
 To-day Pitt's conduct in refusing to make personal profit 
 from public money entrusted to him would seem the 
 most natural thing in the world ; it was far from obvious 
 in an age when such perquisites were regarded as a poli- 
 tician's right. Only a man great enough to neglect con- 
 ventional rules of conduct and apply his own canons of 
 
 1 Almon (6th ed.) i, 121. See also The Test for January 8, 1757. ' He is 
 greatly admired by the King of Sardinia, at whose courts the doctor [Dr. Guliemo 
 Bombasto de Podagra] performed wonders and afterwards refused to take 
 his fees, which was thought an extraordinary thing in a physician.' 
 
 * Historical M8S. Commission (Weston Underwood), p. 405. See also 
 J. Niooll'a letter to Lord Chatham of January 15, 1767, on the subject of 
 his balance {Chatham MSS. 51). 
 
 The warrant directing Chatham to remit his balance to the Joint Paymasters 
 at the time is dated April 7, 1767, and states that ' out of the monies which 
 from time to time have been issued to you for the service of our Forces and 
 other services relative thereto in former years the sum of £90,000 remains 
 in your hands over and above such sums of money as were found necessary to 
 be applied for defraying the expenses of the services within the said years.' 
 (Record Office, King's Warrant Book 58). Even then the account was not 
 closed, for it appears that some of the imprests to sub-accountants were not 
 finally cleared till 1791 (Record Office, Declared Accounts ; Audit Office Bundle 
 70, Roll 91). 
 
PITT'S DISINTERESTEDNESS 155 
 
 right and wrong could have done this in the face of his con- 
 temporaries' examples and conventions. This attitude soon 
 became known and enhanced his reputation with the people, 
 who were accustomed to regard politicians as chartered liber- 
 tines fattening on money from the pubhc purse ; even in the 
 height of Pitt's fame as a war minister it was counted to him 
 as an added glory .1 His example had, it is true, no immediate 
 eilect on his successors, men like Pox and Eigby, but it set 
 up a standard which was recalled in the better days when"^ 
 Burke dealt the first serious blows at organised political 
 corruption.^ 
 
 Those less scrupulous than Pitt had not the excuse that 
 the salary attached to the office of Paymaster was meagre. 
 Nominally £3,000, it was reckoned, with the legitimate allow- 
 ances, to amount to over £4,000.' The work required to earn 
 this salary need have consisted in nothing more on Pitt's part 
 than taking responsibility for the labours of the Deputy Pay- 
 See, for example, the eulogy' on Pitt in The. English Pericles, a pamphlet 
 published in 1759. 
 
 ^ Lord Rosebery, ouCamelford's authority, states (CToftam, p. 256) that Pitt 
 consulted Pelham on the question of giving up the percentages on foreign subsi- 
 dies and that Pelham told him he had never claimed them. From this Camel- 
 ford's deduction is that Pitt's refusal had no special merit. Camelford's testi- 
 mony, as Lord Rosebery admits, is not very trustworthy whenever it tends to 
 detract from the merit of the uncle who was his benefactor. Besides, it is 
 remarkable that^ if Pelham, who was Paymaster for thirteen years (1730-43), 
 never followed the practice of his predecessors, nothing should ever have been 
 heard of his self-restraint, and that Pitt's action should have caused so much 
 surprise and admiration. Even Camelford apparently makes no suggestion 
 that Pitt's refusal to make a profit on his balances was not his own idea. 
 
 ' From papers in Chatham MSS. 76 it appears that — 
 
 The payments to the Paymaster ^e^^ deductions : 
 
 were : 
 
 £ £ 
 
 Salary 3,000 For fees . . . , 165 
 
 For clerks, etc 1,500 For clerks and messengers . 1,571 
 
 Contingencies .... 600 
 As Treasurer of Chelsea Hospital 365 
 £1 a day on the establishment 
 of a general .... 365 
 
 £5,830 £1,736 
 
 This left a, net income of over £4000, 
 
156 PITT AS PAYMASTER 
 
 master, James Grenville, and a staff of about a dozen clerks,^ 
 with a few sub-accountants attached to the headquarters of 
 the army in time of war. But the new Paymaster took an 
 active interest in his duties, and infused some of his own 
 energy into subordinates accustomed to take things easily. 
 One of them, Peregrine Furze, wrote barely two months after 
 Pitt's appointment that he already felt better for the increase 
 of work, for ' the pleasure of obeying your commands gave me 
 spirit that I have at other times wanted ' ; on another occasion 
 he told Pitt ' no Paymaster- General has ever made a payment 
 to the Eeduced officers with that promptness as you did that 
 to the 24th December last, and you have had, tho' I forgot 
 to tell it to you, the Praises and Thanks of them all upon that 
 account.' ^ Thomas Orby Hunter, the Paymaster's agent at 
 Eotterdam during the war, showed the same zeal in his 
 
 ' The personnel of Pitt' a staff is set out in a King's Warrant of April 16, 
 1767 (Record Office; King's Warrant Book 58), granting Lord Chatham's petition 
 for a sum of £11,151 to pay the extra services of his staff ' for their diligence 
 and application ' in accounting for £20,328,320 (the gross total of his audited 
 accounts) ' without any expense to the pubUo for additional assistance or 
 allowance.' This sum was allocated as follows : 
 
 £ 
 
 Deputy Paymaster, J. Grenville 1,950 
 
 Cashier, Anthony Sawyer 1,880 
 
 Accountant-General, J. L. NicoU ....... 1,560 
 
 Ledger Keeper, J. Powell ....... . 800 
 
 Keeper of Oft reckonings, J. F. A. Hesse 500 
 
 Half Pay Cashier, R. Randell 500 
 
 Accountant's Clerk 480 
 
 5 Under Clerks ... 550 
 
 Housekeeper ...... .... 60 
 
 Office Keeper 50 
 
 Messenger 25 
 
 Treasurer of Chelsea 200 
 
 8,556 
 Incidental charges, expenses and allowances to clerks and officers at 
 
 the offices through which the accounts pass .... 2,596 
 
 £11,151 
 A study of the audit roUs in question, from June 1746 to December 1755, 
 
 shows that the sum, though large, was not excessive for the extra labour 
 
 involved in drawing them up. 
 
 ' Chatham MSS. 32 ; see also ibid. 51 and 55 for letters on Pay Office business 
 
 from J, Nicoll and A, Sawyer, 
 
VIGOUR AND REFORMS, 1745-55 157 
 
 chief's service. Though at first surprised at Pitt's unusual 
 request that he should correspond directly with him, he 
 thenceforth sent him full accounts of his own proceedings and 
 early information of the movements of troops, which was no 
 doubt as interesting to his correspondent as the purely finan- 
 cial side of the department. Nicoll, Hunter's successor at 
 Eotterdam, showed his appreciation of the new Paymaster's 
 disposition by refusing to take orders even from the Duke of 
 Newcastle at the Treasury, unless they were confirmed by Pitt. 
 Evidence shows that Pitt kept a sharp look-out for waste 
 in the expenditure of public money. He ruthlessly cut down 
 unwarrantable claims made by one of his agents, and, on the 
 more important matter of Lord Loudoun's army accounts, 
 made ' strong and reasonable objections,' it is said, to certain 
 irregular items. He introduced a much needed reform in the 
 administration of the pension branch. He found that the 
 Chelsea out-pensioners had to wait a twelvemonth before 
 receiving the first instalment of their pensions, and were 
 generally tided over that period by money-lenders, who charged 
 exorbitant interest and took a mortgage on their pensions. 
 The commissions charged by the Pay-Office clerks also made 
 a serious inroad on their allowances. Pitt for some time ' had 
 it much at heart,' he says, ' to redeem these helpless, unthinking 
 creatures from their harpies,' but found great difficulty in 
 devising any practicable and effectual scheme for their relief. 
 Encouraged, however, by a personal appeal from the Duke of 
 Cumberland, he at last contrived a method to which there 
 was no objection. His Bill, providing that six months' pensioiT 
 should be paid in advance, that all future mortgages on pensions 
 should be void, and that commissions should no longer be 
 exacted by pension officers, was presented to the House on 
 November 14, 1754, two days before his wedding, and pa^ed^ 
 with uncommon expedition. 
 
 In 1747, the year after Pitt accepted office, the Pelhams 
 suddenly dissolved,^ in order to secure a majority more agree- 
 able to their views. The Prince of Wales's party, which 
 
 1 This was the first and for a long time the only instance under the Sep- 
 tennial Act of a dissolution before the seven years of a ijarliament had elapsed. 
 
158 PITT AS PAYMASTER 
 
 had made so brave a show at the elections six years earlier, 
 was reduced to a mere rump. Instead of having WilUam Pitt, 
 Lyttelton, and Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, besides the 
 older Patriots to manage his electoral business, the Prince had 
 to entrust it to the Eev. Dr. Ayscough, and to Pitt's incapable 
 elder brother, Thomas.^ In spite of alluring promises to the 
 electors — whereby he engaged to abohsh all party distinctions 
 and widen the quahfications for justices of the peace ; to 
 estabhsh a mihtia ; to exclude all officers of the lower ranks 
 in the army and navy from the House of Commons ; to inquire 
 into departmental abuses ; and to content himself with a Civil 
 List of £800,000 — thunder, most of it, stolen from Pitt's own 
 armoury — in spite, too, of an election fund of £200,000, which, 
 as Walpole remarked, he had much better have saved to buy 
 Parhament after it was chosen, the results were most dis- 
 appointing. Partly owing to the fact that Newcastle was once 
 more heart and soul in the work of increasing the Government 
 majority, partly because the country, tired of the last few years' 
 confusion, reaUy wished for the heahng measures expected 
 from the Pelhams, the Government increased its following in 
 the House and won seats never before carried by the Whigs, 
 among others Westminster and the City and Middlesex ; while 
 Okehampton, one of Thomas Pitt's own boroughs, rebelled 
 against him and elected Lyttelton.^ 
 
 The most remarkable of the new members in this Parhament 
 was WiUiam Beckford, elected for the City. Descended from 
 a line of Jamaica planters, by the death of two brothers he 
 inherited a fortune, chiefly derived from sugar and said to have 
 been worth over a million pounds. He soon became the chief 
 representative of the West Indian interest in the House of 
 Commons, where, in spite of an uncouth address, he was 
 regarded as an authority on commercial subjects ; in the City, 
 
 ^ Thomas seems to have sadly mismanaged the elections in Cornwall and 
 had much trouble with the Prince in consequence. He had the gift of 
 forcible language in common mth his namesake the Governor. Talking of the 
 electors at Grampound he says that ' The villains have got ahead to a 
 degree, and rise in their demands so extravagantly that I have been very 
 near damning them and kicking them to the devil at once.' 
 
 ^ See PhiUimore's Lt/ttelion, i, 256. 
 
GENERAL ELECTION, 1747 159 
 
 then the home of democratic principles, he was twice Lord 
 Mayor, and all-powerful. He attached himself to Pitt from 
 the outset and became his most devoted follower. Pitt's 
 sympathy with the mercantile community and his under- 
 staodring" of the colonies were kept constantly fresh by his 
 intercourse with Beckford, whom he could always count upon 
 to"bring him the support of the City, and to undertake pre- 
 hminary skirmishes on his behalf or lead a forlorn hope in the 
 House of Commons. In return, though sometimes allowing 
 himself to poke gentle fun at his friend, Pitt was always ready 
 to defend him against the superciUous adversaries, who ridiculed 
 the alderman's rough marmers and downright sentiments ; 
 he also stood godfather to Beckford's son, and, when he was 
 left an orphan, cared for the boy's education. 
 
 For Pitt himself Old Sarum was no longer available, since it 
 belonged to his brother, now on the opposite side. He therefore 
 accepted the Duke of Newcastle's offer of Seaford. This 
 borough, with all the Cinque Ports to which it belonged, was a 
 close Treasury preserve. The right of election had been 
 declared in 1670 to be ' in the populacy,' but this was inter- 
 preted to mean householders paying scot and lot, and good care 
 was taken that only revenue officers and dependents on the 
 patron should appear as such' in the rate book. Eeally the 
 Duke of Newcastle's word, as in most parts of Sussex, was 
 supreme. At a by-election in the year 1733 the electors wrote 
 to assure him thalt their representative should be ' who your 
 Grace shall be pleased to recommend ' ; and for the modest 
 price of ' a dinner to the Gentlemen, a double fee to the Ringers, 
 and a double portion of Beer to the Populace ' they obeyed his 
 congi d'dire in favour of his connection, Wilham Hay.^ On 
 June 20, 1747, the Duke wrote a letter to the ' Baihff and the 
 Jurats, Freemen and Inhabitants of the Corporation of Seaford,' 
 recommending to their 
 
 ^ Add. MS8. 32688, and article in English Historical Review, July 1897, 
 on ' The Duke of Newcastle and the Elections of 1734.' Hay, Pitt's colleague 
 in one ParUament, was a minor poet, an agricultural reformer, and the writer 
 of a eulogy on deformity, he being deformed himself. Pitt, no doubt in compli- 
 ment to his colleague, bought a copy of Hay's Essay on Deformity in 1753 
 (see Chatham MSS. 74). 
 
i6o PITT AS PAYMASTER 
 
 Favor at the ensuing election Mr. Pitt, Paymaster -General of H.M. 
 Forces, and your late member Mr. Hay. ... Mr. Pitt's zeal for 
 H.M.'s service and for the Interest of His country and his known 
 ability and inclination to promote them are such qualifications as I 
 doubt not but will make him as agreeable to you, as the choice of him 
 will be serviceable to the Pubhck. Mr. Pitt intends to be with me 
 at Bishopstone the end of the week where he will have an opportunity 
 of being personally known to you, and as no man is better able to 
 serve you I am sure nobody will be more willing. Your favor to 
 Mr. Pitt and Mr. Hay upon this occasion will ever be gratefully 
 acknowledged by . . . Holies Newcastle.^ 
 
 This decently veiled command was accompanied by instruc- 
 tions to an agent addressed as ' Sam,' whom the Duke sent 
 to the bailiff with orders to read out his letter to the corpora- 
 tion, treat them and the freemen to a bowl of punch, and fix 
 the election for June 29. Sam was also to go round the town 
 informing people ' how considerable a man Mr. Pitt is and how 
 able he will be to serve them.' But opposition ' unexpected 
 and unaccountable ' to the Duke appeared. Lord Gage, his 
 former ally, came to Seaford on the 24th with his son, who 
 had been Hay's colleague in the last Parliament, and announced 
 that if he obtained the promise of only one vote he would send 
 him to the poll. Newcastle's agents reported to him that 
 Lord Gage had little support and was obliged to entertain his 
 friends in a barn, as the innkeeper would not serve him ; and 
 Henry Pelham bade him not fret at Lord Gage's ' impertinence ; 
 it is what might happen in your own or any nobleman's family 
 in case such a fellow could get admittance to it.' But the 
 Duke, who was easily upset, took the incident seriously to heart. 
 He assured Pitt that if that nobleman's money ' should have 
 an effect in a place where it was never before offered, it shall 
 in no way affect you, for Mr. Hay will not be thought of.' Li 
 the same letter he gave fussy directions for their journey to 
 Bishopstone : 
 
 Lord Lincoln and Lord Ashburnham, two very weU-disposed young 
 
 ^ This and other details of the election are to be found in Add.MSS. 32711, 
 and the Duke of Newcastle's letter to Pitt in Ghailmm MSS. 51. Sec also an 
 account of this election in A History of the Borouf/hs of Great Britain (3 vols. 1792) 
 by T. H. B. Oldfield. 
 
PITT M.P. FOR SEAFORD, 1747 i6i 
 
 gentlemen, are my Sussex companions. We go to Godstone, about 
 twenty miles off, in Lord Ashburntam's coach, there take my coach 
 to East Grinstead and then ride to my house about nineteen miles. 
 . . . If you would be so good as to be at my lodgings at Kensington in 
 your riding dress at one o'clock I hope we may get away soon after 
 and then we shall be in time. ... I hope you have sent your horses 
 to East Grinstead. 
 
 Pitt next day gravely returns 
 
 ten thousand thanks for the honour of your letter and for the trouble 
 you are so good to give yourself in informing me of this unexpected 
 attack at Seaford. I never can enough express the high sense I 
 have of the honour of your Grace's friendship and goodness to me : 
 whatever the event prove, ... I shall with great pride meet any 
 persecution in which I have the honour to be joined with your Grace 
 and Mr. Pelham. I have sent on horses to Bast Grinstead and a 
 post chaise, in case of rain, which I am too infirm to venture to stand. 
 I win be sure to attend your Grace at the time appointed. 
 
 When these strange travelling companions arrived on the 
 Saturday night, they found yet another opponent in Lord 
 Middlesex, who had recently resigned his place in the Treasury 
 and returned to the Prince's service as Master of the Horse. 
 But the Duke showed himself equal to the occasion. On 
 Sunday night he invited the whole corporation to dinner at 
 Bishopstone, and talked to most of the voters one by one. 
 Next day, the 29th, he went over with Pitt to the hustings at 
 Seaford, in spite of protests, sat by the returning officer all 
 day to overawe supporters of Lords Gage and Middlesex, 
 and gave ' the usual entertainments ' to the electors. On the 
 following day Pitt returned to London as member for Seaford. 
 Though the Duke's hospitable exertions had assured Pitt's 
 and Hay's success at the polls, an election petition was in con- 
 sequence brought against their return in the following session. 
 In the debate Pitt treated the petition in cavalier fashion, 
 passing it off as a jest ; but he was soundly rebuked for this 
 levity by Potter, a young follower of the Prince of Wales. Pitt 
 had asked what was the object of the petition, and Potter told 
 him that it was for ' the security, the freedom of parliaments and 
 protecting the privileges of the Commons of Great Britain ' ; he 
 
1 62 PITT AS PAYMASTER 
 
 also reminded him that while ' a dependence upon the Crown 
 would in the end prove fatal to our liberties, a dependence upon 
 the minister, as it is infinitely more dishonourable, is infinitely 
 more dangerous. ... I can suppose too, Sir, that in some future 
 time a minister may arise profligate enough to carry his views 
 so high as to attempt to make both king and people subservient 
 to his own ambition.' Pitt made no reply at the time ; but 
 the spirit and even the words of the reproof seem to have sunk 
 into his mind, for within seven years he was adopting the same 
 tone and using almost the same language against the very 
 man by whose unconstitutional action he was on this occasion 
 profiting.^ Does such a change of attitude go to prove that 
 Pitt was inconsistent and animated merely by motives of self- 
 interest ? Inconsistent, perhaps, but with the inconsistency 
 of the man who casts off the evil trappings of the past as he 
 advances. One of the chief lessons to be gained from Pitt's 
 life is that of a man who never ceased learning from his 
 own experience and the teaching of others, and therefore 
 never ceased growing in moral, stature. But it would be 
 an unworthy defence of Pitt's conduct in this instance to 
 dismiss it as venial, because he was following the bad tradi- 
 tions of his contemporaries, which, in regard to the Pay 
 Of&ce, he had shown himself strong enough to disregard. 
 
 Later Pitt himself recognised the scandal of the methods 
 then used to decide on contested elections. The cases were 
 heard by the whole House and voted on as a trial of party 
 strength, and hardly a pretence was made to judge them on 
 their merits. Walpole indeed had made an adverse vote on 
 the Chippenham election a reason for resigning. At the 
 beginning of the 1747 parliament there were, as usual, many 
 such cases, in several of which. Pitt spoke. On the 
 
 Wareham petition, in which his cousin, John Pitt, was in- 
 January i , i , i , • 
 
 26, 1748. volved, he made a lastmg enemy of the future judge, Wilmot, 
 
 wto [says Walpole] tad been an admired pleader before the House 
 of Commons, but being reprimanded . . . with great haughtiness 
 by Pitt, who told him he had brought thither the pertness of his 
 profession, and being prohibited by the Speaker from making a 
 
 ^ See below, p. 256 (speech of November 25, 1754). 
 
ELECTION PETITIONS, 1748 163 
 
 reply, lie flung down Ms brief in a passion and never would return 
 to plead there any more.i 
 
 A more noted case was that of the Westminster by-election in 
 1751, on which also Pitt spoke at length, hinting dire penalties February 
 agaiQst Crowle and Murray, two supporters of the Prince's ' 
 candidate, who had insulted the High BaiUff and defied the 
 House of Commons. Crowle was constrained to kneel to 
 receive the Speaker's reprimand, but, on rising, ostentatiously 
 dusted his knees and remarked that it was the dirtiest house 
 he had ever been in, an incident which, for the first time, 
 brought home to members how lowering such farcical travesties 
 of justice were to their dignity. 
 
 By the time the new Parliament met in November 1747 
 Pitt and nearly everybody else in England were heartily 
 anxious for peace. During 1746 the French had carried all 
 before them on the Continent, completing their conquest of the 
 Low Countries and beating the English and their allies in the 
 battle of Roucoux. In India the East India Company had been 
 unable to make headway against the enterprise of Dupleix 
 and Labourdonnais, and had lost Madras, which Pitt's grand- 
 father once held so masterfully against all comers. In the 
 same year Bedford, encouraged by the colonial success at 
 Louisburg in 1745, had collected a fleet and army with the 
 design of attacking Quebec and driving the French out of 
 Canada, but had the support of Pitt alone in the Ministry. 
 He, indeed, entered heartily into a plan so congenial to his 
 own spirit, and wrote urging Bedford ' to pursue firmly those 
 great and practicable views in America, which so far as they 
 have gone or are to go, we owe to your Grace alone. . . . The 
 nation is certainly with you ; with such a second, your Grace 
 can surmount all obstacles.' But Pelham and the Duke of 
 Newcastle had no stomach for such an adventure. They threw 
 obstacles in the way until the season for an American expedi- 
 
 ' Walpole, George II, ii, 273. Pitt appears to have studied the brief for this 
 election petition, which is preserved in Chatham MSS. 83. Oswald (p. 69) 
 states that it was at Pelham's urgent request that he spoke for John and 
 William Augustus Pitt, the members returned, against the Prince's friends, 
 Henry and Thomas Drax, petitioning. Pitt again spoke on a Wareham 
 election petition on December 19, 1754; 
 
 m2 
 
i64 PITT AS PAYMASTER 
 
 tion had passed, then, thinking it necessary ' to save appearances, 
 that the vast charges of our naval armament this year may 
 not seem to have been flung away,' ^ they sent the expedition 
 under Admiral Lestock and General St. Clair on a roving mission 
 to the coast of France, leaving it open to them to attack 
 L'Orient, La Eochelle, Eochefort, or Bordeaux at their discre- 
 tion. L'Orient was decided upon, but the operations were 
 conducted in a slovenly manner ; guns were landed without 
 ammunition and the troops were re-embarked, having in- 
 flicted no more damage than the destruction of some trifling 
 forts.2 'A gloomy scene,' wrote Pitt dolefully, 'is, I fear, 
 opening in public affairs for this disgraced country.' ^ 
 
 Peace would have been too dearly bought by England at 
 the end of 1746, but the re-conquest of her position on her 
 own element in 1747 made it possible for her to negotiate on 
 more equal terms. Anson's work at the Admiralty had at last 
 begun to tell. Better methods of naval construction, a more just 
 system of promotion, and stricter discipUne had been intro- 
 duced.* Admirals of the stamp of Vernon, Lestock and 
 Mathews were being gradually superseded by Anson's own. 
 Ueutenants, who had caught some of his energetic spirit. A 
 promise to carry out the more vigorous naval policy, which 
 Pitt had insisted upon as a condition of taking of&ce,^ was 
 conveyed in the King's Speech of November 1746, declaring 
 that it would be his ' particular care to exert our strength at 
 sea in the most effectual manner, for the defence of my king- 
 doms and possessions, the protection of the trade of my subjects, 
 and the annoyance of our enemies.' This promise was amply ^ 
 fulfilled. On May 3, 1747, Anson, by his victory off Pinisterre, ' 
 captured six ships of the line and four Ladiamen, ' the best . 
 
 ' So wrote old Horace Walpole, then in Pelham's confidence. 
 
 ^ Among the Chatham MSS. is an account of this expedition, one of the many 
 indications of the attention bestowed by Pitt on military and naval aflairs. 
 David Hume, philosopher and historian, went on this expedition as St. Clair's 
 military secretary. 
 
 ' Qrenville Papers, i, 52, October 1746. 
 
 " Bedford supported Anson manfully in his fight against favouritism and 
 sharply reprimanded George Grenville, who was on the Board of Admiralty; 
 for an attempt to favour his brother, Captain Thomas Grenville. 
 
 ' See above, p. 142. 
 
CAMPAIGN OF 1747 165 
 
 stroke,' he boasted, ' that has been made upon the French 
 since La Hogue.' On October 14 his old shipmate, Hawke, 
 captured six more French men-of-war off Belleisle, remarking 
 in his laconic despatch that ' as the enemy's ships were large 
 they took a great deal of drubbing.' These and other successes 
 at sea reduced the French navy to impotence for the rest of the 
 war and thereby turned the tables on Dupleix in India, who, for 
 want of reinforcement, was himself besieged by Boscawen with 
 ten sail at Pondichery. But on the Continent the French 
 were still imiformly successful. Maurice de Saxe defeated 
 Cumberland and the allies at Lauffeldt, began the invasion 
 of Holland with the capture of Bergen-op-Zoom, and laid his 
 plans for besieging the important Dutch fortress of Maastricht 
 early in 1748. 
 
 The loss to their commerce from the destruction of their 
 fleets had by this time inclined the French to peace, the death 
 of Phihp V of Spain — a ' great event,' Pitt called it — had de- 
 stroyed the beUicose influence of his turbulent consort, Elizabeth 
 Famese, and the danger to England from the French occupation 
 of the Low Countries had convinced most English statesmen 
 of the futflity of continuing the war. ' We fight all and pay 
 all, it is true,' grumbled Pelham to old Horace Walpole, ' but 
 we are beaten and shall be broke.' In Pitt he found a sym- 
 pathizer : ' Mr. Pitt and I seem entirely to agree in opinion,' he 
 wrote to Lyttelton, ' which is a melancholy truth, because we 
 both see our condition so bad that nothing can be thought of 
 but to take the lesser evil.' In a speech two years later Pitt February 
 explained the reason for his apprehensions at this period : ^' ^'^''' 
 
 I must confess [he said] that when the French laid siege to Maastricht 
 in the beginning of 1748, 1 had such a gloomy prospect of afiairs that 
 I thought it next to impossible to preserve our friends the Dutch 
 from the imminent ruin they were then threatened with, or to main- 
 tain the present Emperor on the imperial throne ; and if the Dutch 
 had been ruined, and the Emperor dispossessed, this nation would 
 have been so far from being in a condition to insist upon what it 
 had a right to demand that we must have yielded to every demand 
 our enemies might have been pleased to make upon ua. 
 
 With these good dispositions to peace on all sides the 
 
i66 PITT AS PAYMASTER 
 
 belligerents agreed to a congress at Aix-la-Chapelle in March 
 1748, and peace was signed there in November. The in- 
 conclusive character of the war was reflected in this treaty. 
 France gave up all her conquests, Madras, jthe Low Countries, 
 and the Barrier fortresses, and agreed once more to demolish 
 the fortifications of Dunkirk. England restored Cape Breton 
 with Louisburg. Between these two Powers the peace hardly 
 brought a truce except in Europe. In America France persisted 
 in her design of linking up her possessions of Canada in the 
 north and Louisiana, on the Gulf of Mexico, by a chain of 
 forts, which would exclude the EngUsh seaboard colonists from 
 the interior ; in India the French and English companies carried 
 on hostihties with unabated ardour. Between England and 
 Spain the question of the right of search, the original cause of 
 the war, was left unsettled ; but Spain was a decaying power, 
 and during Ferdinand's reign did not embarrass England. 
 Frederic the Great had gained most by the war, but even though 
 the treaty confirmed him in the possession of Silesia he had to 
 fight for it once more. Italy alone, long the happy hunting 
 ground of Bourbon, Hapsburg and Sardinian freebooters, 
 secured by the treaty a settlement which gave her fifty years 
 of comparative peace. But a truce in Europe was necessary to 
 England and the other Powers to recover from a war lasting 
 nearly ten years. ' We have fought it to the stumps,' said 
 Pelham, and if that was true of England it was still more the 
 case with France : Louis XV had little to show for his successes 
 in the Low Countries, after a treaty which originated the saying, 
 ' iete comme la faix,' beyond a crippled navy and finances in 
 disorder. England, while securing no material advantages from 
 the peace, had regained her supremacy at sea and increased 
 her commercial wealth, benefits which stood her in good stead 
 in the coming struggle for India and America. 
 
 Pitt rejoiced in ' the happy event of the Prehminaries — 
 happy, I call it, because absolutely necessary to our very 
 being,' not because he despaired of his country, but from the 
 conviction that a continental war against France under such 
 conditions as we had hitherto waged it was disastrous. He 
 had no illusions as to the necessity of renewing the struggle 
 
PEACE OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, 1748 167 
 
 with France, but he saw plainly who ought to be our ally in that 
 struggle. Our foreign policy was on wrong lines in clinging to 
 the traditional system of alliance with the Austrians and ignoring 
 Prussia's rising power ; without peace he was convinced 
 we should never shake ourselves free of the old system. 
 Frederic of Prussia had the best army in Europe, which 
 his undiminished fears of Maria Theresa and his new alarm 
 at Eussia, ' that great cloud of power in the north,' ^ 
 obliged him to keep in a perfect state of efficiency. 
 England needed an ally on the Continent with such an army. 
 Frederic desired to be on good terms with England : ' then I 
 should have nothing to fear from Eussia,' he wrote in 1748.^ 
 EeHgion also, which still counted in European statecraft, 
 was a bond between England and Prussia such as did not 
 exist between England and the bigots at Vieima. One of 
 Pitt's great arguments for peace had been that it would give . 
 an opportunity to carry out this change in our system. In a 
 letter of December 17, 1747, on ' the melancholy scene of 
 public affairs,' he put this view before the Duke of Newcastle, 
 the most determined supporter of the ' old system ' : 
 
 I will not teaze your Grace [he wrote] with the repetition of things 
 which don't meet with your approbation, nor agree with your view 
 of publick aiiairs. I will sum up my whole political creed in two 
 propositions : this country and Europe are undone without a secure, 
 lasting peace ; the alliance as it now stands has not the force ever to 
 obtain it without the interposition of Prussia. The umbrage of 
 that Prince, justly taken at the language of the court of Vienna ever 
 siace the cession of Silesia, once eSectually removed, it is his interest 
 and therefore his inclination to see Europe pacified and France 
 contained within some bounds. I am not sanguine enough to 
 itnagiae he would on any account engage ia the war, but I must 
 beheve, if the proper steps were taken and taken in earnest, he 
 might be brought to care for such a peace as we ought to think 
 ourselves happy to obtain.^ 
 
 Frederic at heart had almost as ingrained a distrust of 
 France as Pitt himself, and, only a year after Pitt was writing 
 
 * A phrase of Chatham's. ' Pol. Oorr. vi, 122. 
 
 8 Add. MSS. 32713, f. 517. 
 
i68 PITT AS PAYMASTER 
 
 these lines to Newcastle, uttered almost corresponding senti- 
 ments : ' The system of Europe has changed so entirely that I 
 should find myself soon on a good footing with Great Britain, 
 for there is great divergence of interests between England and 
 the Queen of Hungary.' ^ England all but missed the oppor- 
 tunity of this alliance, for few could see its advantage so 
 clearly as Pitt, whose only avowed supporter on this matter was 
 his old antagonist, Horace Walpole : and Pitt himself for many 
 years could only offer counsel ; he had no power to act. 
 
 II — In Peace 
 
 During the six years following the peace of Aix-la- 
 Chapelle Pelham's conciliatory methods of government, the 
 harmony he restored to the nation, and his wise measures of 
 reform in finance and administration met with Pitt's approval 
 and gave him little scope for active exertion in his sub- 
 ordinate department. He was on the whole content to be a 
 benevolent spectator of the minister who in spirit followed 
 out Walpole's maxim, quieta non mover e, and was patiently 
 preparing the country for the coming struggle. 
 
 Pelham's chief service to the nation was his reorganization 
 of its finances. England was then poor, compared not only 
 with her present condition but with other nations of the time. 
 Her population barely exceeded 6,000,000 ; her main industry, 
 agriculture, was backward ; her coal and iron were almost 
 neglected ; there were no cotton mills ; and the state of ihe 
 roads and other means of internal transport was a great hind- 
 rance to trade. The only growing sources of wealth were the 
 carrying trade and commerce to India and America, which 
 the naval successes in the late war had much encouraged. The 
 national income was wastefuUy raised by innumerable customs 
 and excise taxes, by a land tax of 4s. in the pound in war- 
 time and by loans at a high rate of interest. The budget of 
 
 1 Pol. Gorr. vi, 126. 
 
PELHAM'S FINANCE 169 
 
 £13,000,000 1 for the last year of the war and the national debt 
 of £78,000,000 were regarded as intolerable burdens. Pelham 
 ruthlessly cut down expenditure as soon as the war was over. 
 Deaf alike to appeals from the Duke of Cumberland to preserve 
 useless regiments on the estabhshment and to unfounded claims 
 of the Empress Queen to arrears of subsidy, by these and other 
 economies in the first year he reduced the budget to £9,000,000 1 
 and gradually to £5,000,000.1 He also consideraiily simplified / i/- 
 the debt service, by consolidatingTnumber of separate funds, 
 besi'dBs-redacirrg the interest on the whole from 4 per cent, by 
 successive stages to 3J and finally 3 per cent. By this means 
 he saved the nation £500,000 annually. Within a few years 
 Pitt had cause to be grateful to Pelham for the increased 
 elasticity these measures brought to the national revenue, and 
 at the time paid a glowing tribute to his consummate wisdom February 
 ' in increasing the sinking fund by this saving of interest. By 22, 1751. 
 means of that fund, by economy in our domestic affairs, and by 
 making the most of our public revenue, we shall be able to pay 
 off a very large sum yearly ; and our abihty to do so will 
 increase yearly in proportion, especially if we take proper 
 methods to put an end to all smuggUng.' 
 
 In one instance only Pitt opposed Pelham's zeal for economy, 
 when in 1751 he proposed to reduce the naval establishment January 
 to 8,000 men. \ It had stood at 40,000 in the last year of the 22 «'nd29, 
 war, next year was brought down to 17,000, and in 1750 to the 
 normal peace estabhshment of 10,000. The further reduction 
 to 8,000 left barely enough men to provide full complements 
 for thirteen 74-gun men-of-war. Even Walpole only twice, in 
 a time of profound peace, 1732 and 1733, proposed so low a 
 number ; in 1751 the chances of war were much greater. Both 
 in Committee and on Eeport Pitt spoke against the reduction 
 and carried with him into the lobby his colleagues Lyttelton 
 an4 the Grenvilles.^ He was much pained, he said, at differing 
 
 ^ These figures are exclusive of the CSvil List of £800,000 which was granted 
 for the King's reign. 
 
 * It will be remembered that Pitt's first recorded act in the House of Com- 
 mons was as teller for the minority who desired to reduce Walpole' s figure of 
 30,000 men for the navy (see above, p. 64). But that was a time of peace, 
 when Walpole was asking for an establishment on a war figure. 
 
170 PITT AS PAYMASTER 
 
 from Pelham and his friends, with whom he was determined 
 to remain united, but could not compromise on_' our standing 
 army,' as he called the navy, especially when Jacobitism was 
 stiU alive ; and he expressed the conviction that the majority 
 of the House agreed with him in preferring 10,000 men to 8,000. 
 In this debate he was drawn into an altercation with one of the 
 chartered buffoons of the House, Hampden, who, according to 
 Walpole, possessed none of the qualifications of his renowned 
 ancestor save courage. ' He drew a burlesque picture of Pitt and 
 Lyttelton under the titles of " Oratory " and " Solemnity " and 
 painted in the most comic colours what mischiefs rhetoric had 
 brought to the nation and what emoluments to Pitt.' ' Pitt ' — 
 to continue Walpole's account — ' flamed into a rage, and nodded 
 menaces of highest import to Hampden, who retorted them, 
 undaunted, with a droll voice that was naturally hoarse and 
 inarticulate.' Pelham thereupon interposed in defence of Pitt, 
 and the Speaker had to insist that the matter should go 
 no further, with which ' Punch first and then Alexander the 
 Great complied.' Pitt was beaten by a majority of over 180 ; 
 but Pelham had learned a lesson, and in the succeeding years 
 comphed with Pitt's demand for a minimum estabUshment of 
 10,000 men. 
 
 Economies led also to an improved administration of the 
 army and navy. Anson reformed many hoary abuses in the 
 dockyards and passed a revised navy discipline Act with a 
 clause about cowardice and desertion, memorable thereafter to 
 Pitt and others in the Byng affair. He was supported by Pitt 
 in a proposal to make half-pay officers amenable to martial 
 law, but was forced to drop it before the storm of indignation 
 from the senior officers, a fate which also befel a serious attempt 
 to abolish the evils of impressment by forming a reserve of 
 sailors. Pitt, owing to his official position, was more prominent 
 in debates on the army. Then, as in more recent days, a war 
 which had revealed defects in our military system stimulated 
 the imagination of our army reformers, without much success. 
 On the other hand, after the recent experience of the EebeUion 
 and the French invasion of the Low Countries, little more was 
 heard of the constitutional objection to a standing army, with 
 
ARMY AND NAVY REFORMS, 1749-51 171 
 
 which Pitt himself and every Opposition since William Ill's 
 day had played on the fears of quiet citizens. The prolonged 
 army debates during the years 1749, 1750 and 1751 turned 
 chiefly on questions of discipUne: which the Duke of Cumber- 
 land, now Captain- General, had found in a lax condition. 
 To remedy this he entirely recast the Mutiny Bill, introducing \ 
 iato it a German standard of severity. In 1749 and the suc- 
 ceeding years the opposition to these innovations was led by 
 Lord Egmont, an old f eUow-conspirator of Pitt's. Egmont now 
 acted as spokesman of the Prince of Wales's party, and was 
 chiefly influenced by the jealousy with which the Prince viewed 
 any accession of power to his brother. He was especially 
 severe on a clause giving the Captain- General the right to order 
 successive revisions of a court-martial's sentence, until he was \ 
 
 satisfied with it — ^a monstrous proposal, which the Grenvilles ' 
 
 and Lyttelton joined him in resisting. In the second year that / 
 this clause was debated the Government gave way to the extent 
 of limiting this power of revision to one occasion, but in bo^h February 
 years Pitt took a high line in defence of the original clause ac d ' 
 cast a temporary cloud on his relations with the Cousinhoou ■ ; ' 
 
 by his slighting references to their opposition. In spite of his February /- 
 democratic views he had a curious leaning to prerogative in ' 
 certain departments, especially in regard to the discipline of 
 the army : 
 
 The only danger of oppression imder martial law [he said in one of 
 these debates] is when the direction of the army becomes wicked 
 or the army itself loses its virtue . . . and without this virtue 
 should the Lords, the Commons, and the people of England entrench 
 themselves behind parchment up to the teeth, the sword will jfind 
 a passage to the vitals of the constitution. 
 
 In another debate of the same session of 1750 he laid down January 
 clearly his view of the respective functions of the House of ' 
 Commons and of military commanders. Some soldiers had 
 been reduced in rank for cheering one of the candidates at the 
 Westminster election when on duty, and a proposal had been 
 made to call the officers responsible to account for their conduct 
 at the bar of the House. 
 What ! [cried Pitt] would you call officers and soldiers to traduce 
 
172 PITT AS PAYMASTER 
 
 and impeacli one another at your bar ? This, Sir, might be of the 
 most dangerous consequence to the very existence of this august 
 assembly. I hope neither will ever learn the way to this House. 
 If they should once learn the way of coming here with their complaints 
 we may expect that they will soon learn the way of coming here 
 with their petitions and remonstrances, as they did about a century 
 ago ; and the consequence at that time I need not desire gentlemen 
 to recollect. Our business, Sir, is to consider what number of regular 
 forces may be necessary for the defence of the nation, and to grant 
 money for maintaining that number ; but we have no business 
 with the conduct of the army, or with their complaints against one 
 another, which belongs to the King alone or such as shall be com- 
 missioned by him. If we ever give ear to any such complaints it 
 will certainly produce one of these two consequences : it will either 
 destroy all manner of disciphne and subordination in the army, or 
 it will render this House despised by the officers and detested by 
 the common soldiers of the army ; and either of these consequences 
 win be fatal to the nation. ... I beUeve that as a colonel's life 
 as well as character very often in time of war depends upon the 
 behaviour of his regiment, every colonel will choose to have a regi- 
 ment of brave and well-discipUned soldiers, rather than a regiment 
 of voters at an election. 
 
 Once, however, Pitt was moved by passionate indignation 
 at a flagrant abuse of military power to insist on a parliamentary 
 inquiry. In the debates on the Mutiny Bill of 1751 complaints 
 were brought against General Anstruther for tampering with 
 court-martials and other acts of oppression when Governor of 
 April 18, Minorca. Pelham wished to hush it up, but Pitt insisted on 
 ^'^^^- dragging it into the light. Even then, however, he carefully 
 guarded against any attempt to erect the House into a judicial 
 tribunal and denied that his purpose was to found a criminal 
 prosecution, ' since the business of the House was not 
 to hear causes that are without their jurisdiction, but to 
 find deficiencies in our laws and remedies for them,' which 
 might be incorporated in the Mutiny Bill then under 
 review.^ This system of entrusting wide powers to military 
 
 ^ In the course of the debates arising out of Anstruther's case Pitt espoused 
 with some violence the cause of an unfortunate Minorchese, Don Compagni, 
 who had been ruined by Anstruther, and to whom Pelham had refused a 
 Treasury grant to enable him to prosecute his claims. According to 
 
ARMY AND SOCIAL REFORM, 1751 173 
 
 officers without interference from Parliament seems to have March 6, 
 answered. The want of discipline in the rank and file and the ^'^^^■ 
 lack of zeal among the officers had been notorious in the previous 
 war ; but already in 1751 Pitt asserted that the army, ' though February 
 small, had military spirit and had then been much improved ILT*^ ^^' 
 by disoipUne, itself equal to five thousand men ' ; and when 
 he came to put it to the test a few years later, he found a very 
 different spirit in all but the highest ranks, which Cumberland 
 unfortunately filled with men only fit to be sergeants and 
 corporals, ' who were dreadfully frightened when they came 
 to think of a chief command.' 
 
 Active measures to improve the lot of the poorer classes j ""^ 
 were rare in the aristocratic parliaments of the eighteenth ' 
 century. To defend the people's liberties, to resist oppression ' 
 of the humblest, and to encourage tolerance of religious and ' 
 racial differences seemed the highest ffight of altruism to which i 
 the most enlightened statesmen attained, and for these things ; 
 Pitt fought with all his might. The Chelsea pensioner ; 
 cheated of his pension, the citizen unjustly pressed, or the j 
 prisoner defrauded of his full right of trial by jury looked to 
 him for redress and did not look in vain. But, although 
 the younger Beckford speaks of ' the true patriotic spirit which , 
 he breathed for the poor— the ever- wretched poor,' he never 
 showed much interest in social questions except in times of 
 acute distress and on the one occasion when all London was 
 stirred by the misery and crime revealed in his friend 
 Fielding's ' Inquiry into the Increase of Bobberies ' and 
 Hogarth's companion caricature of ' Gin Lane.' Pitt sat 
 on the committee which was appointed as a result of the 
 ' Inquiry,' and which proposed, among other remedies, to 
 restrain the excessive harshness of the law, remove some of 
 the worst abuses of prisons, and exact contributions from 
 the richer for the poorer parishes. But he is not known 
 to have taken a prominent part in its proceedings. On the 
 
 Walpole, Pitt incurred much ridicule by his extravagance in declaring that he 
 would support such a cause to the last drop of his blood, and by the 
 unexpected knowledge he showed of Minorchese history and genealogies. For 
 Pitt's part in these debates, see Historical MSS, Gommiaaion XI, ix, 313. 
 
174 PITT AS PAYMASTER 
 
 other hand he was always ready to do good service in denouncing 
 
 1 abuses in the law or in the Church. Like his rival Fox, he had 
 
 a peculiar hatred of lawyers as a class, and is once reported 
 
 to have said, ' The constitution may be shaken to its centre 
 
 and the lawyer will sit calm in his cabinet. But let a cobweb 
 
 be disturbed in Westminster Hall, and out the bloated spider 
 
 will crawl in its defence.' ^ He also set his face against the 
 
 bitter anti-Scottish feeling in England. So bitter was this 
 
 feehng after the EebelUon that it must have required some 
 
 April 21, courage, even in Pitt, to defend, as he did in 1749, the grant 
 
 ^''^^' of £10,000 to recoup Glasgow for the fine exacted by the 
 
 young Pretender. 
 
 Without derogating [he went so far as to say] from the merit of 
 anyone, I may say that there are not many cities in the United 
 Kingdom that have so often and so remarkably distinguished 
 themselves in the cause of liberty. ... It was the whole tenour 
 of this city's conduct from the time of the Eeformation that drew 
 the resentment of the rebels upon it. 
 
 February- He showed the same broad-mindedness in supporting Pelham's 
 ^P?' attempts to promote new forms of industry by offering natura- 
 lization to foreign Protestants. One of the most thriving manu- 
 factures of the country was already due to the Huguenot 
 refugees at Spitalfields ; others might, it was hoped, be induced 
 to follow. But popular prejudice against the foreigner, advo- 
 cated with cynical effrontery in the House by Henry Pox, 
 proved too strong for even Pitt's eloquence to resist. ' CaesarJ 
 and Pompey squabbling,' Walpole described the prolonged 
 debates between the two, at the end of which Fox admitted 
 that ' Pitt is better speaker than I am ; but thank God I have 
 more judgment.' Pitt's judgment of his own self-interest 
 could certainly not stand beside Fox's ; but the foreseeing 
 judgment of the statesman was not of much concern to that 
 gifted poHtician. 
 
 Pitt also took up the unpopular cause in support of Pelham's 
 
 ^ Communicated by Mr. G. M. Trevelyan from John Bright's Diary of 
 February 14, 1850. Shell told Bright of the phrase, which he had received on 
 Butler's first-hand authority. 
 
PITT'S TOLERANT SPIRIT, 1751-3 175 
 
 Jews Naturalization Bill oi. 1753. Pelham's aim was to 
 encourage public-spirited Jews like Sampson Gideon, who had 
 given him much assistance in floating public loans, to settle 
 permanently in the coimtry anJ also~to" reward the London \ 
 
 / 
 
 Jews-for their patriotism in volunteering for service in 1745. 
 This harmless proposal, though unpopular with merchants and J 
 
 manufacturers, who feared that the Jews might interfere with 
 their business, was passed by a small majority in a thin House. , 
 But its passage aroused a storm of indignant fanaticism. • 
 Although the bishops had made no objection to the Act, the 
 country clergy led the hue and cry against it. Pamphlets 
 denounciag the blow against Christianity rained from the 
 Press ; old wives' tales were revived about secret and nefarious 
 practices of the Jews ; bishops and members of Parliament 
 known to have voted for the Act were mobbed wherever they 
 appeared, and assailed with the popular cry, ' No Jews, no '^ 
 wooden shoes.'-l— The Pelhams might have waited for the 
 storm to blow over, had not an election been due in 1754 and 
 Newcastle reported that the Jews Act might seriously menace 
 their majority. Its repeal was therefore proposed in November 
 1753, in a bill of which the preamble ran : ' . . . Whereas 
 occasion has been taken from the said act to raise discontents 
 and disquiets in the minds of many of His Majesty's subjects.' 
 The only discussion was on this preamble, which the rehgious 
 fanatics opposed as a reflection on themselves. Pitt, back in November 
 the House after a year of illness, flamed up at this, and lashed ^'^' ^''^^• 
 out at our ridiculous laws against aUens and our persecuting 
 unchristian laws relating to religion : ^ 
 
 Witt this dispute, religion tas really nothing to do ; but the people 
 without doors have been made to believe it has ; and upon this the 
 old High Church persecuting spirit has begun to take hold of them. 
 ... It is wise not to dispute with them, but we ought to let them 
 know that . . . the spirit they are at present possessed with is not 
 a true Christian spirit. 
 
 ' ' Wooden shoes ' referred to the Huguenots, who were almost as unpopular 
 as the Jews, as the rejection of the Foreign Protestants Bill had shown. A good 
 account of this Jvdenhetze is to be found in Hertz; British Imperialism in the 
 Eighteenth Century. 
 
 ^ See Sanderson Miller, p. 200. 
 
176 PITT AS PAYMASTER 
 
 When he came to defend the repeal his argument was halting. 
 He suggested as a parallel case that of a peevish and perverse 
 boy asking for something which was not quite right but would 
 be attended with no very bad consequence : an indulgent father 
 might humour him, but in doing so would let him know that he 
 did so out of complaisance, not because he approved of what 
 the child insisted on — a view of parental duty which Pitt would 
 certainly not have endorsed when he had children of his own. 
 
 I must still think [he concluded] that the law passed last session in 
 favour of the Jews was in itself right, and I shall now agree to the 
 repeal of it, merely out of complaisance to that enthusiastic spirit 
 that has taken hold of the people ; but then I am for letting them 
 know why I do so. 
 
 But when the religious bigots wished to follow up this victory 
 by repealing an act of 1740, which permitted Jewish settlers 
 
 December in the plantations to become naturahzed, Pitt lost all patience 
 
 ^' "^^- with them : 
 
 Is this [he asked] to be the first return to Parliament for its con- 
 descension in repealing the last act ? Here the stand must be made, 
 or venit summa dies ! we shall have a Church spirit revived. The 
 late clamour, I believe, was ofily a little election art, which had been 
 given way to genteelly. . . . My maxim is never to do more for 
 the Church than it now enjoys ; it is the Jew to-day, it wiU be the 
 Presbyterian to-morrow ; and we shall be sure to have a septennial 
 Church clamour. 
 
 Fortunately the House had the strength of mind to follow this 
 plain-spoken advice and reject the proposed repeal by a large 
 majority. 
 
 In foreign politics Pitt was less in sympathy with the Duke 
 of Newcastle, who had charge of them, than with his brother 
 in domestic affairs. Newcastle's chief task during the last 
 six years of his brother's administration was to keep the 
 peace abroad. In this he succeeded, because no nation was yet 
 anxious for war ; but he showed little of his brother's statesman- 
 ship in making preparation for the future. Wedded to the 
 Old System of foreign politics he continued bidding for the 
 
FOREIGN POLITICS, 1750-4 177 
 
 support of the Emperor and the electors as if our interests were 
 the same as they had been in the reign of WiUiam III. In his 
 efforts for peace Pitt supported him without hesitation, and, 
 in his zeal for the stability of the Pelham Ministry, carried 
 complaisance so far as to support some of his German bargains. 
 Peace at home and abroad was at this time with him the 
 paramount consideration. 
 
 This desire for peace made him most anxious not to revive 
 questions temporarily settled by the treaties of 1748. In 
 February 1750 Egmont and some other old aUies of his at the 
 Prince of Wales's Court, undeterred by Dodington's judicious 
 advice to be certain of their facts before stating a case, com- 
 plained that France had not fulfilled her promise of destroying 
 the harbour and fortifications of Dunkirk. It was an old 
 grievance brought up almost annually against Walpole. In the 
 debate Pelham bluntly told the House that the country was not 
 in a state to contend with her enemies, and for that reason February 
 deprecated raising the question. Lord Strange made a 5. 1'^so. 
 spirited speech in reply, and was answered by Pitt that ' no 
 man in his senses would provoke a combat, when he is but 
 just recovered from a violent fever, and his adversary is full 
 of strength and vigour.' But while agreeing with Pelham that 
 England in her present weak unallied state was unable to cope 
 with the whole House of Bourbon, and that the motion seemed 
 to him both wicked, as tending to inflame the minds of the 
 people, and absurd from our want of strength to back any com- 
 plaints, he added with robuster confidence that a few years 
 would remedy this condition. Egmont retorted that it ill be- 
 came Pitt to support a position which he had formerly attacked 
 with violence, and apply so malignant and opprobrious an 
 epithet as ' wicked ' to his motion. Pitt felt the justice of 
 the reproach, and gave back a soft answer to his old friend. 
 ' I must confess that upon some former occasions I have 
 been hurried by the heat of youth, and the warmth of 
 debate, iato expressions which, upon cool recollection, I 
 have deeply regretted ; and I believe the same thing has 
 happened to many gentlemen ia this House, and especially 
 to the noble lord.' After qualifying his epithet ' wicked,' he 
 
 VOL. I. N 
 
178 PITT AS PAYMASTER 
 
 asked for the evidence that the French were fortifying Dunkirk. 
 Even if they were, 
 
 Nations, as well as individuals, must sometimes forbear from the 
 rigorous exaction of what is due to them. Prudence may require 
 them to tolerate a delay, or even a refusal of justice, especially 
 when their right can no way suffer by such acquiescence ; and that 
 this is our case at present there are abundant proofs. ... I think 
 that no gentleman, after due consideration of the question whether 
 it would be prudent in us to declare war against France, in case she 
 should not, on the first demand, instantly begin to demolish the port 
 of Dunkirk, can agree to this motion. 
 
 Astonishment at this new tone from a much chastened Pitt 
 may have held the House silent. No one ventured a reply, 
 and the motion was rejected by 242 to 115. 
 
 Next yearTitt again came forward in repentant mood to) 
 defend a supplementary treaty concluded with Spain in October 
 1750. By this agreement certain causes of difference still left 
 open between the two nations at Aix-la-ChapeUe were finally 
 removed, with the result that good relations between England 
 and Spain were restored, and our trade obtained better security 
 than it had enjoyed since Charles II's reign. But the Spanish 
 T claims to a right of search, which had been one of the chief 
 
 January ° 
 
 17, 1751. causes of the war, were still not exphcitly surrendered, an 
 omission which Egmont, Dodington, Potter and Lee indig- 
 nantly criticised in the debate on January 17, 1751. In his 
 speech Pitt, after his manner when he had changed his mind, 
 plainly told the House so. He admitted that in the debates 
 of 1739 he had been foremost in demanding that the right of 
 search should be absolutely surrendered by Spain : but now, 
 in a passage already quoted,^ recognised that this was an 
 impossible demand, unless Spain should be brought so low 
 as to give us carte blanche, which neither our own interest 
 nor the claims of other Powers would suffer. He also recanted 
 his error in voting, early in the war,^ for an address to the 
 Crown prescribing the terms on which alone peace would be 
 i acceptable. This he now recognised to be unduly trenching 
 upon the royal prerogative : 
 
 1 See above, p. 93. a See above, p. 79. 
 
PITT'S DREAD OF THE BOURBONS 179 
 
 None can foresee the sudden turns and chances of war . . . and, as 
 the Crown has the sole power of making peace or war, every such 
 address must certainly be an encroachment on the King's prerogative, 
 which has always hitherto proved to be unlucky. For these reasons 
 I believe I shall never hereafter concur in any such address, unless 
 made so conditional as to leave the Crown at full hberty to agree to 
 such terms of peace as may at the time be thought proper. 
 
 Having cleared the ground of past mistakes he made out a 
 strong case for the treaty, because of the favourable terms 
 granted to British trade, and still more because it enabled 
 Spain to shake herself free from French influence and assert 
 her intention of taking a stand on the side of England. 
 
 The Spanish ambassador. Wall, was so well pleased with this 
 speech, which even the carping Walpole calls remarkable, that 
 he sent a special report to his Court of the ' great orator Pitt's^ 
 words. It is a remarkable example of Pitt's essential consis- ' 
 tency on broad lines of pohcy and his carelessness about con- 
 sistency in details. Throughout his life the danger to Englaml4 
 of the Bourbon power dominated his mind. He hated the 
 Bourbons because they represented to him all the intolerance 
 and arbitrary rule which his soul most abhorred. United he 
 dreaded their strength for evil against the land of liberty he 
 loved, and he spent a large part of his life in attempts to keep 
 them apart, or in raising a counterpoise to their union. 
 During the period that Spain kept France at arm's length by a 
 reconcUiation with us, he was all for humouring her, a policy 
 which he consistently followed until Spain returned to the 
 French aUiance in 1761. This intense hatred of the Bourbons 
 and of the spirit they represented was one great source of Pitt's 
 power with his countrymen. It was a simple idea which they 
 could easily grasp ; it was one they shared and in which Pitt 
 never failed them. Another great source of his power was 
 the perfect frankness of his public utterances. When Pitt 
 changed his mind he never concealed the fact : on the contrary, 
 he seemed to glory in it and took the whole world into his 
 confidence. Mysterious and difficult as he often was in his [ 
 private relations and correspondence, when he was speaking 
 to the House of Commons, and through it to England, he 
 
 n2 
 
i8o PITT AS PAYMASTER 
 
 thought aloud and spoke out more of his real self than he 
 revealed even to those dearest to him. ' When I am on my 
 feet,' he once said of himself, ' I speak everything that is in 
 my mind.' 
 
 Pitt had more occasion to complain of Newcastle's German 
 policy. The hopes he and Frederic II had entertained of an 
 understanding between England and Prussia soon evaporated 
 before George II's openly expressed dislike of his nephew. 
 ' The King of Prussia,' he told the French ambassador, ' is a 
 mischievous rascal, a bad friend, a bad ally, a bad relation and 
 a bad neighbour, in fact the most dangerous and evil-disposed 
 prince in Europe.' i Newcastle was well pleased to adopt his 
 master's prejudices and turned with relief to the Old System. 
 Not content with this outworn alliance, he and the King, 
 when left to themselves at Hanover, attempted to revive in 
 a new form the Emperor Charles VI's Pragmatic Sanction 
 policy, a bubble long ago pricked. To avoid disputes on the 
 death of Maria Theresa's husband, they conceived the ingenious 
 idea of assuring beforehand in the electoral college a majority 
 for his son ; as if it could matter to England who became 
 emperor. The persons principally interested, Maria Theresa 
 and her husband, threw cold water on the scheme, but most of 
 the electors were willing enough to promise votes for England's 
 money. In October 1750, after laborious negotiations about 
 the price, Newcastle secured the Bavarian vote for a subsidy of 
 £20,000 a year, with a further proviso that the Elector should 
 hold a force of 6,000 men at England's disposal. Newcastle 
 could hardly contain himself for joy at the result of his diplo- 
 macy. The treaty ' lays a foundation of a sohd system for the 
 preservation of the peace,' he wrote to Pitt, ' and, though full 
 of business, I am full of joy upon public transactions, fuU of 
 the goodness of my friends and, if I hear a good account of my 
 dear friend the Duke of Eichmond, full of joy upon all accounts.' 
 His good friends were not so enthusiastic. Pelham grumbled 
 at the expense but agreed to it on condition it should be the 
 last demand of the kind. Pitt made the same stipulation, in 
 the spirit of his ' indulgent father who humoured a peevish 
 
 ' Aff. Etr. Angl. Corr. Pol. 431, f. 385. 
 
AGAINST NEWCASTLE'S OLD SYSTEM, 1751-2 i8i 
 
 and perverse boy,' and guardedly replied to the Duke's self- 
 congratulations that if this treaty really secured his object of 
 peace it was cheap. In the House of Commons, when it was February 
 attacked by Egmont in 1751, Pitt defended it in perfunctory 22, 1751. 
 fashion, chiefly on the ground that, while ' the preservation of 
 peace is our maxim,' we should be prepared for the possibility 
 of war. This treaty, unhke the more aggressive treaties 
 of France, was solely, he said, directed to preserving peace 
 and the existing rights of European nations ; the alternative 
 to the force to be provided by Bavaria would be a large addi- 
 tion to our own standing army, 'which might be of the most 
 dangerous consequence to our constitution.' 
 
 But Newcastle was incorrigible. Taking no warning 
 from this chilling advocacy, in the autumn he concluded 
 another treaty, this time with the Elector of Saxony, whereby 
 England was to pay him an annual subsidy of £32,000. No 
 one was more disgusted at this fresh expense than Newcastle's 
 brother. Talking in confidence to Dodington, Pelham said 
 ' he was against these subsidies ... to be buying one elector ' 
 after another was what he abhorred and could not approve 
 of. It must have an end ... he had declared so in Parlia- 
 ment.' Indeed, in his first outburst of anger he threatened to 
 lead the opposition to it in Parliament himself, but, thinking 
 better of it, made the best defence he could when the charge 
 came up for sanction in 1752. Pitt was not so accommodating. 
 In a conference with Newcastle he told him plainly that he 
 engaged for subsidies without knowing the extent of the sums 
 and for alliances without knowing the terms, and his language 
 was so contemptuous that Newcastle would have dismissed 
 him from office had he dared. Though unable from his position 
 to lead the opposition to the treaty himself, Pitt was ostenta- 
 tiously absent from the debate, and allowed his ally, the eldest 
 GrenvOle, to speak against it. Old Horace Walpole, who made 
 the best speech against the treaty and for an alliance with 
 Prussia, afterwards had it printed and sent a copy to Pitt, now 
 entirely reconciled to him. Pitt was delighted with it : 
 
 Your speech [he wrote] from beginning to end breathes the spirit 
 
i82 PITT AS PAYMASTER 
 
 of a man who loves his country. If your endeavours contribute 
 to the honest end you aim at, namely to check foreign expenses 
 and prevent entanglements abroad, under a situation burdened and 
 exhausted at present and liable to many alarming apprehensions 
 in futurity, you deserve the thanks of this generation and will have 
 those of the next. 
 
 Pitt and old Horace Walpole almost alone in the House of 
 Commons interpreted the country's growing antipathy to the 
 traditional alliance with the house of Hapsburg. While 
 George II and Newcastle were running about the German courts 
 to secure votes for Maria Theresa's son, she was constantly 
 ruffling English susceptibilities.^ In disregard of treaties she 
 attempted to revive the Ostend trade, an old bugbear to English 
 merchants, and to oust our allies the Dutch from the Barrier 
 fortresses which defended the Lovr Countries from France. 
 The only real obstacle, apart from Nevsrcastle's blindness and 
 George II's prejudices, to the Anglo-Prussian alliance desired 
 by Pitt was the mutual jealousy between Prussia and Eussia, 
 which Newcastle accentuated by promoting another treaty of 
 subsidy between England, Russia and the Emperor. The need 
 of strong alliances was becoming daily more apparent to Pitt. 
 In the summer of 1750, while the Duke of Newcastle was 
 chattering in his letters to him about Bavaria and the King of 
 the Romans, Pitt was keeping his eye on the first signs of danger 
 in America. The colonists of Nova Scotia were being enticed 
 away to the French islands under instruction from the French 
 Government, and an English fort had been attacked by French- 
 men from across the border. Pitt had vainly tried to arouse 
 Newcastle to these ominous proceedings : 
 
 Very alarming I confess it is to me [he writes] ; your Grace will 
 soon see (perhaps you already do) if France be in earnest to maintain 
 this violence ; if she be, I can't figure to myself a more imhappy 
 event : for his Majesty's right to the country in question and the 
 infinite importance to all North America of asserting that right I 
 find are equally undeniable.^ 
 
 ' A few years later Hardwioke, Newcastle's confidant, had to admit that 
 the money spent on buying Electors was ' all entirely thrown away.' {Add. 
 MSS. 32921, f. 340.) 
 
 ' Add. MSS. 32721, f. 129. 
 
ANXIETY ABOUT FRANCE IN AMERICA, 1750 183 
 
 Newcastle passed it off as a trifling affair and, in spite of a 
 further note of warning from Pitt, returned to his congenial 
 topics of self-praise and complaints of his colleagues. Pitt 
 saw that a treaty for 6,000 men from Bavaria hardly met the 
 case ; on the contrary, it distracted attention from the real 
 seat of danger. But without sowing dissension in a ministry, 
 for which no better could then be substituted, he could not 
 enforce his convictions ; for the Pelhams never thought of 
 offering him the post of real responsibiUty, for which he craved, 
 during all these eight years, when, as he afterwards wrote 
 to the Duke of Newcastle, 
 
 I have never been wanting in my most zealous endeavours in Parlia- 
 ment, on the points that laboured the most — those of military 
 discipline and of foreign affairs ; nor have I differed on any whatever 
 but the crying complaint against General Anstruther and the too 
 small number of seamen one year, which was admitted to be such 
 the next.^ 
 
 The brothers certainly appreciated his value to them. 
 They consulted him on aU the treaties they made and placed 
 the utmost confidence in his advice and support. ' Go on in 
 your correspondence with him,' wrote Pelham to his brother 
 in 1750, ' with all the frankness and cordiaHty you can ; I 
 do so in all my conversations with him. I think him besides 
 the most able and useful man we have amongst us ; truly 
 honourable and strictly honest.' He sometimes acted the part 
 of peacemaker between them in the quarrels provoked by 
 Newcastle's fits of jealousy, and even escaped the usual fate of 
 peacemakers by earning the gratitude of both parties. After 
 one such incident Newcastle says, ' Pitt wrote in the handsomest 
 and most friendly manner imaginable, and took notice of 
 •my brother's satisfaction with me.' Pitt himself modestly 
 disclaimed any merit for the reconciliation : 
 
 You are both [he said] too good to mention, as you are pleased to do, 
 my poor little part between you. My good wishes were sincere, 
 and wishing well was all I could possibly have to do. I should be 
 
 » AM. MSS, 32734, (. 322, 
 
i84 PITT AS PAYMASTER 
 
 foolistly vain witt a witness, if I ascribed the least part of tlie per- 
 fect union between you to anything but your own good hearts and 
 understandings. . . . Whatever determination you come to, I 
 heartUy wish it may more and more secure and strengthen power 
 and authority in your hands. 
 
 On one of the two occasions when Pitt opposed the Government, 
 Newcastle gave him a remarkable testimony in a circular letter" 
 to his supporters : 
 
 As you can be no stranger [he wrote] (if you attended the late 
 debate) to the able and afiectionate maimer in which Mr. Pitt took 
 upon himself to defend me and the measures which have been solely 
 carried on by me, when both have been openly attacked with violence 
 and when no other person in the House opened his lips in defence 
 of either but Mr. Pitt, I think myself bound, in honour and gratitude, 
 to shew my sense of it in the best manner I am able. I must there- 
 fore desire that neither you nor any of my friends would give into 
 any clamour or run, that may be made against him from any of the 
 party, on account of his difiering as to the number of seamen. 
 For after the kind part he has acted to me, and (as far as I am 
 allowed to be a part of it) the meritorious one to the administration, 
 I cannot think any man my friend who shall join in any such clamour 
 and who does not do all in his power to discourage it. 
 
 But, though quite willing to pay for Pitt's services by 
 flattering words, the Pelhams probably thought his good in- 
 chnations towards them and the smallness of the party of 
 Grenvilles and Lyttelton which would follow him into Opposi- 
 tion, if disappointed, made it needless to attach him by greater 
 rewards. It was not for want of opportunities that they gave 
 him no better post. No less than four Secretaries of State suc- 
 cessively became Newcastle's colleagues during the eight years 
 from 1746 to 1754. In October 1746 Chesterfield succeeded 
 Harrington. Chesterfield had once given promise of becoming 
 one of our greatest statesmen ; he had much of Pitt's grasp of 
 foreign politics, and, as he showed when Lord Lieutenant of 
 Ireland, was a good administrator, with broad and sym- 
 pathetic views. But he had no staying power. Unlike Pitt, 
 with all his brilliant ability he was easily tired of con- 
 tending against such difficulties as his jealous colleague 
 
CLAIMS NEGLECTED BY PELHAMS 185 
 
 Newcastle was careful to put in his path, and had too 
 much wit to be a strenuous fighter.^ Weary of contending 
 for peace he resigned in February 1748 ; two months later he 
 would have seen his poUcy triumph. On his resignation Fox's 
 claims to the post were actively canvassed, and none were 
 louder in his favour than Pitt and his friends.^ The rivaky 
 between Fox and Pitt had not then become pronounced, and, 
 until their final breach in 1755, Pitt had the highest esteem 
 for Fox's abiUty as a politician : moreover, his promotion 
 might have given Pitt the chance of stepping into his shoes 
 as Secretary-at-War. But at that time Bedford was in high 
 favour with Newcastle, and was chosen for the post. Bedford's 
 vigour as First Lord of the Admiralty disappeared entirely 
 when he became Secretary of State. The King said he ' did 
 nothing but ride post from Woburn once a week and fancied 
 he performed the duties of his office when he did little or 
 nothing.' But he came under Newcastle's suspicion for actively 
 espousing the party of the Duke of Cumberland, who was 
 considered dangerous by the Pelhams, and after a year of 
 intrigues he also was dismissed in jJSl, Pitt, who was con- 
 stantly consulted by the brothers while they were intriguing 
 against Bedford, had advised caution. ' Pitt has been with 
 me,' wrote Pelham to the Duke, ' and he seems of my opinion, 
 mighty desirous that you should be made easy, but very doubt- 
 ful whether any violent stroke will produce that good result.' ^ 
 The Hst of possible Secretaries of State had now become almost 
 exhausted, but Newcastle discovered one to his mind in Lord 
 Holdemess, ' so good-natured you may tell him his faults and 
 he wiU mend them, and no pride in him though a d'Arcy.' 
 At the same time Anson succeeded Sandwich at the head of 
 the Admiralty, and Granville, who had lost all his fire and 
 
 ^ It was well said of him by the French envoy, Bussy, that he was too much 
 inclined to make epigrams of the most serious business and never touched 
 men's souls, only their minds. 
 
 ^ Coxe, Pelham, i, 391 : Fox to Hanbury Williams. 
 
 ' Pitt probably knew that the King would object, as he did, to dismissing 
 his favourite son's ally. When Bedford resigned the seals the King hoped that 
 the ' happy hour was not far ofi ' when he would be taking them from Newcastle 
 and restoring them to Bedford. {Egmont MSS. 76.) 
 
i86 PITT AS PAYMASTER 
 
 become dead to ambition, was reconciled to Pelham and entered 
 the Ministry as Lord President of the Council. 
 
 There was something almost contemptuous in the way 
 Pelham and Newcastle discussed with Pitt other candidates for 
 important posts as if he had no possible claim himself. They 
 could always, when Pitt showed ill-humour at this neglect, 
 entrench themselves behind the King's disHke of him. George II, 
 after his momentary attention to Pitt, in 1746,^ relapsed into 
 his old attitude of distrust. All Pitt's confessions of error in 
 the past, his defence of the prerogative in army matters, and his 
 loyal support of the Government were wasted on him. After 
 Pitt's signal service in reconciling the Pelhams in 1750 New- 
 castle told him he had ' acquainted the King with that proper 
 zeal, satisfaction and regard for his Majesty's honour and 
 Service which is shown in your letter, and, I may say, it was not 
 thrown away.' Pitt thanked him warmly for his ' good office 
 in that Place, where I deservedly stand in need of it so much, 
 and where I have it so much at heart to efface the pass'd by 
 every action of my hfe.' ^ Nevertheless the King could 
 hardly be persuaded to address one gracious word to Pitt, 
 and in the following year was so indignant at his opposing the 
 reduction of the navy that he ignored him entirely at the levee. 
 1 It is very doubtful if the Pelhams took much trouble to over- 
 ■ come this iU-feeling. They thought themselves secure of Pitt, 
 or they might have been more successful : for the King's 
 obstinacy could always, if necessary, be overcome. The 
 Princess of Wales once said to Dodington : ' If they talked of 
 the King she was out of patience ; it was as if they should tell 
 her that her httle Harry below would not do what was proper 
 for him ; that just so the King would splutter and make a 
 bustle, but when they told him it must be done from the 
 necessity of his service, he must do it, as Uttle Harry must 
 when she came down.' 
 
 These continual disappointments disposed Pitt in 1751 to 
 welcome a suggestion from Newcastle, who of the two brothers 
 had always spoken him more fairly, to renew his intercourse 
 with the Prince of Wales's Court. Newcastle was seriously 
 
 ^ See above, p. 147. " Add. MSS. 32723, f. 44. 
 
DEATH OF PRINCE OF WALES, 1751 187 
 
 alarmed at the opposition of the Duke of Cumberland's party, 
 which included Fox and the Bedfords, and wished to secure the 
 favour of the heir to the throne, and Pitt had found himself in 
 agreement with the Prince's followers on the navy and General 
 Anstruther's case. His maxim was to serve whoever was 
 King of England, and he may have hoped, since George II 
 gave him no opening, to obtain better employment on his 
 successor's accession. The Prince had since 1746 become 
 estranged from Pitt, and in the various plans he amused him- 
 self by drawing up with Egmont and Dodington for the recon- 
 stitution of the House of Commons and the Ministry on his ac- 
 cession had always marked Pitt down for exclusion from both.'- 
 But a common fear of the Duke of Cumberland seemed to open 
 a promising negotiation between the Prince, Newcastle and '. 
 Pitt and the Grenvilles,^ when the whole situation was altered 
 by the sudden death of the Prince on March 22, 1751. His 
 Court was temporarily broken up and the Princess ostentatiously 
 abandoned politics to devote herself to the education of her 
 sons. Since George, the new Prince of Wales, was under age, | 
 a Eegency Bill was necessary, the debates on which revealed j^ay 16, 
 the growing antagonism between the Pelhams, with Pitt on their 17. a°d 
 side, and the Duke of Cumberland's party, headed by Pox. T' " 
 Under the provisions of the Bill the Princess Dowager was to be i 
 Eegent, in case of a minority, aided by a council presided over 
 by the Duke of Cumberland. Every proposal of Fox to increase 
 the council's power Pitt warmly resisted, indicating with his 
 usual frankness the apprehensions; that he shared with many 
 others, of a military dictatorship, unless Cumberland's powers 
 were limited. He also expressed his devotion to the Princess 
 of Wales, promisiag to remove any restrictions on the Eegent, 
 which might prove irksome to her, and praising her husband in 
 language of byperbfilfi hardly justified even by his death, as J'- 
 
 ' Several of these plans, drawn up in 1749 and 1750 and annotated by 
 Frederick himself, are preserved in Egmont MSS. 277. In one of them is a 
 note against Pitt's name : ' To have likewise some profitable employment and 
 inconsistent with a seat in Parliament ' ; in another the embassy at Turin is 
 assigned to him. See Vol. II- p- 59- 
 
 » See Coxe, Lord Walpole, u, 288 sqq. ; Dodington, Diary, 181 m- • Coxe, 
 Pdham, ii, 164 sqq. ; and Walpole, Memoirs. 
 
i88 PITT AS PAYMASTER 
 
 ' the most patriot prince that ever hved, to whom I had such 
 infinite obligations and such early attachments, which I am 
 proud to transfer to his family.' Then a touch of the old Adam 
 peeped out at the recollection of those early days of light- 
 hearted opposition, and he added in his former veui of sarcasm : 
 ' I wonder at His Majesty exerting a fortitude at this calamity 
 which Edward III was not master of when he lost the Black 
 Prince.' 
 \f ,' After this momentary ebullition Pitt once more resigned 
 
 himself to a secondary position for the rest of Pelham's Hfe. 
 He remained, with the brothers' approval, on the most friendly 
 terms with the Princess Dowager and her Court in Leicester 
 Fields. From this time dates his growing intimacy with Lord 
 Bute, the handsome young Scottish peer, who was already the 
 favourite and chief political guide of the Princess and her son. 
 In 1753 he was able to do some service to this Court, as well as 
 to the Ministry. A charge of Jacobitism against the Pruice's 
 instructors, implicating Stone, Newcastle's former secretary, 
 and Murray, Pitt's rival, created a great stir in the country. 
 It was investigated by the Privy Council and found to be base- 
 less, but Bedford revived it in the House of Lords in Cumber- 
 I land's interest. Pitt thereupon wrote to his friend Eiohard^ 
 jGrenville, who had then become Lord Temple, and whose 
 suspicious and intriguing disposition would make him listen 
 greedily to such scandals, imploring hina : ' if you should 
 entertain any thought of supporting or going with the question 
 ... to lay it aside, as I am deeply persuaded that nothing 
 could be so fatal to me and to all our views, so nothing imagin- 
 able could give me a concern equal to seeing your Lordship 
 take such a step.' 
 
 Pitt said of Pelham on his death in March 1754, ' I am 
 sensibly touched with his loss, as of a man, upon the whole, of 
 a most amiable composition. His loss as a minister is utterly 
 irreparable, in such circumstances as constitute the present 
 dangerous conjuncture for this country, both at home and 
 abroad ' ; and the sincerity of this judgment is borne out by 
 Pitt's conduct, in spite of personal disappointment, during his 
 administration. That he may have been occasionally tempted, 
 
PELHAM'S DEATH, 1754 189 
 
 as Dodington unkindly expressed it, to make a disturbance and 
 regain his popularity, is most probable with an impetuous 
 nature like Pitt's nursing a just grievance. But if so, though 
 he had plenty of opportunities during the Pelhams' frequent 
 quarrels, he never yielded to it. He was too patriotic and too 
 well satisfied with Pelham's able finance and administration^ 
 and his skill in conciliating parties, always a great aim of his 
 own, seriously to think of creating difficulties for him. But 
 for a weaker and less capable successor who should continue 
 to disregard his own right to a responsible office, such forbear- 
 ance was not to be expected. 
 
CHAPTEE VII 
 Pitt's private life and friendships ( 
 
 reKvov ^/xhy^ Kaprhs fj.ey 'AOrivaifj re Kol "Hpy] 
 SciKTOva^, aX k' efieAwtrt, (ri) 5e /xeyaK-fiTopa ffvfjihv 
 ifTX^tv iv (TT-fideffffl. 
 
 HoMBE, Iliad, ix. 254.' 
 
 The fallow years of Pelham's administration were useful to 
 Pitt for other things besides giving him a better insight into 
 State affairs. Under the genial influence of wealth and leisure 
 his character ripened and expanded. An income of close upon 
 £5,000 allowed him to indulge some of his extravagant tastes. 
 He was still immarried, and had few family interests to absorb 
 his energy ia private life : he thus had time for the increased 
 social intercourse, as well as for the studies which were to fit 
 him for the last strenuous period of a Ufe almost wholly devoted 
 to the public welfare. 
 
 Pitt's chief extravagance throughout life was building and 
 the laying out of grounds. Landscape gardening was then the 
 mode, and all who could afford it vied with one another in 
 conveying an illusion of vast spaces, distant prospects, and 
 grandiose scenery within the smallest compass. It was an 
 age of vistas, of rivulets aping the appearance of mighty rivers, 
 of embankments fashioned into the semblance of beetling 
 brows or rugged mountain-sides, and of antique temples bearing 
 witness to the designer's classical lore. ' Whether to plant a 
 walk in undulating curves and to place a bench ia every turn 
 where there is an object to catch the view ; to make water 
 run where it will be heard, or to stagnate where it will be seen ; 
 
 ' ; My son, the gods may give thee power, if they will, but look thou to keep 
 a brave spirit within thee.' 
 
 190 
 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING 191 
 
 to leave intervals where the eye will be pleased, and to thicken 
 the plantation where there is something to be hidden, demands 
 any great powers of mind ? ' — Dr. Johnson forbore to inquire. 
 ' Perhaps a sullen and surly speculator,' he adds, ' may think 
 such performances rather the sport than the business of human 
 reason. But it must at least be confessed that to embelhsh 
 the form of Nature is an innocent amusement ; and some 
 praise must be allowed by the most supercilious observer to 
 him who does best what such multitudes are contending to 
 do weU.' 
 
 Pitt entered with zest into the innocent amusement. Before 
 he had house or grounds of his own his friends allowed him to 
 give his fancy rein on theirs, for none was thought to excel 
 him in ' pointing his prospects, diversifying his surface, en- 
 tangling his walks, and winding his waters ' ; and Warburton 
 no mean judge, gave him the palm before so expert a professional 
 as Capabihty Brown, the gardener of Stowe and Hampton 
 Court. He was consulted freely by Lyttelton on the rebuilding 
 of Hagley, and devoted ' very mature consideration ' to the 
 proper setting for a rotunda in the park. He designed a walk 
 at West Wickham for Gilbert West, the Grenvilles' pious 
 cousin, laid out another friend's grounds ' to resemble Milton's 
 Bower of Bliss,' * and helped to plan for George Grenville the 
 enchanting two miles of water scenery still to be seen at Wotton 
 in Buckinghamshire. Both Cobham and Temple successively 
 took counsel of him for the additions they were constantly 
 making to the adornment of Stowe, the most famous and 
 characteristic example of the taste of the period. Here were 
 Elysian fields, a stalactite grotto by the lake— where the 
 Princess AmeUa and Horace Walpole once took cold— Doric 
 arches, sacred groves, hallowed fountains, and temples dedicated 
 to Venus, to Ancient and Modern Virtue, and to Friendship, 
 containing busts of those who had earned Cobham's or Temple's 
 esteem : in one of these Pitt himself had his niche. 
 
 Pitt also advised humbler fciends. Near Hagley was The 
 Leasowes, famous as the seat of the poet Shenstone, who 
 piqued himself on rivalling his grand neighbour, Lyttelton. 
 
 ' Chatham MSS. 34 : E. Wyndliam to Hester Grenville, November, 1746. 
 
192 PITT'S PRIVATE LIFE AND FRIENDSHIPS 
 
 Here in tiny compass were to be seen all the paraphernalia of 
 vistas, temples, seats, and inscriptions, to embellish a scene 
 naturally beautiful. When staying at Hagley Pitt would often 
 ride over to confer with Shenstone on his summer-houses and 
 walks. ' Nature,' he once ventured to tell him, ' has done 
 everything for you, Mr. Shenstone ' ; to which the bard replied 
 with becoming spirit, ' But I hope I have done something for 
 Nature too by displaying her beauties to the best advantage.' ^ 
 Shenstone's biographer. Graves, also relates that 
 
 Mr. William Pitt, ttough a younger brother and liis fortune then 
 not large, —with a noble contempt for money any further than as 
 a means of doing good or conferring favours — as he saw several 
 possible improvements, which Mr. Shenstone could not afiord to 
 execute, gave him a hint . . . that with his permission Mr. Pitt 
 would please himself by laying out £200 at the Leasowes. This, 
 however, Mr. Shenstone considered as a species of dalliance with 
 his mistress, to which he coidd not submit. 
 
 But Shenstone was grateful, and recorded in verse that, 
 
 Ev'n Pitt, whose fervent periods roU 
 Eesistless thro' the kindling soul 
 
 Of Senates, Councils, Kings ; 
 Tho' form'd for Courts, vouchsafed to move 
 Inglorious thro' the shepherd's grove 
 
 And ope his bashful springs. 
 
 With his new wealth Pitt could afford the luxury of a house 
 and grounds of his own. As Paymaster he had an of&cial 
 residence in Whitehall overlooking the park. In 1747 he 
 bought from Lady Charlotte Edwin, an old acquaintance at 
 the Prince of Wales's Court, the lease of South Lodge in Enfield 
 Chace, with the sixty-five acres attached, which was originally 
 one of the three Baileys or Lodges appertaining to the Eoyal 
 Forest.2 He immediately set to work adding to the house 
 and laying out the grounds. In 1748 his carpenter's bill came 
 to £1,358 for work, which included making a new drawing- 
 
 ^ Shenstone's complacent reply to Pitt finds an echo in Whistler's to the 
 lady who had found a scene in Nature resembling one of his etchings : ' Nature is 
 creeping up, Madam.' 
 
 " See Chatham M8S. 31 ; and Lysona, Environs of London, 
 
SOUTH LODGE, ENFIELD, 1747-53 193 
 
 room, dressing-room, library, and kitchen, a billiard table, as 
 well as ' building a temple ' and providing a bridge, ' a porticoe 
 and hexigon,' and a ' pyramid for the garden.' ^ Whateley, 
 in his ' Observations on Modern Gardening,' is enthusiastic 
 over the situation of the temple, which was dedicated to Pan, 
 and describes it as 
 
 of the usual oblong form, encompassed by a colonnade ; in dimensions 
 and in style it is equal to a most extensive landskip ; yet by the 
 antique and rustic air of its Doric columns without bases ; by the 
 chastity of its little ornament, a crook, a pipe and a scrip, and those 
 only over the doors ; and by the simplicity of the whole both within 
 and without, it is adapted with so much propriety to the thickets 
 that conceal it from the view that no one can wish it to be brought 
 forward, who is sensible to the charms of the Arcadian scene which 
 this building alone has created. 
 
 Pitt's own friends were also loud in admiration of the Arca- 
 dian scene. Mrs. Montagu pronounced the Temple of Pan 
 worthy of arousing poetic enthusiasm ; Gilbert West waxed 
 rhapsodical over ' every sequestered nook, dingle and bosky 
 bower from side to side in that Httle paradise opened in the 
 wild ' ; and his sister Molly, wh o see ms to have had a tender 
 feeling for the great man, had such impUcit faith in Mr. Pitt's 
 taste and judgment, that she often stole out by herself and, in 
 defiance of -mnd or rain, walked many times over the enchanting 
 round.2 Other friends found greater delight in the sport and 
 intellectual pleasures offered them by Pitt in this sylvan retreat. 
 South Lodge was ' an accession to the common stock and Ee- 
 publick of sportsmen ' for the woodcock and snipe it provided, 
 wrote Legge, who also looked forward to the winter parties at 
 Enfield, ' those nodes ccenceque Deorum at which we will discuss 
 pohtics, poetry, or that greatest of aU the Nepenthes, nonsense 
 
 fro re nata, as our genius shall prompt.' ^ 
 
 Pitt was never satisfied with any house for long, and 
 South Lodge was no exception. He loved the work there, 
 but was too restless to enjoy the full fruits of it. Five years 
 after he had bought the house he told Mrs. Montagu, with 
 
 1 Chatham MSS. 71. ^ Caimenson, Mrs. Montagu, u, 8, 10, 
 
 VOL. I. ^ 
 
194 PITT'S PRIVATE LIFE AND FRIENDSHIPS 
 
 some slight exaggeration perhaps, that he had never lived there 
 for an entire week ; and in 1753 sold it to a Mr. Sharpe with 
 all the contents except his silver and books and the Duchess 
 of Marlborough's portrait.^ Little is now left of Pitt's work 
 in the grounds of South Lodge. The Temple of Pan and the 
 pyramid have vanished, the sequestered nooks, the dingles 
 and bosky bowers are overgrown and unrecognisable ; the 
 two lakes still remain, one with a wooded island which may 
 have been planted by Pitt, the other still haunted by wUd-duek 
 and snipe ; but the rustic bridge is gone. The house, however, 
 still stands with its solid well-proportioned rooms, its fine 
 wood-carving in the dining-room, and its spacious views 
 over Chace and valleys, much as it was when Pitt, with the 
 Grenvilles, Lytteltons and Wests held nodes ccencBque Deorum ; 
 nor would he have been displeased that it has become a school 
 for the education of young Englishmen. 
 
 Pitt was no pedantic follower of the prevailing mode for 
 sophisticated beauties. He put down his own skill in gardening 
 to ' the prophetic eye of taste,' and knew when to hold his hand. 
 ' The ground rolls and tumbles finely here,' he declared of 
 a wonderful meeting-place of the hills and the waters at Ham 
 in Derbyshire,^ and was content to admire. Until the end of 
 his life he took delight in riding about the country or driving 
 in a four-horse chaise, always at a great pace, yet always with 
 a keen eye for the features in a landscape ; ' on passing a 
 place where he had been ten years before,' his granddaughter 
 told Meryon, ' he would observe that there used to be a tree, 
 or a stone, or a something that was gone, and on inquiry it 
 always proved to be so.' After a five days' solitary jaunt in 
 Sussex in 1753 he jerked out his impressions in disjointed 
 phrases : 
 
 Battel Abbey is very fine, as to situation and lying of ground, 
 together with a great command of water on one side, withia an airing. 
 
 1 Chatham MSS. 71. In Chatham MSS. 74 are three rough sketches, 
 apparently by Pitt, of designs for laying out grounds. 
 
 ^ Ham belonged to a friend of the Pitts, Mr. de la Porte. A good 
 description of it is given in Pinkerton, Voyages and Travels, ii, 483. Congreve 
 also was fond of the place. 
 
ENCOMBE AND JOHN PITT 195 
 
 Ashburnham Park, most beautiful ; Huistmonceux very fine, curious 
 and dismally ugly . . . Crowhurst, Colonel Pelham's, the sweetest 
 thing in the world ; more taste than anywhere, land and sea views 
 exquisite. Beach of four or five miles to Hastings, enchanting 
 Hastings unique ; Fairly Farm, Sir Whistler Webster's, just above 
 it ; perfect in its kind, cum multis aliis. 
 
 Encombe, near Corfe Castle in Dorsetshire, was one of 
 Pitt's favourite haunts. It is ensconced in a vale that opens 
 to the English Channel and contains in the grounds a piece of 
 water so happily managed as to have the appearance of forming 
 an inlet of the sea. Here, too, were white cliffs, where Pitt 
 loved ' to kick his heels and look like a shepherd in Theocritus.' 
 The estate belonged to his cousin John Pitt of the Strathfieldsaye 
 branch, who inherited large estates in Dorsetshire and later 
 became known as ' the Great Commoner of the West ' after 
 his greater cousin. Pitt had a great affection for him and in 
 writing to him drops the stilted style which was growing on 
 him, rallies him on his love affairs, and sends a thousand kisses 
 to his Httle son. When he is bored with his own society at 
 Bath he bids John Pitt come over, for ' you cannot do so great 
 a charity as to come and hunt prospects with me and keep 
 me from hanging myself ' ; and of course he takes charge of 
 the embellishment of his cousin's property. When he could 
 not superintend in person he wrote directions : ' Throw 
 about your verdant hUls some thousands of trees . . . group 
 away, my dear Pitt ; nay, if you indulge me in this request 
 I beUeve I shall give up my miserable constitution to you to 
 practise upon.' He sends his ' benedictions, to the hUls, rocks, 
 pines, shores, seas, &c. of Encombe : 
 
 Benigni habbiate, et il sole, e la luna, 
 E delle ninphe il choro ; ' 
 
 and in 1757, from his office in London, wistfully regrets that he 
 cannot set ' business for an instant aside to go to my country 
 recluse and follow his walks through the solitudes of verdant 
 Dorsetshire, through warm leases, heavy ewes and bounding 
 lambs, rocks, sea beach, foaming billows and what not ! ' ^ 
 
 ^ See Lady Cliatterton's Memorials of Admiral Oamhier, i, 8 aqq. 
 
 o2 
 
196 PITT'S PRIVATE LIFE AND FRIENDSHIPS 
 
 Eadway under Edgehill was another house where the 
 Paymaster was pleased to unbend. Its owner, Sanderson 
 Miller, was a kindly soul, popular as a host in the Midlands. 
 His weakness was a taste for debased Gothic architecture, 
 which he persuaded his friends, including Lyttelton and 
 Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, to adopt at his bidding. For 
 himself he built a mediaeval tower still standing on the summit 
 of Edgehill, which his friends were expected to visit, to enjoy 
 a cold collation and a glorious view over the battlefield. 
 Besides the tower he had a noted garden containing 
 
 A Laurel walk and Strawberry Bank 
 For which, tte Paymaster I thank. 
 The Paymaster weU-skilled in planting. 
 Pleased to assist when cash was wanting. 
 He bid my Laurels grow, they grew 
 Fast as his Laurels always do. 
 
 Pitt often visited Eadway and, like most of Miller's friends, 
 treated him in a tone of airy banter, at which, it must be 
 confessed, he was somewhat ungainly : 
 
 A thousand thanks [he writes when retm-ning a horse] to my dear 
 MiUer, for the use of his Horse, who, I hope will arrive safe. My 
 own are now in condition, and will wait in readiness at seven, 
 Saturday morning, to bear you to the Fairest of the Fair, the great 
 Beautiful, as you sublime Platonists term it. May you every hour 
 become more and more like a Seraph ! not forgetting the sublunary 
 amusement of a little mortal packiag-up. 
 
 Again, in wishing his friend success at a picnic, he gambols 
 heavily : 
 
 May the grand Landskip Painter, the sun, spread his highest 
 colouring o'er the sweet scene, and the fairest Naiad of the Lake 
 frisk all her frolick Fancy at the Cascade, and be, what you must 
 ever think a pretty Girl, most charming iu her Fall. 
 
 Pitt's most memorable visit to Eadway was in 1748 when 
 he forgathered with Fielding and Lyttelton. Fielding had 
 just finished ' Tom Jones,' and, in the long summer afternoons 
 
RAD WAY AND TOM JONES 197 
 
 after dinner, read it out to Miller and the two statesmen, as 
 they sat under the trees over their walnuts and wine.^ 
 
 Unfortunately Pitt's pleasures had to be snatched in the 
 brief intervals when he was not seeking relief from his persistent 
 gout. Astrop Wells at Kings Sutton in Northamptonshire, 
 Sunning Hill in Berkshire, Tunbridge Wells and Bath, the 
 most recommended watering-places, were all tried in turn 
 with indifferent success. Pitt complained of the ' incessant, 
 trifling, unavoidable occupations ' of such places, as well he 
 might under the despotic sway of Beau Nash and such solemn 
 triflers, but contrived to get some enjoyment out of them, 
 notwithstanding. Astrop Wells, that he talks of as a dungeon, 
 was at any rate near Stowe and Eadway. Bath and Tunbridge 
 Wells were fashionable enough resorts to attract at the proper 
 season of the year most of the men and women with any 
 pretensions to social or intellectual gifts, whether they were 
 ailing or not. At Tunbridge Wells in 1748 a contemporary 
 print shows Pitt in company with Dr. Johnson, CoUey Gibber, 
 Garrick, Eichardson, Whiston (the translator of Josephus), 
 Speaker Onslow, Lyttelton, and, to enliven these serious 
 gentlemen, the ' virgin ' Chudleigh displaying her buxom 
 charms. All these were personages of fame in their day and 
 most of them were well known to Pitt. With the lady he once 
 at least exchanged some appropriate badinage. Garrick '// 
 he had known since 1741, when he and Lytteltbnrwent to see 
 him play one of his earliest parts in ' The Orphan.' Pitt was 
 so delighted with the performance that he sent for Garrick 
 and told him he was the best actor the English stage had ever 
 
 ' In one of his visits to Radway, Pitt planted a couple of Scotch firs and a 
 mountain ash, still commemorated by an urn placed under them by his nephew. 
 In 1908 a paper with the following record was discovered io the urn : ' In the 
 year 1754 The R. Hon. WiUiam Pitt Esq. planted three trees, two Scotch Firrs 
 and one Mountain Ash, being then on a visit to Radway with Sanderson MUler 
 Esq. In the month of July 1778 Thorns Pitt Esq. of Booonnok in Cornwall 
 being at Radway, thought it would be proper to place this Urn under these trees 
 and sent it from Bath and it was set up April 21, 1779, by Sanderson Miller Esq. 
 Sanderson Miller, Mrs. Miller, Miss Miller, Miss Anne Miller, Fiennes S. Miller, 
 Charles Sanderson Miller, Miss Maria Ruding, Mr. Edward Welchman, Mrs. 
 Trotman, Master Hirons Mason, and George Ransford were present when this 
 Urn was put up April ye 21, 1779. George Regnante, C. Miller 17 years old.' 
 {SeB~ Sanderson Miller, passim, and Godden, Fielding, pp. 178-9.) 
 
igS PITT'S PRIVATE LIFE AND FRIENDSHIPS 
 
 produced. This verdict of the great orator had some influence 
 on Garrick's career, for he quoted it as an argument to his 
 brother against leaving the stage. Two years later Pitt 
 interrupted his attacks on Carteret to attend the rehearsals 
 of Thomson's ' Tancred and Sigismunda,' which Garrick 
 was producing, and made suggestions ' which were heard by 
 the players with great respect.' ^ The friendship then begun 
 continued to the end of Pitt's life. 
 
 In 1753 Pitt was again at Tunbridge Wells. He went in 
 May to cure a bad attack of insomnia and nervous depression. 
 So ill was he then, that West, who went with him, expressed 
 the gravest anxiety at ' the extreme dejection which appears 
 to-day in Mr. Pitt from a night passed entirely without sleep. 
 . . While he continues under this oppression, I am afraid 
 it will be impossible for me to leave him, as he fancies me of 
 the greatest use to him as a friend and a comforter.' But the 
 waters, an open-air life, a glorious summer, and pleasant com- 
 pany had in time a healing effect. He, with Mr. and Mrs. West 
 and Miss Molly West, took Stone House on Mount Bphraim, 
 and their friend Mrs. Montagu, the famous blue-stocking, 
 came with two young ladies to settle at a neighbouring house. 
 Mrs. Montagu went over to dine at Stone House whenever she 
 felt inclined for company ; Pitt and the Wests sometimes 
 spent the evening at Mrs. Montagu's and applauded the young 
 ladies' efforts to practise the minuet, before they appeared 
 in the public rooms. The two households went to the assembly 
 room balls together and combined for expeditions in the country, 
 ' wandering about like a company of gipsies, visiting all the 
 fine parks in the neighbourhood,' a form of amusement ' good 
 for the mind and the body,' said Pitt, ' since an occasional 
 day without drinking the waters gives them a greater effect.' 
 On these expeditions he often acted as host, which he loved 
 to do en grand seigneur. One afternoon, writes Mrs. Montagu, 
 ' Mr. Pitt provided us a good dinner at New Vauxhall ; the 
 view from it is romantic ; we stayed there till the cool of the 
 evening and then returned home.' Another summer day 
 ' we drank tea ... in the most beautiful rural scene that 
 
 ^ Davies, Oarrick, i, 78 ; Knight, Oarrick, 35- 
 
TUNBRIDGE WELLS, 1753 199 
 
 can be imagined, which Mr. Pitt discovered in his morning's 
 ride about half a mile from hence ; he ordered a tent to be 
 pitched, tea to be prepared, and his French hoin to breathe 
 music like the unseen genius of the wood.' This life gradually 
 restored Pitt to his old self. When the Lytteltons came to 
 visit him in July George reported that ' he has recovered 
 his flesh, rides fifteen miles a day, eats like a horse and has 
 as much wit as ever he had in his life. I hope another month's 
 use of the Tunbridge waters wUl quite remove all his complaints, 
 real or imaginary.' He himself admitted he had ' appetite 
 enough for a Dorsetshire shepherd, while I imagine the air 
 as appetizing (to use the Scotch word) as the breezes of Mount 
 Ephraim,' and in August was able to attend lectures on 
 philosophy from a Mr. King. Pitt must have been a formidable 
 student, for, ' being desirous of attaining knowledge in this 
 way,' he made Mr. King ' explain things very precisely.' 
 When he left Tunbridge in September for a round of visits 
 to Dr. Ayscough's, Stowe, and Hagley, West and Mrs. Montagu 
 were in despair. West took to reading Demosthenes ; but, 
 imagines Mrs. Montagu, ' You would rather have passed this 
 evening with the British than the Grecian Demosthenes, 
 whom in talents perhaps he equals and, in grace of manners 
 and the sweet civilities of life, I daresay he excels.' ^ 
 
 The Bath waters were thought even more necessary for 
 Pitt's health than Tunbridge Wells. After 1744 he passed few 
 years without a visit to the city of which he had been made a 
 freeman in 1738 ; ^ and in 1754, at a cost of £1,200, built himself 
 a house in the Circus, a fashionable part of Bath, where Olive, 
 Gainsborough, and the Duke of Bedford also had houses.* His 
 chief friend there was Ealph Allen, the Maecenas of Bath, who 
 had gotten wealth for himself and had also profited the public 
 by his enterprise as a postal contractor and by exploiting big 
 quarries of Bath stone. This wealth he spent munificently. He 
 
 ■' See CSimenaon, Lady Chatterton, Sanderson Miller. 
 
 ^ See above, p. 70. 
 
 ^ Mrs. Montagu says the house was finished in 1754 (see Climeneon ii, 51), 
 and in that year Lady Hester Grenville says that her brother Henry admired it/ 
 In 1755, however, he speaks in a letter to his wife of building still going on 
 there. The house was No. 7 and is now divided into two houses. 
 
200 PITT'S PRIVATE LIFE AND FRIENDSHIPS 
 
 was a public-spirited citizen, an upholder of municipal purity, 
 and a great benefactor to local charities. Many also enjoyed 
 his private generosity, especially hterary men, of whom the 
 most notable was Fielding. The novelist lived for some time at 
 Widcomb Lodge, a house belonging to Allen, and immortalised 
 his benefactor as Squire AUworthy in ' Tom Jones.' Allen's 
 country house, Prior Park, was beautifully situated on a 
 wooded hill outside the city. Here he entertained the dis- 
 tinguished company who came up to admire the view of Bath 
 from his classical portico and enjoy his warm hospitality. 
 Frederick, Prince of Wales, and his children visited him there ; 
 and the great Mr. Pope and his commentator Warburton, 
 who married Allen's niece and heiress. With Pitt Allen soon 
 contracted a warm friendship ; both were men of broad, 
 tolerant views on religion and domestic politics, shared the 
 same exalted idea of England's position in the world, and 
 had literary sympathies in common. This friendship stood 
 Pitt in good stead later on, when he was in need of a seat in 
 Parliament unhampered by oligarchical connections. 
 
 Pitt's personal appearance at this time is recorded in a 
 portrait painted by Hoare. He looks a somewhat self- 
 satisfied young man, elegantly dressed and without much 
 indication of power in his countenance. Pitt himself liked 
 the picture, which is no doubt true to the character he some- 
 times assumed of a courtly squire of dames, providing the 
 music of a French horn in the woods near Tunbridge Wells, or 
 attending them to a philosophy lecture by Mr. King. He 
 had not yet gained that full self-control which responsibility 
 brings ; but even Hoare cannot quite tone down the strength 
 shown in the long, aquiline nose, in the sensitive lips, and the 
 hawk-like eyes. He was tall and had a small head and thin face, 
 in his person he stood erect, and was famed for his courtly 
 manners, while the grace of his figure and gesture, well indicated 
 on the canvas, was one of the orator's abiding possessions.^ To 
 the lightning of his eye all witnesses agree. ' An eye that 
 
 ' His tall figure is noted by the younger Beokford and other contem- 
 poraries. In this respect the wax figure in Westminster, though otherwise a 
 remarkable Ukeness, gives a wrong impression. 
 
APPEARANCE 201 
 
 would out a diamond,' says Shelburne. ' His eyes were gray,' 
 says his granddaughter, ' and yet by candle-light, from the 
 expression that was in them, one would have thought them 
 black. When he was angry or speaking very much in earnest, 
 nobody could look him in the face.' 
 
 Pitt, had now overcome the shyness and aloofness which 
 embarrassed him at Eton. His friends were many, chiefly 
 among politicians, but also in the literary world. Fielding, 
 Garrick, Mrs. Montagu all loved him ; Glover, the fashion- 
 able author of ' Leonidas,' was glad to claim his friendship ; 
 and Home, another minor poet, sent him his ' Agis ' for 
 his opinion. Small wonder that he attracted admiration 
 and affection. In an age^f which the dominating notes were 
 caution, lack of enthusiasm, and sterility of ideas, Pitt stood 
 out singular for his zest in life, his audacity of conception, and 
 his contagious enthusiasm for any object, great or small, that 
 he undertook. About this enthusiasm of his a story is told. 
 Ho had promised to lay out the grounds of some friend, when 
 late one evening an urgent summons called him back to London 
 on State business. Eather than break his word, he called at 
 once for men with lanterns, and, while his coach was being 
 made ready, sallied forth into the groimds and staked out his 
 plan for their improvement. At table he was abstemious, 
 temperate, and regular ; yet even Wilkes, though, aswesEould 
 expect, he preferred to spend his nights with Eigby and his 
 jovial friends, would willingly have spent all his days with Pitt, 
 who ' by the most manly sense, and the fine sallies of a warm 
 and sportive imagination, can charm the whole day, and, as 
 the Greek said, his entertainments please even the day after 
 they are given.' 
 
 His chief friends were still the Lytteltons and Grenvilles, 
 bound to him, says Glover, by his ' private good qualities^ 
 friendship beyond professions, industry and ability to oblige. ' 
 He watched over Lyttelton tenderly when he lost his beloved 
 first wife, and, at the request of Lyttelton's father, helped 
 the youngest son to find his feet in the world. His affection 
 for the Grenvilles was even closer. Unattractive the men of 
 this family were, rapacious, dull, and self-satisfied ; yet with all 
 
202 
 
 PITT'S PRIVATE LIFE AND FRIENDSHIPS 
 
 their faults they were public-spirited and had a genuiae love 
 of liberty. Here may be found one bond of union between 
 them and Pitt. Another was gratitude. Temple, though he 
 presumed on his superior wealth to the extent of looking 
 on Pitt almost as a dependent, was not ungenerous to 
 him ; and the brothers' pohtical constancy to Pitt was 
 of incalculable value to the career of this otherwise isolated 
 man. At any rate Pitt was grateful, even before a closer 
 tie united him to them ; and he already looked on himself 
 as one of the family. James, the third brother, was his 
 especial favourite, and remained faithful to him through 
 all the family dissensions. When Thomas, the sailor brother, 
 was killed in Anson's action off Finisterre, Pitt felt that for 
 him ' public joy is quite sunk in private concern. The high 
 esteem and love I had for poor Grenville and what I feel 
 for his most afflicted brothers, reduces me to the hard (and, 
 I hope, pardonable) condition of being a mourner in the midst 
 of public rejoicLQg.' Five years later he was still busying 
 himself with the monument erected to Thomas's memory 
 at Bath. In 1749, when his old patron Viscount Cobham died, 
 he helped the eldest brother, Richard, to obtain the coveted 
 earldom of Temple for the family ; two years earlier he had 
 defended them vigorously in the House of Commons. Their 
 tyranny in Buckinghamshire, where they formed a clan rival- 
 ling the old Scottish clans in power and self-assertiveness,^ 
 had made them extremely unpopular : their numerous enemies 
 were consequently delighted at a proposal to reduce the 
 importance of Buckingham, a town entirely dependent upon 
 them, by removing the assizes to Aylesbury. In the debate 
 February some hard things were said about the Grenvilles, but Pitt 
 
 19 1748 
 
 ■ came to their rescue, repaying with interest the taunts and 
 
 invectives of their opponents, and declaring in his haughtiest 
 
 strain that the ' violent torrent of abuse on a whole family 
 
 is founded on no reason in the world, but because that family 
 
 is distinguished by the just rewards of their services to their 
 
 king and^country.'^^ 
 
 1 See Egmont MSS. 212. 
 
 ^ For Horace Walpole's part in this debate, see his Short Notes on My Life, 
 
FRIENDSHIP WITH GRENVILLES 203 
 
 Pitt had need of good friends, for his relations with his 
 own family had become extremely unhappy. He and his 
 favourite sister, Ann, had never apparently renewed their 
 old intimacy after the objections he had made to her 
 visit to France. When Pitt removed to the Pay Office he 
 did not take her with him, though they had previously 
 shared a house together. Their estrangement may possibly 
 have been caused by her friendship with the Bolingbrokes, 
 with whom he had long been at variance : once a diversity 
 of interest had revealed itself, two such people, both equally 
 domineering, ' qui se ressemblaient,' says Walpole, ' comme deux 
 gouttes de feu,' could hardly have lived together in peace. 
 Pitt felt deeply the disturbance of that ' hairmony between 
 sister and brother, unexampled almost all that time,' as he 
 once wrote to her, ' the loss of which has embitter' d much 
 of my hfe and will always be an affliction to me.' Though 
 unwilHng to hve with her, he took care she should not suffer 
 thereby. The loss of her post as maid of honour after Queen 
 Caroline's death had straitened her means : as soon as his 
 own allowed him he gave her £200 a year. In 1751 he made 
 an attempt at reconcihation, but it was not cordially received. 
 Ann accused him of demanding ' absolute deference and blind 
 obedience to his will,' and, on a report that he had spoken to 
 others of the allowance he made her, angrily proposed to repay 
 it. In his answer Pitt displays to her a tenderness and humility 
 of spirit revealed to few : 
 
 I have infirmities of temper, blemishes and faults, if you please, of 
 nature without end ; but the Eye that can't be deceived must 
 judge between us, whether that friendship, which was my very 
 existence for so many years, could ever have received the least flaw, 
 but from umbrages and causes which the quick sensibihty and 
 tenderest jealousy of friendship alone at first suggested. . . . Indeed, 
 sister, I still find something within that firmly assures me I am not 
 that thing which your interpretations of my Hfe (if I can ever be 
 brought to think them all your own) would represent me to be. . . . 
 I have often, too often reproached you, and from warmth of temper 
 in strong and plain terms . . . [but] I was never so drunk with 
 presumption as to expect absolute deference and blind obedience to 
 my will. . . I also declare as solemnly^before God and man, that 
 
204 PITT'S PRIVATE LIFE AND FRIENDSHIPS 
 
 no consideration could ever have extorted from my lips the least 
 mention of the trifling assistance you accepted from me, but the 
 cruel reports, industriously propagated, and circulating from various 
 quarters ^ round me, of the state you was left to live in. As to the 
 repayment of this wretched money, allow me, dear Sister, to entreat 
 you to think no more of it. The bare thought of it may surely 
 suffice for your own dignity and for my humiliation without taxing 
 your present income, merely to mortify me : the demonstration of 
 a blow is, in honour, a blow, and let me conjure you to rest it here. 
 
 But Ann was deaf to this appeal and to Pitt's further attempt 
 in this year at a reconciliation. Two years later, however, 
 when her unaccommodating temper had lost her the post of 
 Privy Purse to the Princess Dowager, offered her in 1751, 
 and she was Uving a retired life in Prance, she at last yielded 
 to Pitt's renewed entreaties. 
 
 I am unable to express [he writes] the load you have taken ofE 
 my heart by your afiectionate and generous answer to my last 
 letter. I will not give you the trouble to read any more ; but must 
 repeat in the fulness of my heart, the warmest and tenderest acknow- 
 ledgements of your goodness to, my dear sister, your most afiectionate 
 brother, W. Pitt. 
 
 Although Pitt on his side was evidently sincere in his belief 
 that he and Ann had become reconciled, the old intimacy was 
 never renewed. The two hved apart, Ann for several years in 
 France, where her mordant tongue and pen were not sparing of 
 her brother. Pitt's own letters to her insensibly grew more 
 stilted and less familiar, as it was borne in upon him that the 
 old days would never return. But he always retained his 
 respect for her, and helped her when it was in his power. When 
 his youngest sister, Mary, came up to London he wrote to her 
 regretting that Ann was not there to give ' her Countenance 
 and her Advice and Instructions, superior to any you can 
 otherwise receive,' and urged Mary to ' imitate her worth, and 
 thereby endeavour to deserve her esteem, as you wish to obtain 
 that of the best Part of the World.' On his engagement Ann 
 was among the first to whom his thoughts turned for sym- 
 pathy, and he tried, with but moderate success, to encourage 
 
 ' E.g. Horace Walpole, who talts of Pitt having ' shaken her off in an 
 unbecoming manner.' 
 
DIFFERENCES WITH ANN 205 
 
 sisterly relations between her and Lady Hester. In 1758 
 he was full of anxiety on her account. She was still in 
 Prance, the country against which he was then directing 
 hostihties, and could not bring herself to return to England. 
 Physical ilhiess had brought on symptoms of a disordered 
 mind, whereby she became almost unable to form any 
 decision. Pitt, very hke her in nature, may well have taken 
 this as a warning to himself of that family tendency, inherited 
 from the Governor, whereof nine years later he also showed 
 signs. In her melancholy state he redoubled his tender soHci- 
 tude. With some difficulty he obtained leave from the French 
 minister, Bernis, to send a friend over to her, and chose him 
 with special care. This friend, regarded with much suspicion 
 by the French ministers and local commandants, and resisted 
 by Ann, found it no easy task to bring her away from Valence 
 to England.^ On arriving at Dover she was met by a warm 
 letter of welcome from Pitt, who invited her to come to his 
 house. Ann was touched and softened by his kindness. He 
 
 continued as te began, [sie wrote to her friend, Lady Suffolk] as 
 soon as tke King had put him in the place he is in, by giving the 
 strongest and tenderest proof of his afEection ... I was so sunk and 
 my mind so overcome with all I have suffered . . . that I do not 
 believe anything in the world could have made it possible for me 
 to get out of this country, but my brother's sending a friend to my 
 assistance and choosing so proper a person. . . . My brother has 
 always seemed to guess and understand all I felt of every kind and 
 has carried his delicacy so far as never once to put me in mind of 
 what I felt more strongly than any other part of my misfortune, 
 which was how very disagreeable and embarrassing it must be to 
 him to have me in France.^ 
 
 After her return to England Ann continued for some time 
 to cause Pitt trouble by her vagaries, and on her recovery 
 
 ^ Aff. Mr. Angl. Corr. Pol. 441 contains a long correspondence on this affair. 
 Bernia and other ministers wrote for reports from local officials, who were told 
 to watch Pitt's friend very carefully, lest he should abuse his opportunity by 
 spying ; and almost daily notes of his and Aim Pitt's movements were sent 
 to Paris. The friend is reported to have said, ' qu'on ne lui avait dite malade 
 que de corps et qu'eUe Test prodigieusement d'esprit.' He found her staying 
 at the Croix d'Or at Valence. 
 
 » Suffolk Corr. ii, 23. 
 
2o6 PITT'S PRIVATE LIFE AND FRIENDSHIPS 
 
 exasperated him by moving heaven and earth to obtain a 
 pension. First she applied to him, but was told that ' having 
 never been a Sollicitor for favours, upon any occasion, how can 
 I -become so now without contradicting the whole tenour of 
 my Life.' Next she turned to the rising star, Bute, and through 
 his influence obtained a pension charged on the Irish revenues. 
 Pitt had always protested against the scandal of imposing 
 English pensioners on the Irish Hst, nor was he best pleased 
 at the source of the favour, and expressed his anger warmly : 
 
 On your account, [he wrote] I rejoice at an addition to your 
 income so agreeable to your turn of life, whatever repugnancy I 
 find at the same time, to see my name placed on the Pensions of 
 Ireland. Unmixt as I am in this whole transaction I will not doubt 
 that you will take care to have it thoroughly understood. Long 
 may you hve in health to enjoy the comforts and happiness which 
 you tell me you owe to the King, singly through the intercession of 
 Lord Bute, and to feel the pleasing sentiments of such an obKgation. 
 
 Ann's reply showed unwonted humility, and concluded 
 with the hope that ' an advantage so very essential to the ease 
 and comfort of the remainder of a Life, which has not hitherto 
 been very happy, shou'd not be a cause of uneasiness to You.' ^ 
 Poor woman ! With much of her brother's capacity and all 
 his fire, she suffered from never finding a sufficient outlet for 
 her vigour, either in action or in a happy marriage. The rest 
 of her long life she spent amassing more pensions and enjoying 
 herself with the brilliant society she collected at her house 
 near Kensington Gravel Pits. 
 
 Pitt had four other sisters. Harriet, who married Sir 
 William Corbet of Stoke, and Catherine, who became Mrs. 
 Needham, entered very Uttle into his life. Mary, the youngest, 
 who was bom nearly twenty years after him, he trea,ted hke 
 a daughter in his own house both before and after his marriage. 
 She seems to have been almost the only colourless member of 
 her fiery family, and Uttle more is known of her than can 
 
 ^ Ann's humility was not of long duration. When in the folloT\'ing year, 
 1761, Pitt himseU was given a pension, she was only deterred by her friends 
 from sending him congratulations couched in the same ironical strain as his 
 letter to her. 
 
ELIZABETH PITT 207 
 
 be gathered from a letter of Mrs. Montagu, written in 1754 : 
 ' Miss Mary Pitt, youngest sister of Mr. Pitt, is come to stay 
 a few days with me ; she is a very sensible, modest, pretty sort 
 of young woman, and as Mr. Pitt seemed to take every civihty 
 shown her as a favour, I thought this mark of respect to her 
 one manner of returning my obligations to him.' ^ 
 
 Elizabeth, the sister next in age to Ann, showed clearly 
 the strain of madness in the Pitts. She was the beauty of the 
 family, but so scandalous in her behaviour that in an age not 
 noted for squeamishness she became a social outcast. For a time 
 she was allowed by her elder brother to live at Down House, 
 the old family mansion at Blandford ; later, when Thomas's 
 means became straitened, William provided her with Grately 
 Lodge, ' the habitation,' she writes to him, ' which your 
 goodness has bestowed upon me.' Driven from this place 
 by the notoriety of her relations with her married neighbour; 
 Lord Talbot, she was given an allowance of £200 a year by 
 Pitt — £100 under bond that she conducted herself properly, and 
 £100 without condition. She went to live in France, and there 
 met a young diplomatist, Dutens, to whom,, on his departure 
 for England, she gave a letter of introduction to her brother. 
 But on discovering afterwards that her companion's beauty 
 had greater charms for him than her own, she wrote accusing 
 him of boasting that ' he was well with me,' and begged Pitt 
 ' to order one of your footmen to give him the treatment he 
 merits,' => a request with which he complied. In 1754 she 
 had left France for Florence, where she came under the observa- 
 tion of that diligent trifler Horace Mann, who wrote a full 
 account of her irregularities to Bubb Dodington.* They 
 were ' of such a nature as forms the most dangerous character 
 imaginable, and so much the more as she is still handsome, 
 has wit and great art.' In addition to making herself ridiculous 
 by her pursuit of various men, she openly embraced the Eoman 
 Catholic reUgion and then demanded protection from Count 
 
 ^ Climenaon, ii, 53. 
 
 " See Chatham MSS. 52, supplemented by Dutens's own account in Mimoires 
 d'«™ voyageur qui se repose. 
 
 ' Hi3t. MSS., Various Collections, -n, 25, 26. 
 
2o8 PITT'S PRIVATE LIFE AND FRIENDSHIPS 
 
 Eichecourt, the Emperor's envoy, on the ground that her 
 conversion ' would be disapproved by her nation, and that it 
 would become her enemy.' Two years later she was back in 
 England disputing about her allowance with Dr. Ayscough, the 
 trustee appointed by Pitt. Ayscough's experience of her 
 convinced him that she was ' the worst, the wickedest and the 
 most wrong-headed woman in the world.' ^ Walpole said she 
 handed Pitt's private letters to the editor of an opposition 
 journal as proof that he had cheated her of £100 a year : all 
 they proved, added Walpole, was that ' he once allowed her 
 two, and after all her wickedness still allows her one.' ^ Pitt 
 continued her allowance, but the two ceased to correspond untU, 
 in 1761, she announced her engagement to J. Hannan, a man 
 considerably younger and richer than herself. After that 
 nothing more is heard of her until her death in 1770.* 
 
 The elder brother, Thomas, did little more credit to the Pitt 
 family. Though he had inherited most of the Governor's pro- 
 perty, his extravagant expenditure at Cornish elections and on 
 himself reduced him to desperate straits for money. In 1749 he 
 was trying to save himself from ruin by selling the nomination 
 to Old Sarum to the Prince of Wales, and raising loans from the 
 trustees of the family estates and from his younger brother. 
 After the death of the Prince of Wales, two years later, he was 
 still worse off, for he lost his employment as Warden of the 
 Stannaries, worth £1,500 a year, and was compensated by a 
 pension of only £1,000. For this he never forgave his brother 
 William, who was deputed by Pelham to tell him he had been 
 deprived of his office, and who afterwards refused to make him 
 minister to the Swiss Cantons, a post for which he was obviously 
 unfitted. In 1755, being unable to raise any more money in 
 
 1 Chatham MSS. 17. 
 
 ^ Walpole Corr. (January 7, 1757). 
 
 ^ One of her least objectionable manias was to change her name. In a 
 portrait painted of her in 1758, commemorating her as the ' author of the 
 scheme for erecting Publiok Magazines for com to relieve the necessities of the 
 poor and sister to the Right Hon. Wm. Pitt,' she appears as Clara VUliers 
 Pitt. She also signed herself Elizabeth ViUiers Pitt. This habit gave some 
 work to the lawyers, who on her marriage professed to doubt whether she was 
 the plain Elizabeth Pitt entitled to a marriage portion under the Governor's 
 win. 
 
THOMAS PITT OF BOCONNOC 209 
 
 England, he retired with his daughter to the Continent, where 
 Shelburne once met him at Utrecht, and spent the whole night 
 listening to his abuse of William, whom he denounced with a 
 great flow of language and a quantity of anecdotes as a hypo- 
 crite, a scoundrel, and an impostor. He is stated to have been 
 remarkable for grace of bearing and the signs of power in his 
 countenance, and to have had considerable accomplishments. 
 But inordinate pride and an ungovernable temper warped his 
 nature. He was hated in Cornwall, and towards the end of his 
 Ufe seems to have lost all sense of right and wrong. In 1761 
 he died on the Continent, leaving hardly a friend to lament him.^ 
 His son, Thomas, was the object of Pitt's especial care. 
 The father, pleading poverty, would not send him to school, 
 so to make amends Pitt took charge of his nephew's educa- 
 tion. He first made suggestions to his pedagogue, Mr. Leech, 
 the parson of Boconnoc, and in 1751 began the famous series 
 of letters to the boy himself, then aged fourteen. He also gave 
 material help. When the father was for withdrawing young 
 Thomas from Cambridge iu 1755, Pitt gave him the means of 
 continuing his terms there.^ When he was ill from overwork 
 Pitt, newly married, invited him to stay at Sunning Hill, 
 promising that ' the muses shall not be quite forgot : we will 
 ride, read, walk and philosophise, extremely at our ease and 
 you may return to Cambridge with new ardour, or at least 
 with strength repaired.' 
 
 The ' happy delightful task ' Pitt set himself in the letters 
 to his nephew was to qualify him for the part in society 
 
 to wtich your birth and estate call you. You are to be a gentle- 
 man of sucb learning and qualifications as may distinguish you in 
 the service of your country hereafter ; not a pedant who reads only 
 to be called learned, instead of considering learning as an instrument 
 only for action, . . . manly, honourable and virtuous action upon 
 the stage of the world, both in private and public life, as a gentle- 
 
 1 See Dropmore M8S. (Hist. MSS. Commission), i, 133-5 ; AM. MSS. 
 32737, n. 187, 302 ; Chatham MSS. 52 ; Egmont MSS. 277 (April 5, 1751). 
 Bussy, writing to Choiaeul on July 21, 1761, says Pitt had heard of his 
 brother's death that morning and therefore put off his interview. (Aff. Etr. 
 (Angl. Corr. Pol. 444, f. 32.) 
 
 ^ Chatham MSS. 52 ; Chatham Corr, i, 123, 142-3, 
 
 VOL. I, P 
 
210 PITT'S PRIVATE LIFE AND FRIENDSHIPS 
 
 man, and as a member of the commonwealth, who is to answer 
 for all he does to the laws of his country, to his own breast and 
 conscience, and at the tribunal of honour and good fame. 
 
 In this task Pitt persisted until his nephew left Cambridge 
 in 1758, allowing neither gout, pohtical anxiety, nor even the 
 conduct of a great war to stop the correspondence. Letters 
 of counsel to the young were then a favourite exercise of their 
 elders. Even Bubb Dodington practised it and Chesterfield 
 is famous for it. These cascades of advice sometimes made 
 prigs of those on whom they fell, and young Thomas shows 
 signs of the failing in some of his answers to his uncle. But 
 there are worse faults for a young man of spirit ; hypocrisy 
 for one, such as the spectacle of a Dodington uttering moral 
 sentiments must have evoked,^ or the premature cynicism 
 which Chesterfield deliberately inculcated. Every letter of 
 Pitt to his nephew, stilted as some are, is pervaded by a 
 tone of magnanimity and sincerity in striking contrast to 
 that of the more approved letter-writers of his day. He 
 and Chesterfield happened to write about the same time on 
 politeness, and a comparison of their definitions brings out 
 the wide difference between the two. Chesterfield's letter to 
 young Stanhope on les hiensiances, his characteristic name 
 for politeness, is full of useful hints on deportment. ' To 
 women,' he says, ' you should always address yourself with 
 great outward respect and attention, whatever you feel in- 
 wardly. . . There is a hiensiance also with regard to people of 
 the lowest degree : a gentleman observes it with his footman, 
 even with the beggar in the street ... he corrects the one 
 coolly and refuses the other with humanity.' Chesterfield 
 
 ^ Dodington's real sentiments on civic virtue were given to the world in 
 a little poem, which he called Shorten Sail : 
 
 Love thy country, wish it well 
 Not with too intense a care ; 
 'Tis enough that when it fell 
 Thou its ruin didst not share. 
 
 Void of strong desire and fear 
 Life's wide ocean trust no more : 
 Strive thy little bark to steer 
 With the tide, but near the shore. 
 
LETTERS TO HIS NEPHEW, 1751-8 211 
 
 recommends les hiens6ances for their practical value to the 
 young man anxious to succeed, while Pitt, a very noble gentle- 
 man, enjoins politeness because it is right, forbids rudeness 
 because it is wrong : 
 
 I would venture to call politeness benevolence in trifles, or the prefer- 
 ence of otters to ourselves in little daily, hourly occurrences in the 
 commerce of life. A better place, a more commodious seat, priority 
 in being helped at table, etc. what is it but sacrificing ourselves in 
 such trifles to the conveniences and pleasure of others ? And this 
 constitutes true politeness. It is a perpetual attention (by habit 
 it grows easy and natural to us) to the little wants of those we are 
 with, by which we either prevent them or remove them. Bowing, 
 ceremonious, formal compliments, stifi civiUties wiU never be 
 pohteness : that must be easy, natural, unstudied, manly, noble. 
 And what will give this, but a mind benevolent and perpetually 
 attentive to exert that amiable disposition in trifles towards all you 
 converse and live with. Benevolence in greater matters takes 
 a higher name, and is the queen of virtues. . . . Towards servants 
 never accustom yourself to rough and passionate language. When 
 they are good, we should consider them as humiles amici, as fellow- 
 Christians, ut conservi ; and, when they are bad, pity, admonish, 
 and part with them if incorrigible. On all occasions beware, my 
 dear child, of anger, that demon, that destroyer of our peace : 
 
 Ira furor brevis est, animum rege, qui, nisi paret, 
 Imperat : hunc frenis, hunc tu compesoe catena. 
 
 Pitt knew well the temptations to anger, but learned to practise 
 what he preached. ' When I first saw him,' says the nephew 
 to whom this was written, ' he was intemperate towards his 
 servants, full as much as my own father, but it is to his honour 
 that when he owed a better example to his children he got 
 the better of that habit.' 
 
 Thomas's career did some credit to his uncle's care. 
 Soon after leaving Cambridge he cut off his own entail in 
 order to pay his father's debts and find portions for his 
 sisters ; and in politics, without distinguishing himself, he 
 showed ability and a high sense of honour. But he felt 
 small gratitude to the uncle who had watched over his youth, 
 and treated him with rancour in the memoir he wrote for his 
 son's benefit. The cause of the quarrel is unknown, but as 
 
 p2 
 
212 PITT'S PRIVATE LIFE AND FRIENDSHIPS 
 
 likely as not it was Pitt's fault, for he was not good at retaining 
 his friends. He quarrelled with nearly all his relations, and ■ 
 sooner or later with all those, save possibly James Grenville, 
 with whom he had once been intimate. Chesterfield accounted 
 for this by his bitter saying that Pitt had neither love nor 
 hatred in his nature ; an explanation which his tenderness 
 to Ann, and later to his wife and children, entirely disproves. 
 But there is a grain of truth in Chesterfield's addition that 
 ' those who are worst with Pitt to-day are likely to be well with 
 him to-morrow.' With his impetuous and deeply sensitive 
 nature he craved for friendship, gave much to those he cared 
 for, and was inordinately grateful for kindness shown him. 
 But his haughtiness could ill brook contradiction even from 
 the closest friends, and so led to sudden estrangements. With 
 him, too, private friendship was always subordinated to public 
 interests, and disagreement on politics became a fatal bar to 
 friendly intercourse. It is so with nearly aU the greatest states- 
 men, who command the sympathy and attention of masses and 
 think more of great principles and causes than of the idiosyn- 
 cracies of those who help them for the time to serve those causes. 
 So, until he married, Pitt, in spite of all his friends, was a 
 lonely man. But he had resources within himself. He read 
 much, and at South Lodge began collecting a hbrary of the 
 books most useful for the life he had planned : books on America, 
 travels, treatises on diplomacy and the law of nations, the 
 classics, and above all a good collection of historical works.^ 
 
 ' In Chatham MSS. 74 are several booksellers' bills and notes in Pitt's 
 handwriting which indicate some of the contents of his library. Among these 
 books were the follo\ving : The State of North America ; Colden's Indian 
 Nations of Canada ; Labat's Voyage en Amiriqv^ ; Histoire des Antilles ; 
 Norden's Travels in Egypt and Nvhia ; Breval's Travels through Europe ; 
 Chishal's Travels in Turkey ; Voltaire's Histoire d'Allemagne ; Ludlow's 
 Memoirs ; Hume ; May ; Birch's Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth ; Porbes's 
 Transactions ; Lediard's Naval History ; Blair's Chronological Tables ; Addison's 
 History of Revolutions in Turkey and Morocco ; Camden ; Stow's Survey ; 
 Picart's Ceremonies and Religious Customs ; Grotius ; Comte d'Avaux's Nigocia- 
 tions and various treaties ; Racine ; D'Alembert ; Don Quixote in English ; 
 GuiUim's Heraldry ; Wood's Athence Oxonienses ; Marvell's Satires ; Har- 
 rington's Oceana ; Jortin's Life of Erasmus ; Evelyn On Medals ; Dr. John- 
 son's and Savary's Dictionaries ; besides many other miscellaneous works on 
 natural history, the classics, and books of more ephemeral interest. 
 
FAVOURITE BOOKS 213 
 
 At Bath he subscribed regularly to Bull's Library, and when he 
 was ill used to have the attendant of the library to read aloud 
 to him, principally from Josephus's 'History of the Jews.'i 
 He used his learning so little for display that he was sometimes 
 accused of being superficial, and his sister Ann once said 
 absurdly that the only thing he knew thoroughly was Spenser's 
 ' Faerie Queene.' But his speeches show that he read to some 
 purpose. He can quote the customs of the Eomans on the 
 question of a nightly watch for Bristol, or Shakespeare, Locke, 
 and Thucydides on America with as much ease as he uses the 
 homely instance of his crutch to convict his countrymen of 
 folly, or hums a line of doggerel to confound George Grenville. 
 He flattered the vanity of Mrs. Macaulay, the Whig historian,! 
 by citing her with approval in the House, and caused Hume 
 the greatest vexation he ever experienced by strictures on the 
 Tory bias of his work. He foxmd an apt parallel to the aris-! 
 tocracy of his own day in Eobertson's description of thej 
 grandees of Spain, and owned to Pox that Cardinal Ximenesi 
 was his favourite character in history. He read Bailey's 
 Dictionary through twice to improve his vocabulary, and for 
 style studied Barrow's sermons,^ besides the great orators,! 
 Cicero ' for copiousness and beauty of diction, nobleness and 
 magnificence of ideas,' Demosthenes for the ' irresistible torrenti 
 of his vehement argumentation, his close and forcible reasoning,! 
 and his depth and fortitude of mind.' Well might an admirer 
 say of him, ' We have got a man of learning and parts, who has 
 read the antients and avails himself of his reading.' ^ He had 
 that keen love of good literature for its own sake which has 
 been one of the best traditions of our statesmen. Homer and 
 Virgil he recommended to his nephew as not only the two 
 greatest poets but as containing ' the finest lessons for your 
 age to imbibe.' Shakespeare, especially ' Henry IV ' and 
 ' Henry V,' he loved, and was fond in later Kfe of reading 
 aloud, though, when he came to the passages of buffoonery, 
 
 ' So the younger Pitt was told when he subscribed to the same library in 
 1802 (Rose, Diary, i, 509). 
 
 ' Ktt was also fond of Abernethy's sermons and of those of Mr. Zachariah 
 Mudge of Plymouth, the friend of Sir Joshua Reynolds. 
 
 ^ Plain Reasons dtc, by O. M. Haberdasher, London, January 1759. 
 
214 PITT'S PRIVATE LIFE AND FRIENDSHIPS 
 
 iie would hand over the book to some other member of the 
 amily.i There is also a tradition that in his last year he 
 learned Spanish in order to enjoy ' Don Quixote ' in the 
 original. Plutarch's ' Lives ' was a favourite with him, 
 especially for the account of Pericles. A scholar named 
 Smith, who pubhshed a translation of Thucydides, relates 
 that, finding a speech of Pericles ' that bore hard upon the 
 translator,' he took his first ' faint and imperfect attempts ' to 
 Pitt, ' the greatest genius of the age, . . . who, as he thinks 
 and speaks Kke Pericles, could not endure that any of his words 
 should be depreciated,' and thereupon undertook the task 
 himself.2 But, as the choice of his books and his letters to 
 his nephew show, English history was the study that had the 
 greatest fascination for him. ' Well acquainted with aU modern 
 histoxy, ' l)ut a real scholar in English history,' one of the 
 French agents justly calls him. Writing to Thomas he urges 
 that histories should be carefully chosen for their bearing ' on 
 the true principles of our happy constitution ' : Father Orleans 
 for his remarks on the revolutions of the Houses of Lancaster 
 and York, but no further, " for the father contains nothing 
 more than a system of slavery, body and soul, supported by 
 the sincerity and veracity of a Jesuit ' ; Habingdon and Hol- 
 linshed for Edward IV and Richard III ; Bacon's Henry VII, 
 Lord Herbert of Cherbury on Henry VIII, Camden on EHzabeth, 
 and, for the ' times of trouble,' Clarendon, with caution, and 
 Ludlow. ' But you cannot peruse,' he adds, ' and consider 
 too much all the great state-pieces of that period ' in Whit- 
 locke, Rushworth, and the collections of letters — ' I mean 
 
 ^ Dodington, on the other hand, chose only those scenes of Shakespeare 
 to read aloud in which bufEoonery was the subject (Cumberland, Memoirs). 
 
 - Charles Butler recorded on the authority of the second William Pitt that 
 his father had translated ' the speech of Pericles in Smith's translation of Thucy- 
 dides.' One would naturally expect ' the speech ' to refer to the Funeral Oration 
 in the second book, but the versions of both that and the first speech in Smith 
 are extremely wooden. Only on turning to the last great speech, in which 
 Pericles defended himself against attack, is the spirit of the great English orator 
 apparent, and Pitt's handiwork is made certain by the note, quoted above, 
 which Smith appends to it. A specimen of Pitt's translation wiU be found at 
 the head of chapter xviii. Smith's translation in two vols, was published in 
 1753 and dedicated to the Prince of Wales. 
 
 ^ Aff. Etr. Angl. Cmr. Pol. 454, f. 44. 
 
VIEWS ON HISTORY 215 
 
 such letters between the great actors as relate to critical and 
 important points; these are very few, and aU the rest are 
 waste paper and loss of time ' — a sentiment with which Carlyle 
 would have heartily agreed. For later times he suggests 
 Ealph, the Continuation of Eapin, and Burnet.^ He also 
 strongly recommended Sir John Davies's ' Discourse ' on 
 Ireland, and Nathaniel Bacon's ' Discovery of the Laws of 
 England,' much of which was inspired by Selden, and which 
 contains such excellent Whig sentiments as that 
 
 The King owett AUegiance both to the Law and the People ; 
 difierent from that of the people's in this, that the King's Allegiance ; 
 is due to the Law that is originally the People's Election ; but the 
 People's to the King under a Law of their own framings. 
 
 The best honour of the King's work is to be Nohilis Servitus 
 ... or, in plain English, Supreme service above all, and to the 
 whole.3 
 
 If Pitt had few with whom he could take counsel, he had 
 a noble counsellor in his own soul. He was not one of those 
 content, when the awakening of youth has passed, to live on 
 unthinking in the groove then cleft. The constant surprises 
 of his vigorous revivals, the originality of his conceptions, that 
 age could not stale, bear witness to this. Even more direct 
 proof is found in the jottings of his note-books. The entries 
 are undated and there is little clue to the occasions which 
 called them forth. But they are evidently the reflections of 
 many years, the outcome of internal struggles harder than the 
 gout, of which his closest friends had little inkling. In his 
 private communings this proud, self-opinionated and ambitious 
 man, as he appeared to his contemporaries, reveals a singular 
 humility and an earnest desire to overcome his besetting 
 temptation to pride and sudden anger : 
 
 ^ Among the subscribers to Burnet's History of My Own Times in 1724 
 appears a Mr. William Pitt. It is possible that this may have been one of Pitt's 
 cousins, but it is tempting to believe, and not inconceivable, that even as an 
 Eton boy he may have wished to possess a volume of the great Whig Bishop. 
 
 " Pitt's views on a course of historical reading are to be found in the pub- 
 lished letters to his nephew. There is also an interesting unpublished draft, 
 summarising his system, in Chatham MSS. 6 (to T. Pitt, July 23, 1755). From 
 this some of the phrases in the text are taken. See also below, p. 268. 
 
2i6 PITT'S PRIVATE LIFE AND FRIENDSHIPS 
 
 It is ill-judged, though very common [he reflects] to be less 
 ashamed of a want of temper than of understanding ; but what 
 is most dishonourable of all is, for a man at once to discover a great 
 genius and an ungoverned mind ; because that strength of reason 
 and understanding he is master of gives him a great advantage for 
 the government of his passions. 
 
 Again : 
 
 ' He that is slow to anger,' said Solomon, ' is better than the 
 mighty.' I know the world calls them heroes who have made the 
 greatest havoc and destruction among their fellow-creatures ; who, 
 to gratify their ambition and lust of power, have been the plagues 
 and terrors of their own species, spreading desolation and carnage 
 wherever they went : whereas, in the judgment of true wisdom, 
 he that yokes a stubborn lust, curbs a boisterous passion, and 
 subdues an unruly appetite, yielding to nothing but the dictates 
 of virtue and religion, obtains the greatest victory and deserves the 
 truest honour. 
 
 Pitt had a deep religion of his own, but it was a reHgion 
 far removed from the intolerant and persecuting ' Church 
 spirit ' which he attacked in 1753.1 Among his papers is a 
 fierce denunciation of those ' who converted, with prophane 
 timidity, a reverential awe into a superstitious fear of God, 
 and made the existence of a Supreme Being, who ought to 
 be the Comfort, the Terror of mankind, [and so] ran into one 
 of those extremes ; mediating, interceding, atoning beings ; 
 or represented God hating, revenging, punishing &c.' ^ To 
 
 ^ See above, p. 176. 
 
 ^ See Chatham MS8. 74. A ' Letter on Superstition,' said to have been 
 originally published in The London Journal for 1733, has long been attributed 
 to Pitt. Unfortunately the copy of The London Journal in the British Museum 
 is defective and does not appear to contain this letter. It was, however, 
 reprinted in Pitt's lifetime and attributed to him. This copy is to be found in 
 a British Museum scrapbook dated 1760. It was reprinted — twice in 1819, 
 in 1820 as a hawker's broadsheet, in 1751, in 1867, and again in 1873 by A. 
 Holyoake as a secularist tract, always with the same attribution. Dr. Von 
 Ruville also prints it as an appendix to his Life of Chatham. That Pitt really 
 wrote this in 1733 seemed improbable, for he was then a cornet in the army 
 and hardly likely to have written on such a subject for a newspaper ; an 
 entry in the diary of Lord Egmont, father of the better-known eighteenth- 
 century politician, under date September 16, 1733, confirms this doubt. The 
 passage runs : '. . . now Dr. Tyndal is dead, the head of the Unbelievers is 
 
RELIGIOUS BELIEF 217 
 
 him the most antipathetic of all creeds was contained in 
 the ' errors of Eome . . . rank idolatry,' he calls it, ' a 
 subversion of all civil as well as religious lilDerty, and the utter 
 disgrace of reason and of human nature.' Pitt's was a simple 
 faith in God, the ' All-wise and Almighty Father constantly 
 watching over His earthly children, whose life must be a 
 constant struggle through faith and good works to come 
 nearer to Him.' It was a courageous and hopeful belief that 
 human life becomes ennobled and exalted, becomes divine, 
 by the attempt to approach God's perfection : ' Let us not 
 think it beneath us,' he writes, ' to exert ourselves against 
 the least of God's enemies and our own ; since it is a progress 
 towards perfection which is required of us ; let us think and 
 act as if we thought it our duty to make this progress.' He 
 himself took this maxim as a guide for his life. To the end 
 he was learning, to the end stepping to higher things over 
 his dead past. 
 
 Dr. Pellet. . . . One Pit, who writes the London Journal, is another of them. 
 He has an o£Sce in the Customs.' (Egmont MS8. 80.) This ' Pit ' was probably 
 ' James Pitt, appointed viewer and examiner of tobacco ' in 1731. (Calendar 
 of Treasury Books and Papers, 1731-4, p. 68.) 
 
 It can hardly be doubted that the ' Letter ' in The London Journal, sub- 
 sequently attributed to William Pitt, was written by this James Pitt. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 GLOOM AND SUNSHINE 
 
 I 
 
 Adversis renim immersabilis undis. 
 
 Pelham died on March 6, 1754. ' Now I shall have no more 
 peace,' exclaimed the King. Pelham was not a great minister, 
 but he had silenced opposition more successfully than any 
 since the Hanoverian accession, and had been a safe guardian 
 of the country's interests : and never was prudent and concilia- 
 tory government more needed. Abroad -the outlook was 
 threatening. Since the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle desultory 
 fighting with France had never ceased in India, in America, 
 or in the West Indies ; while in Europe the Dunkirk dispute 
 stilj dragged "on. Now another great war with her seemed 
 imminent ; and it looked as if we should have to engage in 
 it single-handed. The Empress had been estranged since the 
 peace forced upon her in 1748 ; Frederic of Prussia had fresh 
 grievances against us ; and Newcastle's treaties wibh electors 
 were as useless as they were expensive. At home the King, 
 then seventy-one, seemed drawing near his end ; when he died, 
 bitter contention was almost certain to break out. 
 
 Three distinct interests had to be considered in the choice 
 of Pelham's successor : that of the King, who had aU the 
 obstinacy and prejudice of his years, hated change, and was 
 implacable to any man who had insulted his royal dignity ; 
 that of the Princess Dowager, who had already abandoned 
 the attitude of self-effacement, temporarily assumed after her 
 husband's death, and was busy forming plans and a party to 
 
 218 
 
CONFLICTING INTERESTS, 1754 219 
 
 serve her in the likely event of her regency ; and that of the ? 
 Duke of Cumberland, who had his followers pledged to support 
 him as president of a council of regency. Neither of the two 
 last interests could be safely disregarded, for though George II's 
 sympathies were with the Duke of Curhberland, it would have 
 been unwise to alienate the Princess, with her prospect of 
 an early accession to power. The Duke's strength, in addition 
 to his father's favour, rested on his control over the army ; 
 and his chief man in the House of Commons was Henry Fox, 
 the Secretary at War. The Princess had a less clearly defined 
 party : the Pelhams, however, had recently inclined towards 
 her, while Pitt and the Grenvilles had renewed their old ties 
 with Leicester House. In the Cabinet no one had the com- 'jJ- 
 manding personality required to reconcile these jarring interests 
 or cope wifli the foreign dangers. Newcastle was a muddle- \ 
 pate ; Hardwicke merely a prudent critic ; Anson a first-rate ( 
 administrator but no statesman ; Gcranville took little part, f f 
 Outside the Cabinet was one whose transcendent capacity was ; 
 already recognised, but want of political influence and the 
 jealous monopoly of power by the governing chque seemed 
 fatal to his chances of advancement. 
 
 To Pitt a united Government, loyal to the existing arrange- 
 ments, seemed as needful then as it was in the last years of 
 Queen Anne ; and his own claims to a leading position in such 
 a government were-incontestable. When he threw in his lot 
 with the Pelhams his ambition had been for a post offering 
 scope for his capacity, and he accepted the Paymastership 
 merely as a stepping-stone, on the understanding that the 
 King's objections to his attendance in the Closet would be 
 removed. He had now worked eight years for the Government, 
 but, though the Ministry had been three times rearranged, 
 he had always been put aside on the old plea of the King's 
 aversion. By his loyalty to the Ministry, in contrast with his 
 former violence, and by the comparative obscurity of his 
 of&ce, he had actually lost ground in the estimation of the 
 pubKc. Now at last he thought his reward had come. He 
 had then no wish or expectation, it is clear from his letters, to 
 succeed Pelham as Leader of the House, but he at least expected 
 
220 GLOOM AND SUNSHINE 
 
 to change his present office for one of real authority and 
 responsibility. The Duke of Newcastle had always expressed 
 the greatest sympathy with his aim and a desire to serve him. 
 During 1753 he had sent him the most friendly letters on 
 public affairs, and in October had promised, at Pitt's request, 
 to find him another seat for the approaching general election.^ 
 Unfortunately Pitt was seriously ill at Bath, and could not 
 look after his own interests on the spot. His long course of 
 treatment at Tunbridge Wells in the previous summer had 
 brought him only a short respite ; and since Qctober 1753, 
 except for his appearance in ParHament to ,speak on the 
 Jewish question, he had been kept a prisoner enduring torture 
 from suppressed gout. Three violent attacks at the end of 
 February and beginning of March left him prostrate in his 
 ' great chair,' miserably depressed in spirits and quite unable 
 to travel.^ ' I am indeed much out of order,' he laments 
 on the day of Pelham's death, ' and worn down with pain and 
 confinement : this gout which I trusted to relieve me has 
 almost subdued me : I am the horse in the fable, non equitem 
 dorso, non frcenum depulit ore ' ; and during the next week, 
 when he felt that he might have done something by his presence 
 in London, he frets sorely at his infirmity. He writes of his 
 ' unspeakable mortification ' at being kept in Bath and of 
 his ' almost intolerable ' impatence to be in London. ' I am 
 carried downstairs and packed up Uke a bale of goods in my 
 chaise to inure me to motion. ... If no relapse comes I hope 
 a week will go a good way towards enabling me to crawl, if not 
 to walk. As soon as I am capable of that degree of self-motion 
 I will set out,' he writes on March 14. Though unable to travel 
 Pitt could write, and between March 6 and April 8 he sent 
 off twenty -two letters, three sometimes on one day, counselling 
 and exhorting his friends, stimulating or scornfully reproaching 
 those indifferent to him, leaving no stone unturned to make 
 amends for his absence from the scene of action. But his 
 letters were a poor substitute for himself. Whenever he had a 
 
 » Add. MSS. 32733, ff . 26, 63. 
 
 ^ H. Walpole, with his usual sneer, says Pitt, ' had, or had unluckily acted, 
 very ill health,' at Bath. 
 
PITT'S LETTERS FROM BATH 221 
 
 definite course of action to prescribe, no one could write more 
 clearly and succinctly ; but when he had to feel his ground, 
 especially on a question of office for himself, few great 
 men have shown so much vagueness and obscurity in their 
 correspondence as Pitt. This obscurity was now probably 
 aggravated by his illness, which at times made him almost 
 despair of again taking an active part in poHtics, also by a very 
 natural uncertainty as to the dispositions of the leading actors 
 in the ensuing drama. Pitt's incapacity at this crisis of his 
 own and the nation's fortunes was indeed the hardest blow 
 fate had yet dealt him. 
 
 On March 6 Pitt heard that Pelham was seriously iU, and 
 wrote at once to the Duke of Newcastle condoling with him 
 on the ' adverse and unhappy event which threatens you and 
 yours.' Next day, on news of Pelham's death, he exhorted 
 Newcastle to bear in mind that it was ' a great occasion for 
 all your strength of mind to exert itself. May all good men 
 make it their glory to support your Grace in the generous 
 effort.' To the Grenvilles and Lyttelton he sent a joint letter 
 of advice on the common poUcy to be followed by their small 
 corps. He is clear enough on ' the present dangerous 
 conjuncture for this country both at home and abroad,' and 
 in defining the pubUc interest, ' the object to be wished for,' 
 as an obHgation ' to support the King in quiet as long as he 
 may have to hve ; and to strengthen the hands of the Princess 
 of Wales, as much as may be, in order to maintain her power 
 in the govenmient, in case of the misfortune of the King's 
 demise,' by continuing Pelham's policy of uniting all parties 
 who had the pubhc interest at heart. But when he comes 
 to consider candidates for office he at once becomes ambiguous. 
 Fox seemed to him without question the candidate with the 
 best claims for Pelham's posts of Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 and Leader of the House, but he was afraid that if the King 
 put all power into his hands the prospects of the Princess's 
 regency would become precarious.i This danger might, he 
 said, be averted if Fox's elevation were counterbalanced by 
 
 1 In one of his letters Pitt says that he himself felt unequal to the Exchequer 
 but BQt to the Secretaryship, 
 
222 GLOQJtT AND SUNSHINE 
 
 favours shown tcKtheir/wn small party, ' by marks of Eoyal 
 favour, one of the ctJnnection put into the Cabinet, and called 
 to a real participation of councils and business.' But there 
 was to be no hint of faction : reserve might be shown towards 
 those who come ' to fish and sound your dispositions, without 
 authority to make direct propositions ' ; but even in case of 
 disappointment, ' I don't think quitting of offices at all advis- 
 able, for public or private accounts ; but as to answering any 
 further purposes in the House of Commons, that must depend 
 on the King's will and pleasure to enable us so to do.' In a 
 third letter of the same day, addressed to Temple, Pitt warns 
 him to preach prudence and reserve to Sir George Lyttelton, 
 who is indiscreet. Pox, he repeats, is the most likely to obtain 
 the Exchequer, Grenville in that case should accept an offer 
 of the Secretaryship at War ; ' the Chancellor is the only 
 resource ; his wisdom, temper, and authority, joined to the 
 Duke of Newcastle's abihty as Secretary of State, are the 
 dependence for Government. The Duke of Newcastle alone is 
 feeble : this not to Sir George.' 
 
 Prom these somewhat involved utterances it is obvious 
 that Pitt at first expected that the chief change in the Ministry 
 would be the promotion of Pox to Pelham's places and that 
 he would have acquiesced in it, provided that the Cabinet were 
 at the same time strengthened by the admission of one of their 
 connection, who would most naturally be himself. But he 
 never said so exphcitly. A day or two later, however, he got a 
 letter from Lyttelton, describing an interview with Hard- 
 wicke, and letters from Hardwicke and Newcastle, which 
 seem to have dashed any personal hopes he may have held. 
 None of these letters is extant, but it is clear from Pitt's 
 answers that he was asked for his views on the conduct of 
 business in the House of Commons, and that Hardwicke even 
 dropped a hint that, had it been possible to overcome the King's 
 prejudice, he might himself have been offered the Exchequer 
 and the lead in the Commons. Whatever the proposal to him 
 was, it was nothing definite, and in reply Pitt became even 
 more oracular than before, both as to his own wishes and 
 the pohcy his friends should pursue. He seemed more anxious 
 
I 
 
 PITT AVERSE TO FACTION 223 
 
 to await the proposals of others than to state his own, and 
 might have done better for himself could he have brought 
 himself frankly to formulate his demands. But he had little 
 confidence in the discretion of Lyttelton, who, in spite of his 
 warning to Temple, had either constituted himself or been^ 
 deputed by the others to be their mouthpiece. On March 10 
 Pitt wrote him two letters, one for his private use, the other 1 
 to be shown to Hardwicke in response to his overtures. In 
 the private letter he told him that though ' far from meaning to 
 recommend a sullen, dark, much less a double, conduct, . . . 
 and determined not to go into faction ... I mean not to 
 open myself to whoever pleases to sound my dispositions . . . 
 and by premature declarations, deprive ourselves of the only 
 chance we have of deriving any consideration to ourselves 
 from the mutual fears and animosities of different factions at 
 Court.' In the letter meant for the Chancellor's eye indigna- 
 tion at the King's continued exclusion of him moved him for the 
 first time to more open language about himself. Even if the 
 Kiag were willing, he would never, he hinted, have aspired to 
 Pelham's place, but he was none the less disgusted at being 
 thought unworthy of any promotion : 
 
 I am so truly and deeply conscious [he wrote] of so many of my wants 
 in Parliament and out of it to supply in the smallest degree this 
 irreparable loss, that I can say with much truth were my health 
 restored and his Majesty brought from the dearth of subjects to 
 hear of my name for so great a change, I should wish to decUne 
 the honour, even though accompany 'd with the attribution of all the 
 weight and strength which the good opinion and confidence of the 
 master cannot fail to add to a servant ; but under impressions in 
 the Royal mind towards me, the reverse of these, what must be the 
 vanity which would attempt it ? . . . I need not suggest to his Lord- 
 ship that consideration and weight in the House of Commons arises 
 generally but from one of two causes— the protection and counten- 
 ance of the Crown, visibly manifested by marks of Royal Favour 
 at Court, or from weight in the country, sometimes arising from 
 opposition to the pubhc measures. This latter sort of con- 
 sideration it is a great satisfaction to me to reflect I parted 
 with, as soon as I became convinced there might be danger 
 to the family from pursuing opposition any further ; and I need not 
 
224 GLOOM AND SUNSHINE 
 
 say I tave not had the honour to receive any of the former since 
 I became the King's servant. In this humiliating and not exaggerated 
 view of my situation within the House, of how little weight can I 
 flatter myself to be there ? . . .' 
 
 Next day he wrote to the Duke of Newcastle, with whom 
 his personal connection, as he reminded Lyttelton, had a 
 peculiar circumstance of obligation, referring him to Lord 
 Hardwicke for his views, and bidding him ' summon all your 
 fortitude and recover Yourself into action as soon as you can ; 
 the more irreparable the King's and the Pubhck's loss is, the 
 more there is incumbent upon your Grace's shoulders.' To 
 Temple he dashes off a few breathless sentences : 
 
 The essence ... is to talk modestly, to declare attachment to 
 the King's government, and the future plan under the Princess, 
 neither to intend nor to intimate the quitting the service, to give 
 no terrors by talking big, to make no declarations of thinking our- 
 selves free by Mr. Pelham's death to look out and fish in troubled 
 waters, and perhaps help trouble them in order to fish the better : 
 but to profess and to resolve bona fide to act like public men in a 
 dangerous conjuncture for our country, and support government 
 when they will please to settle it ; to let them see that we shall do 
 this from principles of public good, not as the bubbles of a few fair 
 words, without effects (all this civiUy) . . . and saying very explicitly, 
 as I have (but civilly), that we have our eyes open to our situation 
 at Court, and the foul play we have had ofiered us in the Closet : 
 to wait the worldng of all these things in offices, the best we can have, 
 but in. offices. 
 
 Keep the party together, he urges him, and gain new 
 adherents ; ' pardon, my dear Lord, all this freedom, but the 
 conjimcture is made to awaken men and there is room for 
 action.' 
 
 After his letters of March 11 he ceased attempting to 
 influence the course of events. On the 12th Grenville wrote 
 deploring his absence ; in his answer of the 14th Pitt lamented 
 his inability to travel for at least a week, in spite of his ' need of 
 seeing the faces of my friends again, after a long absence, and 
 tedious scene of pain and confinement.' On March 20 he had 
 still no news of a ministry and wrote to Lyttelton for informa- 
 
PITT AND FOX'S CLAIMS 225 
 
 tion. Meanwhile he had been philosophically trying to kill 
 time by reading Bolingbroke's ' Essay of Human Knowledge,' 
 published on the day of Pelham's death. His verdict on it was 
 not favourable : ' The work contains a vast compass of 
 reading ; it is writ with much clearness, great eloquence, as 
 much wit, and still more arrogance ; but I find it in some parts, 
 not a few, filled with repetitions, from my Lord's fondness of 
 the matter. The arrogance is so excessive that, great as the 
 performance is, it becomes often even ridiculous.' 
 
 Lyttelton's letter aimouncing the changes in the Ministry 
 did not reach Pitt till the eveniag of the 23rd, although it 
 had been already settled to the satisfaction of Newcastle 
 and Hardwicke and aimounced nearly a week before.^ 
 
 Newcastle had been so utterly unmanned by his brother's 
 death that for some days afterwards he shut himself up and 
 gave full vent to his grief. But his interests, left in Hard- 
 wicke's capable hands, profited rather than suffered by his 
 absence. Hardwicke found the King, as Pitt had expected, 
 inclined to pitch upon Fox as Pelham*s successor. Fox had 
 undoubted claims. He was a first-rate debater, clear, concise, 
 and business-like ; he understood the work and temper of the 
 House of Commons, and had aU the capacity requisite for 
 managing the national finances. He had not, it is true, a 
 spark of enthusiasm or of ambition that was not sordid and 
 personal, and he was cynical in his judgment of men's motives 
 and of national questions. But these characteristics were 
 merits in the eyes of those whose chief desire in poHtics 
 was to avoid trouble and excitement. He had a special 
 claim to the King's favour as the trusted adviser of his 
 favourite son, the Duke of Cumberland. But Hardwicke 
 cherished' a grudge against him. In the previous year his 
 favourite Clandestine Marriage Bill had been riddled with 
 LQvective and sarcasm by Fox, whose sympathy with oppressed 
 lovers was heightened by his own romantic elopement with a 
 great-granddaughter of Charles II ; Hardwicke had retorted in 
 the House of Lords, describing the Secretary at War as ' a dark 
 
 ^ On the 18th Lyttelton wrote to Grenville suggesting that an express should 
 he sent to Pitt. But this was apparently not done. 
 
 VOL. I. Q 
 
226 GLOOM AND SUNSHINE 
 
 and insidious genius, the engine of personality and faction.' 
 The alliance, too, with Cumberland, which recommended 
 Fox to the King, rendered him suspect to Newcastle and 
 Hardwicke, who had no desire to alienate the future Eegent. 
 But their supreme objection to him was that if, in addition 
 to the power of the sword, which he wielded through the Duke 
 of Cumberland, he also controlled the Treasury and the House 
 of Commons, he would entirely overshadow them. 
 
 Pox himself did not let the grass grow under his feet. 
 Hardly were Pelham's eyes closed than he called on Hardwicke 
 and sent three humble messages of apology to him for his 
 former attacks. He also called at Pitt's house on the same 
 morning, not knowing that he was at Bath, and before eight 
 was closeted with the Marquis of Hartington, who acted as 
 his intermediary in the subsequent negotiations ; for in those 
 days of delicate personal questions principals hardly ever 
 began negotiations, preferring the advocacy of third parties 
 who could proclaim their merits with more effrontery. With 
 the King he exchanged communications through the channel 
 of his mistress. Lady Yarmouth. 
 
 Hardwicke was far too astute to oppose the King's idea 
 about Fox openly. But he threw out hints which undermined 
 the King's prepossessions, and so contrived to have the matter 
 referred to a Cabinet Council. Since the Cabinet consisted 
 almost entirely of Newcastle's puppets, Hardwicke could 
 dictate to them the substance and even the wording of their 
 advice.i Their opinion therefore was unanimous that Newcastle 
 should become First Lord of the Treasury, with a Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer in the Commons entirely subordinate to 
 him. Under this arrangement Newcastle would retain in 
 his own hands not only the conduct of elections and the govern- 
 ment of patronage but also the ' management ' (a pohte term 
 for bribery) of the members of the House. The leadership 
 of the Commons, with powers cUpped by such conditions, 
 could then safely be offered to Fox in conjunction with the 
 seals of Secretary of State vacated by Newcastle. Legge, 
 
 1 See Harris, HardwicJce, ii, 511 : Hardwicke to the Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, March 11, 1754. 
 
NEWCASTLE AND HARDWICKE SHELVE FOX 227 
 
 an adherent of Pitt, but not thought to have much strength 
 of character, was made Chancellor of the Exchequer. 
 
 Hartington conveyed the offer of the seals to Fox with a 
 promise from Newcastle that he should always be informed 
 of the members in receipt of secret service money. But 
 when Fox came to see Newcastle, the Duke repudiated his 
 engagement and told Fox that the ' management ' of the 
 House, which he was to lead, must be kept secret from him. 
 Fox remarked that in that case ' he should not know how to 
 talk to members of Parhament, when some might have received 
 gratifications, others not ' ; and on the following day retracted 
 his acceptance. Nothing could have pleased Newcastle and 
 Hardwicke more ; they had put themselves in the right with 
 the King by offering the post to Fox, who by refusing it had 
 left himself httle ostensible ground of complaint. Without 
 a thought of any other candidate, and with almost indecent 
 haste, Newcastle at once suggested for the post Sir Thomas 
 Eobinson, who had been a tiresome ambassador at Vienna, 
 chiefly remarkable for his portentously long dispatches, and 
 was now Master of the Great Wardrobe. He pleased the King 
 by his detailed knowledge of German politics, and the Duke of 
 Newcastle by his nulhty and inexperience of the House of 
 Commons : he was therefore proposed and accepted with 
 alacrity. Supported by two such Secretaries of State as 
 Eobinson and Holderness, Newcastle could be secure of any 
 rivahy in the Cabinet. How far he had strengthened the 
 Government remained to be seen. 
 
 Lyttelton, who had been acting for the Cousinhood, actually 
 answered for Pitt's acquiescence in this ridiculous arrangement. 
 For himself he secured the dignified employment of Cofferer of 
 the Household, and for George Grenville, Legge's lucrative post 
 of Treasurer of the Navy. It is quite inteUigible in the circum- 
 stances that Lyttelton and Grenville should have been in no 
 hurry to inform Pitt of the result of their negotiations. Even 
 when Lyttelton wrote on the 23rd he apparently said nothing 
 of his own and Grenville's appointments. It is more remark- 
 able that, except for Hardwicke's vague and probably insincere 
 hint, nobody of Newcastle's junto seems to have given a serious 
 
 Q2 
 
228 GLOOM AND SUNSHINE 
 
 thought to Pitt. Fox they were afraid of and successfully 
 out-mancBuvred ; Pitt was absent, his friends made no energetic 
 bid for his claims, and his eight years of loyal service to the 
 Pelhams had blotted out the memory of his power when roused 
 to opposition. So httle were they conscious of the enormity of 
 their neglect, that it did not occur to Newcastle and Hard- 
 wicke even to throw him a word of explanation. But Lyttelton 
 had some qualms as to the way in which he might take the 
 news, and, on the day he wrote himself, implored Hardwicke 
 to send Pitt a conciliatory epistle. 
 
 Sick and solitary at Bath, Pitt received Lyttelton's express 
 late on the night of the 23rd. Even his philosophy was not 
 proof against the blow. He might have suffered himself once 
 more to be passed over, if union and strength had been 
 secured, but to be passed over for a Sir Thomas Robinson 
 was more than his pride and his consciousness of supreme 
 capacity could brook. His night was restless and troubled. 
 Next morning indignation spurred him to the only action 
 then possible. All the obscurity of his language was suddenly 
 dispelled by the blast of his wrath. He wrote Newcastle a 
 letter, which could leave him under no further misapprehension 
 of the force he had neglected and by his neglect aroused : 
 
 Bath. March 24, 1754. 
 
 My Lord Duke, — I have heard with the highest satisfaction 
 by a message from Sir George Lyttelton the efiectual proofs of his 
 Majesty's great kindness and firm confidence in your Grace for the 
 conduct of his Government. 
 
 You have certainly taken most wisely the Province of the Treasury 
 to yourself, where the powers of Government reside, and which at 
 this particular crisis of a General Election may lay the foundations 
 of the future pohtical system so fast as not to be shaken hereafter. 
 But this will depend upon many concomitant circumstances. For 
 the present the nation may say with consolation, ' uno avulso non 
 deficit alter aureus.' The power of the Purse in the hands of the 
 same family may, I trust, be so used as to fix aU other power there 
 along with it. Amidst aU the real satisfaction I feel on this great 
 measure so happily taken, it is with infinite reluctance that I 
 am forced to return to the mortifying situation of your Grace's 
 humblest servant. . . . The difficulties grow so fast upon me by the 
 
PITT'S GRANDIS EPISTOLA 229 
 
 repetition and multiplication of most painfull and too visible humilia- 
 tions that my small store of prudence suggests no longer to me any 
 means of colouring them to the world ; nor of repairing them to 
 my own mind consistently with my unshaken purpose to do nothing 
 on any provocation to disturb the quiet of the King and the ease 
 and stability of present and future Government. Permit, my Lord, 
 a man, whose affectionate attachment to your Grace, I believe, you 
 don't doubt, to expose simply to your view his situation, and then 
 let me intreat your Grace (if you can divest your mind of the great 
 disparity between us), to transport yourself for a moment into my 
 place. From the time I had the honour to come into the King's 
 service, I have never been wanting in my most zealous endeavours 
 in Parhament on the points that laboured the most, those of military 
 discipline and foreign affairs ; nor have I difier'd on any whatever 
 but the too small number of seamen one year, which was admitted 
 to be so the next ; and on a crying complaint against General 
 Anstruther : for these crimes how am I punish'd ? Be the want of 
 subjects ever so great and the force of the conjuncture ever so 
 cogent, be my best friends and protectors ever so much at the head 
 of the Government, an indelible negative is fixed against my name. 
 Since I had the honour to return that answer to the Chancellor 
 which Your Grace and his Lordship were pleas'd not to disapprove, 
 how have mortifications been multiply'd upon me. One Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer over me was at that time destin'd, Mr. Fox : 
 since that time a second, Mr. Legge, is fixt : A Secretary of State 
 is next to be look'd for in the House of Commons. Mr. Fox is again 
 put over me and destin'd to that office : he refuses the seals : Sir 
 Thomas Eobinson is immediately put over me and is now in possession 
 of that great office. I sincerely think both these high employments 
 much better fill'd than I cou'd supply either of them in many respects. 
 Mr. Legge I truely and cordially esteem and love. Sir Thos. Eobinson, 
 with whom I have not the honour to live in the same intimacy, I 
 sincerely believe to be a gentleman of much worth and ability. 
 Nevertheless I will venture' to appeal to your Grace's candour and 
 justice whether upon such feeble pretensions, as twenty years' use 
 of Parhament may have given me, I have not some cause to feel 
 (as I do most deeply) so many repeated and visible humiliations. 
 I have troubled your Grace so long on this painful subject that I 
 may have nothing disagreeable to say when I have the honour to 
 wait on you ; as well as that I think it fit your Grace shou'd know the 
 whole heart of a faithfull servant, who is conscious of nothing towards 
 your Grace which he wishes to conceal from you. In my degraded 
 situation in Parliament, an active part there I am sure your Grace 
 
230 GLOOM AND SUNSHINE 
 
 is too equitable to desire me to take ; for otherwise than as an 
 associate and in equal rank witk those charg'd with Government 
 there, I never can take such a part. 
 
 I will confess I had flatter' d myself that the interests of your 
 Grace's own power were so ooncern'd to bring forward an instrument 
 of your own raising in the House of Commons that you cou'd not 
 let pass this decisive occasion without surmounting in the royal 
 mind the unfavourable impressions I have the unhappiness to be 
 under ; and that the seals (at least when refus'd by Mr. Fox) might 
 have been destin'd as soon as an opening cou'd be made in the King's 
 mind in my favour instead of being immediately put into other hands. 
 Things standing as they do, whether I can continue in office without 
 losing myself in the opinion of the world is become a matter of very 
 painful doubt to me. ... I am most sure that my mind carries me 
 more strongly towards retreat than towards courts and business. 
 Indeed, My Lord, the inside of the House must be consider'd in 
 other respects besides merely numbers, or the reins of Government 
 wiU soon slip or be wrested out of any minister's hands. If I have 
 spoken too freely, I humbly beg your Grace's pardon : and entreat 
 you to impute my freedom to the most sincere and unalterable 
 attachment of a man who never wiU conceal his heart, and who can 
 complain without alienation of mind and remonstrate without 
 resentment. 
 
 Pitt enclosed this letter under flying seal to Lyttelton for 
 the Cousinhood to see before it was sent on to Newcastle. He 
 also wrote to Lyttelton, Temple and Grenville. The effort 
 was almost beyond his strength : at the end of the note to 
 Temple he says, ' I am so tired I cannot hold my head down 
 to write any longer.' Yet even after that he managed to scrawl 
 a few lines to Grenville. In the letter to Lyttelton he writes : 
 
 My plan still continues fixed, not to quit employments ; merely 
 quitting is annihilation ; quitting to distftib Government, and make 
 ourselves be felt, must at this time be faction; and faction for 
 others' benefit, not our own : it must increase the present confusion, 
 and produce a system I never think right for this country. Were 
 this conduct sure to turn to our own benefit in the scramble, I can 
 never bring my mind to engage in faction, in so dangerous a public 
 conjuncture. 
 
 To Temple, who had apparently written him an indignant 
 letter of sympathy : 
 
DESPONDENCY 231 
 
 Employment may not to us be the place of dignity, but sure I am 
 it is ttat of importance. ... All Achilles as you are, Impiger, 
 Iracundus &c., what woiUd avail us to sail back a few mjTmidons to 
 Thessaly ! Go over to the Trojans, be revenged, we none of us can 
 bear the thought of. What then remains ? The conduct of the 
 much enduring man, who by temper, patience and persevering 
 prudence became adversis rerum immersabilis undis. 
 
 Immersahilis he proved, and a certain grim belief in himself 
 and in the country pierces through even his bitterest mood. 
 To Grenville he writes ' a letter worthy of a profound 
 politician in these dark times — that is, to say nothing. When 
 the day will dawn (for to my poor eyes it is not even twilight 
 at present) I cannot guess : when it comes may it show us a 
 view men will see with pleasure, and not wish to change ! ' 
 Then, throwing off political preoccupations, he enters upon 
 another criticism of Bolingbroke, ' that intellectual Sampson 
 of Battersea.' 
 
 I endeavour, you see, to keep my mind — as far as I can, abstracted 
 from what you gentlemen at London are pleased to call the great 
 world, and which we philosophers at Bath call the Uttle ; and instead 
 of such trifles as the government of millions, fate of kingdoms and 
 system of Europe, to hold our minds fixed on the contemplation 
 of nature's system and intellectual and moral worlds. 
 
 It was a brave pose, half sincere too, for a few days later he 
 returns to his correspondence with his nephew, which had been 
 interrupted by his illness, without a hint to him of his political 
 disappointment, and, on April 1, genially congratulates his 
 friend Billy Lyttelton on his appointment as sub-Cofferer to 
 his brother : 
 
 I wished to see you put into the stream of promotion, which by its 
 natural current, and the right of succession in the gradation of office 
 (tho' not always held indefeasible) commonly bears men to fortune. 
 . . . You will do such work as there is, while the Cofferer reposes 
 in the shades of Hagley and dispenses his own fat bucks. 
 
 Meanwhile Newcastle and Hardwicke had been rudely 
 awakened from their fool's paradise. At first Newcastle, in an 
 interview with Lyttelton, had shown scant consideration for 
 
232 GLOOM AND SUNSHINE 
 
 Pitt's claims ; but Pitt's letter recalled him and Hardwicke to 
 a dim apprehension of the sleeping volcano on which they had 
 unwarily trodden. It was all very well to have a submissive 
 Ministry, but if the most terrible critic ia the House was not 
 equally submissive — even if, as he threatened, he ostentatiously 
 retired from active politics — ^their troubles might not yet be over. 
 Lyttelton had already warned Hardwicke to pacify Pitt : they 
 began to see the need of it themselves. After long and anxious 
 consideration and an interchange of one another's drafts,^ 
 on April 2 they each sent him a propitiatory letter fuU of 
 vague promises and halting apologies. Of the two, Hardwicke'a 
 with its self-satisfied obtuseness and its wearisome Latin tags, 
 is the more nauseous. After recounting his successful efforts 
 to make Newcastle Prime Minister, he hints that he attempted 
 to overcome the King's prejudice against Pitt. ' It might 
 have the appearance of something which I would avoid being 
 suspected of, if I told you all I said of particular persons. I 
 was not wanting to do justice to true merit nor backward to 
 show him how real strength might be acquired.' However, 
 ministers cannot do all they want, and Pitt ought to be satisfied 
 with his friends' promotion ; above all let him not retire ; 
 there had been no neglects as far as he himself and the Duke 
 of Newcastle were concerned. ' I have that opinion of your 
 wisdom, of your concern for the publick, of your regard and 
 affection for your friends, that I will not suffer myself to doubt 
 but you will take an active part. There never was a fairer 
 field in the House of Commons for such abihties, and I flatter 
 myself that the exertion of them will complete what is now 
 imperfect.' Hardwicke lived to regret the ' active part ' he 
 here encourages. 
 
 The duke was quite pathetic about his own painful situation, 
 aggravated as it was by his uneasiness at Pitt's disappointment. 
 He draws a harrowing picture of his melancholy and distress 
 at being forced by the commands of the King and the entreaties 
 of his friends to give up the ' employment he loved ' in exchange 
 for the chief power in the State. He had done all he could to 
 soften the King towards Pitt without imperilling his own 
 
 . . 1 Add. MSS. 32735, ff. 1 and 20 ; 354U, f. 135. 
 
NEWCASTLE EXPLAINS 233 
 
 position. He would not have dreamed of insulting Pitt by 
 offering him the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer where 
 he would have been subordiaate to himself, and as for Eobinson, 
 the King himself had proposed him of his own motion. 
 Newcastle then offers the reflection of his friends' promotion 
 as a consolation to Pitt ' I feel for you ; but allow me to say 
 (because I think it) that even with regard to yourself the 
 dispositions are not so mortifying as they might have been, 
 and with regard to your friends, more favourable than perhaps 
 was to be expected.' After this cold comfort comes the 
 effusive ending : ' I am afraid I have wrote too freely. My 
 love and affection for you are my only excuses. When once 
 I begin to write to a friend hke you, I write all I think upon 
 the subject.' 
 
 Such letters were calculated to inflame rather than to soothe 
 Pitt's resentments ; ^ and their tenor together with his own sad 
 reflections for a time damped even his high courage, causing 
 him to consider seriously whether he should not abandon the 
 apparently hopeless struggle in Parhament and seek some 
 office where ambition had no place. His answers were written 
 at once, on AprU 4, and sent with this commentary to Lyttelton : 
 
 The Duke of Newcastle's letter to me, ... is writ with a con- 
 descension and in terms so flattering, that it pains me. I am almost 
 tempted to think there is kindness at the bottom of it, which if left 
 to itself, would before now have shewed itself in effects. If I have not 
 the fruit, I have the leaves of it in abundance : a beautiful foUage of 
 fine words ; and if lulling one to sleep would satisfy his Grace, I 
 am quite disposed a m'endormir, a I'omhre de ses lauriers, not as 
 de Eetz says of the Prince of Conde, of my own. The Chancellor's 
 letter is the most condescending, friendly, obliging thing that can 
 be imagined. I have the deepest sense of his goodness for me ; but 
 
 ^ The sincerity of Newcastle and Hardwicke in these letters may be judged 
 from the comment by the second Lord Hardwicke, noted on the draft of his 
 father's letter of AprU 2 {Add. MSS. 35423, f. 172) : 
 
 ' The fact is that this letter tho' prudently and skilfuUy drawn had no 
 efEect with Mr. P. His ill-humour broke out the beginning of next session and 
 
 he never thought the old M ^rs. were in earnest to serve him. The Truth is 
 
 one [Newcastle] had no mind to have an efficient minister in the H. of C. : 
 and the other [Hardwicke] knew that it would be drawing the King's resentment 
 on himself to propose Mr. P. for the only office wh. wd. have satisfied him.' 
 
234 GLOOM AND SUNSHINE 
 
 I am really compelled, by every reason fit for a man to listen to, to 
 resist (as to the point of activity in Parliament) farther than I like 
 to do. . . . Eesolved not to disturb Government, I desire to be 
 released from the oar of Parliamentary drudgery. I am willing to 
 sit there, and be ready to be called out into action, when the Duke 
 of Newcastle's personal interests might require, or Government 
 should deign to employ me as an instrument. ... I am not fond of 
 making speeches (though some may think I am). I never cultivated 
 the talent but as an instrument of action in a country like ours.i 
 
 In answer to Newcastle's letter Pitt wonders how he shall 
 find words to express his sense ' of the great condescension and 
 kindness with which it is writ ' ; then, taking up one of the 
 duke's own expressions — 
 
 it is most obliging to suggest as consolations to me that I might have 
 been much more mortify 'd under another management than under 
 the present : but I will freely own I should have felt myself far less 
 personally humiliated, had Mr. ffox been placed by the king's favour 
 at the head of the House of Commons, than I am at present : in 
 that case the necessity would have been apparent : the ability of 
 the subject would in some degree have warranted the thing. 
 1 should indeed have been much mortify'd for your Grace and 
 for my Lord Chancellor : very little for my own particular. 
 Could Mr. Murray's situation have allow'd him to be placed 
 at the head of the House of Commons, I should have served 
 under him with the greatest pleasure : I acknowledge as much 
 as the rest of the world do his superiority in every respect. 
 My mortification arises not from silly pride, but from being 
 evidently excluded by a negative personal to me (now and for 
 ever) fiowing from a displeasure utterly irremovable. ... To 
 conclude, my Lord, and to release your Grace from a troublesome 
 correspondent, give me leave to recur to your Grace's equity and 
 candour : when the suffrage of the party in one instance, and a 
 higher nomination, the Eoyal designation in another, operate to 
 the eternal precluding of a man's name being so much as brought in 
 question, what reasonable wish can remain for a man so circumstanced 
 (under a fixt resolution not to disturb government) but that of a 
 
 1 ' It is a kind of epoch,' says Carlyle, ' in your studies of modern English 
 history, when you get to understand of Pitt's speeches, that they are not Parlia- 
 mentary eloquencies, but things which with his whole soul he means and is 
 intent to do.' It is hardly likely that Carlyle had seen this confession of Pitt's, 
 but he divined Pitt's nature and once hoped to write his life. Vtinam I 
 
PITT MEDITATES RETREAT 235 
 
 decent retreat ; a retreat of respect, not resentment : of despair 
 of being ever accepted to equal terms with others, be his poor 
 endeavours ever so zealous. Very few have been the advantages 
 and honours of my hfe : but among the first of them I shall ever 
 esteem the honour of your Grace's good opinion : to that good opinion 
 and protection I recommend myself : and hope from it that some 
 retreat, neither disagreeable nor dishonourable, may (when practic- 
 able) be open'd to me. 
 
 To Hardwicke he wrote very much to the same effect. 
 After a solemn expression of gratitude for his efforts in the 
 Closet : ' your Lordship,' he adds with grave sarcasm, ' will 
 not think me unreasonable, if I conclude from the inefficacy 
 of these efforts in such a want of subjects to carry on the 
 King's business in Parliament, and under his Majesty's strong 
 sense of that want, that these impressions are immoveable.' 
 Having set out ten years before with the same vague hopes that 
 time would remove these impressions — 
 
 and bearing long a load of obloquy for supporting the King's 
 measures and never obtaining in recompense the smallest remission 
 of that displeasure I vainly endeavoured to soften, aU ardour for 
 public business is really extinguished in my mind. . . . The weight 
 of irremoveable royal displeasure is a load too great to move under : 
 it must crush any man ; it has sunk and broke me. I succumb ; 
 and wish for nothing but a decent and innocent retreat, wherein I 
 may no longer, by continuing in the public stream of promotion, 
 for ever stick fast aground, and afiord to the world the ridiculous 
 spectacle of being passed by every boat that navigates the same 
 river. 
 
 Pitt's outbursts of scornful despair and his demands for 
 a ' decent and innocent retreat ' are not surprising, when it 
 is remembered that this man had already done the lion's 
 share in laying low two great ministers, and was conscious 
 within himself that he could create even better than he 
 could destroy, while the country for which he cared was 
 left at a grave crisis to an incompetent and unrepresentative 
 Ministry. The Duke of Newcastle took care to let Pitt's \ 
 request be known, and years afterwards it was distorted 
 into a charge that he had abjectly begged for a pension. Pitt 
 had then forgotten the incident : all he could remember was 
 
236 GLOOM AND SUNSHINE 
 
 that he had for two years been almost disabled from attending 
 Parliament by illness, and might have preferred retreat to 
 office. ' But produce the letter, if it exists,' he wrote. This 
 neither Newcastle nor anyone else cared to do.^ 
 
 Pitt continued in this mood for the rest of his sojourn at 
 Bath. At the general election he was nominated for 
 Aldborough by Newcastle in fulfilment of last year's promise. 
 But he was too ill to present himself before the electors, and 
 with Newcastle's consent dispensed with the useless formality. 
 When thanking Newcastle, he speaks of himself as a ' very 
 useless person, and who, I fear, fills the place of a better man. 
 I consider my political life as some way or other drawing to 
 a conclusion.' He adds that if he can in any way serve his 
 Grace in private life he would be delighted to do so, and when 
 his election is announced by the Duke, congratulates himself 
 solemnly on ' standing thus publicly marked as your servant,' 
 an hyperbolical compliment which at any rate shows that 
 he had not yet plumbed the depths of Hardwicke and 
 Newcastle's meanness in using the King's obstinacy as a 
 cloak for their own ambitions, and had no thoughts as yet 
 of active opposition. He was somewhat cheered in his lone- 
 liness by a visit from Temple and Grenville early in May, but 
 continued to write of retreat as his sole wish, ' since I am never 
 to be suffered to try to serve my country.' With slowly 
 returning health he professed to have no desire to see London, 
 ' a scene that administers no kind of satisfaction,' and to 
 find complete satisfaction living ' the vernal day on verdant 
 hiUs or sequestered valleys where . . . Health gushes from 
 a thousand springs.' 
 
 In June he came up to town for a few days and had 
 a conversation with Newcastle. From this date his anger 
 seems to have taken a more definite turn against him and 
 Hardwicke. For the first time he saw the full extent of the 
 trickery that had been practised upon him, and felt that 
 they might well have overcome the King's aversion, had 
 they been so minded. Henceforth nothing more is heard 
 
 ' The draft of Pitt's answer to tlie charge that he had ' applied for a pension 
 to a Duke ' about five years before is in Chatham MSS. 74. 
 
PITT RESOLVES TO FIGHT 237 
 
 of Pitt's anxiety to retire : he never again spoke of himself 
 as ' publicly marked for the Duke's servant ' : he felt there 
 was something still left to fight for.i But even with this 
 animating thought he was more lonely and more at odds 
 with the world than at any other time of his life. His 
 closest kindred were estranged from him : Lyttelton, his 
 friend from Eton days, had failed him ; Legge, a mere adherent, 
 had passed him in the race. Of all b's political friends the 
 GrenvUles and Beckford alone remained faithful. In August 
 news came of a serious disaster ia America to a party of 
 soldiers who were travelling in British territory under one 
 George Washington ; and the country seemed ill-prepared for 
 the war which all foreseeing men knew to be at hand. He 
 passed a melancholy summer, planting trees at the worthy 
 Mr. Miller's in Warwickshire, or watching undergraduate 
 frolics from the Angel at Oxford. Even these mild pleasures 
 were cut short. The gout returned and he was obliged to 
 spend another three weeks nursing it in his ' dungeon ' at 
 Astrop Wells. 
 
 It was at this darkest moment in his life that the ray of 
 Mght came to him, which illuminated and cheered all the rest 
 of his days.^ 
 
 II 
 
 Is it any waste of time to write of love ? The trials of life are in it, but 
 in a narrow ring and a fierier. . . . The love that survives . . . lives because 
 it lives to nourish and succour like the heavens. — Gbobgb Mekedith. 
 
 By the year 1754 it appeared unlikely that Pitt would 
 ever marry. He was then forty-six, and physically seemed 
 older, owing to the crippling attacks of gout to which he had 
 been subj ect during the last few years. Moreover, in spite of his 
 craving for domestic affection manifested in his early relations 
 with Ann, and, after her estrangement, in the care he lavished 
 
 1 This may be gathered from indications in Dodington, Diary, pp. 303-6. 
 ^ A tabular list of correspondence is inserted on p. 249. 
 
238 GLOOM AND SUNSHINE 
 
 on his nephew, he was evidently a man not lightly attracted 
 by women. His passing infatuation for the unknown lady 
 at Besan9on, ' une de ces flammes passageres, un eclair qui 
 a passe si vite qu'il n'en reste pas le moindre vestige,' ^ is the 
 only certain instance hitherto of an intrusion of the tender 
 passion into his thoughts. A hint of another passing inclination 
 is supplied by Horace Walpole, who insinuates that Pitt had 
 supplanted the Prince of Wales in Lady Archibald Hamilton's 
 affections ; but of this there is no better evidence. He had 
 not lacked opportunities to marry, for his brave spirit, his noble 
 bearing, and a certain mystery about him made him exceed- 
 ingly attractive to woipen. Mrs. Montagu, when she was young 
 and less formidable than she afterwards became, seemed to 
 think no one comparable to him. Her sister, Sarah Eobinson, 
 just twenty when he was thirty -five, had ' no inclination to dance 
 with any man but Mr. Pitt, and that I have not acquaintance 
 enough with him to expect ; I can only cherish my hopes of 
 future good fortune.' Mary West, often thrown into the 
 society of her brother's friend, appears to have lost her heart ^ 
 to him.2 But he had always held aloof and seemed untouched. 
 Yet at the age of forty-six Pitt suddenly discovered a passion- 
 ate love for one whom he had known and frequently seen for 
 at least twenty years. Lady Hester, the Grenvilles' only sister, 
 was then thirty-three. A portrait of her at Chevening, painted 
 by Hudson when she was twenty-nine, represents her as a 
 young woman full of health and vigour. Eich auburn hair 
 crowns a head set straight and proudly upon her shoulders. 
 She looks a great lady, as well as the sweet and frank woman 
 that the loving tradition in the family still recalls her to have 
 been.* Most of her Hf e had been spent in the country at Stowe 
 or Wotton. She was a good horsewoman and fond of cHmbing 
 hills afoot. Practical and with all her family's business 
 capacity, she shared their zeal for pohtics. Of friends she had 
 plenty among the girls and women of her brothers' set, the 
 
 ^ See above, p. 45. 
 
 ^ She is possibly the ' pretty little M.' referred to by Lyttelton, above, p. 40. 
 ^ The portrait of Lady Hester at OrweU Park, reproduced opposite p. 248, 
 appears to have been painted in 1747, when she was twenty-six. 
 
LADY HESTER GRENVILLE 239 
 
 chief being Elizabeth Wyndham, a warm-hearted creature, 
 who had married George Grenville in 1749.^ She also enjoyed 
 to the full the privileges which come to an only sister much 
 beloved by five vigorous brothers. Thomas, the sailor brother, 
 who was killed in action in 1747, was especially devoted to her. 
 ' Eemember me to all the jolly folks with you wherever you 
 are, and God bless you,' he writes with a sailor's bluffness in 
 one of his letters ; in another, ' I desire my brother GrenviUe 
 will by virtue of this letter supply you with as much as you want 
 of the money of mine in his hands, and I beg most earnestly 
 of you that you will make no womanish scruples about taking 
 it.' 2 But all loved their sister Hetty in their several 
 ways, Lord Temple with his coarse joviality,^ George with 
 priggish airs of protection, Jemmy jocose but with the most 
 enduring faithfulness, while Henry, the youngest, seems at 
 this time to have been very dear to her. 
 
 She had already had more than one admirer. Ten years 
 before, her brother Jemmy, in reference to one of these, wrote 
 to his ' incomparable Meg of Wotton,' rejoicing ' that there 
 is a prospect of getting you off to Simon Truelove. He really 
 deserves to have you and it is impossible to hope for a more 
 advantageous proposal. My dear Meg you grow old and it is 
 time to think of a decent retirement from business.' * When 
 ,she was twenty -five there was much talk in George Grenville 
 and Elizabeth Wyndham's letters of a certain Captain Geary, 
 who would seem to have touched her affections during a summer 
 they spent together at Tunbridge Wells.^ Her coasin Eichard 
 Berenger, an authority on horsemanship, wherein they had a 
 taste in common, at one time had tender passages with her, 
 and there are dark allusions in a letter from her friend Jane 
 Hamilton to yet another suitor who was rejected, but still 
 proved troublesome. 
 
 1 There is a portrait of her at Stowe. ' Chatham MSS. 38. 
 
 ' George Grenville in hia Narrative says that Lady Hester complained of 
 Temple's treatment of her ; but little weight need be attached to this state- 
 ment, which was written at a time when Grenville was raking up every grievance 
 he could against his brother, and is not confirmed by the evidence of Temple's 
 conduct. 
 
 * Chatham MSS. 35. * ^6«- 34. 
 
240 GLOOM AND SUNSHINE 
 
 A very likely reason for Lady Hester's obduracy was that 
 she had long admired and perhaps unconsciously loved her 
 brothers' eloquent friend. She treasured up some insignificant 
 notes written by him more than a year before he declared 
 himself. Her sister-in-law had for several years divined that 
 information about him would be acceptable to her. Jane 
 Hamilton too, writing soon after her own marriage to Lord 
 Cathcart in 1753, follows up some charming advice — ' Je vous 
 recommende un Marriage comme le mien, ma chere Amie, il n'y 
 a rien de pareil pour le bonheur ' — with the pointed conclusion : 
 ' How could I be so stupid to omit telling you that I saw 
 Mr. Pitt at Bath Court on Sunday and He looks well and is 
 thought to be so but is a little thin ? ' The same lady 
 shrewdly observes, when the engagement was aimounced, ' As 
 you well remember my wishes have long ago given you to him.' i 
 
 Pitt himself was for long blind to the happiness he might 
 have secured. There is not a hint in his correspondence or 
 in family tradition that he thought of Lady Hester as a wife 
 when she was growing to womanhood. Up to the last her 
 brothers had no suspicion that such a marriage was possible ; 
 the Temples expressing ' great surprise at the blindness that 
 had prevail'd, and which they appear'd very fond of insisting 
 upon.' There is a formal note of regret from him written 
 before 1753 that a party arranged to take Lady Hester to 
 see South Lodge had fallen through, but, though she treasured 
 it, it bears no indication of warm feelings in the writer. Li 1753, 
 however, when he was on the eve of departure for Tunbridge 
 Wells, almost broken in health, the two met several times in 
 London, and Lady Hester by words and letters showed a 
 concern for his welfare which touched him deeply.^ There 
 for over a year the matter rested. 
 
 During the early part of 1754 he was very ill at Bath and 
 absorbed in the pohtical situation ; in August, when he again 
 ' began to want a little repairs,' he went for over a month to 
 
 ' Chatham MSS. 26. 
 
 ^ These notes are attributed by Dr. Von Euville to the period of courtship. 
 Apart from the formal phraseology, the dates prevent such » supposition. 
 Pitt gave up South Lodge in March 1753, and was not at Tunbridge Wells in 
 1754. 
 
PITT'S WOOING 241 
 
 Astrop Wells. So little idea had he then of an early marriage 
 that he planned to go for the last part of September to Legge's 
 at Holte in Hampshire, thence to Bath, and later perhaps on a 
 visit to John Pitt at Encombe.^ However, he changed his mind, 
 and at the end of September was staying with the Grenvilles 
 at Wotton, then in all the beauty of its ' deep shades of oak, 
 softening lawns and tranquil waters, like a lively smile lighting 
 up a thoughful countenance.' Here he found Lady Hester. 
 
 Little is known of Pitt's courtship save that it must have 
 been sudden and brief. His heart had already, it seems, 
 ' presumed to form wishes ' : he had been very few days at 
 Wotton before he ventured to give them voice. One late 
 September morning by the lake in the grounds he and Lady 
 Hester opened their hearts to one another and confessed their 
 mutual love. Once Pitt had made up his mind and won her 
 love, he was carried off his feet by the strength of his passion ; 
 he was overwhelmed by the sense of her condescension to a man 
 with ' health shattered and declined.' A few days later he 
 wrote to her : ' I have the glory to be yours, and the happy 
 happy permission to call you mine, and am animated by the 
 thought to discharge any part I have to sustain and to aspire 
 to be less unworthy of you.' She likewise was as if dazzled by 
 love and pride for the man, whose greatness of soul and worth 
 to England she was one of the few fully to recognise. With 
 lovers in such mood, marriage could not long be delayed. But 
 first he had to tear himself away from her for another three 
 weeks to complete his cure at Bath. Later generations have 
 cause to be grateful for this separation. The letters they 
 exchanged during their absence from one another reveal a 
 love to rejoice all lovers and to dignify and sweeten even Pitt's 
 high fame.2 
 
 At the beginning of October Pitt left for London to talk to 
 the Duke of Newcastle about his Chelsea Hospital Bill and the 
 plans for America, then to Stowe to break the news to Temple, 
 
 1 Chatterton, i, 72 ; S. MiUer, 239. 
 
 ^ ' Stilted, pompous, artificial documents ' these letters have been called by 
 a recent writer. Surely it is possible to see, in spite of occasional lapses into 
 the commonplace epithets and phrases current at the time, the wealth of 
 passionate feeling and sincerity in his letters and hers. 
 
 VOL. I. R 
 
242 GLOOM AND SUNSHINE 
 
 and thence once more to Wotton. During this short absence 
 she wrote a note to him, and he the letter in which he glories 
 in his new-found happiness. ' In this painful interval . . . 
 I shall, I do now press your sweet letter to my heart, run over 
 every word, kiss every letter of it with transports of love and 
 gratitude, blessing the noble, pitying heart that dictated and 
 the dear hand that wrote it ; ever, ever, devotedly yours.' He 
 started for Bath on October 9 in storms and rain. 
 
 She writes to him that night : ' The storms have given me a 
 thousand fears ... for poor travellers,' and after affectionate 
 compliments from her family sends him ' something infinitely 
 beyond from myself.' 
 
 On October 12, from Bath, the poor traveller tells her of his 
 journey, ' for your goodness has made it not impertinent to talk 
 to you of myself,' a new and surprising sensation for this soHtary 
 man. He describes having to walk up Lansdown Hill in the 
 tempest ; at the top a good omen ! — the monument to Sir 
 Bevill Grenville — which ' sheltered me from the storm that 
 drove.' In the next letter he answers hers : ' Who speaks, who 
 looks, who writes, but above all who could have the generosity 
 to feel, as you ? ... let me read for ever that " something 
 infinitely beyond " which could make even the conclusion of 
 your letter sweet to my soul above my powers of language to 
 teU you.' 
 
 In averting injury from her lover, she repUes, Grenville's 
 monument ' has not done less service to our England but much 
 more ' than any Grenville could. 
 
 No joy can equal mine in having reason to believe your happiness 
 depends upon me, because the highest ambition and the fondest 
 wish I can form is to bestow it upon you, who are worthy of more 
 than I could bestow, had I all that the world could give. The 
 thought that I am in possession of yom: Heart is a pleasure and 
 flattery beyond every other. How amply you repay me for every 
 mark of Preference and Love that I can give you ! My fame, my 
 Pride, my Glory is centred in you, and I every day approve myself 
 for the admiration, Adoration I had rather say, which my mind 
 pays to y' virtue and perfections. . . . Her whom you have made 
 yours [she signs herself], a word I love to repeat because I know you 
 love to read it. 
 
THE LOVERS' LETTERS 243 
 
 ' How often do I read,' says Pitt, ' and kiss the word, you 
 say you love to repeat because I love to read it ? In spite of 
 cruel distance, with fondness looking on your Charms with my 
 mind, and folding them with transport in my Heart, how can I 
 talk to any thing but you ? ' 
 
 A letter of his, which was to have been ' the healing blessing 
 of that day,' has been delayed ; fond fears she has had in the 
 past revive, and she tells him of them. 
 
 ' Has then,' he asks, ' that Preference and love, which 
 you so nobly bestow and so tenderly confess already cost you 
 so many uneasy hours ? . . . What Guardian angel of mine can 
 have so bhnded you, and pour'd into your noble Heart a 
 tender delusion so infinitely flattering to my glory and partial 
 to my Happiness as to draw from you so sweet an excess of 
 everything that can exalt and bless me above the lot of mortals ? 
 . . . You speak,' he adds, ' of my letters as a " healing 
 blessing " ; the end of yours to me is " a healing blessing " 
 Hke the evening sun in Milton after clouds with farewell sweet, 
 as he calls it, to cheer drooping nature.' 
 
 Her fears have fled even before his letters came : 
 
 You flatter me tliat I write expressively what I feel. If you could 
 but know tow poorly to myself my words seem to describe my 
 sentiments. . . Ougtt not you to be angry if I could quit this 
 Topick without telling you what your own letters deserve. Yes and 
 yet I have but one short thing to say — you speak. That is the 
 only way of praising what I would praise to the highest. . . . 
 How many thanks do I pay you for having perswaded me that you 
 receive y' happiness from me. Adieu. 
 
 Pitt rides out with her brother to a farm near Bath where 
 he had once seen her happy : ' The cascade, the river, the wood, 
 all was delightful, for I saw you in them all the morning.' He 
 fears that she cannot always believe him all that she now does : 
 ' the tender delusion cannot last nor that discernment, blind to 
 nothing else, shut its eyes in my favour — thus my fears.' 
 
 Never apply the term delusion [she answers] to the dear, 
 and just idea I have formed of your Excellence and tell yourself 
 that while Life continues I will never part with them. ... I 
 
 b2 
 
244 GLOOM AND SUNSHINE 
 
 have either so much or so little of the woman in me that it is an 
 opinion I am determined never to recede from. 
 
 They write to one another on the time and place of the 
 marriage. ' The less Preparation,' urges Pitt, ' the less 
 Spectacle, the less of everything but your lovely tender self, 
 is surely best.' 
 
 On October 28 she arrived in London at her lodging in 
 Argyle Street, which contained an ' Indian room,' of which they 
 both were fond. A day or so later he returned, and thence- 
 forward her letters to him before marriage cease. But though 
 they see one another daUy, Pitt's notes to her still continue. 
 They are dashed off on odd slips of paper or on a card to welcome 
 her on waking, or to tell her when he is coming to see her — 
 dashed off in the midst of official business, after tiresome inter- 
 views with Newcastle, or in the intervals of the labour of pre- 
 paring his Bill for the Chelsea Pensioners and introducing it into 
 the House of Commons. He is if possible happier and more 
 assured of her love than ever. He is never tired of telling 
 her what he feels, interspersing, quaintly enough, with his 
 heart's outpourings intimate details of his ailments and 
 remedies : this no doubt in obedience to her commands. ' I 
 am still not quite well,' runs one billet ; ' the worst of my little 
 disorder is that I cannot banquet, for such your delicious 
 chicken is, in Argyle Street. Doctor Wilmot thinks the attack 
 bilious . . . has ordered me an emetick.' ' I hope,' he says 
 in another, ' to find voice enough to tell my adored Life, by and 
 by, that every day and hour adds to my tenderness and most 
 happy sentiments. I am as well as rhubarb will let me be, and 
 hope to be better to-morrow for it.' 
 
 Sometimes his swift mind suggests Elizabethan conceits 
 to convey the unceasing wonder he feels at his good fortune : 
 
 How shall I pass so long a morning without seeing the adored, tender 
 object my eyes saw escape from them into her loved Indian room 
 last night. It was, at that moment, hardly loved by me. I long 
 for a sweet reconcilement with it, with an impatience you alone 
 can mate and I feel. I am better this morning. What shall I 
 be when I see my lovely loved Lady Hester ? Hear the sweet 
 
THE LOVERS MEET IN LONDON 245 
 
 language that her tender teart graces her lips witli, and snatch the 
 stiU sweeter and inexpressible bliss that for ever inhabits there ? 
 I hope to have measured that immense space from Whitehall to 
 Argyle Buildings by two o'clock. 
 
 ' This will find you in your Eoxana's tent. Had you been 
 there, the master of the world had never left it,' he scrawls 
 another day ; and on the day before the wedding : 
 
 I fear this note, late as it is for my anxious Impatience, may be too 
 early in my loved Lady Hester's apartment. What joy will it be 
 to hear she has slept well, and that she has waked free from every 
 complaint : if so, may I tell myself that she does not disapprove 
 my complaint that Friday is so long in moving out of the way of the 
 sweet Day that follows it ? 
 
 Happily there had been no obstacles to the marriage. The 
 engagement had taken place under the approving eyes of George 
 Grenville and his wife, Lady Hester's dear friend. Henry was 
 delighted at ' an alliance which reflects so much honour to us 
 all.' Jemmy, Lady Hester tells Pitt, ' came to Wotton to 
 thank me, as he said, for giving him as a Brother the man that 
 in the whole world he would have chose for his Honour and 
 his pleasure, to call by that name.' To Temple, as the head 
 of the family, Pitt went at once to seek an approval, which was 
 ungrudgingly given, though the short delay before it came was 
 an agony to Pitt. The warmth of Temple's reply is evident 
 from the answer it evoked : 
 
 My dearest Lord [Pitt writes], I cannot sufEer a day to pass with- 
 out expressing a few of the thousand things I feel from your kindest, 
 most amiable of letters to Lady Hester Grenville. You sent m 
 from Stowe, the most blessed of men and every hour I live only 
 brings me new and touching instances of the unceasing goodness 
 and most afiectionate and endearing partiahty towards me, of the 
 kind, noble and generous fraternity to which it is my glory and 
 happiness to be raised. Don't imagine my dearest Lord, that 
 these are the exaggerations of a heart thinking and talking of the 
 brother of her that for ever fills it. . . . Your letter is the kindest 
 that ever glowed from the best pen speaking the best heart. . . . 
 How generous and how delicate it is in you to state me in the too 
 flattering lights of your own partiality to the eyes of Lady Hester, 
 
246 GLOOM AND SUNSHINE 
 
 and to help to furnisli her with a kind of justification of, I fear, 
 infinitely too great a sacrifice of her estabUshment. 
 
 This letter, with its overwhelming sense of gratitude, is 
 characteristic of Pitt. With all his aloofness from people of 
 whom he thought meanly, with all his noble self-confidence, 
 he was throughout life intensely susceptible to acts of personal 
 kindness. His pride was no doubt the reason they were rarely 
 offered to him, but like many reserved men he himgered for 
 them, and was all the more grateful when they came in his way. 
 In later years, when George II and George III showed him 
 honour, his expressions of gratitude were of almost oriental 
 submissiveness. The seeming exaggeration reflected his pro- 
 found sense of a distinction to which he was unaccustomed. 
 
 Pitt's friends were equally delighted. With Lyttelton 
 he was on cool terms since the negotiations in March, and he 
 did not even write to tell him of his engagement. But Lyttelton 
 heard of it through Billy and showed a generous spirit in his 
 whole-hearted congratulations to his friend : ' Nothing in 
 my life ever gave me more Pleasure than your letter to my 
 Brother. I know Lady Hester so well that I am sure the 
 possession of her Hand and Heart will give you so much Happi- 
 ness as my Affection can wish you ; and no Friend you have 
 can wish you more, not even her brothers.' Nor could anything 
 be more charming than his phrase to Lady Hester : ' As your 
 friend I congratulate you, and as his I love you for the choice 
 that you have made.' 
 
 Legge rejoiced at ' the acquisition to the corps of us married 
 men. ... I think the breed will be a good one, and can't 
 fail to speak as soon as they are born.' Pitt wrote to Ann 
 directly Temple gave him leave to tell anybody outside the 
 Grenville world, and Lady Hester also sent a shy note.^ Ann 
 responded to them both with warm congratulations. Mrs. 
 Montagu allowed her satisfaction to appear veiled in mytho- 
 logical allusions to the days ' that Cupid set Hercules to the 
 
 ^ Though this letter is formal and stiff, it should be remembered that Lady 
 Hester was a younger woman than Ann and did not know her. Moreover, the 
 note to Pitt in which she forwarded it shows how anxious she was to make 
 friends with his favourite sister. 
 
PITT'S MARRIAGE, 1754 247 
 
 distaff ' ; and the witty Lady To-wnghend made a joke about the 
 espousals of Solomon and Hester, which left even Horace 
 Walpole's fashionable world in good humour at the engagement. 
 
 The settlement, a very formal affair in those days, did 
 not delay the marriage long. As soon as Pitt had obtained 
 Lord Temple's consent, he wrote off to his sohcitor Nuthall 
 to prepare the deeds, which were hastened in deference to 
 his impatient instructions. He had little to settle on his 
 side except reversionary interests, which never accrued to 
 him. His interests as heir-presumptive to estates of the 
 Duchess of Marlborough and to Spencer's Sunderland property 
 he settled absolutely on Lady Hester ; the Marlborough 
 estates were to be unsettled to enable him to pay any debts 
 on the Sunderland property, buy the borough of Old Sarum 
 and build town and country houses. 
 
 On Saturday November 16, 1754, two days after the opening 
 of the session, WiUiam Pitt and Lady Hester Granville were 
 married in her lodgings in Argyle Street. Dr. Ayscough, brother- 
 in-law of George Lyttelton, and an old friend of both families, 
 married them under special licence. A few friends only were 
 present at the ceremony, and on the same day Pitt and his 
 wife went to West's house at Wickham, lent them for their 
 brief honeymoon. Although the provisions laid in by Pitt's 
 cook, Mr. Campion, ' to testify in his own way his respects 
 to his new Lady,' together with those left in the hospitable 
 Mrs. West's larder, would have fed a multitude, ' they came 
 down alone,' says West, ' and have continued alone ever 
 since.' But they were undisturbed together for barely ten 
 days. On the 25th Pitt was back in London making one of 
 his greatest speeches, and, until Parliament adjourned in 
 the middle of December, was kept busy at the House. She 
 came with him to the Pay Office, where we hear much of her 
 ' blew dressing-room ' overlooking the Park. But even for 
 the Christmas holidays they could not be left at peace together. 
 He was forced to go for a hurried visit to Bath, partly on busi- 
 ness, partly for more necessary repairs to his system. But 
 their love was now secure. ' A thousand new circumstances,' 
 he writes to his ' matchless Hetty,' ' endear my Love to me 
 
248 GLOOM AND SUNSHINE 
 
 every day I live with Her. . . . Trials of a noble mind . . . 
 have proved her all that the fondest Passion has been able 
 to figure.' She is no less sure of her ' adored and passionately 
 beloved Dr. Husband.' Her love is ' inseparable from My 
 dear, dear Husband,' in whose letters she always finds an 
 ' angel-Hke eloquence.' ^ 
 
 Thus sunnily began Pitt's perfect happiness in marriage, 
 a happiness which lasted unclouded till his dying day. It 
 was a fitting opening to a period of unparalleled glory both 
 for himself and for ' our England ' that dwelt in all the thoughts 
 of the loving pair. 
 
 ^ The correspondence between Pitt and Lady Hester in this chapter is 
 taken from Chatham MSB. 5 and 7. 
 
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CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE GREAT COMMONER 
 
 TjpLiv aTzp&ffiTOS 7} Zitvajxis ahrif tov \6yov ' 4y^ Be rat/TTjv fiey Bevrepav eTarrov 
 iv x<^Pf Tiflels opydvov. — LtrciAN, Demosthenis Encomium^ 
 
 I am not fond of making speeches. ... I never cultivated the talent but 
 as an instrument of action in a country like ours.- — Wtt.t.tam Pitt. 
 
 Newcastle had just formed his Ministry when the news 
 of a sHght skirmish in a far-off American forest heralded the 
 great war which was to be immortally linked with Pitt's 
 name. At the end of May 1754, the twenty-two year old 
 Colonel Washington, at the head of some 150 Virginians, 
 overpowered a small French detachment under M. de JumonvUle 
 sent to oppose him from Fort Duquesne near the Ohio. A few 
 weeks later Washington, who had retired to his hastily 
 constructed Fort Necessity, surrendered to a superior force 
 that had come to avenge Jumonville's defeat. In August 
 the news reached London, where it evoked loud indignation 
 from the people, and gave Newcastle an occasion to summon 
 aU that fortitude which Pitt had told him he would need. 
 Two small skirmishes in the backwoods of America, far removed 
 from any large French or English settlements, seem a trifling 
 cause for the great struggle which ensued. But the American 
 colonists and the two mother- countries were deeply concerned 
 in the principle underlying these affairs of outposts. In 
 South Africa we have seen in our own time the importance 
 attached to territories beyond their borders by sparse settlers 
 
 ' ' No words of mine can describe the power of his eloquence. Yet to that I 
 give but a secondary place, as a tool the man used.' 
 
 250 
 
FIRST SKIRMISH OF SEVEN YEARS' WAR, 1754 251 
 
 in a country more than sufficient for their immediate needs, 
 and we have witnessed the mother-country's anxiety to support 
 her colonists in their ambition to provide for future generations. 
 So it was with the America of the eighteenth century. Neither 
 the French Canadians nor the Enghsh of the thirteen colonies 
 could claim that the watershed of the Ohio, the main subject 
 of contention, was indispensable for immediate expansion. 
 The French aim was to connect Canada with the struggling 
 colony of Louisiana at the mouth of the Mississippi ; the English 
 to withstand the attempt to exclude them from the interior 
 and confine them to a seaboard bounded by the AUeghenies ; 
 both nations also claimed the right of trading with the Indians 
 west of the Ohio. 
 
 In the pursuit of their common object of free access to the 
 interior the French had hitherto been the more successful. 
 Though the Canadians were estimated to number only 50,000, 
 compared to the 2,000,000 English colonists,i they had the 
 immense advantage of being united under one governor-general 
 who could dispose of all the resources of the country for one 
 consistent policy. Since the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle the 
 Court of Versailles had sent out three vigorous governors. 
 La Galissoniere, La Jonquiere, and Duquesne, with secret 
 instructions to enforce the rights to the interior first claimed 
 by a charter of Louis XIV in 1712. Forts had been built 
 at Presqu'lle and the Eiviere des Boeufs, south of Lake Erie ; 
 an English detachment was evicted from a post on the Alle- 
 gheny river, and a fort, named after Governor Duquesne, 
 erected in its place. It was also designed to interrupt 
 the English communications with their Iroquois and other 
 alhes of the Six Nations by dislodging them from their 
 stronghold at Oswego, south of Lake Ontario. The French 
 governors did not even confine their attention to this debatable 
 land south of Canada, but secretly fomented disturbances 
 among the French population of Nova Scotia, and built Port 
 Beausejour on territory in dispute between that colony and 
 their own province of Acadia. To this act of aggression Pitt 
 
 See anonymous memoraudnm of 1755 in Chatham MSS, 95. 
 
252 THE GREAT COMMONER 
 
 had vainly drawn Newcastle's attention so far back as 1750.^ 
 The EngUsh settlers on the other hand were not all of 
 one mind like the French. Each colony was under a sepa- 
 rate governor and was intensely jealous of its neighbours and 
 of the Imperial Government. Concerted action was almost 
 impossible. To remedy this, a scheme for a general congress 
 was proposed in 1754, but came to naught. The chief 
 opposition to the French designs on the interior had hitherto 
 come from a private company of the Ohio, formed with capital 
 contributed partly by Virginian and Maryland colonists, partly 
 by London merchants. This company claimed by treaties 
 made with Indians in 1744 and 1752 to have bought for £400 
 all the districts watered by the Ohio and its af3uents, and 
 through its London shareholders could exert influence on the 
 Government. But in spite of dissensions there was good 
 material among the colonists. The New Englanders had 
 already shown, by their capture of Louisburg in the last war, 
 that they could give a good account of themselves ; the 
 Virginians had made an effort to repel the French aggression 
 at Fort Duquesne ; and the central and northern colonies 
 were animated by racial and religious hatred of the French 
 Canadians, further embittered by the atrocities and depredations 
 of their Indian allies. All the English colonists needed for vic- 
 tory was a man to direct them and call out their best quahties. 
 Newcastle was not this man. Although he had for many 
 years been in charge of American affairs, he understood little 
 about them and cared less. They said of him that, being ad- 
 f vised to fortify Annapolis, he replied, ' Annapolis, Annapolis — 
 certainly we must fortify Annapolis. Where is Annapolis ? ' 
 When news came of the attack on Washington he was much 
 more troubled with the prospect of war on the Continent and 
 could not see the use of wasting money and men on America. 
 Halifax at the Board of Trade, acting on colonial advice, 
 urged that four expeditions should be directed against the 
 French — one to attack Fort Duquesne, a second Fort Beaus^jour, 
 and two more against Fort Niagara on Lake Erie and Crown 
 Point, at the foot of Lake Champlain, to protect the Iroquois 
 
 ^ See above, pp. 182-3. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH IN AMERICA 253 
 
 and the province of New York. Newcastle eagerly seized 
 upon a division of opinion in the Cabinet as an excuse for 
 delaying action altogether. Granville thought the colonists 
 should be encouraged to raise men in America, while the 
 Duke of Cumberland was for sending out two regiments on 
 the Irish establishment — a course decided upon by the Cabinet 
 and then countermanded by Newcastle. After weeks spent 
 in fruitless discussions Newcastle took the occasion of a visit 
 paid him by Pitt on October 2 to consult him on the two plans. 
 Pitt at first haughtily refused his advice : ' Your Grace, I 
 suppose, knows I have no capacity for those things and there- 
 fore I do not desire to be informed about them ' ; but on being 
 pressed could not resist the temptation of expounding views, 
 which were not at all to the duke's taste. For he advocated 
 both plans. He had already expressed in private his conviction 
 that it would never do to send mere handfuls of men to America 
 ' to be served up to Indians like steaks at a chop-house.' ^ 
 He now told the duke that the scheme of sending the Irish 
 regiments was good as far as it went, but did not go near far 
 enough ; the proposals for artillery, for example, were infinitely 
 too short. He would also adopt Granville's idea of raising some 
 thousand men in America. But above all he urged prompt 
 action and the need for countenancing and encouraging the 
 Americans.2 Pitt's advice had this good effect — that Newcastle 
 at once withdrew his order countermanding the two regiments- 
 Shortly afterwards the matter was taken out of his hands 
 by the Secretary at War, Fox, who appears to have acted 
 in concert with Pitt as well as the Duke of Cumberland. With- 
 out consulting Newcastle, he persuaded the King to sign 
 the warrants appointing officers for troops to be raised in 
 America, ordered them off to their posts, and called upon 
 the Admiralty for transports. By the end of October the 
 Cabinet had agreed to sending troops from Ireland as well 
 as raising men in America, as Pitt had suggested.* The Duke 
 
 1 Chatham MSS. 40 : Thos. Hervey to Pitt. 
 
 • See Codington, 317, and Add MSS. 35414, f. 197, and Rosebery, p. 350, 
 who reconciles the two aocounta. 
 ' See Add. MSS. 32737, f . 307. 
 
254 THE GREAT COMMONER 
 
 of Newcastle consoled himself with the reflection that 
 the whole responsibility might be laid on the Duke of Cum- 
 berland. i 
 
 During the session of 1754-5 Pitt made no direct attack 
 on the Government policy ; on the contrary he supported their 
 main proposals. But he entered into a deliberate plan of 
 campaign to render ridiculous and impossible Newcastle's 
 attempt to govern the House of Commons through a pompous 
 nonentity like Eobinson, or a supple advocate like Murray, 
 neither of whom could speak with authority on the Ministry's 
 plans. No doubt personal ambition and natural indignation 
 at his own exclusion were among his motives, but he was also 
 influenced by the greater principle of the dignity and efficiency 
 of parliamentary government. He saw in this attempt to 
 beUttle the House of Commons a direct result of Bolingbroke's 
 testament 'politique, as he called it, which aimed at substituting 
 personal government for the constitutional part of the 
 legislature in the direction of affairs. Newcastle, as he was 
 probably well aware, was too muddle-headed to have thought 
 out so vigorous a policy for himself; but all the sinister 
 suggestions of Jacobitism in Murray, Newcastle's only capable 
 instrument in the Commons, recurred to him as partially 
 explaining the situation. In the first few weeks of the session 
 he found a powerful coadjutor in Pox, with whom he had 
 struck up an informal alliance. The combination of the two 
 proved irresistible ; for what Pitt lacked in cool insolence was 
 supplied by Pox, and Pox's want of high purpose, reflected 
 in his less inspiring oratory, was made good by Pitt's intense 
 conviction and burning eloquence. In those days httle surprise 
 was felt at two subordinate ministers attacking their colleagues, 
 for the idea of joint responsibility in ministers was still hardly 
 recognised, and each minister, in fact as well as in name, 
 answered only for his own department.^ Newcastle certainly 
 had only himself to blame for these attacks, which he affronted 
 
 ^ Coxe's Lord Walpole, ii, 368. 
 
 ' This the King made brutally plain to the Duke of Newcastle, when he 
 sought to interfere in appointments to the Bedchamber, by telling him he was 
 not sole minister and should confine himseU to the Treasury, which he would 
 have enough to do in setting right. (Add. MSS. 35414, f. 269.) 
 
PITT ATTACKS NEWCASTLE'S SYSTEM 255 
 
 with his eyes open, for in October he wrote to old Horace 
 Walpole : 
 
 Some great persons in the House of Commons don't think their 
 merit rewarded and therefore endeavour to have it thought that 
 there is a necessity of having a minister, or the minister, in the house 
 of Commons. ... I am persuaded that the majority of this house 
 of Commons will not enter into any scheme of this kind. ... I 
 have now told you the whole grievance. 
 
 On November 14, 1754, the opening day of the session, 
 Pitt introduced his Chelsea Pensioners Bill,^ then went away 
 for his brief honeymoon at West Wickham. Before Christmas 
 the House was chiefly occupied with election petitions, but 
 members as a rule took little interest in proceedings which, 
 thanks to Newcastle's well-disciplined majority, were a foregone 
 conclusion in favour of his candidates. On the afternoon of 
 November 25, the case of the Berwick election was down for 
 hearing. The unsuccessful candidate was John Wilkes, an 
 amusing scoundrel, whose sallies could raise a smile even 
 from Mr. Pitt, as they did later from Dr. Johnson. He was 
 petitioning against the return of Newcastle's candidate, John 
 Delaval. The usual hstless and half-empty House was prepar- 
 ing itself for the dreary recital of charge and counter-charge 
 from the two candidates, when it was suddenly enlivened by a 
 speech from Delaval. He dealt with the subject of bribery, of 
 which he was accused,^ in a vein of so much wit and buffoonery 
 that the House was kept in a continual roar of laughter. Pitt 
 meanwhile had come into the gallery and sat listening with 
 growing indignation to this misplaced drollery. Striding 
 into his place, he rose immediately Delaval sat down, and by 
 his first words brought members to such silence that you might November 
 have heard a pin drop. Finding the House in an uproar, he 25, 1754. 
 
 ^ See above, p. 157. 
 
 ' In the matter of bribery there was probably little to choose between the 
 two candidates. Wilkes, however, showed ingenuity in his methods. Delaval 
 had chartered a ship to bring some of his voters from London to Berwick. I 
 Wilkes, by a larger fee, persuaded the skipper to call at Bergen on the way, \ 
 a deviation which brought him to Berwick too late for the poU. Wilkes ; 
 had no idea which way Pitt would speak, and gave an audible gasp of relief 
 when he found Pitt attacking Delaval. 
 
256 THE GREAT COMMONER 
 
 had inquired the cause, and was astonished to hear that bribery 
 was the subject of their mirth. Was then their dignity on so 
 sure a foundation that they might venture themselves to shake 
 it ? Had it not, on the contrary, been attacked from without 
 for years so that it was now almost beyond recovery ? The 
 Speaker, he hoped, would extend a saving hand to raise it, for 
 he only could restore it — yet scarce he, unless he were supported 
 by all good Whigs in defending their attacked and expiring 
 liberty. 
 
 All of us [he cried] must assist, unless you wiU degenerate into a 
 little assembly, serving no other purpose than to register the decrees 
 of one too powerful a subject . . . otherwise naught can stop the 
 design of making us an appendix to — I know not what— I have no 
 name for it. 
 
 This direct attack upon the all-powerful minister came, 
 says Walpole, as a thunderbolt upon the House, for ten years 
 unused to Pitt's style of fiery invective. The scared members 
 gathered together in knots and murmured to one another in 
 confusion ; on the Government benches Eobinson looked grave 
 and said nothing ; Murray crouched pale, miserable and silent. 
 The Speaker shook Pitt's hand, ready to shake it off ; none but 
 Legge dared to continue the debate, and he only to emphasise 
 his sympathy with Pitt.i 
 
 Fox came in too late to second Pitt in this first skirmish, 
 but that very day came another opportunity. The same 
 evening Sir Thomas Robinson ill-advisedly hazarded the 
 opinion that the Reading petition would not last long, since 
 Lord Fane, the sitting member, in whom Pitt was interested, 
 had a poor case. Pitt began the attack. He was surprised and 
 scandahsed to hear from one of the chief ministers of the Crown 
 so indecent an expression of opinion on an untried cause. Lead- 
 ing ministers might hold that view, but it was for the House to 
 consider what chance was now left for liberty of election, that 
 foundation of the nation's liberty, wherein consists the strength 
 
 ^ The scene is described by Walpole and by Fox (who came in just as Pitt 
 had finished) in a letter to Harrington ; also by Calcraft (Chatham MSS. 86). 
 Pitt's speech should be compared with Potter's against Newcastle and Pitt 
 himself on November 20, 1747 (see above, p. 162). 
 
ROBINSON SILENCED, 1754 257 
 
 and security of the State and the happiness of the subject. 
 Never had he thought to see so melancholy a day for the House 
 of Commons. Eobinson did not mend matters by a pompous 
 and rambling reply, in which he talked of his great office, for 
 which he had never been ambitious. Pitt explained that he 
 had not aimed at Sir Thomas but at a higher than he ; Sir 
 Thomas, he added, was as able as any man who had lately 
 filled the office or was likely to fill it.^ Fox then took up the 
 baiting : Eobinson, the House should remember, had been 
 twenty years abroad ; they should not, therefore, be too hard 
 upon him for his irregular and blameable expression, or for 
 the total inexperience he showed in the matters before the 
 House. Fox drily remarked in the account he gave of this 
 performance to Lord Hartington that Eobinson did not like it. 
 Two days later Pitt turned his attention to the Attorney- 
 General. The debate on November 27 was on a motion of 
 Beckford's to reduce the army from 18,800 to 15,000 men. 
 Nugent, a rough, bullying Irishman of no character, in opposing 
 him uttered a fulsome panegyric on the Duke of Newcastle 
 personally and attacked Beckford for calling the ministers 
 Tories. The Jacobites were extinct, he said, and even those 
 who thought they had nursed up Jacobites were as disappointed 
 in the results as the hen, that had hatched duck's eggs, was at 
 seeing her nurslings take to the water. Pitt gently reproved November 
 Beckford for wishing to reduce the army at such a con- ^''' ^'^^' 
 juncture ; then, turning to Nugent, complimented him on his 
 image of the hen : 
 
 For, Sir, I know of such, a hen, I was bred under such an one, and 
 win tell the House what she has been doing for these twenty years ; — 
 raising a succession of treason — there never was such a seminary ; 
 and we must not be too sure that all she hatched would ever entirely 
 forget what she had taught them. 
 
 Only lately he had been on a party of pleasure to Oxford : 
 while they were at the window of the Angel Inn a lady 
 began singing ' God save great George our King,' but could 
 
 ' The best account of these speeches is in Aff. Etr. Angl. Corr. Pol. 437 ; 
 see also Walpole, Memoirs, and Waldegrave. 
 
 VOL. I. S 
 
258 THE GREAT COMMONER 
 
 not continue for some lads drinking at a college over the 
 way, who interspersed treasonable sentiments into the 
 chorus. Later, in the High, he had been offered a picture 
 of the Pretender with a Latia motto praying for his return. 
 Jacobitism was not dead yet : he wished it were. It was 
 even suspected in high places — (this with a look at Murray, 
 whose brother had been the Pretender's minister). Oxford 
 was paved with Jacobites, and there was no trusting any 
 man who has been bred there in Tory principles — (with 
 another look at Murray) — because Quo semel est imhuta 
 recens servabit odorem testa diu.^ In both speeches, agree Pox 
 and Horace Walpole, every word was Murray, yet so managed 
 that no public notice could be taken of it ; and Fox declares 
 that Murray, who was sitting next to him, suffered for an 
 hour. 
 
 During the rest of the session, which lasted till April 1755, 
 
 December ^^^^ *°°^ little part in debate. He supported the Government 
 
 11, 1764. bill to extend the Mutiuy Act to troops raised in America, 
 
 January ^^^ quoted Eoman precedents in support of a Bristol Nightly 
 
 15, 1755. Watch Bill, which also suggested to him a panegyiic on the 
 
 February '^isdom of our wcll-balanced constitution. He was once more 
 
 26, 1755. in an attackiag vein, when a bill to contiaue the Scottish 
 
 judges, called Sheriffs-Depute, in their offices only durante 
 
 bene placito gave him a chance of torturing Murray for his 
 
 distinctions and refinements and legal quibbles : arbitrary 
 
 power, he said, was more detestable when dressed ia the long 
 
 robe than in all the panoply of war, and general maxims of 
 
 liberty were apt to be obscured by too minute analysis : if we 
 
 must go for precedents, let them not be sought ia the diabolic 
 
 divans of Charles and James. Ministers sneered at Pitt's 
 
 zeal for hberty, but gave way to his arguments and extended 
 
 ' This conclusion is taken from The Test, No. 6 ; the rest of these speeches 
 (for there were two) is summarised from Horace Walpole and Fox's acoouuta. 
 Pitt was certainly right in accusing Oxford of being a hot-bed of Jacobitism. 
 Only in that year the notorious Dr. King, in his speech at the opening of the 
 Radclifie Library, introduced the Jacobite catchword ' Redeat ' three times into 
 his speech, pausing each time for a considerable space to await the unbounded 
 applause that followed. Recently, too, he had publicly described the Duke of 
 Cumberland as a man qui timet omnia jiraeter Deum. (Shelburne, i, 27.) 
 
 w 
 
MURRAY SILENCED 259 
 
 to these judges the Kevolution principle of of&ce during good 
 behaviour. 
 
 Within a fortnight of the opening of the session Pitt had 
 silenced Eobinson and Murray, but Newcastle had been able I 
 to hold on, because in December he had won over Pox. He '; 
 had soon been forced to admit the soundness of the King's 
 advice to him ia September, that a responsible leader was 
 necessary in the Commons.i The choice had laia between 
 two men, Pitt and Fox. For several reasons Newcastle would 
 have preferred Pitt. He was the better man — even Newcastle 
 saw that — and could bring with him the support of Leicester 
 House, whereas Fox was connected with the hated Cumberland. 
 On the other hand Fox could probably be had at a smaller 
 price, and would be agreeable to the King. At first, however, 
 Newcastle tried to obtain Pitt's co-operation for nothing, on 
 hearing from Legge that Pitt would not insist on being Secretary 
 of State against the King's wishes, if he were treated with 
 confidence and consulted.^ He sent for Pitt and persuaded 
 him, under the seal of secrecy, to open himself freely to him, 
 and at once reported the whole conversation to the King, 
 ' To do you good, to do you good,' he afterwards explained. 
 Pitt was so angry at the breach of confidence that, when 
 Newcastle next approached him with soft proposals, he cut 
 him short : ' Fewer words, my Lord, if you please, for your 
 words have long lost all weight with me.' 
 
 Newcastle then turned to Fox and after some days' 
 negotiation struck a bargain for his support in return for 
 his admission into the Cabiuet.s pox consulted Pitt 
 throughout this negotiation, even to the turn of his own 
 letters, and Pitt encouraged him to accept the offer made 
 him, consistently with his previous declarations that 
 he would be content to serve under a man of Fox's 
 
 ' AM. Mas. 35414, f. 193. 
 
 2 Ibid. i. 223. 
 
 ^ This suggestion of taking Fox and leaving Pitt reminded Lord Bath of 
 a story of the Gunpowder Plot. ' The Lord Chamberlain was sent to examine 
 the vaults under the Parliament House, and, returning with his report, said he 
 had found five-and-twenty barrels of gunpowder, that he had removed ten 
 of them and hoped the other fifteen would do no harm.' 
 
 S2 
 
26o THE GREAT COMMONER 
 
 authority. Fox on his side was less frank. He refused, in- 
 deed, Newcastle's treacherous offer to give him Pitt's place,i 
 but in his letters to Hartington in November describes himself 
 as on his guard in all his conversations with Pitt ; and, according 
 to Walpole, had no sooner been admitted to the Cabinet than he 
 privately forswore all connection with his ally. Pitt only heard 
 of this in the spring of the following year, 1755, when he came to 
 a party at Lord Hillsborough's boiling with indignation at the 
 news. He declared loudly that all connection between himself 
 and Fox was at an end ; Fox was one of the Cabinet and had 
 just been put on the council of regency, while he was left ex- 
 posed. At that moment Pox came up and Pitt repeated to 
 him what he had already said, adding that even if Pox made 
 way for him he would not accept the seals from his hands, 
 for that would be owning an obhgation and superiority which 
 he would never acknowledge, for he would owe nothing to 
 any man but to himself. Fox asked what he meant : was 
 he suspected of trying to rise above him ? ' No,' said Pitt ; 
 ' but we act on different lines, sometimes together, sometimes 
 apart, for I am independent and can act on my own responsi- 
 bility : you wiU sometimes act with me, sometimes you are 
 tied down in imphcit obedience to the Duke of Cumberland, 
 whose soldier I am not, and whose commands might at the 
 end of a campaign counteract all that had been jointly done.' 
 After this plain speaking Pitt and Fox had two more inter- 
 views within the next few days, but though they parted on 
 .jtfirms—o£ politeness, Pitt would never afterwards have any 
 serious dealings with Fox.^ 
 
 Before the beginning of the next session Newcastle's 
 difficulties had grown apace. In January 1755 Braddock had 
 
 ^ Among other authorities for this offer are the reports of the French envoy, 
 who followed these negotiations closely (Aff. Etr. Angl. Con. Pol. 437, ff. 392, 
 406^12). 
 
 V ^ This accounts for Pitt's subsequent comment on his correspondence 
 with Fox at the time of Newcastle's negotiation, that he felt himself betrayed 
 by him (Chatham Corr. i, 124 &c.). Riker (i, 217) gives an ingenious and con- 
 vincing explanation why this correspondence was post-dated. The originals 
 in the Record Office are undated, and really refer to November and 
 December 1754, not to April 1755, as the editors of the Chatham Correspondence j 
 thought. ,^,_^ 
 
BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT, 1755 261 
 
 sailed with his two regiments filled with ' Justice Fielding's 
 recruits.' In Virginia he had set all the colonists against 
 him hy his obstinate stupidity and his barrack-yard ideas 
 of discipline. In his long march to Port Duquesne, over 
 mountains and through unexplored forests, he made a hard 
 task still more arduous by the enormous train of baggage- 
 wagons with which he encumbered himself. On July 9, 
 on the banks of the Monongahela, not far from his goal, he 
 was attacked by a mixed force of French and Indians, 
 and was himself killed, while most of his force was cut 
 up. This defeat was not compensated in the eyes of 
 the Ministry by the capture in June of Fort Beausejour by the 
 despised New England militia. In April Admiral Boscawen 
 had been sent to America to intercept French reinforcements. 
 In an engagement off the mouth of the St. Lawrence in June 
 he captured two French ships, the Alcide and the Lys, the rest 
 escaping in a fog. As Hardwicke said, Boscawen had done 
 either too much or too little : he had not struck a fatal blow, 
 at the same time he had incurred all the odium of attacking in 
 time of peace. For while Braddock and Boscawen were being 
 sent out, and Hawke with the Spithead fleet was receiving 
 instructions to destroy French commerce but not to attack 
 the French fleet — ' vexing our neighbours,' as Granville said, 
 ' for a little muck ' — negotiations on the American disputes were 
 stUl going on between the two courts. When news came in 
 July of Boscawen's attack, the French ambassador broke 
 off diplomatic relations, but war was not declared for another 
 year. Even when hostilities had begun in this half-hearted 
 manner, Newcastle had no conception of what we ought to 
 fight for. It was clear to Pitt that the struggle would be in 
 America and also India, where Dupleix and Bussy had raised 
 French prestige to a pitch never reached before ; but Newcastle 
 still thought of nothing but a continental war. The King, too, 
 who, as usual, had gone to Hanover with Holderness in April, 
 cared only about securing his beloved electorate against a 
 French invasion. Even from this point of view their efforts 
 were futUe. The Empress-Queen was approached with pro- 
 posals for an alliance, but she had long been meditating a change 
 
262 THE GREAT COMMONER 
 
 of system, and offered terms so contrary to English and even 
 Hanoverian interests that the negotiation was dropped. 
 ^Frederic of Prussia was sounded, but that astute monarch was 
 no't yet prepared to give up his French alliance ; and the 
 Ministry attached so little importance to gaining him that 
 they pushed forward a treaty with Eussia for the express 
 purpose of bringing a Eussian army against him if he attacked 
 Hanover. This Eussian treaty and an agreement with Hesse 
 for 6,000 mercenaries were the only results of all the King 
 and Newcastle's efforts during the summer and autumn to 
 contrive a great confederation against France, chiefly for the 
 benefit of Hanover. So unpopular were these treaties that 
 Newcastle's own Chancellor of the Exchequer, Legge, refused 
 to issue the Hessian levy money without the authority of 
 Parliament, while the disaffection in the country was 
 such that Archbishop Herring told Newcastle the nation 
 was in a more critical condition than during the EebeUion 
 of 1745. 
 
 Newcastle remembered Carteret's fate, and trembled to 
 think that the man who had compassed that minister's fall 
 was stiU unreconciled. The last session had restored Pitt to 
 aU his old power and reputation. At Leicester House he was, 
 said Fox, ' quite master . . . acting and being treated as the 
 minister there as much as Sir E. Walpole in Queen Caroline's 
 drawing-room ' ; ^ Cumberland, too, who was opposed to him 
 and did not know him personally, declared that, if all he heard 
 was true, ' Pitt is — what is scarce — a man.' Newcastle saw 
 the advantage such a man's support would bring him, but still 
 hoped to get him — not as an independent counsellor with a 
 voice in the Government's policy, but merely to defend his own 
 schemes. In April he sent old Horace Walpole to sound Pitt as 
 to the terms on which he would support the ministerial measures. 
 Pitt was willing to waive the seals for the present, but he must 
 be treated with confidence and be informed beforehand of the 
 measures that he was asked to support ; and Newcastle must 
 contrive to make the King look on him with favour. On 
 hearing how much power Pitt demanded, Newcastle promptly 
 ' Torrens, ii, 238. 
 
NEWCASTLE TURNS TO PITT, 1755 263 
 
 disowned Walpole and dropped the negotiation.! Two months 
 later the difficulty of carrying the Hessian subsidy treaty 
 through the House made him anxious to renew it. He sent 
 the Chancellor's son, Charles Yorke, with professions of friend- 
 ship and affection to feel the ground once more, but Pitt 
 was less ready to listen this time : he roundly declared that 
 he would not deal with emissaries who could be disavowed, 
 and that the only proposition he would Hsten to would be a 
 plain offer : ' Sir, here is the plan of the King's affairs, this is 
 the station [meaning the Secretary of State] in which you 
 will be enabled to support them, these are your friends, who 
 will join and act with you.' 
 
 Newcastle then asked Hardwicke to see what he could 
 do. On Hardwicke's reply that the ' confidence and regard ' 
 Pitt asked for meant more than Newcastle was prepared 
 to give, but that if Pitt, hke Fox, could be satisfied with a 
 seat in the Cabinet ' it would be a cheap bargain provided 
 our Master can be brought to it,' ^ Newcastle wrote to Hanover 
 that he was becoming the ' Butt ' of everybody, and 
 that the only hope of ' a proper system ... to obviate all 
 difficulties ' in the House of Commons was ' the engaging Mr. 
 Pitt upon reasonable terms to support His Majesty's measures 
 with clearness, firmness and cordiality.' ' Notwithstanding 
 the just reasons His Majesty has to be offended with Mr. Pitt,' 
 was the gruff reply, ' the King wUl graciously accept his services 
 and countenance him accordingly ' by admitting him to the 
 Cabinet, if he will promise to behave himself. Newcastle 
 answered that a Cabinet seat would not be worth much if the 
 King was always rude to Pitt, and asked for a definition of 
 ' countenance ' ; but, since it was not forthcoming, Hardwicke 
 undertook to ' feel the pulse of the great Pitt.' * 
 
 ^, Biker (i, 208) suggests that Pitt, not Walpole on behalf of Newcastle, 
 made the first overture in this negotiation, basing himseU on a phrase of the 
 younger Walpole's Memoirs, ii, 37. But that old Walpole began the negotiation 
 is clear from his letter to Newcastle of April 8, 1755 [Add. MSS. 32884, f. 72), 
 from Dodington's account and Charles Yorke's (in Harris, Hardwicke, iii, 30), 
 and from Newcastle's letter to Hardwicke in 35415, f. 1. The younger 
 Walpole's account is not really inconsistent with Dodington, as it only gives 
 the conclusion of the interview. 
 
 ' Add. MSS. 32856, f. 484. ' Ibid. 32857, ff. 53, 256 ; 35415, f. 6. 
 
t/ 
 
 264 THE GREAT COMMONER 
 
 On August 9 Pitt broke his journey to Sunning Hill with 
 Lady Hester to answer Hardwicke's summons. Har(iwicke, 
 after delicate allusions to Pitt's ' unlucky steps ' in the pre- 
 ceding session, said they had tried with some success to over- 
 come the King's aversion to him and hoped to succeed even 
 better in the future. Meanwhile they could offer him the 
 King's countenance and a place in the Cabinet ; later the 
 Secretary's seals he so much desired might be forthcoming. 
 ' I have never applied for the seals, ' interrupted Pitt ; ' in 
 fact, if they were offered me now, the only use I should make 
 of them, while I lie under the King's present dislike, would 
 be to lay them at his Majesty's feet : I shall never accept 
 the seals tiU the King likes it and his ministers desire it.' He 
 then came to business : if he were asked to take a clear, cordial 
 and active part in support of the King's measures he must 
 vL ;j-know what they were. ' Our poUcy,' said Hardwicke, ' is to 
 , ' : 1; support the maritime and American war and defend the King's 
 i'-/ ., ' Gferman dominions, if attacked on account of the Enghsh 
 , quarrel.' Pitt took no exception to this statement, and said 
 he was willing to pay regard to Hanover, if attacked on our 
 account : but on strategic grounds he said it would be as 
 reasonable to concentrate the efforts of a campaign on defend- 
 ing Jamaica, or some other outlying dominion of the British 
 crown, as Hanover. Newcastle's poUcy of subsidies seemed 
 to him useless, unless a continental war for the defence of 
 Hanover was our main object ; and besides being very un- 
 popular, it was very expensive. Over six millions a year, he 
 said, would be required for the American and maritime 
 war and for home defence; a further million for subsidies 
 could not be raised without trenching on the sinking fund, 
 which he regarded as sacred. If Hanover, at the worst, 
 became a camping-ground for French or Prussian soldiers 
 the King ought to be indemnified at the peace ; but, rather 
 than embark on its defence now, he would give the King five 
 millions as compensation at the end of the war. Hardwicke 
 then told him about the Hessian subsidy and the pro- 
 posed Eussian subsidy. Pitt did not at once reject the 
 idea of them, but said he must consult his friends, and after 
 
PITT SEES HARDWICKE AND NEWCASTLE 265 
 
 agreeing to see Newcastle himself, took his departure for 
 Sunning Hill.i 
 
 Having gone so far, Newcastle felt that he must see Pitt 
 himself, though he confessed he did not feel ' much glee ' at the 
 prospect. He spent a month corresponding with Hardwicke 
 as to what he should say, and whether he should show Pitt a 
 Cabinet minute of July 30 — that ' no treaty of subsidy should 
 be made, or any act done, which should prepare for, or be 
 productive of, a scheme for the support of a war upon the Con- 
 tinent.' This tallied exactly with the clear statement Pitt 
 had given Hardwicke of his own policy, but was not consistent 
 with the Eussian and Hessian treaties or the attempts to hire 
 troops from Brunswick and Saxony. Hardwicke advised him to 
 offer the seals, ' in case the King should think of a change . . . 
 this will cost little, as the King is so determined against it.' 
 Newcastle also consulted Egmont, the Princess of Wales, 
 Cresset, her private secretary, and Granville. This old cam- 
 paigner's advice was to give the seals to Pox, who was equally 
 ready to be for or against them, but, if chosen, would be far 
 more accommodating than Pitt, since he would support any 
 poUcy. Terror inspired by Granville himself finally screwed 
 up Newcastle to the point of making one more bid for Pitt's 
 support of his ministry. ' My Lord President had dined and 
 talked very unguardedly ' at a Cabinet meeting, to the effect 
 that Newcastle alone was responsible for all the treaties and 
 other unpopular acts of the Ministry. ' I was frightened the 
 whole time,' said the poor duke, and ten days later parleyed 
 with ' the engine at the door.' 
 
 Newcastle's conversation with Pitt on September 2 lasted 
 two hours and a half, and his account of it takes almost as 
 long to read. Pitt gave his own version to Dodington more 
 briefly. Newcastle began with the same offer as Hardwicke. 
 Pitt's answer was that such offers were not enough. The 
 duke did not know the state of the House of Commons, 
 which, he might say without vanity, he knew better than 
 anybody ; as long as he had life and breath to utter he 
 
 ^ Hardwioke's account of this interview is in Harris, Hardwicke, iii, 30 ; 
 Pitt's version in Dodington, 366. There ia no essential difference between them. 
 
266 THE GREAT COMMONER 
 
 ■would oppose the duke's system of carrying on business 
 there. It was now an assembly of atoms : the great wheels 
 of the machine were stopped, and such an offer as the 
 duke had made could not be thought sufficient to put them 
 in motion. There must be a responsible minister there, a 
 Secretary of State, and with him a Chancellor of Exchequer, 
 who had habitual, frequent, famihar access to the Crown; 
 in other words, the duke must part with some of his sole power. 
 If the present secretaries, Holderness and Robinson, were so 
 esteemed and thought so fit for their busiaess, what was he 
 called there for ? He would support measures he had himself 
 advised, but would not, like a lawyer, talk from a brief. As 
 to policy, it must be tested by an English, not a German 
 standard. The absence of the King in Germany during all 
 these critical months ' without one man about him that has 
 one English sentiment ' should have been prevented by the 
 people ' even with their bodies.' He might, indeed, have 
 agreed to the Hessian treaty ' out of deep regard for the King's 
 honour,' and on a definite assurance that it should be the 
 last. But when it came to a Russian treaty also, he saw the 
 beginnings of a continental system which nothing would 
 induce him to countenance. If the King's honour was so much 
 involved in these treaties, why should he not, out of the fifteen 
 millions he had saved, give £100,000 to Hesse and £150,000 
 to the Czarina to be off these bad bargains ? Legge, by 
 refusing to issue the levy money, had proved himself ' the 
 child, and deservedly the favourite child, of the Whigs.' As 
 Newcastle mournfully observes, in summing up the inter- 
 view, ' There was such a firm resolution, so solemnly declared, 
 both as to persons and things, that if complied with must 
 produce a total change of the present system both as to 
 measures and men.' i And this was the last thing Newcastle 
 wished. 
 
 Hardwicke told Newcastle he was wasting his time, unless 
 he could bring himself to offer Pitt more power than he gave 
 Robinson or Legge ; for the pretence that the King's resistance 
 
 ' See AH. MSS. 32858, passim ; this interview is recounted in ff. 294 
 sqq. ; also Codington, 363-5, 369-77. 
 
NEWCASTLE MUSTERS FORCES AGAINST PITT 267 
 
 could not be overcome was tacitly admitted between them 
 to be nonsense. But Newcastle was still unwilling to share his 
 power and thought he could do with hired bravos. Though 
 almost more afraid of Fox's intrigues than of Pitt's ambition, 
 he knew Fox would not be cowed by Pitt in the House, and that 
 he had no very sensitive conscience. Eobinson, therefore, was 
 sent back to rumble platitudes from the decent recesses of the ^, 
 Great Wardrobe, whence he had come, and Fox at the end of ' 
 September received the seals of the Southern Department and 
 the lead of the House of Commons. Newcastle also bribed 
 Hume Campbell with the Duchy of Lancaster, raising the salary 
 from £600 to £2,000, as an inducement to leave a lucrative 
 practice at the bar and stand up to Pitt, with whom he had 
 already had encounters.^ Some of Bedford's men were enticed 
 with places, and Dodington, forswearing his recent vows never 
 to desert Pitt, accepted the well-paid Treasurership of the Navy. 
 On the eve of the session Newcastle complacently counted over 
 his gains and flattered himself with the delusion that Pox, 
 Murray, Hume Campbell, and his other gladiators could easily 
 face Pitt and the Grenvilles ; but, as Alderman Baker told him, 
 ' we are not now to be governed by speeches, that is over. 
 All we want is a man to lead us, and depend upon it we will 
 follow.' 2 Leadership Newcastle would not part with ; so 
 Baker and his friends had to wait another year for a man to 
 lead them. 
 
 Pitt's sentence was now for open war. On the first day of 
 the session, Nov-ember 13, 1755, he had few supporters save the 
 Grenvilles, but, sayB Walpole, was too great a general to 
 regard numbers, especially when there was a probability of no 
 great harmony between the commanders ranged against him. 
 He opened his campaign on the Address, which expressed 
 approval of the treaties of subsidy and an assurance of support 
 to Hanover. The battle lasted from two in the afternoon till 
 five the next morning, twenty -nine speakers taking part in the _ 
 fray, of whom thirteen were for the Government, sixteen 
 for the Opposition, and of these sixteen three— Legge, George 
 Grenville and Pitt— were ministers. Four speakers, Murray 
 
 1 See aboTe, pp. 139, 140. ^ Add. MSS. 32860, f. 13. 
 
268 THE GREAT COMMONER 
 
 and W. G. Hamilton ^ for the Government, and Pitt and Gran- 
 ville on the other side, are admitted to have surpassed all the 
 others.^ Hamilton's speech, says Walpole, was perfection : 
 
 Wiat, you will ask, could be beyond this ? Nothing but what was 
 beyond what ever was, and that was Pitt. . . . His eloquence, like 
 a torrent long obstructed, burst forth with commanding impetuosity. 
 He and Legge opened their new opposition in the very spirit of their 
 different characters. The one, humble, artful, afiecting moderation, 
 gUding to revenge ; the other, haughty, defiant and conscious of 
 injury and supreme abiUties. 
 
 November ^^^^> contrary to his usual impetuous habit of speaking 
 13, 1755. early in debates, rose past midnight, after the debate had 
 already lasted nearly twelve hours. Murray had spoken 
 earlier in defence of the treaties, drawing a pathetic picture 
 of the King refusing to ensure peace for the evening of his days 
 by a bad accommodation with Prance at the expense of his 
 successor and the nation. ' Would you then in return,' he 
 had cried, ' refuse protection to Hanover and sow the King's 
 piUows with thorns ? ' Pitt, dismissing contemptuously the 
 ' flashy reasonings ' of other speakers as mere repetitions of 
 the cry ' follow your leader,' fastened on Murray's ' pathetic 
 picture ' : 
 
 This growing and most imparliamentary practice of using the King's 
 sacred name in debate fills me with alarm. Our ancestors would 
 never have stooped to such adulation ; they would have brought to 
 the bar a man who dared to do so twice. But for some time every 
 art has been practised to lower the dignity of the House ; and I 
 have long observed it to be dwindling, sinking. No man can feel 
 more veneration for the name that has been mentioned than myself, 
 and I particularly feel grateful returns for late condescending goodness 
 and gracious openings. But with all duty to his Majesty I must 
 say that the King owes a supreme service to his people.* I too 
 could draw a pathetic commiseration of his Majesty. I have 
 
 ^ By this speech and by his subsequent silence in debate Hamilton earned 
 his niclfname, ' Single-Speech.' 
 
 " Both Horace Walpole and West (to the Duke of Newcastle : Add. MSS. 
 32860, f. 471) agree in picking out these four speeches as the best. 
 
 ' Compare with this passage, ' The best honour of the King's work is to be 
 NoUlis Servitws ... or in plain English, Supreme service above aU, and to 
 the whole,' in Nathaniel Bacon's Discovery — a book which Pitt had recom- 
 mended to his nephew (see above, p. 215). 
 
THE RHONE AND SAONE SPEECH, 1755 269 
 
 figured him far from an tonest Council, figured Mm surrounded 
 all the summer with afirighted Hanoverians and with no advocate 
 for England near him. And to this picture of the King's distress 
 I might oppose an equally pathetic picture of the nation's distress, 
 which within two years I beHeve will be so great that His Majesty, 
 so far from securing repose for the evening of his days, will not be 
 able to sleep at St. James's for the cries of a bankrupt people. . . . 
 
 Why was this present war undertaken if not for the long-injured, 
 long-neglected, long-forgotten people of America ? And can you 
 expect to carry on this war by these incoherent, un-British measures 
 instead of using our proper force ? 
 
 It was our Navy that procured the restoration of the Barrier 
 and Flanders in the last war by making us masters of Cape Breton. 
 After that war, with even that indemnification in our hands, we were 
 forced to rejoice at a bad peace ; and, bad as it was, have suffered 
 infractions of it every year, till the ministers would have been stoned 
 as they went along the streets, if they had not at last shown resent- 
 ment. And yet how soon have they forgotten in what cause they took 
 up arms ! Are these treaties English measures ? Are they preventive 
 measures, as has been said in debate ? Are they not measures of 
 aggression ? Will they not provoke Prussia, and light up a general 
 war ? If a war in Europe ensues from these negotiations, I will 
 always follow up the authors of this measure. They must mean 
 a land-war, and how preposterously do they meditate it. Hanover 
 is the only spot you have left to fight upon. We are told we must 
 assist Hanover out of justice and gratitude. Why ? Justice is 
 ruled out by the Act of Settlement ; and gratitude for what ? 
 Has Hanover done anything in owe quarrel to draw upon 
 her the resentments of France ? Such expressions are un- 
 parliamentary and unconstitutional, and the very paragraph 
 containing them ought to be taken notice of and punished. But 
 my objection to the choice of Hanover as our battle-ground is not 
 from fear of prejudices but from its locality ; for, alas ! we cannot 
 suspend the laws of nature and make Hanover not an open defenceless 
 country. Grotius declares it is not necessary even socium defendere 
 si nulla spes boni exitus. Can you force the Dutch to join you 
 there ? I remember — everybody remembers, a late minister's 
 time when you did force them : aU oiir misfortunes are owing to 
 those daring wicked councils. Subsidies annihilated ten millions 
 in the last war ; and out of those rash measures sprung up a Ministry 1 
 — what if a Ministry should spring out of this subsidy ? I saw that 
 Ministry : in the morning it flourished ; it was green at noon ; by 
 
 1 See above, p. 146. 
 
270 THE GREAT COMMONER 
 
 niglit it was cut down and forgotten ! But the strangest argument 
 for these treaties is that, if our navies are defeated, we can turn 
 our eyes to these mercenaries as a reserve. What ! must we drain 
 our last vital drop and send it to the North Pole ? If you must go 
 and traffic with the Czarina for succour, why, rather than her troops, 
 did not you hire twenty of her ships ? I will say why — because 
 ships could not be applied to Hanover. . . . Preventive measure 
 you call this ! If this is a preventive measure, it is only preventive 
 of somebody's ^ exit. ... I do not know what majorities will do, 
 but this I do know, that these treaties will hang like a millstone 
 about the neck of any minister, and sink him along with the nation. 
 We have been told, indeed, that Carthage, that Spain in 1588 were 
 undone, notwithstanding their navies — true ; but not tiU they betook 
 themselves to land operations— and Carthage had, besides, a Hannibal 
 who could pass the Alps.' ... A gentleman near me [half turning 
 with an air of the greatest contempt towards Lyttelton] — a gentleman 
 near me has talked to us of writers on the Law of Nations — Nature, 
 Sir, is the best writer ; she will teach us to be men and not truckle 
 to power. The noble lord who moved the Address seemed inspired 
 with the idea of power ! I, who am at a distance from that sanctum 
 sanctorum, whither the priest goes for inspiration — I, who travel 
 through a desert, and am overwhelmed with mountains of obscurity, 
 cannot so easUy catch a gleam to direct me to the beauties of these 
 negotiations. But there are parts of this Address that do not seem 
 to come from the same quarter with the rest — I cannot unravel 
 the mystery — but yes ! [he cries ! — clapping his hand suddenly to his 
 forehead] — I too am inspired ! — it strikes me now ! I remember at 
 Lyons to have been carried to see the conflux of the Rhone and the 
 Saone : this a gentle, feeble, languid stream, and, though languid, 
 of no depth — the other a boisterous and overbearing torrent — but 
 they meet at last ; and long may they continue united, to the comfort 
 of each other, and to the glory, honour, and happiness of this nation.' 
 
 After this speech in the early hours of the morning, Pox — 
 
 ^ I.e. Newcastle. 
 
 ^ A thrust at the Duke of Cumberland. 
 
 ' This sketch of one of Pitt's most famous speeches is based on the accounts 
 in Walpole's Memoirs and Letters, Walpole's order being occasionally altered 
 to bring the arguments into greater relief. The rough notes of speeches in the 
 Memoirs prove very accurate, when they can be tested from other sources, 
 even to individual phrases ; but they hardly pretend to be more than scattered 
 jottings, nor do they profess to clothe the skeleton of Pitt's speeches with the 
 flesh of his wonderful language, or more than indicate his ' variety of action, 
 accents, and irony . . . and his happy images and allusions.' One of Pitt's 
 most marked characteristics as an orator was the ease with which he could 
 
PITT DISMISSED FROM PAY OFFICE, 1755 271 
 
 and small wonder — was feeble and ineffective. He was 
 probably more interested in finding out from Pitt wbo ' the 
 Ehone' was than in defending Newcastle, and hurried up to him 
 afterwards to inquire. Pitt said, ' Is that a fair question ? ' 
 but, on being pressed to tell whether it was Pox or Granville, 
 rephed, ' You are Granville.' That ' the Saone ' was Newcastle 
 there could of course be no doubt. The speech had little effect 
 on the voting — which gave the ministers a large majority. A 
 week later Holderness sent letters to Pitt, Grenville and Legge 
 informing them that the King had no further use for their 
 services. On the day of Pitt's dismissal Temple generously 
 pressed Lady Hester to induce her husband to accept £1,000 
 a year from him to make up for his loss of salary. Pitt, whose 
 account at his bankers had already been overdrawn £1,000 
 in July,i accepted ' with the warmest, quickest, deepest senti- 
 ments of love and gratitude. We could have slept,' he says, 
 ' upon the Earl of Holderness's letter ; but our hearts must now 
 wake to gratitude and you, and wish for nothing but the return 
 of day to embrace the best and noblest of brothers.' Nor, 
 to the surprise of men like Eigby, did he and Lady Hester 
 make any scruple of publishing their obligation to the world.^ 
 Pitt was not content with one brilliant speech : he knew 
 that nothing could be done to stop the pernicious policy on 
 which the country was embarking without hammering at it 
 in season and out of season. Never before had he worked 
 so hard for the public. During the rest of the session his great 
 spirit kept him constantly on the watch. On every important 
 question he was ready to come to the House, sometimes straight 
 
 return over and over again to the same point, varying it to show the new aspect 
 and yet enhancing the cumulative effect. In this his oratory is like Beethoven's 
 music : he, too, never seems to tire of his own melodies, but always harks back 
 to them to bring out one more sweetness, one more humorous touch or yet 
 another solemn note of doom. Mark here how Pitt luxuriates in the ' pathetic 
 image ' suggested to him by Murray, makes it his own, turns it about and 
 plays with it until it has become a perfect picture : mark how he worries 
 Hanover — is in turn contemptuous, pitying and indignant about it : and yet 
 through all as a ground-note comes the reminder to Englishmen why they are 
 fighting and how they should fight on their own element. 
 
 >■ See letter of Campbell in Chatham MSS. 25. 
 
 ^ Hogarth, in his plate, ' The Eaters,' introduces Pitt saying, ' Well, my 
 brother's £1,000 a year will keep me from starving.' 
 
272 THE GREAT COMMONER 
 
 from his bed, swathed in flannel, to lay bare the ministers' 
 weakness, to expound the country's true policy, to arouse the 
 people. And he would spend whole days preparing himself 
 and mastering his facts. Before the debate on the treaties 
 ' Temple and Mr. Pitt,' we are told, ' live in the Parliament 
 office, and Joe Wright . . . had to light a fire for them and 
 shut them up for three or four hours together among all the 
 treaties of the world ' — much, no doubt, to Joe Wright's dis- 
 quiet, unused as he was to be troubled by statesmen taking 
 politics in earnest. Pitt's example inspired others, and he 
 had soon collected a band of comrades full of hope and zeal. 
 George Grenville never shone as he did this session, Legge 
 surpassed himself, and even Lord George Sackville rose to 
 unnatural heights of patriotism. George Townshend worthily 
 upheld the tradition of Whig common-sense inherited from 
 his grandfather, Walpole's colleague, and his brother Charles 
 first revealed those marvellous talents immortalised by Burke, 
 making one speech of which Pitt generously declared that it 
 displayed such abilities as had not appeared since that House 
 was a House. Pitt soon could do with the House what he liked, 
 except obtain votes. One after another of Newcastle's 
 gladiators tried a fall with him, only to retire crushed and beaten. 
 Lyttelton, who had succeeded Legge, was a child before him. 
 December Hume Campbell, in the debate on the Eussian and Hessian 
 ■ treaties in December, undeterred by the fate of Eobinson, and 
 taking no warning from the late-learned caution of Murray and 
 Fox, rushed blindly at the great orator. He attacked him for his 
 ' eternal invectives,* and talked of the just resentment felt at 
 Pitt's want of respect to ' superiors.' Pitt reminded Hume 
 Campbell of the days, not long past, when they had trod the 
 paths of invective together,^ and when there had been no talk 
 of ' superiors.' For such language one would have to go back 
 to the servile days of James I, when no doubt another great 
 duke had his slaves about him, who called him ' superior,' yet 
 even they durst not bring such language into the House of 
 Commons. Happily we no longer had a king willing to hire 
 
 ' In those days Campbell had applied to Walpole the remarkable expres- 
 sion that he was a tympany of corruption. 
 
SLAUGHTER OF THE PYGMIES 273 
 
 a lawyer to threaten those who opposed his ministers' pernicious 
 designs against the people : but if we had he would not want 
 the slavish lawyer : ' but I will not dress up an image under a 
 third person. I apply it to him,' nodding at Hume Campbell : 
 ' his is the servile doctrine, he is the slave ; and the shame of 
 this doctrine will stick to him as long as his gown clings to his 
 back.' ^ Hume Campbell after this did little to earn his 
 £2,000 a year ; indeed, he was so terrified of Pitt that once, 
 at an angry glance from him, he implored the Speaker's pro- 
 tection. Pitt could do much with a look or a tone. Turning 
 one day on Murray that awful glance of his, ' I must,' said 
 he, ' now address a few words to the Solicitor ; they shall be 
 few but they shaU be daggers ' ; he paused, but the look 
 continued, and Murray became more and more agitated. 
 ' Judge Festus trembles,' said Pitt : ' he shall hear me some 
 other day.' Another day it was Morton, Chief Justice of 
 Chester, who had said, ' King, Lords, and Commons, or, as that 
 right honourable gentleman would say. Commons, Lords and 
 King.' Pitt sprang up : ' My blood runs cold at such words — 
 I desire they may be taken down by the clerk.' ' Nay,' 
 spluttered Morton, frightened out of his senses, ' I mean 
 nothing ; King, Lords, and Commons : Commons, Lords, and 
 King — ^it is aU one.' ' I don't wish to push the matter further,' 
 said Pitt in a voice little above a whisper : then higher, ' the 
 moment a man acknowledges his error, he ceases to be guilty : 
 but,' he added in a colloquial tone, ' whenever that member 
 means nothing, I advise him to say nothing.' Once when Pitt 
 had concluded a speech and was walking slowly out of the 
 House, just as the doorkeeper was opening the door for him, 
 his ear caught the words : ' I rise to reply to the right honourable 
 gentleman.' Turning round, he gave the member a look which 
 made him sit down instantly, and began hobbling goutily back 
 to his seat, murmuring as he went : 
 
 At Danaum proceres, Agamerrmoniseque phalanges 
 
 Ut videre virum, fulgentiaque arma per umbras 
 
 Ingenti trepidare metu . . . 
 
 . . . inceptus clamor frustratur Liantes. 
 1 Sir W. Meredith's acootint quoted by Lord Eosebery (p. 431) from 
 Holland Eouse M88. should be compared with Walpole's. 
 
 VOL. I. T 
 
 i^" 
 
274 THE GREAT COMMONER 
 
 Then, lowering himself into his seat, he exclaimed, ' Now let me 
 hear what the honourable gentleman has to say to me.' The 
 member recounting the scene was asked if anybody laughed : 
 ' No, sir, we were all too much awed to laugh.' ^ In his grim 
 way Pitt must have had a glorious time, ' banging ' the House 
 into submission and exulting in his power. Sometimes his 
 humour took a less awful form. He compared the Duke of 
 Newcastle to a child in charge of a go-cart, driving its precious 
 freight of an old king and his family straight for a precipice. 
 ' Surely,' he said, ' I am bound to take the reins out of such 
 hands.' ^ ' Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know,' 
 he quoted in derision of some minister's fumbling explanations ; 
 and he dismissed old Horace Walpole's timid talk as ' language 
 fit for a boarding-school girl.' Sometimes he and Charles 
 Townshend tossed the ball to one another. ' Are the resolu- 
 tions of ministers to be more unchanged than those of the 
 King of Persia or Xerxes with his multitudes at his heels ? ' 
 loftily inquired Pitt. A little later Charles Townshend was 
 called to order for describing an attack on him by Pox as 
 unmanly.' ' Order, order ? ' pursued Townshend. ' Unmanly ! 
 is that disorderly ? Upon my word, these are the nicest feelings 
 in Xerxes's troops that I ever knew.' 
 November Qn the day he was dismissed Pitt promised the House 
 ' that he would give daily and constant attendance to add 
 to England's strength in armies, navies, or money, and do 
 everything in his power against subsidiary treaties . . . and 
 that for the love of his country he would do anything ' : this 
 promise he almost literally fulfilled. He is known to have 
 spoken in twenty-six debates this session and probably spoke 
 oftener. Working at this strain he was naturally not always 
 on the same high level, and towards the end seems to have 
 January repeated himself needlessly, to have become irritable, and 
 23, to have wrangled too often with Pox, the only man whose 
 
 ^^gg° ' equanimity he could not disturb. He opposed poor Lyttelton's 
 January '^^'^gst for his raids on the sinking fund, and even objected 
 28, 1756. to a grant of £120,000 for the services of American troops in 
 
 ' See Charles Butler's Beminiscences. 
 
 ^ Cp. a similar passage in speech of Deo. 6, 1743 (above, p. 113). 
 
PITT'S CALLS TO THE NATION, 1755-6 275 
 
 the war, on the ground that the ministers were not to be 
 trusted with so large a sum without appropriation : they might 
 ' sink it in some avaricious corner of the Court,' or bribe the 
 House of Commons and obtain sham receipts from America. 
 He accused Pox of screening the guilty for his own January 
 purposes on an extravagant charge brought by his friend ^^' ^'^^^• 
 Beckford against the Governor of Jamaica. Pox, who, 
 though an adversary, always had an artist's appreciation of 
 Pitt's great speeches, said of him in January 1756 : ' The four 
 last times he has spoke he made such violent speeches (not 
 good ones of their kind) upon such trifling matter, which 
 I have been obliged to take such advantage of, that he is 
 lowered and I am raised by it beyond what his enemies or 
 my warmest friends could have wished.' ^ But these 
 extravagances were quite subordinate to the great constructive 
 work of his speeches this session. Por he was critical only 
 incidentally ; his main object, as in the first speech of the 
 session, was to teach Jiiacountrymen how to wage a great war./ 
 He iniptoTed the'lnuiisters not to stint the navy at such a- November 
 time, for it was ' a willing, giving House of Commons, on whom 20, 1755. 
 the Kiag might call for anything for an English object.' 
 When the Government proposed an increase of the army, he 
 asked why they had not done so before, and demanded even 
 greater exertions. By alarming the nation he hoped to make 
 the danger reach the ears of His Majesty : he wanted to call 
 the country out of that enervate state, that twenty thousand 
 men from Prance could shake it. The maxims of our Govern- December 
 ment were degenerated, not our natives ; he wished to see ^' l'^^^- 
 that breed restored, which imder our old principles had 
 carried our glory so high. On a proposal to give French peoember 
 prizes to the captors, to encourage recruiting in place |' ^755. 
 of the press-gang, ' which smells so rank of arbitrary ! 
 power,' he brushed aside Fox's quibbles that war was not ' 
 officially declared and begged him to think further than 
 ' that httle narrow now ' : Prance had made war in attack- 
 
 ^ Torrena, ii. 273. Even Speaker Onslow, a warm admirer, said on the same 
 occasion : ' If Pitt did not provide better matter to make his fine speeches upon, 
 he would soon grow as insignificant as any man who ever sat in the House.' 
 
 t2 
 
276 THE GREAT COMMONER 
 
 ing Washington, and we should have to fight it out. 
 
 ' If we do not deHver the territories of all our Indian alUes 
 
 as well as our own in America from every French post and 
 
 garrison, we may give up our plantations as well as the ships 
 
 we have taken . . . and our King must submit to be a sort 
 
 of viceroy under His most Christian Majesty.' With such 
 
 a task before us, what availed the 140,000 troops of the best 
 
 November i^ Europe, which Murray boasted were ready for the defence of 
 
 20, 1755. Hanover ? ' Who boasts of the numbers prepared for England ? 
 
 — for America ? Compare the countries, compare the forces 
 
 that are destined for the defence of each ! Two miserable 
 
 battalions of Irish, who scarce ever saw one another, have been 
 
 sent to America, have been sent under Braddock to be 
 
 December sacrificed ! ' Instead of doing what Athens would have done, 
 
 15 1755 
 
 putting herself on board her fleet and so recovering her land — 
 because she fought where she could be superior — ^we were 
 wasting our resources in subsidies for a continental war. And 
 what efTect would this Eussian treaty have but to throw our 
 most natural ally, Prussia, into the arms of Prance ? Murray 
 had talked of Eussia as a newly -rising northern star, which, if 
 properly managed, might preserve the liberties of Europe : 
 
 Come, let us consider this nortliern star ttat will not shine with any 
 light of its own — Great Britain must be the sun of all this solar 
 system : could Russia, without our assistance, support her own 
 troops ? I am glad this star is a fixed star, for I am certain it is 
 not that star which once appeared in the East and which the wise 
 men worshipped ; though it is like it in one particular for it makes 
 its worshippers bring gifts. ^ 'Tis a miserable star, that you must 
 rub up to get it to shine. The really wise man 
 
 /quae 
 nitescere posse, relinquit. 
 
 The Eussian treaty brought, however, one benefit, since the 
 1 menace to himself induced Frederic to conclude a treaty with 
 England in January 1756. The situation was then somewhat 
 complicated. The sole object of the Eussian treaty had been 
 to bring a Eussian army on Frederic's back, if he attacked 
 Hanover. By the alhance with Frederic a few months later 
 
 ^ See Qray's Letters (December 25, 1755). 
 
FLEET, NOT FOREIGN HIRELINGS, NEEDED 277 
 
 England agreed with him to resist these very Eussians or any- 
 other foreign troops brought into Germany. Newcastle's 
 simple-minded idea seems to have been that by making treaties 
 broadcast, with almost every European Power, quite irrespective 
 of their relations to one another, he could isolate Prance and 
 prevent a continental war. Indeed his Ministry had so little 
 conception of the use to which Frederic might be put in divert- 
 ing French resources from America, that two months after 
 the treaty was signed Holderness wrote to Vienna that England 
 would still support the Empress against any attack from 
 Frederic. Pitt had always desired a Prussian alhance, but 
 not on such terms. When the treaty was discussed he May 12 
 criticised it partly on the ground that we had bought this ^^gg ' 
 treaty with Prussia by sacrificing our rights to arrears of a 
 Silesian loan,i still more because it was not the time to be V; ' 
 thinking of alliances in Germany, when all was at stake in ^ , 
 America, in the Mediterranean, and especially at Minorca, j 
 
 where Eichelieu and his French army had already landed. 
 ' I pray to God,' said Pitt, ' that the King may not have ; ^ 
 
 Minorca, like Calais, written on his heart.' \ 
 
 This clear perception of the national objects of the war / 
 was accompanied by a superb belief in his countrymen's 
 ability to fight it for themselves. Ever since William Ill's 
 days Englishmen had been so accustomed by their rulers 
 to beHeve that no war could be undertaken without a strong 
 force of mercenaries to back them, that they had almost 
 begun to lose confidence in themselves. Pitt's contagious 
 enthusiasm and trust altered this. When it was proposed 
 that a Swiss adventurer, Prevost, should raise four battalions 
 of Swiss mercenaries and also provide foreign officers for the 
 new levies in America, Pitt, while applauding any scheme February 
 to increase our forces in America, protested against employing ^~^^' 
 foreign rather than EngHsh officers, who had behaved every- 
 where with lustre and should not thus be superseded. When 
 
 ' After JFrederio's conquest of Silesia he had taken over a Silesian loan 
 advanced by England, but had refused to pay the instalments due until some 
 grievances for captured ships had been redressed by the Admiralty. By the 
 treaty of 1756 Frederic gained most of what he had been contending for. 
 
March, 
 
 April, 
 
 1756. 
 
 278 ,> THE GREAT COMMONER 
 
 the ministers brought over Hessian and Hanoverian troops 
 on the alarm of a French invasion, Pitt came in bhsters and 
 flannel from his sick-bed to protest against the indignity. In 
 1690 — ^nay, even in Charles H's degenerate days— the national 
 forces had been thought sufficient : why could we not depend 
 on ourselves now ? No state could be called a sovereign 
 state unless suis stat virihus, non alieno pendet arhitrio. The 
 waste on foreign troops would have conquered America or 
 saved Minorca. It had, indeed, come to a sad pass if ' this 
 May u, great country could neither provide for offence nor defence.' 
 1756. jiq remove this disgrace from England Pitt had a plan 
 
 of his own for reviving the old militia spirit in England. 
 The ancient mOitia force of the realm was then moribund, 
 and the law empowering the lords-lieutenant to call it out in 
 December times of emergency a dead letter. Pitt's speech on the motion 
 8, 1755. Qf jjjg friend George Townshend for a committee on the 
 jnilitia revealed him in the new Ught of constructive statesman- 
 ship. In the plan he unfolded for the reorganization of 
 the militia he showed a grasp of details and an aptitude for 
 business which he had hitherto had no chance of proving. 
 The force was to consist of 50,000 or 60,000 men, who were to 
 be drilled twice a week, and to receive pay for drills and uniform. 
 The officers were to be drawn from the landed gentry of each 
 county in which the units were formed ; and the Crown would 
 have the right of marching each contingent outside its -own 
 county in case of necessity. The total annual cost he reckoned 
 at £300,000 — cheap compared with the millions spent in sub- 
 sidies — cheap, too, for the gain in national self-respect. 
 
 What an inglorious picture for this country [he said] to figure, 
 gentlemen driven by an invasion like a flock of sheep, and forced 
 to send their money abroad to buy courage and defence ! If this 
 scheme should prove oppressive provinciaUy or parochially, I am 
 wUhng to give it up ; but how preferable it is to waiting to see if 
 the wind would blow you subsidiary troops ! 
 
 In the following months Pitt, helped by George Townshend, 
 Sackville and the Speaker, devoted unstinted labour to settling 
 details of the mihtia bill thereupon introduced; all the 
 
PITT'S MILITIA BILL, 1756 279 
 
 ministers, except Lyttelton, washed their hands of it, and 
 often in committee Pitt was left alone with about a dozen 
 other members. Finally, when it had been committed and '^[ 1. 
 re-committed, it was passed after a great speech by Pitt ( , 
 on May 10, 1756, in a sitting which lasted till near six in the , 
 morning. In the Lords it received short shrift. Hardwicke i /^i 
 opposed it chiefly on the gromids that the statute book was I ^r 
 becoming too large and that the bill required too many/ 
 oaths ; by his influence it was rejected by 53 to 29. 
 
 Pitt truly said in one of his speeches : ' We have provoked May 12, 
 before we can defend, we have neglected after provocation, ^^^^' 
 and in every quarter of the world we are inferior to Prance ' ; 
 and, as early as April, had with a sure instinct picked out 
 Minorca as the immediate point of danger. Our fleets had 
 at first been employed as freebooters on French commerce, 
 leaving the French fleet intact and doing nothing to stop 
 the reinforcement of Canada. In 1756 the panic of a French 
 invasion kept most of our ships in home waters, and although 
 early in February Newcastle was warned ^ that the French 
 were meditating an attack on Minorca, for two months no 
 precautions were taken. As in Walpole's time, the Governor 
 and most of the officers were in England and allowed to remain 
 there, and no fleet was watching the French Mediterranean 
 ports.2 At last, on April 6, ten ships sailed from Spithead under 
 Byng, who was known not to have the spirit for an urgent 
 and hazardous enterprize. Byng took nearly a month to 
 reach Gibraltar, where he heard that a French army under 
 Eichelieu had landed in Minorca a fortnight before. Even 
 then Byng stayed six days at Gibraltar, and allowed the 
 Governor to disobey the orders from home to send reinforce- 
 ments for the garrison of Port Mahon. On May 19 he sighted 
 La Galissoniere's fleet of twelve sail ofl' Minorca and engaged 
 them next day without result. Opinions differ as to Byng's 
 courage and ability in the action, but of his pusillanimity 
 afterwards there can be no doubt. After cruising about for 
 
 1 Add. MSS. 35415, f. 147. 
 
 " For the neglect of warnings by the Ministry, when they could well have 
 spared ships to watch Minorca, see Richmond, Papers relating to the Loss of 
 Minorca. 
 
28o THE GREAT COMMONER 
 
 four days, he called a council of war, suggested to it that the 
 fleet could no longer help Minorca, and, having obtained the 
 answer he desired, sailed back to Gibraltar. Had he remained 
 off Minorca he would at least have threatened Richelieu's 
 communications, and might even have compelled him to 
 relinquish a siege which, owing to natural difiEiculties and the 
 courage of old General Blakeney, proved difficult enough 
 without external interference.^ 
 
 ' Quae regio in terris nostri non plena doloris ? ' Pitt wrote 
 on the news of Byng's retreat : ' I dread to hear from America. 
 Asia may perhaps furnish its portion of ignominy and calamity.' 
 This feeling of ignominy was shared by the country : to contend 
 with the power of Prance seemed to many a hopeless task : 
 to hold up against it in their own lifetime the most they could 
 hope with such a Ministry.^ The loss of Minorca filled up the 
 cup of national indignation. For it meant to that generation 
 what the loss of Gibraltar would to us. Enghshmen were proud 
 of it ; they looked on it as an indispensable port of refuge 
 for our merchants, and indeed would more willingly have spared 
 Gibraltar ; and it had been lost disgracefully. Vengeance on 
 Byng, vengeance on the Ministry that sent him out so tardily 
 was the cry from all parts of England. The City demanded 
 it and offered to contribute liberally to the war if a militia 
 were organised, the fleets set free for aggressive action, and 
 proper measures taken to defend America. ^ Instructions were 
 given to members to call ministers to account. Newcastle 
 received reports of ' almost universal uneasiness and discontent 
 . . . the lower sort of people outrageous . . . even peers 
 loud in their censures and endeavours to enflame the people 
 ... to demand justice against persons however dignified or dis- 
 tinguished,' persons who he fears must be himself, Hardwicke 
 and Anson.* Lord Chief Justice Willes bluntly told him that 
 the only thing to do was to shoot Byng, ' no lesser punishment 
 will satisfy the minds of the people.' ^ Newcastle did not 
 
 ^ The garrison did not surrender until June 28, 1756, after seventy days' siege. 
 
 ' See Chafton Memoirs, pp. 9, 10. 
 
 ' See their Address of August 20, 1756. 
 
 * Add. MSS. 32867, ff. Ill and 175. 
 
 ' Ibid. 32867, f. 1. 
 
LOSS OF MINORCA, 1756 281 
 
 need to be told this ; his first impulse on news of the disaster 
 ■was to save his own skin by ordering ' the immediate trial 
 and condemnation of Byng.' } ' Oh, indeed, he shall be tried 
 immediately,' he is reported to have said to a City deputation ; 
 'he shall be hanged directly.' But whereas Hardwicke 
 regarded the fall of Minorca as a blessing in disguise, since it 
 might incline the King to stop a war which he was convinced 
 was hopeless and ruinous, Newcastle, though equally sure 
 we were no match for France,^ was anxious for some dashing 
 exploit to show what a spirited Ministry it was : anywhere 
 would do — ^the Mediterranean, the West Indies, or North 
 America.' But fresh disasters came instead of successes. 
 Even what the Ministry did right became a grievance — ^notably 
 the release by Holderness of a wretched Hanoverian soldier 
 wrongly accused of steahng handkerchiefs at Maidstone — for 
 it revived all the bitterness felt at a foreign garrison on English 
 son. Great distress from scarcity of corn aggravated the 
 discontent in the country. Then the whole edifice of foreign 
 politics, laboriously built up by Newcastle during the last 
 eight years, collapsed like a pack of cards when the Empress- 
 Queen signed the treaty of Versailles with Prance on May 1, 
 1756. This upheaval of the old continental system was a 
 blessing in disguise, but not one that Newcastle had the wit 
 to recognise. Yet another disaster, the capture of Oswego, 
 was reported from America ; and, on September 9, Frederic II 
 suddenly invaded Saxony and precipitated the continental 
 war for which Newcastle was wholly unprepared. No foreign 
 disasters, however, finally decided Newcastle that the game 
 was up, but the loss of his only two capable lieutenants. Murray 
 had no love for the House of Commons, where, he admitted 
 to Newcastle, he felt intimidated by Pitt,* and on the death 
 of the Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench demanded the 
 post as of right, together with a peerage. Newcastle implored 
 him to stay ; but Murray, though protesting that it ' stabbed 
 daggers to his heart ' to desert him,^ was obdurate, and had 
 
 ^ Add. M8S. 32866, f. 210. ^ Ibid. 32864, f. 478. 
 
 ^ Ibid. 32866, fl 210 and 265. " Walpole, Memoirs George III, i, 80. 
 
 ^ Add. MSS. 32865, f. 205. 
 
282 THE GREAT COMMONER 
 
 to be created Chief Justice and Baron Mansfield. Fox also 
 became restive — ' disobliged,' Newcastle called it — refused to 
 take any responsibility for Minorca, and complained he was 
 not treated with confidence. On October 14 he took what 
 he described as the ' necessary but innocent ' step of resigning ; 
 he had no resentment,' but he found his situation im- 
 practicable.^ 
 
 Pitt had become inevitable. He had recently done con- 
 siderable service to his friends at Leicester House by actively 
 supporting the Princess Dowager's favourite, Bute,^ for the 
 post of Groom of the Stole in the young Prince's establishment, 
 and in return had aU their influence in his favour. Newcastle in 
 May had seen that Pitt was ' Pox's master,' and Fox himself had 
 been only too anxious to gain Pitt to the Ministry. Newspapers 
 and pamphlets appeared urging a strong Ministry under Pitt, 
 and caricatures that denounced the Government for making 
 England ' depend on champions not her own ' called for Pitt as 
 the champion of integrity : 
 
 Britannia, nodding, signifies her choice 
 
 And hails in his, God's and the people's voice. 
 
 Hardwicke, when things had come to this pass, brushed 
 aside in a sentence the old pretence that the obstacle to Pitt 
 lay in the King. ' Are you really for it in your heart ? ' he asks 
 Newcastle ; ' ... if you are, surely ways might be found to 
 try it.' ' I am hand and heart for Pitt at present,' answers 
 the duke. ' He will come as a conqueror. I always dreaded 
 it, but I had rather be conquered by an enemy, who can do 
 our business,' than by a traitor like Fox. Lady Yarmouth, 
 who had great influence with the King, and to some extent 
 
 1 Add. M8S. 32868 f. 247. 
 
 ' The only oiroumstanoe which gives any plausibility to the rumours of 
 Bute's undue familiarity with the Princess is Waldegrave's belief in its truth. 
 On the other hand a very strong argument against it is George Ill's 
 affection for Bute. He could hardly have been ignorant of the rumours, and 
 it would have been very difficult to deceiv'e him had they been true ; nor was 
 he the man to remain on such friendly terms with Bute had he had the slightest 
 belief in their truth. For another view, see Lovat Fraser, John Stuart, Earl 
 of Bute, p. 86. 
 
PITT INDISPENSABLE 283 
 
 merited it by her sound political sense, had long seen the 
 necessity of bringing in Pitt. Even the King himself, on 
 being told by Newcastle that he must give way, was content to 
 ease his mind with a grumble—' But Mr. Pitt won't come . . . 
 and he won't do my German business '—and then consented.^ 
 
 Newcastle was wilhng enough now to give Pitt responsibility, 
 but he still hoped to make him responsible for the old measures. 
 Such an offer might have tempted Pitt two years before, since 
 he knew that with responsibility he could mould the measures 
 himself. Now it was a case of the Sibylline books, as he told 
 Grenville ; and he was not disposed to bear the burden of 
 Newcastle's policy on his shoulders, after two years of opposi- 
 tion to it. When on October 19, 1756, Hardwicke made 
 offers to him, he could not be moved from his ' total negative ' 
 either to joining the Duke of Newcastle or to adopting his 
 measures . . . ' he was surprised that it should be thought 
 possible for him to . . . serve with the Duke of Newcastle, 
 under whose administration the things he had so much blamed 
 had happened, and against which the sense of the nation so 
 strongly appeared.' 
 
 The only terms on which he would take office were : (1) An 
 inquiry into past measures, in which he himself should take a 
 considerable part ; (2) That last year's MiUtia Bill should be 
 passed ; (3) That the affair of the Hanoverian soldier should 
 be inquired into ; and (4) That he should have full personal 
 access to the King and be in the ' first concert and concoction of 
 measures.' Fearing that his refusal to act with Newcastle 
 might be interpreted as a refusal to take office at all, and that 
 Hardwicke's report might not represent his views, two days 
 later Pitt for the fijst time went to Lady Yarmouth to explain 
 himself fully to her. If the King was to hear the truth, it was 
 the only course open to Pitt, since he had no access to the 
 Closet, whereas it was well known that ' the Lady,' as she was 
 familiarly called, was a safe and certain channel to the King's 
 ears. He not only repeated to her what he had told Hardwicke, 
 but handed in a rough sketch of his Ministry : he and Sir 
 
 1 Add. MSS. 32868, £E. 249, 251, 281. 
 
284 THE GREAT COMMONER 
 
 Thomas Eobinson ^ to be Secretaries ; Devonshire, First Lord ; 
 Temple, Lord Lieutenant ; and George and James Grenville 
 with places. The King, like all obstinate people, never hked 
 it to be thought that he was influenced. ' Lady Yarmouth does 
 not meddle,' he said with palpable untruth, ' and shall not 
 meddle ; ' and professed to be very angry with Pitt. He sent 
 him a curt message that his proposals were not for his or the 
 public service. Pitt bowed ceremoniously and observed that 
 the King did him the greatest honour in condescending to 
 answer him at all.' 
 
 Nevertheless Pitt's plain statement of his conditions had 
 cleared the ground. Newcastle saw there was nothing for it 
 but his own resignation : the King then spent three weeks in 
 futile negotiations with Fox and others, but nobody would 
 undertake the thankless task of clearing up Newcastle's muddles 
 except Pitt. On November 15, 1756, he was appointed 
 Secretary of State on almosi; the very terms he had originally 
 laid down. Legge became Chancellor of the Exchequer again. 
 Temple had the Admiralty, Devonshire the Treasury ; Pitt 
 himself had desired the Northern Province, but waived it 
 before the King's objections, leaving Holderness there and 
 taking the Southern Province for himself. The King was not 
 pleased. To Pitt himself he delivered the seals courteously 
 enough on December 4, 1756 ; ^ but the rest of the Ministry he 
 received ' with the least gracious manner possible.' 
 
 Pitt had indeed come as a conqueror. Of the old Cabinet 
 the principal members, Newcastle, Hardwicke, Fox and Anson, 
 three of whom had been in of&ce before Pitt made his first 
 speech in Parliament, were entirely put aside. There had 
 been no such clean sweep since the rout of the Tories in 1714. 
 
 ^ Pitt was naturally ridiculed for suggesting as his colleague the man he 
 had attacked a year before. But Pitt had attacked him not as Secretary 
 but as Leader of the House, and had always admitted his knowledge of foreign 
 aifaiis. It was a characteristic of Pitt to attack a man in a position for which 
 he thought him unfitted, and afterwards to use his services where he thought 
 they would be useful to the public. 
 
 2 See Add. MSS. 32868 and 35416, paasim. 
 
 ^ This delay was due partly to Pitt's gout, partly to his desire to be present 
 at the opening of Parliament on December 2, as he would have to vacate his 
 seat on appointment. 
 
PITT'S FIRST MINISTRY, 1756 285 
 
 Such a victory naturally created disgust among the old Whig 
 official families, and Pitt himself was heartily abused for his 
 arrogance and his eloquence in The Test ^ and other papers as 
 ' Our Great Orator,' ' the Man-Mountain,' ' the Dictator,' or 
 ' WilHam the Fourth.' They could not understand a Cabinet 
 based on a principle, not on mere bargaining with power- 
 ful factions. Pitt's first Cabinet absorbed nearly the whole 
 of his personal following in the House, and so could count 
 on little support there. Its strength lay partly in the belief 
 in the House that nobody but Pitt could bring the country 
 into safety, still more in the confidence he inspired outside 
 the House. Pitt had to wait until he was nearly fifty to 
 overcome the King's dislike, break through official jealousy, 
 and gain control of the country's destinies. These were then 
 entrusted to him, says Glover, because — 
 
 The eyes of an afflicted despairing nation were now Hfted up to a 
 private gentleman of a slender fortune, wanting the parade of birth 
 or title, of no family alliance but by his marriage mth Lord Temple's 
 sister, and even confined to a narrow circle of friends and acquaint- 
 ances. Under these circumstances Pitt was considered as the only 
 saviour of England. _^ 
 
 Pitt knew it to be true. ' I know,' he said, ' that I can 
 save this country, and that no one else can.' 
 
 1 Newcastle also was attacked in The Test, and asked Hardwioke to discover 
 its authorship. Hardwicke, after diligent inquiry, discovered that a written 
 copy of The Test was carried on the morning of publication from the house of 
 Calcraft (a rich army contractor then closely alUed with Fox) by Taylor, a 
 silversmith, to his house at the comer of Cecil Street. Thence he sent a clerk 
 with it to Hooper the publisher, who sent a man with it to Parker the printer 
 near Bishopsgate. {Add. MSS. 35416, f. 158.) For a specimen of the abuse 
 levelled at Pitt, see note on following page. 
 
286 THE GREAT COMMONER 
 
 Note (see p. 285). 
 
 In Sanderson Miller (p. 346) a specimen is given of the kind of 
 abuse to wiict Pitt was subjected at this time. It was apparently 
 a broadsheet inspired by similar ideas to those of the writers of 
 The Test : 
 
 Seven Good Eeasons foe the Changes at Court 
 Being the Examination op Certain Great Men at the Privy 
 
 Council. 
 
 We wiU that you forthwith discharge all your Blinisters and 
 Servants and permit Us to fill their Places ; that so we may be able 
 to satisfie (if possible) his thirst for Gold, for otherwise we know we 
 cannot hold him fast. We also WiU, that you place our beloved 
 Brother Lord T. at the head of your Navy, that he may show his 
 inborn Talents, by being in a Province he can know nothing of, for 
 your Naval Expeditions having failed under the direction of Know- 
 ledge and Experience, we judge that Ignorance and Presumption 
 will set all right. We Will that you give to the Honourable and 
 Ingenious C. T. [Charles Townshend] some place without business 
 so that his Talents may be concealed, which otherwise would eclipse 
 or rather extinguish our aforesaid little Friend, and might be 
 dangerous even to our own Omnipotence. We WUl that you give 
 lucrative Employment to all our Unkles, Brothers, Cousins and 
 Namesakes ; and knowing that in the H. of L — there is but our dear 
 Brother upon whom we can at all rely. We WUl therefore that 
 you create such numbers of L — ds as may be requisite for our 
 Support, and as a great Majority of the H. of C — ns have not so 
 good an opinion of us as we have of ourselves. We Will that you 
 dissolve this P — t that so we may render your K — ms sub-servient 
 to our WUl and Pleasure. Upon these conditions we wiU aUow you 
 to reign and take upon us the Administration of Affairs. 
 
CHAPTEE X 
 
 THE AWAKENING OF THE PEOPLE 
 ' AvSpes yap vo\ls, /col av re^xi ""Se yrjes dvSpZv Kevai THTJOYDrDBS, vii 77.' 
 
 ' I HAVE called you together in a conjuncture which highly 
 requires the deliberation, advice and assistance of Parliament, 
 and I trust that (under the guidance of Divine Providence) 
 union and firnmess in my affectionate people will carry me 
 with honour through all difficulties ; and finally vindicate 
 the dignity of my crown, and its indubitable rights, against 
 the ancient enemy of these kingdoms.' 
 
 So began the King's Speech with which Pitt inaugurated 
 his first Ministry on December 2, 1756. ' I have drawn it 
 captivating the people,' he wrote, enclosing the first draft to 
 Devonshire ; ^ ' as it stands it will go over the whole kingdom 
 and spread a satisfaction which a subsequent message cannot 
 do ' ; and every line of the Speech breathed a spirit of energy 
 and national pride unwonted in the ' insipid annual opiate ' 3 
 read from the Throne at the beginning of the session. The King 
 grumbled at the length of this first draft, and ejaculated ' Stuff ir{ 
 
 and nonsense ! ' at some of its expressions ; but in its final form Y ''" 
 it ' touched with gravity and weight,' as Pitt said he intended.' 
 ' points indispensably necessary to be mentioned as foundations 
 of supply and descriptive qf system.' This system, the same 
 as that demanded by the City in its address of August 20,* 
 he proclaimed with no uncertain voice : 
 
 ■^ ' Men make a city, not walla or shipa empty of men.' 
 
 2 Torrens, ii, 342. ^ Speech of November 22, 1770. 
 
 » See above, p. 280. 
 
 287 
 
 1 
 
 ,. I' 
 
288 THE AWAKENING OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 The succoui and preservation of America cannot but constitute a 
 main object of my attention and solicitude, and the growing dangers 
 to which our colonies stand exposed from our late losses in those 
 parts, demand resolution of vigouj and despatch. . . . 
 
 To this end a national militia . . . may, in time, become one 
 good resource in time of general danger. . . . 
 
 The body of my electoral troops, which I ordered hither at the 
 desire of my Parhament, I have directed to return to my dominions 
 in Germany ; relying with pleasure on the spirit and zeal of my 
 people, in defence of my person and realm. . . . 
 
 I rely on your wisdom, that you will prefer more vigorous efforts 
 (though attended with large expense) to a less efiectual, and therefore 
 less frugal, plan of war. 
 
 ; He remembered too the material condition of the people to 
 whom he was appealing for fresh exertions : 
 
 I cannot here be unmindful of the sufEerings of the poorer sort, 
 from the present high price of corn, and the disturbances which 
 have arisen therefrom ; and I recommend to you to consider of 
 proper provisions for preventing the like mischiefs hereafter. 
 
 _This direct appeal to the people marks a revolution in the 
 conduct of the country's foreign policy. Foreign affairs had 
 always been treated as the peculiar concern of the King and 
 one or two trusted ministers : with one stroke Pitt made 
 them the concern of the public. By this pubUcity he did 
 away once for all with the old system. Foreign poUcy had 
 long consisted chiefly in abstruse calculations of checks and 
 aUiances to secure a balance of power on the Continent — 
 a matter of profound indifference to the country. ' We pay 
 all and fight all,' said Pelham,^ echoing the popular view ; 
 but not even Newcastle could have given a plausible explanation 
 of all this paying and fighting, of battles in the heart of Germany 
 and expensive treaties to defend an electorate, the very name 
 of which was hateful to English ears. All our efforts were 
 devoted to bolstering up some other power — Hanover, the 
 Empress-Queen, or at best Holland — ^while the national interests 
 and the national enemy were aUke lost sight of. To these 
 Pitt recalled Parliament and the nation. While Carteret and 
 
 ^ See above, p. 165. 
 
KING'S SPEECH, 1756 289 
 
 Newcastle were bothering their heads with Pragmatic Sanc- 
 tions and Kings of the Eomans, and other such will-o'-the-wisps, 
 Pitt, mindful perhaps of his old grandfather's prophecy— that 
 ' trade will flourish rather than decay ' ^ — had been learning 
 the real needs of the time through his friends Allen of Bath, 
 Beokford and Alderman Sayre, with other leaders of the great 
 commercial community, too long ignored or looked down upon 
 by the Whig magnates. ; TromTuch representatives of the 
 wealthiest and most vigorous element in the community came 
 very definite views of the real enemy and the real objects of the 
 war. The two great obstacles to our growing trade were the 
 Bourbon Powers. With Spain there was a temporary under- 
 standing since the last war ; but Prance was everywhere 
 aggressive. In two recent campaigns she had captured the 
 Low Countries and stopped our easiest access to the Continent ; 
 in India, in America, in the West Indies our merchants and 
 settlers were confronted by her at every turn ; by the capture 
 of Minorca she seriously threatened our Mediterranean and 
 Levant trade ; even our own shores seemed in peril. Pitt, 
 therefore, instead of making the King's Speech turn on Hanover 
 and treaties to defend Hanover, pointed out the one object 
 of the war, the defeat of ' the ancient enemy of these kingdoms,' 
 and that it should be waged chiefly where her aggressions 
 had been most dangerous — ^in America. He took the nation 
 into his confidence, he put to it a plain issue, and in return 
 he asked it to fight its own battles — an equally revolutionary 
 idea to a generation accustomed to be ruled by ministers 
 who regarded half of them as disaffected, if not rebellious, 
 and were always ready to run for Dutchmen, Hessians and 
 Hanoverians at any whisper of foreign danger. Pitt's first 
 Ministry would have been justified had he done nothing more 
 than clear the decks for action by this plain statement of 
 policy and courageous appeal for national exertion. 
 
 After the King's Speech his most immediate need was to 
 
 gain support in the House of Commons. Newcastle had 
 
 truly said after his resignation that the flame which had 
 
 spread through the country ' did not extend to the members 
 
 ^ See above, p. 26. 
 
 VOL. I. U 
 
290 THE AWAKENING OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 of Parliament . . . and that Mr. Pitt, with the Duke of 
 Devonshire at his head, will have difficulty to support himself.' ^ 
 But Pitt, on assuming the Ministry, no longer regarded himself 
 as leader of a party, but as leader of the nation. ' I have no 
 attachment to persons,' he announced, ' but to things ' 2 — 1 , 
 an early form of his more concise maxim, ' Measures, not 1/ 
 December men.' In the debate on the Address he silenced oppositioir 
 2, 1756. by the discreet and conciliatory tone of his speech. He 
 poured cold water on his friend Beckford's premature boasts 
 of the country's strength ; admitted that the loss of the 
 Hanoverians would make a dangerous gap in the defences 
 of the country, though he hoped to find means of supplying 
 it ; owned that our fleet was not so strong as he hoped to 
 see it ; and declared that he was not going to blame the 
 late ministers before the inquiry on their conduct had been , 
 held. Newcastle was for the present content not to offer 
 active opposition unless Pitt took vindictive measures against 
 his administration, and Pitt was far too anxious to prepare 
 for the future struggle to rake up the past uimecessarily. 
 But first he must have perfect liberty of action. By accepting 
 office he vacated his seat for Aldborough, and, instead of 
 seeking re-election for a borough where ' he stood publicly 
 marked as the Duke of Newcastle's servant,' he chose to stand 
 for a vacant seat at Okehampton, where he would be under 
 no such obligations. Secure in his independence, he was 
 prepared to discuss matters amicably with the late ministers. 
 Three days after the opening of the session Hardwicke came 
 to him on a fishing inquiry under the guise of a visit of 
 compliment. He arrived in the evening and was ushered 
 upstairs to a room, where Mr. Pitt was lying up with the 
 gout, one leg wrapped in flannel. Expressions of civility, 
 ' overflowing ' on Pitt's side, passed between them, and the 
 two soon found common ground in their objection to Pox. 
 Hardwicke, cunningly passing to the main object of his visit, 
 assured Pitt that Newcastle would never join with Pox, unless 
 violence were displayed in pushing inquiries and censures. 
 ' Censures are not what we require,' said Pitt—' as you might 
 1 AM. MSS. 32869, f. 27, 2 Ibid. 32871, 1. 9. 
 
INTERVIEW WITH HARDWICKE 291 
 
 have known from the moderate tone of my speech on the 
 Address ; but I am pledged to some inquiry on past negligence, 
 and should be ruined and discredited if I did not abide by 
 my pledges.' But he reassured the late Chancellor by adding 
 that to his mind this inquiry into the past was a matter of 
 slight importance. He then touched on his hopes of support 
 in the House of Commons, and, much to Hardwicke's surprise, 
 told him that the Tory country gentlemen had given him 
 assurances of their good disposition and had treated him with 
 generosity and candour. To Hardwicke's inquiry as to con- 
 ditions Pitt answered, ' None at all : their action was quite 
 free and disinterested, with the object of keeping the ship from 
 sinking.' But he admitted to Hardwicke that he stiU had 
 many difficulties to contend with from intrigues at Court and 
 from the King, who, though gracious in giving him the seals, 
 had said nothing ' of which he could make a boast.' Hardwicke 
 then took leave, much reheved for himself and Newcastle, 
 and Pitt, not to be outdone in courtly ceremoniousness, said 
 ' he wished for the use of his leggs for nothing more than that 
 they might carry him to visit his lordship.' ^ 
 
 Hardwicke had smiled indulgently when Pitt told him of 
 his alliance with the country gentlemen, and was sceptical 
 about its duration. But he was wrong. On the following day 
 Barrington confirmed the news : ' The Tories,' he wrote to 
 the Duke of Newcastle, ' will support the new Administration 
 in a body, and I verily believe without having made any con- 
 ditions. Mr. Pitt told me he desired their countenance no 
 longer than they approved his conduct.' ^ While Pitt was 
 awaiting his election at Okehampton he had employed Potter,^ 
 his former opponent on the Seaford election, now a close 
 ally, to gain the Tory country party, composed of men 
 hitherto excluded from all hope of preferment and more noted 
 for their devotion to country pursuits than for diligent 
 attendance at Westminster. Pitt's programme and his clearly 
 
 1 Add,. MSS. 32869, f. 253. ' Hid- i- 266. 
 
 " See Potter's letters in Chatham MSS. 53. Potter mentions the foUowing 
 members as prepared to band together in support of one another and of Pitt : 
 Prowse, Northey, Beekf ord, Mordaunt, Tynte, Popham, Carteret, Sagott, Ward, 
 Grosvenor, Curzons, Affleck, Banks. 
 
 v2 
 
292 THE AWAKENING OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 expressed intention of making no party distinctions awoke 
 in them a new zeal for public affairs : ' they deserted their 
 hounds and their horses,' says Glover, ' preferring for once 
 their parliamentary duty, and under their new Whig leader, 
 the gallant George Townshend, displayed their banner for 
 Pitt.' 
 
 The commercial members, Beckford and others, were 
 always with him hand and heart ; and this alliance of Tories 
 and business men with Pitt lasted unbroken until his final fall 
 from power. Lord Westmorland, too, ' a veteran patriot, 
 slow but soHd,'Lord Talbot, and Lord Stanhope, Pitt's kinsman, 
 came forth from retirement to support the minister who, even 
 if he had not a solid majority in Parliament, had at his back 
 the Prince of Wales and his Court, the City, the clergy, the 
 army, the law, and the populace.^ The people acclaimed him 
 by what has become his most honourable title to fame, The 
 Great Commoner.^ 
 
 Having gained the goodwill of the people he was bent on 
 making them work. But first they had to be fed. Much of 
 the discontent during Newcastle's last year of office was due to 
 the distress caused by a sudden rise of 12s. in the price of corn. 
 Following Pitt's recommendation in the King's Speech, the 
 House set up an inquiry into the causes of this rise on the first 
 day of the session, and without loss of time proposed various 
 remedies, such as an embargo on corn for export, s a temporary 
 removal of the high duty on foreign corn, and permission to 
 sell duty-free corn captured from the enemy. These measures 
 did not immediately bring down the price, which rose to £3 
 a quarter in 1757. This and the increased war taxes found 
 
 1 vGlover's Memoirs. 
 
 ^ The first reference to this title for Pitt is probably that in The Test, 
 No. 8, January 1, 1757 : ' If our great Commoner were like other men.' In 
 No. 22, of AprU 9, 1757, occurs the phrase, 'a certain great commoner (so he 
 was lately called).' Pitt himself is said to have invented the name, when he 
 applied it to Sir John Barnard, the weU-kuowu member for the CSty, for 
 whom of all his opponents Walpole had the greatest respect. 
 
 ^ This action no doubt suggested to Lord Chatham a similar policy in 1766, 
 when he ordered an embargo of com by administrative order at a time when 
 Parliament was not sitting. Sir R. Peel (Memoirs n, 189) notes the action of 
 Parliament in 1756, 
 
THE|RALLY ROUND PITT 293 
 
 necessary by Pitt caused the people to murmur at some of ; 
 his measures, as they had against his predecessors ; but 
 before the end of the war corn had been brought down below 
 the price at which it had stood in 1755.^ 
 
 He next appealed to the dignity of Englishmen : ' I 
 want to call this country out of that enervate state that 
 20,000 men from Prance could shake it,' he had declared 
 in the previous session, and he began by teaching them 
 to rely on themselves alone. On December 11, in ful- 
 filment of his promise in the King's Speech, orders were 
 sent to the Admiralty to prepare transports for returning 
 the German troops to their own country : ^ before the end 
 of the year the Hanoverians had been sent out of England ; 
 the Hessians were kept some months longer to give time for 
 filling ' the dangerous gap ' in the defences of the country.^ 
 Even on this cardinal point of his policy Pitt was made to 
 feel his weakness in Parliament. The House of Lords, with 
 Devonshire's consent and in spite of violent protests from 
 Temple, actually thanked the King for having brought over 
 these foreign troops to defend our shores. Pitt only averted a 
 similar motion in the House of Commons by threatening ^ 
 instant resignation if it were carried. 
 
 To supply the place of the Germans fifteen new battalions 
 were raised, old regiments were increased, and additions made 
 to the Eoyal Artillery and the Marines.* Pitt also adopted 
 the bold experiment of raising two Highland regiments, drawn 
 from clans that had recently fought against the dynasty. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 * In 1755 the average price per quarter was 1 13 10 
 „ 1756 " " ""253 
 
 „ 1757 " " ""300 
 
 „ 1761 " " " " 1 10 3 
 
 At that time the ratio of imported corn to home-grown waa as 1 : 570, 
 hence the removal of the foreign duty was of infinitely less importance then than 
 it would have been later. (See Adam Smith, I, xi, for table of corn prices.) 
 - Beoord Office, S. P. Dom. Admiralty, 229. 
 
 ' Most of the Hessians disembarked at Stade on their return journey on 
 May 12, 1757. (Waddiagton, i, 399.) 
 
 * See Becord Office, ,S. P. Dom. Military, 189. Newcastle's Ministry had 
 decided to raise the fifteen new battalions in September, but left it to Pitt to 
 do so. (Kortescue, ii, 299.) 
 
294 THE AWAKENING OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 The experiment had been approved in principle by Cumberland 
 and even by Newcastle, but nobody had yet been bold enough 
 to attempt it. When Pitt, in his interview with Hardwicke, 
 told him of his intention, Hardwicke shook his head over the 
 dangers of enlisting men who were rebels ten years before ; but 
 Pitt was unmoved. It would ' gain the Scotch,' he said, and 
 would drain the Highlands of some disaffected clansmen, who 
 would fight well in North America and might not return thence.^ 
 At any rate he wasted no time in carrying out his purpose. 
 Within the first fortnight of 1757 commissions were issued to 
 Montgomery and Fraser, son of the old rebel Lord Lovat, to 
 command the two battalions, and warrants made out for 
 their estabHshment and equipment.^* Prasers, Macdonalds, 
 Macleans, Macphersons and others of disaffected clans were 
 rapidly enrolled. Pitt's courage was fully justified. Nothing 
 probably contributed so much to reconciling the Highlands to 
 British rule as this act of confidence in allowing the clansmen 
 to fight for the King in America, in Germany and in India : 
 and the two battalions earned by their conduct Pitt's fine 
 praise of them and of his own experiment : ' I sought for 
 merit wherever it was to be found ... I found it in the 
 mountains of the north. I called it forth ... an hardy and 
 intrepid race of men — men who . . . had gone well-nigh 
 to have overturned the State in the war before last. ... 
 They served with fidehty as they fought with valour, and 
 conquered for you in every part of the world.' ^ To awaken 
 Englishmen south of the Tweed to a consciousness of their 
 privileges and their corresponding duties, he reverted to his 
 militia scheme rejected by the Lords in the previous session. 
 Two days after the begiiming of the session it was brought 
 
 * Pitt possibly had in mind that many would remain there as settlers : it 
 is not necessary to adopt Hardwicke's cynical interpretation that most of them 
 would be killed off. In fact, the two regiments {77th and 78th) were dis- 
 banded at the peace, and grants of land in America were given to the men. 
 
 " Record Office. S. P. Dom. Military, 189. 
 
 " Speech of January 14, 1766. Pitt's merit was not in raising Highland 
 regiments, but in raising them from rebel clans. The Black Watch, the first 
 Highland regiment, was raised in 1739, and Highlanders had fought for 
 England at Fontenoy. (See Engl. Hist. Review for July 1902, p. 466 ; Col. 
 B. M. Lloyd's article.) 
 
FLEET, HIGHLAND REGIMENTS & MILITIA, 1757 295 
 
 in again by George Townshend : it was passed in the Commons, 
 and, though vehemently opposed in the Lords, became law 
 in June 1757. The scheme as passed differed little from 
 Pitt's original proposal.^ Each county of England and Wales 
 had to contribute a fixed quota of militiamen towards the 
 total of 32,000 ; 2 each man's service was determined by lot ; 
 the period of training, under the supervision of the lords- 
 lieutenant, was three years ; and on an emergency the King, 
 with the sanction of Parliament, could embody the militia for 
 service anywhere in England. This force was not merely useful 
 as a precaution against such humiliating panics as those of 
 1744, 1745 and 1756, but became a means of uniting hitherto 
 discordant religious and political elements in the countryside 
 by a bond of brotherhood and public duty. 
 
 Pitt had declared that England should ' put herself on 
 board her fleet,' ^ and he saw to it that the means were forth- 
 coming. He called for a list from the Admiralty of ships 
 ' requisite for the total stagnation and extirpation of the 
 French trade upon the seas and the general protection of that 
 of Great Britain upon the seas,' * and found that, whereas the 
 Admiralty required over two hundred men-of-war and frigates, 
 only 134 had been in commission in the proceeding April. 
 
 ' See above, pp. 278-9. The Act is 30 Geo. ii. c. 25. 
 
 ^ The Bill proposed 60,000 ; the Lords out it down to 32,000. 
 
 ' See above, p. 276. 
 
 * The list returned by the Admiralty is in Chatham MSS. 78. Dr. von 
 KuviUe is in error in quoting it (ii, 81) as the list of ships on the stations specified 
 in August 1756. This distribution (given below) is interesting as agreeing 
 in the main with what Chatham laid down as the naval requirements of England 
 in his speech of November 22, 1770 : a strong home squadron, a strong western 
 squadron, and a strong fleet based on Gibraltar. 
 
 
 Line 
 
 Frigates 
 
 Armed 
 Vessels 
 
 Bomb- 
 ketches 
 
 Kre-sliips 
 
 W. Indies and N. America 
 E.Indies 
 
 Coast of Gt. Britain and Ire- 
 land and for convoys. 
 French Coast and Bay . 
 Mediterranean 
 
 32 
 
 8 
 
 23 
 31 
 
 29 
 
 22 
 4 
 
 20 
 17 
 16 
 
 26 
 
 30 
 30 
 40 
 
 6 
 4 
 
 4 
 2 
 
 Totals 
 
 125 
 
 79 
 
 126 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
296 THE AWAKENING OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 A vigorous start, therefore, was made with the shipbuilding ; 
 a new make of frigate, especially adapted for the swift and 
 vigorous actions suited to Pitt's ideas of warfare, was designed ; 
 within four years the navy was brought up to a total of 412 
 ships of all classes ; and in his first year of office the House of 
 Commons was asked to vote the unprecedented number of 
 55,000 sailors.^ The Admiralty, with Temple as First Lord, 
 was at this time entirely controlled by Pitt ; even a ship with 
 a cargo of pork could not leave Cork without a convoy, save 
 with his express sanction.^' Under his masterful rule the 
 Admiralty soon learned that in rapidity of preparation and 
 in overcoming difficulties ' nothing is impossible.' 
 
 Plans of offensive warfare were not delayed until all these 
 preparations were completed ; work on them was begun at once. 
 It was needed. In America, Pitt's chosen theatre of war, the 
 English cause seemed almost desperate. The French had all 
 the advantage of position. From Fort Duquesne they could 
 harass the western borders of Pennsylvania, Maryland and 
 Virginia ; Forts Frontenac, Oswego and Niagara gave them 
 command of the western approach to Canada, Crown Point and 
 Ticonderoga of the approach from New York by the Lake 
 Champlain route farther east, Louisburg of the naval approach 
 by the St. Lawrence. Their 7,000 regular troops in Canada and 
 a good colonial militia, if well handled, were ample for offence 
 as well as defence against the EngUsh forces as then organized ; 
 and in May a small cargo of talent, worth many regiments, had 
 arrived at Quebec — Montcalm with his staff officers, de Levis, 
 Bourlamaque and young Bougainville. Finally, the victory 
 over Braddock in 1755 and the capture of Oswego in 1756 had 
 filled the French troops with hope and zest for the fight. The 
 English, already disheartened by defeat, had a much longer 
 line to defend with fewer troops, for though the regulars then in 
 America were 8,000 strong, the provincial levies could not be 
 depended upon as the Canadian militia. The Indians were 
 deserting a losing cause and flocking to the French. From the 
 governors of Georgia and South Carolina came doleful tales 
 of Indian outbreaks, of a French raid expected from the 
 
 '■ See Clowes, iii, 5-8. ^ Record Office, Foreign, Various, 68. 
 
PLANS FOR AMERICA 297 
 
 Mississippi province, and of no more than a few hundred 
 rangers to cope with them. There was no English commander 
 to match Montcalm. After Braddock's death, Shirley, Webb 
 and Abercromby had in turn held his post, which in July had 
 been taken over by Lord Loudoun — another offshoot of 
 Cumberland's school of ' corporals and sergeants.' Newcastle 
 evidently had no conception of the problem involved ; he had 
 sent only two regiments with Loudoun to replace Braddock's, 
 lost on the Monongahela, and had proposed to send but one 
 more in 1757. Yet without overwhelming strength on sea and 
 land it would have been impossible to defeat the French. 
 
 On December 16, 1756, a fortnight after he had received 
 the seals, Pitt called a Cabinet, at which it was resolved to 
 send an ' expedition of weight,' not less than 8,000 men and 
 a fleet, to America. On the 22nd he wrote to Loudoun to 
 make preparations on his side for an active campaign. On 
 January 1 orders were sent to the Admiralty to take up and 
 victual transports. Extra suppUes of food and bedding were 
 to be put aboard these, in case Loudoun had nothing ready for 
 the troops on landing, also fishing seynes ' to catch fish for the 
 refreshment of the men.' This last requisition Pitt heard the 
 Admiralty had neglected. ' Mr. Pitt depends on orders being 
 sent by this night's post to Portsmouth,' writes his secretary, 
 ' with regard to the fishing seynes, with the proper cordage for 
 them and leads for the fishing lines ; ' ^ and special orders about 
 them were also sent to Cork. While keeping a watchful eye 
 on the transports, Pitt was also preparing the seven regiments 
 chosen for this service from the Irish establishment. First 
 he insisted they should be brought up to full strength. 
 Difficulties were raised by Cumberland as to the mode of 
 recruiting. On this Pitt writes to Devonshire on January 30 : 
 
 I cannot delay a moment in saying that this method of augment- 
 ing the body cannot be in time, as the expedition ought to sail in 
 February. The train also is quite inadequate to the service ; but 
 twelve 24-pounders, and other suppUes much too stinted. I am 
 confident I may speak freely to your Grace, because I know you 
 
 1 Record OfBoe, Adm. Sec, Ill-Letters, 4121. 
 
298 THE AWAKENING OP THE PEOPLE 
 
 love youx country, and are as much convinced as I am ttat efiorts 
 in America alone can save us ; 
 
 and later, ' my whole heart is so fixed on the efforts of this 
 summer not being frustrated that I am in danger of becoming 
 troublesome and tiresome upon this interesting subject.' ^ 
 Besides the recruiting, he sees himself to the troops being 
 brought to time to the port of embarkation, sending 
 particular directions to Bedford as to the stages of their 
 march to Cork and Kiasale. He sends reminders to the War 
 Office about their ammunition-flints and their tents ; on 
 January 28 gives directions about the battering train to accom- 
 pany them ; and a fortnight later writes to the Admiralty to 
 hurry forward its transport. On February 7 he judges prepara- 
 tions forward enough to order the Admiralty to send twelve 
 ships of the Hne with frigates to await the transports at Cork 
 and escort them to America. 
 
 Three days before, he had written his ideas about the 
 campaign to Loudoun and the American governors so that 
 they might know what to be about, and on the 19th has ready 
 his full instructions to Admiral Holburne and General Hopson, 
 commanding the land and sea forces of the expedition. On 
 the arrival of reinforcements, in April as Pitt hoped, Loudoun 
 would have 17,000 regular troops in America. He was at 
 once to attack Louisburg in co-operation with the fleet. Seeing 
 that in the last war it had been captured by only 3,500 pro- 
 vincials, Pitt judged that Loudoun with his 17,000 regulars 
 should make quick work and certainly be master of it in May. 
 In June, when the St. Lawrence was ice-free, a dash should 
 be made for Quebec. The King thinks, he wrote, ' these two 
 places the great objects of offensive operations for the ensuing 
 campaign in America, and judges the taking of Louisburg 
 to be the more practicable enterprise ' ; but Loudoun was 
 not tied down to any hard and fast rules : if he found it better 
 to attack Quebec first he was left at perfect liberty to do so. 
 In his instructions Pitt also lays great stress on the need 
 for ' good agreement ' between the fleet and the army, and bids 
 
 ^ Torrens, ii, 347, 353. 
 
PITT'S SYMPATHY WITH AMERICANS 299 
 
 Holburne and Loudoun beware of wasting time on councils 
 of war before every trifling operation, and to act promptly 
 on their own responsibility. 
 
 With the American colonists Pitt adopted an entirely 
 new tone. The dispatches of Braddock and Loudoun and of 
 most of the governors had hitherto been full of complaints 
 of their unwillingness to fight or to pay for their own defence, 
 and the language of Whitehall had re-echoed these carping 
 criticisms. Pitt changed all that. He treated them as he 
 had the people of England and Scotland — ^with confidence, 
 and appealed to their patriotism. He refused to entertain 
 a suggestion of Halifax and the Committee of Trade to raise • 
 a tax on them by a stamp duty ; on the contrary, inquired how ! 
 the poorer southern colonies could best be assisted by the ' 
 mother-country.^ At the same time that he sent Loudoun 
 his instructions he wrote circular letters to the governors, 
 ' captivating the people ' of America by a frank statement 
 of his plans and inviting them to lend their aid : 
 
 The King, having nothing more at heart than the preservation of 
 his good subjects and colonies of North America, has come to a 
 Resolution of acting with the greatest vigour in those parts, the 
 ensuing campaign, and aU necessary preparations are making for 
 sending a considerable reinforcement of troops together with a 
 strong squadron of ships, for that purpose, and in order to act 
 offensively against the French in Canada. . . . The King doubts 
 not but that the several Provinces, truly sensible of his paternal 
 care in sending so large a force for their security will exert their 
 utmost endeavours to second and strengthen . . . ofiensive operations 
 against the French . . . and wUl not clogg the enlistments of the 
 men, or the raising of the money for their pay &c. with such limita- 
 tions as have been hitherto found to render their service difficult 
 and inefiectual.2 
 
 * See letter of January 21, 1757, from Commissioners of Trade and 
 Plantations, in answer to Pitt's of January 3, in Eecord Office, G. 0. 5.7. 
 In the following November an elaborate plan for taxing the colonies was 
 proposed to Pitt by Brigadier Waldo with like success (ibid. 5.52 : Waldo to 
 Pitt, 10, November, 1757. See also Pitt's speech of January 14, 1766, 
 vol. ii, p. 193.) 
 
 ' Particulars of Pitt's directions for the American campaign may be seen 
 in Kimball's Correspondence and in Bccord Office, Adm. Sec. In-Letters, 4121 ; 
 S. P. Dom. Adm. 229 ; S. P. Dom. Military, 189. 
 
300 THE AWAKENING OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 While seeing to the expedition for America, Pitt had his 
 eye on the French elsewhere. On December 21, 1756, the day 
 before he sent his first letter to Loudoun, he received a despair- 
 ing account from the Secret Committee of the East India 
 Company of the state of affairs in India : Bussy's intrigues and 
 Dupleix's victories had brought most of the chief native power 
 under French control ; fresh armaments were expected from 
 France, against which the Company had less than 2,000 English 
 and native soldiers to put into the field and only five ships 
 under Watson to protect their coast ; expenses were rising ; 
 and Aldercron, the colonel commanding the King's troops 
 in India, was creating endless difficulties. Had they but known 
 they could have added one more tale of horror ; but news 
 of the Black Hole of May 20, 1756, did not reach England till 
 June 1757. On Christmas Day Pitt called a Cabinet to consider 
 this letter, and it was resolved to reinforce the Company with 
 four or five more ships. Pitt sent the orders to the Admiralty 
 on January 2, on the 4th wrote to Watson with instructions 
 to co-operate heartily with the Company's officials, three weeks 
 later recalled the impracticable Aldercron, but allowed his 
 regiment to re-enlist for service in India, and, when news came 
 that a company of artillery for India had been lost at sea, sent 
 urgent orders to Gravesend for another company to be em- 
 barked forthwith, i 
 
 Fighting the French in India and America was not enough 
 for Pitt. Wherever they menaced England or could be made 
 to suffer, he was ready to give battle. On January 19 he 
 got a letter from the Governor of Jamaica complaining of the 
 exposed state of the West Indies and asking for the regiment 
 stationed there to be brought up to strength ; on the 26th 
 he sent orders to the War Office to comply with the request. 
 On the same day a letter came to him from the Quaker 
 merchant, Cumming, suggesting a plan for turning the French 
 out of their settlements at Port Louis, Podor, Galam and 
 Goree on the Senegal coast of West Africa. Pitt sent for 
 him, heard all he had to say, and on February 1 wrote him a 
 
 1 Record Office, Foreign, Various, 68, S. P. Dom. Adm., 229 ; 8. P. Dom. 
 Military, 189 ; and Chatham MSS. 74, for the Cabinet counca. 
 
NAVAL AND OTHER EXPEDITIONS PLANNED 301 
 
 letter accrediting him to the native chief, who had promised 
 help, and announcing that an expedition would be equipped. 
 In a month's time orders for the small squadron, the marines 
 and the engineer asked for by Gumming, were at the Admiralty 
 and the Ordnance Of&ce.i 
 
 In European waters Prance had it all her own way when 
 Pitt came to power. Hawke had been unable to do anything 
 against the Toulon fleet after the capture of Minorca, and had 
 returned to England in October ; the French had then slipped 
 over to Corsica, which they captured without difficulty and 
 thus got almost entire control of the Mediterranean. From 
 EngUsh consuls at the Itahan and Spanish ports came constant 
 complaints that our shipping was at the mercy of the French ; 
 the consul at Leghorn wrote that the coast was swarming with 
 French privateers ; even the Maltese obstructed our trade ; 
 and the Barbary corsairs had lost all fear of English vengeance 
 for their acts of piracy. A few English privateers, chief of 
 whom was the once famous Portunatus Wright, alone reminded 
 the seafaring folk of the South and the Levant that the name 
 of England had once been dreaded in the Mediterranean. 
 Pitt trusted more for relief to bold attacks on the enemy's 
 extremities than to blockading squadrons ; but as long as 
 fleets were making ready in French ports he strained every 
 nerve to destroy them as they came out. Before pro- 
 viding for his distant expeditions he made an attempt to 
 regain the superiority in home waters. His first recorded act 
 of administration, on December 9, was to order the largest 
 available squadron to rendezvous at Spithead, to meet the 
 French fleet reported to be preparing in Eochefort. As soon 
 as possible he reinforced Saunders at Gibraltar and Temple 
 West blockadiag the Biscay ports. But the ships could not 
 be got ready fast enough. Before they came, Saunders had 
 been unable to stop a French squadron sailing from Toulon 
 to Louisburg ; from the Biscay ports de Beauffremont, bound 
 
 1 See Record Office, Ool. Cor., Sierra Leone., 12, and Chatham Corr. i, 221. 
 Gumming himself, according to Smollett, declared that his scheme could be 
 accomplished TOthout the eflEuaion of human blood — as in fact proved the 
 case — otherwise, as a Quaker, he would not have proposed it ; and at any rate 
 he desired that his brethren should not be chargeable with his own single act. 
 
302 THE AWAKENING OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 for the West Indies, de la Motte for Halifax, and d'Ache for 
 the Coromandel coast eluded West's vigilance. 
 
 For the protection of the Levant and Mediterranean 
 commerce Pitt also employed diplomacy. Spain, Naples, 
 and Sardinia were the chief naval powers besides France, 
 and to retain their friendly neutrality Pitt spared no 
 pains. Wall, the new prime minister of Spain, had been 
 a friend of his when ambassador at St. James's,^ and 
 Pitt, on assuming office, hastened to recall their former 
 friendship and to make use of it to enter into confidential 
 relations with him. To confirm Spain in her neutrality Pitt 
 was most accommodating about matters in dispute between 
 the two countries, and showed his confidence in Wall by 
 giving him early information of the American plans. 
 Wall needed no persuasion to remain neutral, and resisted the 
 baits offered him by France and the Empress to attach him to 
 their side. The same open behaviour was equally successful 
 with Naples and Sardinia. The King of Sardinia was too 
 close to French and Austrian territory to declare his satisfaction 
 publicly, but gave concessions to EngUsh traders ; Don Carlos 
 paid no heed to the intrigues of his French cousin — partly out 
 of weakness, partly from gratitude to Pitt for excluding the 
 Bay of Naples from the enterprises of Fortunatus Wright 
 and his fellows. It was an inestimable benefit to England 
 during the early years of the war that Pitt managed to keep 
 the Mediterranean Powers in good humour. Had it not been 
 so, we might well have entirely lost our Mediterranean and 
 Levant trade during the war, and our consuls would have 
 been driven from the ports whence they constantly sent Pitt 
 timely information of French naval preparations.^ 
 
 In his continental policy Pitt laid himself more open to 
 criticism for a change of attitude. Hitherto he had sweepingly 
 condemned any participation in a continental war except 
 
 ^ Elizabeth Wyndham tells Lady Hester in 1749 she had seen Pitt with 
 Wall and others driving furiously to Datohet one summer day, to dine there and 
 return the same day (Chatham MSS. 34). They had also drunk the waters 
 together at Tunbridge. 
 
 ' For Pitt's dealings with these countries, see Record Office, Foreign, 
 Various, 68. 
 
DIPLOMACY ; THE CONTINENTAL WAR 303 
 
 for the defence of the Low Countries, and had been especially 
 severe on any regard shown to the particular interests of 
 Hanover in our policy. Only in the summer he had told 
 Newcastle and the House of Commons that even from a 
 military standpoint it was absurd to attempt the defence of 
 the flat plains of Hanover : if the electorate suffered in an 
 English quarrel her losses must be made good at the peace. 
 But, whatever he might have done had he been perfectly 
 free, he found, when he came into office, a treaty in existence 
 with Prussia, which committed the country to take some 
 part in the continental war. By the second article of this 
 treaty, signed on January 16, 1756, England and Prussia were 
 bound to resist any attempt by a foreign Power to introduce 
 troops into Germany. ' By that treaty, the honour of the 
 Crown and the honour of the nation were equally engaged,' 
 said Chatham fourteen years later,^ and he was the last man 
 to repudiate such an obligation. He had to consider how to 
 keep this pledge without diverting attention from England's 
 main object of crushing France as a naval and colonial power. 
 Fortunately he had in Frederic an ally who saw as clearly 
 as himself where the real interests of England lay, and was 
 too wise to ask her to undertake the aimless adventures 
 in Germany favoured by Carteret and Newcastle. Before 
 starting on his march to Dresden Frederic had asked for a 
 Hanoverian and Dutch army to hold the Ehine against France 
 and for an English fleet in the Baltic to overawe Eussia. 
 Soon afterwards Newcastle fell, and EngUsh pohticians were too 
 much occupied with the domestic crisis to pay much attention 
 to Frederic, who lost patience and said England would do 
 better to think of external dangers than of internal intrigues. 
 Forgetting his previous commendations of Pitt,^ he said, on 
 seeing a list of the new Ministry, that he knew none of them 
 except Holderness, ' un galant homme et un sujet de grande 
 capacite et de merite,' a judgment less acute than were most of 
 Frederic's. But he sent over three memoirs on Enghsh poUcy, 
 
 ^ In his speech of November 22, 1770. 
 
 2 See above, p. 148. This forgetfulness of Frederic's is an indication how 
 much Ktt had lost ground during his faithful service with the Pelhams. 
 
304 THE AWAKENING OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 which came into Pitt's hands in December, 1756.^ In these 
 he pointed to the complete success of Prance in the preceding 
 year and made a forecast of her future plans : to drive the 
 English out of Madras and out of America, to" overrun Hanover 
 and Cleves, and to destroy English trade in the Mediterranean. 
 Coming to England's best policy he advised a bold offensive 
 in Canada and in India, descents on the French coast and 
 the capture of Corsica ; on the Continent England should 
 send an army of German auxiliaries to hold the Ehine against 
 a French invasion of Hanover, detach Denmark from France, 
 and keep Eussia quiet. But Frederic neither asked nor 
 expected England to help him in his own main operations 
 against the Empress-Queen, because he saw that she would 
 be serving his purpose better, as well as her own, by holding 
 his right flank against Prance. 
 
 Pitt accepted Frederic's plan almost unchanged. The 
 vigorous offensive in Canada and India and the descents on 
 the French coast talhed with his own ideas ; the plan of an 
 army of observation on the Ehine he adopted, partly as a 
 necessary consequence of the alHance, and very soon from 
 a growing conviction that it was the country's interest to help 
 Frederic in diverting France's energy from the colonial struggle. 
 The only alternative would have been to consent to a neutrality 
 for Hanover, which the King early in 1757 secretly attempted 
 to secure from Vienna. The Austrian Court was prepared to 
 agree to this if a free passage through Hanover were granted 
 to the French troops. But Pitt set his face against this base 
 desertion of Frederic and by his opposition put an end to the 
 negotiation.^ He already saw that the defence of Hanover 
 was necessary not merely for electoral purposes, but to 
 prevent the French army now gathering on the Ehine 
 from closing the circle on England's only effective ally. 
 At the end of December Holderness informed Frederic that 
 his plan was accepted and that an army of observation 
 would be formed near Wesel, the fortress defending the 
 passage of the Ehine to Hanover. At a Cabinet meeting 
 
 ' The memoirs are to be seen in Chatham M8S. 89. 
 
 " Waddington, Ouerre de Sept Ans, i, 169, sqq. ; and Corbett, i, 153. 
 
PITT AND FREDERIC THE GREAT 305 
 
 on January 16, 1757,^ Frederic's suggestion for a treaty of 
 subsidy with Denmark was agreed to, but the Danes were 
 already too deeply committed to France to consent to more than 
 neutrality. On February 17 — the first day, it was malevolently February 
 noted, he had been able to appear in the House as minister — ^'^' ^''^'• 
 Pitt came with a message from the King, that seemed incon- 
 sistent with all his former professions, asking for power to 
 form an army of observation ' for the just and necessary defence 
 and preservation of . . . the electoral dominions and those of 
 my good ally the King of Prussia . . . against the irruption 
 of foreign armies and for the support of the common cause.' 
 
 Next day, on the vote for £200,000 for the King of Prussia, February 
 he explained his poUcy. The army of observation, 60,000 strong, ^^' ^'^^'^• 
 was to be composed of 36,000 Hanoverians and 24,000 Hessians 
 and Prussians. England would be at the expense of the 
 Hessians and Prussians only, for the King had agreed to take 
 the Hanoverians at the charge of the electorate ; and, since 
 Russia had not fulfilled her obligations, the £100,000 due to 
 her by treaty would be saved. He appears to have made no 
 apology for his own change of front, but explained the two 
 reasons that made this pohcy necessary — loyalty to our en- | 
 gagements with Prussia, and the danger of allowing France a 
 free hand in Germany while Frederic was taken up with the 
 Austrians and Russians. He attacked Austria for her ingrati- 
 tude after the sums lavished on her in the last war, and Russia 
 as a useless aUy ; and concluded with a glowing panegyric 
 upon Frederic, the sole champion besides England of the 
 liberties of Europe, which were threatened by the sinister 
 alliance between the two Cathohc powers, France and Austria.^ 
 Fox could not forbear reminding Pitt of his simile of the 
 millstone of German measures round the late ministers' 
 necks, and hoped this particular miUstone would be an 
 ornament to Pitt's,^ but no one else ventured to answer 
 
 ' Torrens, ii, 353. Pitt was not present at this counoU, owing to illness. 
 
 " Sanderson Miller, p. 353, where there is an account of the speech by 
 Jenkinson. Michel also gives an account to Frederic (Pol. Gorr. xiv, 344) and 
 the Saxon envoy to Briihl (Record Office, Confidential, February 22, 1757). 
 
 ' See above, p. 270. In a later speech Pitt retorted that a miUstone of March 11, 
 21b. might not sink a man while one of 41b. would ; it was not the same 1757. 
 thing to be fighting with the King of Prussia as against him. 
 
3o5 THE AWAKENING OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 a speech which Lyttelton thought the finest ever made in 
 the House of Commons. Tory and City merchant vied 
 with one another in cheering Pitt, whose pohcy seemed to all 
 ' just the happy medium in which we ought to steer.' Incon- 
 sistency there was in Pitt's new attitude ; but of this nobody 
 in the House cared to make much. Pitt himself thought httle 
 of the appearance of inconsistency. Newcastle's men were 
 well pleased to hear Pitt advocating their chief's German 
 measures, without inquiring closely into his reasons ; the Tories 
 and City men were converted to measures against which they 
 had always protested, by his clear statement of their changed 
 object. To them still, as Potter told Pitt, ' the bitter part of 
 the pill is Hanover, the sugar Plumb the King of Prussia.' i 
 We were no longer to fight in Germany mainly to defend 
 Hanover or the Empress-Queen's rights : the army there was 
 to play an intelligible part in world-wide operations directed 
 against the one enemy, France. 
 
 Frederic was no less pleased than the House of Commons 
 by Pitt's speech, with its generous tribute to himself and its 
 loyal appreciation of the alhance, and instructed his envoy 
 to comphment the Secretary in terms as warm and affectionate 
 as he could conceive. During the rest of Pitt's ministry the 
 confidence in each other felt by the two great leaders of their 
 time was never seriously shaken. To Pitt Frederic was the 
 Protestant hero ; while Frederic said of Pitt, ' England has 
 long been in labour, but at last she has brought forth a man.'^ 
 Each respected and understood the other's enhghtened 
 patriotism, and had a common object in the destruction of 
 France. Without Pitt's England to distract France, Frederic 
 knew he must be overwhelmed by the three hostUe powers 
 encompassing him ; without Frederic and the best army in 
 Europe to wear away more than half the French resources, 
 Pitt soon came to see that his dream of empire would be 
 unattainable. 
 
 This work of preparing expeditions to Germany, to America, 
 
 ' Chatham MSS. 53 (Potter to Pitt, undated). 
 
 ' This was aaid in October 1769 (Blssett, Mitchell, i, 171 ) ; see also letters 
 of Mitchell and Pitt in Chatham Corr. i, 124r-7. 
 
CABINET INTRIGUES 307 
 
 to India, and to West Africa, of equipping fleets, of raising new\ /' ,^ 
 regiments, and all the time reassuring and reanimating the 1/ 
 people of England had to be carried on under enormous diffi- ^ 
 
 lltiest:^ J)For the first Jhre_e__mflnths_Ql Jus Ministry Pitt was 
 so iUwith gout that he rarely appeared at Courfor in the House. ^ 
 He was forced to spend most of this time in bed at Hayes, , 
 
 his lately-bought house in Kent : here he worked, attended 
 by clerks in his office or ministers sent down by the King to 
 consult him.2 Even Cabinet Councils were held at his bedside. 
 Unfortunately few of his coUeagues could be trusted. Old y 
 Lord Granville was so effusively polite at Cabinet Councils 
 tHaTeven Pitt ' thought the dose a little too strong,' but he 
 told his friends privately that with all his ' great ideas Pitt 
 was impracticable.' 3 .None were capable of reheving him 
 of his burden ; Halifax: had ' not too partial a regard to the 
 body of which he was one ' ; * and Holderness betrayed him 
 daily. Newgastle complained to Hardwicke that they had not 
 somebody stronger than Holderness ' behind the curtain ' : ^ 
 but Holderness proved useful enough for Newcastle's purpose. 
 He retailed with rehsh the slights put upon Pitt and his friends 
 by the King, revealed Cabinet secrets, carped at the decisions 
 taken there, and even apologised to the duke for his delay in 
 sending him important foreign dispatches, on the groimd that 
 he had been ' ordered ' to send them forthwith to Devonshire 
 and Pitt. The King, Pox, the Bedfords, the Duke of Cumber- / 
 land were all working against him ; Newcastle was holding his ( 
 hand only from fear of the inquiry still impending. The 
 opportunity for breaking him came just at a moment when 
 his popularity seemed on the wane. 
 
 Byng, for a person of his mean capacity, had a considerable 
 influence on the history of these years. Had he been more 
 
 '^See table at end of chapter for a survey of Pitt's activities during this 
 Ministry. 
 
 2 Political History of England, vol. ix (Leadam), p. 247, note. 
 2 AM. MSS. 32869, f . 268 ; 32870, f. 21. 
 
 * Historical MSS. Commission, Various, vol. iv, p. 37. 
 
 * Hardwicke unctuously responded that ' we must not be ministers behind 
 the curtain,' but seems to have had no scruples about gathering what informa- 
 tion he could from such a source. {Add. MSS. 32869, ff. 69, 76.) 
 
 x2 
 
3o8 THE AWAKENING OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 / enterprising, Minorca would probably not have been lost ; he 
 '' was the chief cause of Newcastle's fall ; he helped to bring 
 Pitt's first^Ministry to~an-find. The court-martial on the ad- 
 miral found, on February 14, 1757, that, though not guilty of 
 cowardice or disaffection, he had not ' done his utmost to take 
 or destroy every ship, which it shall be his duty to engage,' 
 or to relieve Port Mahon ; and, by their reading of the 12th 
 Article of War, felt they had no option but to sentence 
 him to death. They nevertheless considered the extreme 
 penalty too severe and recommended him to mercy. Pitt 
 took the same view. When the sentence was brought 
 February Up for discussion in the House on February 17 and 23, 
 17, 1757. ijg attacked the rigour of the Article, which was as severe 
 on cases of venial negligence as on treason or gross cowardice ; 
 February ' more benefit,' he said, ' would accrue, more honour redound 
 23, 1757. 4q King and country from the pardon of the unhappy admiral 
 than from his execution.' i But Newcastle's, Hardwicke's 
 and Anson's efforts to stimulate popular fury against Byng 
 had been only too successful : ^ the nation thirsted for his 
 blood, and regarded anybody, even a Pitt, who tried to save 
 him as an enemy of the country. Pitt was told to his face 
 in the House that Byng would be the means of turning him out 
 as well as the late ministers,^ he was abused in the City, 
 and he received numerous anonymous letters vHifyiag him 
 for the part he took in trying to mitigate the severity of 
 the sentence. A paper was handed to the King telling him 
 that Pitt ' has lost by this factious job all that he had acquired 
 with the City. If he presumes again. Sir, discard him ; your 
 people will stand by you.'* But Pitt was unmoved. On 
 the 24th he saw the King and attempted to obtain a pardon. 
 But the King was not to be moved by any consideration Pitt 
 
 ' This sentiment, oouoked in varying language, is attested by Walpole, 
 Almon and The Test. 
 
 ' Hardwicke and Anson, to their shame, assisted, while still ministers, in 
 supplying material for Mallet's pamphlet against Byng. (Torreus, ii, 368; and 
 Richmond, Papers Relating to the Loss of Minorca.) 
 
 ' Weston Underwood MSS., March 5, 1757 : E. Owen to Weston (Historical 
 M8S. Commission). 
 
 * See also letter from ' A Friend ' to Pitt, quoted in RuviUe, ii, 101. 
 
BYNG COURT-MARTIAL, 1757 309 
 
 could bring forward. Bedford and Temple added their 
 
 representations in the Closet, also in vain ; Temple, indeed, only 
 
 made matters worse by insinuating that Byng's conduct at sea 
 
 was no worse than the King's at Oudenarde. At last, however, 
 
 came a ray of hope. On Friday, 25th, Keppel, a member of the 
 
 court-martial, declared in the House that some of them had a 
 
 material statement to make in Byng's favour but must first be 
 
 absolved from their oath of secrecy. The execution was fixed 
 
 for Monday 28th ; unless a motion was made before the 
 
 Speaker put the Orders of the Day the last chance would be 
 
 lost. Horace Walpole, zealous for Byng, but at the moment 
 
 not a member of the House, appealed to Fox's generosity, but 
 
 he excused himself and left the House. At the last moment Sir 
 
 Francis Dashwood was found willing to make the motion. 
 
 Pitt thought members of the court-martial could have stated February 
 
 25 1757 
 their doubts to the King without an Act absolving them from ' 
 
 the oath of secrecy, but, having regard to their scruples, 
 
 suggested a Saturday sitting, and promised to ask the King's 
 
 leave to bring in a Bill. At a Cabinet Council hurriedly called 
 
 next day, Pitt drafted a message from the King alluding to 
 
 Keppel's statement in the House and granting a reprieve till 
 
 the matter could be cleared up. Granville and Eobinson 
 
 protested against the breach of privilege in this allusion to 
 
 proceedings in the House, but Pitt brushed aside such 
 
 technicalities ^ and carried his draft into the Closet. The King 
 
 sanctioned the message, but when told by Pitt that the House 
 
 of Commons wished the admiral pardoned, George II drily 
 
 retorted, ' Sir, you have taught me to look for the sense of my 
 
 subjects in another place than in the House of Commons.' 
 
 When Pitt brought in the message Fox at once fastened upon February 
 
 the breach of privilege. Pitt repHed with indignation that ^®' ^''^'" 
 
 the time had been too pressing to consult precedents : he had 
 
 not thought the life of a man was to be trifled with while 
 
 clerks were searching records. In informing the King of the 
 
 previous day's proceedings he knew he was only following the 
 
 sense of the House and thought it his duty to do so. What 
 
 would Fox have done ? — not have represented it ? or basely and 
 
 1 Add. MS8, 32870, f. 220, 
 
310 THE AWAKENING OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 timidly run away and hid his head as if he had murdered 
 somebody under a hedge ? Pitt's action was supported by 
 the general sense of the House, and the Bill absolving the 
 court-martial from their oath of secrecy was introduced and 
 hurried through all its stages in two days ; but it was rejected 
 in the Lords, because it appeared that, after all, the members of 
 the court-martial had nothing material to say. On March 14, 
 -^1757, therefore, Byng was shojt_on board The Monarch^ Pitt liad 
 done¥is utmost to upset a sentence whicE^E'e thought unjust, 
 and for a brief space lost some popularity thereby. But, as he 
 said in the debate, answering the King's taunt by implication, 
 ' May I fall when I refuse pity to such a suit as Mr. Keppel's, 
 justifying a man who lies in captivity and in the shadow of 
 death. I thank God I feel something more than popularity : 
 I feel justice.' 
 
 Many reasons now induced the King to shake off Pitt. 
 Though deferential in the Closet, ' he makes me long speeches,' 
 \ grumbled George II, ' which may be very fine but are greatly 
 ' beyond my comprehension ; and his letters are affected, 
 formal and pedantic. As to Temple, he is so disagreeable 
 a fellow there is no standing him.' The Byng affair had im- 
 \ paired Pitt's credit with the public, and some of his supporters 
 in the City were not yet converted to his change of front about 
 Germany. His allies the country gentlemen complained that 
 they were not enough consulted, and began to grow restive 
 under his haughty dictation. Many of his colleagues were 
 disloyal: even Legge, Pitt's particular nominee to the 
 Exchequer, was preparing to desert the sinking ship. His 
 long illnesses gave the impression that his work was 
 neglected, and he gained little credit for preparations which 
 had, as yet, shown no result. The Prussian envoy reported 
 to his master on April 1 that owing to constant indisposi- 
 tion Pitt had only had six audiences of the King and attended 
 only fifteen sittings of the House as minister ; Frederic 
 himself, in a fit of impatience, longed for a Ministry ' more 
 devoted to business and more hard-working than had been 
 those of the Duke of Newcastle and Mr. Pitt : one that would 
 take a serious and comprehensive view of the present condition 
 
PITT DISMISSED, 1757 311 
 
 of affairs in Europe.' 1 Fox thought that ' by his faults and 
 want of judgment ' Pitt had put himself in their power,^ 
 and helped to spread this view by weekly attacks on him in 
 The Test. The final blow came from the Duke of Cumberland. 
 At Frederic's request the duke had accepted the command 
 of the army of observation, but made it a condition that Pitt 
 should be dismissed before he went to take it up, for he would 
 not take orders from a secretary of state allied with the Princess 
 Dowager or be dependent on his goodwill for supphes and 
 reinforcements. Throughout March the King had been 
 sounding Newcastle and others for a successor to Pitt, while 
 Fox and Dodington were busy concocting a Ministry on the 
 convenient principle that ' capacity is little necessary for 
 most employments.' * Newcastle craftily advised that nothing 
 should be done until Pitt had obtained the suppHes for the year ; 
 by the end of the month this had been done. On Monday, 
 April 4, Temple was curtly dismissed. The King hoped Pitt 
 would take the hint and resign. But Pitt, who told Devonshire 
 he thought it more respectful to the King to wait to be dismissed, 
 and agreed with Temple that it would also be better policy, 
 went to Court as usual on Tuesday and Wednesday. On the 
 Wednesday afternoon, April 6, 1757, Holderness was sent to 
 demand the seals of him. Three days later Cumberland set 
 sail from Harwich with a light heart. 
 
 Pitt had never been more than a minister on sufferance. ^J 
 He had been forced upon the King by the country, but had no 
 majority in the House of Commons. Directly the people 
 seemed less zealous for him, Newcastle's majority counted 
 on returning to its own. But if the King and Cumberland ^ ' 
 had reckoned on Pift's waning popularity they were quickly . ^--- 
 undeceived. The news of his dismissal was the signal for y 
 one of the most remarkable revulsions of popular feeling ever 
 known in our history. The stocks fell at once. With hardly 
 an exception the press writers were on his side, describing him 
 in print or in caricature as ' The True Patriot,' the only saviour 
 
 1 Pol. Corr. xiv, 501, &o. 
 
 ' Historical MSS. Commission, Various, yi, 38, 39, 
 
 » Ibid, 
 
312 THE AWAKENING OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 of his country. The City's enthusiasm, momentarily quenched 
 by the Byng incident, blazed forth anew, and the freedom of 
 London was voted to him and Legge by the Common Council. 
 This example was followed by most of the chief towns of the 
 three kingdoms. The cathedral towns of Exeter, York, 
 Norwich, Chester, Worcester and Salisbury ; Bedford, Berwick, 
 Yarmouth, Tewkesbury and Boston ; the royal borough of 
 Windsor; Newcastle, Bristol and Bath; Dublin and Cork 
 in Ireland and Stirhng in Scotland all offered him and Legge 
 their freedom. Exeter inclosed her certificates in boxes of 
 hearts of oak ; from most of the other towns, in Lady 
 Hervey's words, ' it rained gold boxes.' ^ 
 
 This wave of feeling over the country was the real justi- 
 fication of Pitt's short-Hved Ministry. Though he had no 
 success in arms to point to, he had achieved what was of far 
 more importance for bringing the war to a successful issue. 
 He had found a people dispirited by failure, distrustful of 
 their Government, suspicious of treachery in their naval com- 
 manders, committed to mercenaries for their own defence, 
 yet willing enough to fight if told the object and the means. 
 Pitt had made clear what England was fighting for and how 
 she should set about it. J' The succour and preservation of 
 my dominions in America have been my constant care ; and 
 next to the security of my kingdoms they shall continue to 
 !be my great and principal object,' said Pitt, when he returned 
 ito power, in the King's Speech closing this long session. And, 
 "always in subordination to this principal object, operations 
 to weaken ' the ancient enemy of these kingdoms ' were to be 
 carried on in Africa, in the East and West Indies, and 
 in Germany. He had pointed out the means no less clearly. 
 In four months of office he had cleared the country of foreign 
 
 ^ In Chatham MSS. 74 ia a ' List of Gold Boxes.' Horace Walpole adds a 
 few more towns. He also mentions that a card was published representing 
 Pitt and Legge as Don Quixote and Sauoho Panza in a triumphal oar with the 
 motto, 
 
 Et sibi Consul 
 Ne plaoeat, servus ourru portatur eodem. 
 Pitt, aware of Legge's treachery with Newcastle, was not too weU pleased to 
 ; have him associated with himself in these honours. 
 
RESULTS OF PITT'S FIRST MINISTRY 313 f^''^. 
 
 f 
 
 soldiers and taught Englishmen to enrol themselves for their ' 
 own defence. In^the army and the navy he had aroused a 
 new spirit of vigour and determination, and by his example 
 had showiTthat old-fashioned regulations and dilatory methods 
 must curtsey to great occasions. Where there had been 
 distrust he had implanted confidence ; where there had been 
 disunion he had created unity by rallying men of all parties 
 in and out of Parliament to the common object of carrying 
 England victorious through her life and death struggle with 
 France. By a masterly stroke he had turned rebels into 
 staunch fighters for the Crown, and attached Scotland to the 
 Union as she had never been attached before. In the same 
 King's Speech he proclaimed this aim of unity : ' Let it be 
 your constant endeavour to promote harmony and good agree- 
 ment among my faithful subjects ; that by our union at home 
 we may be the better able to repel and frustrate abroad the 
 dangerous designs of the enemies of my Crown.' And all 
 this had been done at no sacrifice of his own convictions. 
 Trustiug the people and trusted by them, he was not afraid 
 to teU them when he thought them wrong. Eiots at home / 
 he suppressed with a stern hand ; the American provincials, 
 whom he loved, he never hesitated to remind of duties they 
 were inclined to forget in their quarrels with governors and 
 mutual jealousies ; in the Byng affair he had preferred 
 justice to popularity. Since Cromwell England had not seen 
 such a leader as Pitt.^ 
 
 ' The following table will give some idea of the extent and range of Pitt's 
 work during his first four months' ministry. 
 
314 THE AWAKENING OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 Table showing Mb. Pitt's Activities dubinq his mbst Ministey. 
 
 Date 
 
 To whom letters sent 
 
 Subject of orders, &c. 
 
 1756 
 
 
 
 Deo. 2 
 
 
 Pitt speaks on Address in House of 
 Commons. 
 
 „ 4 
 
 
 Pitt receives the seals of the Southern 
 Department. 
 
 „ 5 
 
 
 Pitt's interview with Hardwicke. 
 
 „ 9 
 
 Admiralty 
 
 CoUeot largest possible squadron at Spit- 
 head on news of French preparations. 
 
 ., 11 
 
 Admiralty 
 
 Orders to embark German troops (signed 
 by Holderness). 
 
 „14 
 
 Ambassador in Spain 
 
 Special compliments to Wall : wish to 
 keep friendly relations with Spain. 
 
 „16 
 
 
 Cabinet decides on ' expedition of 
 weight ' to America. 
 
 ,.18 
 
 Lord Lieutenant of 
 Shropshire 
 
 Riots in Shropshire. 
 
 .,21 
 
 From East India Com- 
 pany 
 
 Troubles in India. 
 
 ..22 
 
 Lord Loudoun 
 
 Sending reinforcements to America. 
 
 .,22 
 
 Governor Lawrence 
 
 Announces preparations for next cam- 
 
 
 (Nova Scotia) 
 
 paign. 
 
 „23 
 
 Admiralty 
 
 Ship may be sent with pork to Nova 
 Scotia without convoy. 
 
 „27 
 
 
 Cabinet decides to send four or five ships 
 to East Indies. 
 
 ..31 
 
 Mayor of Berwick and 
 
 Troops to be sent to Berwick to suppress 
 
 
 W. 0. 
 
 riots. 
 
 1757 
 
 
 
 Jan. 1 
 
 Admiralty 
 
 Take up and victual transports for 
 7,000 troops. 
 
 „ 2 
 
 Admiralty 
 
 Four ships and frigate to go to India. 
 
 ,. 3 
 
 Lords of Trade 
 
 What best help for Southern colonies in 
 America ? 
 
 ,. 4 
 
 Admiral Watson 
 
 Orders for fleet on Indian station. 
 
 „ 4 
 
 W. 0. 
 
 Commissions to Montgomery and staff for 
 new Highland battalion (Holderness). 
 
 „ 5 
 
 W. 0. 
 
 Commissions to Eraser and staff for new 
 Highland battalion (Pitt). 
 
 „11 
 
 Ambassador at Naples 
 
 English privateers not to operate in Bay 
 
 of Naples. 
 
 .,11 
 
 Ambassador at Constan- 
 tinople 
 
 Excite Turks against French. 
 
 „14 
 
 W. 0. 
 
 Warrant for arms for new Highland 
 
 battalions. 
 
 „19 
 
 From Lords of Trade 
 
 Governor of Jamaica asks for reinforce- 
 ments. 
 
 „21 
 
 From Lords of Trade 
 
 Report on Pitt's query of Jan. 3. 
 
 „25 
 
 W. 0. 
 
 Increase 22nd Foot by 320 men. 
 
 „26 
 
 W. 0. 
 
 Reinforce 49th Regiment in Jamaica by 
 320 men as Governor asks. 
 
 ,,26 
 
 From Thomas Gumming 
 
 Proposals for West African expedition. 
 
 .,27 
 
 Colonel Aldercron 
 
 To return from India but to allow his 
 regiment to re-enlist. 
 
 „28 
 
 Duke of Bedford 
 
 See to marching of six battalions to 
 Cork and Kinsale for Ajnerjoa, 
 
PITT'S FIRST MINISTRY 
 
 315 
 
 Date 
 
 To whom letters sent 
 
 Subject of orders, &e. 
 
 1757 
 
 
 
 Jan. 28 
 
 w. 0. 
 
 Prepare battering train for North 
 America. 
 
 „ 30 
 
 Duke of Devonshire 
 
 To press forward preparations for 
 American expedition. 
 
 „31 
 
 Admiralty 
 
 Detailed orders about American trans- 
 ports. 
 
 Feb. 1 
 
 Admiralty 
 
 Send those transports to Gork and take 
 up more for the Hessians. 
 
 „ 1 
 
 Thomas Gumming 
 
 Letter accrediting Gumming to West 
 African native chiefs : sending ex- 
 pedition. 
 
 „ 3 
 
 Admiralty 
 
 All sea-bedding to be lauded in America. 
 
 „ 4 
 
 W. 0. 
 
 Royal Horse Guards to be augmented. 
 
 ., i 
 
 Loudoun 
 
 Details of force to be sent to America. 
 Plans for campaign. 
 
 „ 4 
 
 Governor Lawrence 
 
 Ditto. ditto. 
 
 ., 4 
 
 Governor of Bhode 
 Island 
 
 Raise levies in your province. 
 
 „ 4 
 
 Governors of Southern 
 Provinces 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 ,, 4 
 
 Admiralty 
 
 Send off American dispatches at once. 
 
 „ 5 
 
 Admiralty 
 
 Stop French privateers' outrages in 
 Mediterranean. 
 
 ,, 6 
 
 Admiralty 
 
 Train of engineers to be transported to 
 America : see to victualling. 
 
 „ 7 
 
 Admiralty 
 
 Fleet for Holburne to be sent to Cork : 
 H. to receive orders from me. 
 
 ., 8 
 
 W. 0. 
 
 See to tents for America. 
 
 „ 9 
 
 Thomas Gumming 
 
 If African expedition succeeds promises 
 an exclusive charter. 
 
 „10 
 
 Admiralty 
 
 Transports with artillery, &o., to join 
 Holburne at once. 
 
 ., n 
 
 Admiralty 
 
 Fishing se3rQes to be provided for 
 
 Holburne. 
 Papers about Minorca required by House 
 
 „ii 
 
 W. 0. 
 
 
 
 of Commons. 
 
 „ii 
 
 W. 0. 
 
 Ammunition-flints required by battalions 
 for American service. 
 
 .,11 
 
 Ambassador in Spain 
 
 Tell King of Spain about our plans. 
 
 „15 
 
 W. 0. 
 
 Difficulties about raising Highland 
 battalions to be overcome. 
 
 „n 
 
 
 Pitt brings message to House of Com- 
 mons about Prussian treaty and army 
 observation. 
 
 „n 
 
 
 Pitt speaks about Byng affair in House 
 of Commons. 
 
 .,18 
 
 
 Pitt makes speech about grant of 
 £200,000 to Prussia. 
 
 „18 
 
 Ambassador at Turin 
 
 Tell King of Sardinia about our plans. 
 
 „19 
 
 Governor in North 
 America 
 
 Further details about expedition. 
 
 „19 
 
 Loudoun 
 
 Letter about plans and Instructions. 
 
 „19 
 
 General Hopson 
 
 Orders for troops to America. 
 
 „19 
 
 Admiral Holbume 
 
 Instructions, 
 
3i6 THE AWAKENING OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 Date 
 
 To whom letters sent 
 
 Subject of orders, &o. 
 
 1757 
 
 
 
 Feb. 19 
 
 W. 0. 
 
 Have those tents been seen to ? 
 
 ,. 22 
 
 Admiralty 
 
 Transports for 2,300 men to be taken up 
 for unspecified service. 
 
 „ 23 
 
 
 Pitt speaks about Byng affair in House 
 of Commons. 
 
 „ 24 
 
 
 Pitt tries to obtain Byng's pardon. 
 
 „ 25 
 
 
 Pitt speaks about Byng affair in House of 
 Commons. 
 
 „ 25 
 
 Ambassador in Spain 
 
 Immediate satisfaction will be given to 
 Spain about an outrage on her shipping. 
 
 „ 26 
 
 
 Cabinet about Byng affair. 
 
 „ 26 
 
 
 Pitt speaks about Byng affair. 
 
 „ 26 
 
 Admiralty 
 
 Byng respited to March 14. 
 
 ., 27 
 
 
 Pitt speaks about Byng affair. 
 
 „ 28 
 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 „ 28 
 
 Admiralty 
 
 Furnish fishing seynes for Holburne : 
 send them by special messenger to 
 Portsmouth. 
 
 Mar. 1 
 
 
 Pitt speaks on Prussian subsidy. 
 
 „ 1 
 
 Admiralty 
 
 Marines to be put in charge of any fort 
 captured in Africa. 
 
 „ I 
 
 Ordnance 
 
 Send engineer for West African ex- 
 pedition. 
 
 „ 8 
 
 W. 0. 
 
 Raise four new Companies of Royal 
 Artillery. 
 
 „ 10 
 
 Admiralty 
 
 Highland battalions to be sent to 
 Charleston and Halifax. 
 
 » u 
 
 
 Pitt speaks on Legge's budget. 
 
 „ 12 
 
 Envoy at Algiers 
 
 Refuses demands of Barbary corsairs. 
 
 „ 15 
 
 From Hopson 
 
 No fishing seynes come yet. 
 
 „ 16 
 
 Hopson 
 
 Am bustling Admiralty about them. 
 
 „ 17 
 
 Loudoun 
 
 Further instructions. 
 
 „ 17 
 
 W. 0. 
 
 Marching orders for Highlanders. 
 
 „ 17 
 
 Colonel Alderoron 
 
 Leave your artillery with East India 
 Company 
 
 „ 22 
 
 Governor of Gibraltar 
 
 Make accommodation for naval stores, &c. 
 
 „ 25 
 
 Ambassador in Spain 
 
 Approves his conduct. 
 
 „ 27 
 
 W. 0. 
 
 Ammunition for Highlanders. 
 
 „ 31 
 
 Colonel Fraser 
 
 Instructions. 
 
 „ 31 
 
 Colonel Montgomery 
 
 Instructions. 
 
 „ 31 
 
 Envoy in Berlin 
 
 Expresses admiration for Frederic. 
 
 April 1 
 
 Admiralty 
 
 Have given instructions to Gibraltar. 
 
 „ 1 
 
 W. 0. 
 
 re court-martial on General Shirley. ' 
 
 „ 4 
 
 
 Temple dismissed. 
 
 „ 5 
 
 W. 0. 
 
 Replace Company of artillery lost at 
 
 „ 5 
 
 Ambassador in Spain 
 
 sea by Bast India Company. 
 Approves conduct. 
 
 ,. 6 
 
 
 Pitt dismissed. 
 
 Most of the letters above mentioned are to be found abstracted in Record 
 Office, Foreign, Various 68. Others are in Record Office, S. P. Dam. Admiraltv 
 229, Admiralty Sec. In-Leiters 4121 ; S. P. Dom. Military 189 ; a few are in 
 the Chatham Oorr. and elsewhere. The Ust is not exhaustive, but sufficiently 
 indicates the range of Pitt's work during his fijst four months' ministry. 
 
CHAPTEE XI 
 
 ME. SECEETAKY PITT AT WOBK 
 
 Salisbury. The French are bravely in their battles set. 
 And will with all expedience charge upon us. 
 
 King Henry. AU things are ready, if our minds be so. 
 
 You know your places : God be with you all. 
 
 Shakespbabb, Henry V, iv, 3. 
 
 In his haste to get rid of Pitt and his friends George II had 
 hardly given a thought to their successors. After some diffi- 
 culty Winchelsea, chief of Carteret's black funereal Pinches, 
 consented to take the Admiralty, but ' without joy,' and 
 in the frame of mind in which he would have ' put himself 
 at the head of a company of grenadiers, if ordered to do so 
 by the King.' Others were less complaisant. Even Fox 
 and Dodington excused themselves from kissing hands for 
 the Pay Office and Treasurership of the Navy, the two most 
 lucrative posts in the Ministry. For three months of this 
 critical year the Exchequer and Pitt's department, where 
 most of the business of the war was transacted, were in the 
 hands of caretakers — Chief Justice Mansfield and Holderness, 
 Pitt's fellow-secretary. The affairs of the country were almost 
 at a standstill, since the ministers who remained in office 
 were too solicitous about their own predicament to pay much ' f^^ 
 attention to the nation's. For the second time George II J 
 had withdrawn his confidence from ministers in the middle ! 
 of a serious war without being able to replace them.^ It , 
 
 ^ For the first occasion, see above; p. 146. 
 317 
 
3i8 MR. SECRETARY PITT AT WORK 
 
 was chiefly due to Pitt that the country's interests did not 
 suffer more on this occasion. During the winter months 
 he had made all plans and issued all orders for the summer 
 campaign, leaving little for the home Government to do but 
 keep the different services up to the mark. 
 
 The chief obstacle to the construction of a stable Ministry 
 was that the inquiry into the loss of Minorca was not concluded. 
 If Fox and Dodington felt qualms about accepting office, 
 Newcastle, Hardwicke and Anson were not Hkely to jump at 
 it till they knew whether they were to be impeached or not. 
 In February the House of Commons had ordered returns to be 
 presented of all intelhgence received and preparations made 
 by the Newcastle Ministry,^ but did not begin reading over the 
 papers tiU April 19, after Pitt's dismissal. For four days 
 such documents as the office clerks had thought fit to produce ^ 
 were read out at wearisome length to an inattentive House. 
 On the 25th the debate on them began and lasted six days. On 
 
 April 26 — the 26th Pitt came down in great state to support the inquiry. 
 
 May 2, "VValpole noted his beaver waistcoat laced with gold, his red 
 surtout, the riding stockings over bis legs, and his right arm, 
 which, though swathed with fur and in a crape shng, in the 
 warmth of speaking ' he drew out with unlucky activity and 
 brandished as usual.' * Walpole would have us believe that 
 Pitt's warmth was merely simulated indignation. The Prussian 
 envoy thought otherwise, reporting that he was most anxious 
 to probe the matter to the bottom. At any rate, after ab- 
 senting himself from the House during most of the session, 
 he attended the rest of these debates and declared that if the 
 majority attempted to burke discussion he would walk out, 
 leaving the people without doors to draw their own conclusions. 
 In the course of the inquiry, however, he became convinced 
 that Anson, whom in the previous session he had denounced 
 
 ' On February 11, 1757, Pitt instructed his office to prepare these returns 
 according to the order of the House of February 8. Record Office, Foreign, 
 Variotts, 68. 
 
 ^ Walpole says Newcastle and Fox had taken care to remove all compromis- 
 ing documents from their offices. 
 
 " This was not necessarily a proof that Pitt was feigning illness, as Walpole 
 insinuates. In the heat of battle soldiers are oblivious even of m ounds. 
 
MINORCA ENQUIRY, 1757 319 
 
 as unfit to command a cock-boat on the Eiver Thames, was not 
 responsible for the disaster,^ and on the last day's debate 
 made no serious objection to the whitewashing resolutions 
 proposed by Newcastle's friends. Prom the first the result 
 was a foregone conclusion ; Newcastle had too strong a hold 
 over the majority to be in any danger. Fifteen resolutions 
 were passed on May 2, absolving everybody from blame ; 
 Newcastle and Fox, says Walpole, were surprised that they 
 were not actually thanked for losing Minorca.^ 
 
 Although he would allow no glozing over the facts, Pitt 
 evidently was not anxious to press hardly on Newcastle. He 
 had said as much to Hardwicke when he was minister ; he was 
 even less inclined to do so now. Since his fall he was becoming 
 convinced that the only chance of carrying out his plans for - 
 ' reassuring and reanimating the people ' was by the aid of ' 
 Newcastle's majority. His experience in office had taught 
 him what unsound ground he stood on in Parliament ; an 
 incident which occurred after he had left office strengthened 
 the conviction that he could do nothing there by himself. On May 20, 
 May 20 a message was brought from the King asking for a vote ^'^^'^• 
 of credit for £1,000,000 to carry on the war, without any state- 
 ment of the objects on which the money was to be spent. Pitt 
 protested against voting such a sum when, for aught they knew, 
 it might once more be devoted to the old system of paying 
 subsidies to small German principalities instead of conducting 
 with vigour a British and American war. If any subsidy were 
 to be given to Germany, at least let them be told it was for the 
 King of Prussia, news of whose great victory over the Austrians 
 at Prague had arrived that morning. 
 
 He indeed is a king who sees all, does all, knows all, does everything, 
 is everything ! If you would deal with such great masses, instead 
 of taking little things in the fond hope that they will make a great 
 one, there might still be hopes ; but don't go on subsidising Uttle 
 princes here and there and fancy that all together they will make a 
 King of Prussia. That Prince has never asked a subsidy . . . yet 
 
 ' See speech of November 22, 1770. 
 
 " For an account of these debates, see Walpole Memoirs and Gorr. ; Michel's 
 report, Pol. Cmr. xv, 83 ; Torrens, ii, 375 ; AM. MSS. 32871, f. 9. 
 
320 MR. SECRETARY PITT AT WORK 
 
 has raised the spirits of everybody who hopes for a decent end 
 of the war; for ofiensive operations alone must bring about a 
 peace. 
 
 But it was a voice crying in the wUderness. Pitt, without 
 power in the Closet, spoke to deaf ears. The money was voted 
 without any stipulation that it should be used to carry on the 
 war according to the policy he had inaugurated. 
 
 Pitt was not easily brought over to union with the Duke of 
 Newcastle. He feared his power in the House of Commons, 
 which made him ' so great that, if he comes in, he would be 
 sole minister ' ; and he feared his meddlesome intrigues even 
 more than his opposition. When there was some talk of a 
 Fox- Newcastle alliance, Pitt sent Newcastle a message through 
 Lord Granville that, even if such a junction were brought 
 about, he himself would come back before long, and that in 
 any case : 
 
 he himself was near fifty years old, broke to pieces with the gout, 
 and it would be of little consequence to him. But if he found the 
 Duke of Newcastle whispered in the Closet or gave any disturbance 
 in Parliament or spread anything about to the disadvantage of 
 the Administration, he might expect aU kinds of hostUity from 
 Mr. Pitt.i 
 
 When he had made up his mind that he could not get on 
 without the duke's aUiance he made known his conditions 
 to his supporter Glover. He spoke of his difficulties from the 
 prejudices of the Court and the vacillations of public opinion, 
 difficulties which could only be overcome by the support of 
 Newcastle and his cohorts, though he admitted that pubhc 
 misfortunes were more imputable to Newcastle than to any 
 man. 
 
 But what is to be done ? Do not imagine that I can be induced to 
 unite with him unless sure of power— I mean power over public 
 measures. The disposition of offices (except the few efficient ones 
 
 1 Add. MS3. 32870, f. 469. The message is undated, but placed among 
 papers relating to the end of April 1757. It was, however, probably Bent before 
 Pitt's dismissal on April 6. 
 
PITT UNITES WITH NEWCASTLE, 1757 321 
 
 of administration), tte creating Deans, Bishops, and every placeman 
 besides, is quite out of my plan, and I would willingly relinquish, 
 them to the Duke of Newcastle. 
 
 Newcastle had long been anxious for union with Pitt, as 
 
 the only means of checking the Duke of Cumberland, who, 
 
 having got the command in Germany, seemed to him bent on 
 
 holding England also in commendam through Pox. Stone, the 
 
 Primate of Ireland, who during the inter-ministerium did much 
 
 mole-work, told the Duke that an administration with Pitt in 
 
 it ' is what the whole nation calls for,' and the only one that 
 
 could give the King public tranquillity and domestic happiness.^ 
 
 But the duke always preferred crooked to direct methods. 
 
 Instead of approaching Pitt himself, in April he sounded 
 
 Legge in a furtive interview at Lord Dupplin's, chosen 
 
 because it had a back entrance to the park. The only 
 
 result was that Pitt, who heard of this, became more 
 
 suspicious of Newcastle. But Newcastle persisted, urged 
 
 Pitt's claims to the King, and finally, during May, induced Pitt, 
 
 accompanied by Bute, to have several interviews with himself 
 
 and Hardwicke. Newcastle's object was to retain all his 
 
 creatures and his influence in the Ministry, Pitt's to restrict 
 
 him to a sphere where he could not interfere in business. The 
 
 negotiations were at first broken off on Pitt's demand to have 
 
 George Grenville as Chancellor of the Exchequer to look after 
 
 Newcastle at the Treasury ; but Pitt afterwards yielded on this 
 
 point,2 and on June 3 the duke proposed to the King a 
 
 Ministry containing himself, Pitt and Temple. The King 
 
 then raised obstacles : Winchelsea, he said, must stay at the 
 
 Admiralty, Temple must be excluded, and Pitt's followers in 
 
 the Ministry were to be rigidly limited : ' I know,' he wrote, 
 
 ' that by inclination Pitt will distress my affairs abroad, which 
 
 are so enough already.' * 
 
 For the last two months George -II had privately been 
 trying to form a Ministry without Pitt. Fox jyas first pressed 
 
 1 Add. M3S. 32871, f. 61. 
 
 * On May 26 (see Add. MSS. 32997, f. 177). He also agreed then that Fox 
 might be Paymaster if the King's honour wag involved in giving him the post. 
 « Add. MSS. 35416, f. 228, 
 
 VOL. I. y 
 
322 MR. SECRETARY PITT AT WORK 
 
 to attempt the task, but gave it^ up after half-hearted 
 endeavours to persuade some of the second-rate politicians 
 to join his Ministry. Pox, besides being very sensible of 
 his own unpopularity in the City, where they declaimed 
 ' against Mr.— Fox and his military administration,';' had 
 not the public spirit to lead where there was a ribk of 
 failure, and was content to ask for himself the lucrative post of 
 Paymaster. Newcastle was also implored to see what he could 
 do without Pitt. He drew up a sketch of a Ministry with 
 Eobinson in Pitt's place, but found it would not pass muster 
 and dropped it hurriedly.'- On June 8th the King, in despera- 
 tion, called to the Closet Lord Waldegrave, an honest, sensible 
 nobleman, who had been governor to the Prince of Wales but 
 had no experience of politics and no liking for them, and told 
 him flatly to take the Treasury himself and consult Fox and 
 Devonshire about the rest of the Ministry. Waldegrave I 
 consented on Winchelsea's principle, but hated the task, which 
 was hopeless from the outset. Holderness, the sole remaining 
 Secretary, resigned at Newcastle's instigation. Waldegrave 
 had some gloomy meetings with Fox, Winchelsea, Bedford, 
 Granville, Egremont and Gower, and got cold comfort from all 
 but Winchelsea, the Duke of Bedford, who declared that the 
 administration would be the strongest ever known, and the 
 ever cheerful and indomitable Lord Granville. However, he 
 formed a skeleton Ministry. June 11 was the date fixed for 
 Fox to receive the seals of the Exchequer from the King ; 
 the other new ministers were in attendance to grace the 
 ceremony. First Mansfield was called into the Closet, formally 
 to deliver the seals which he had been keeping for two months. 
 The Chief Justice's audience was long, and, when he came out, 
 he still had the seals. His timidity was sometimes inspired by 
 common sense ; at this interview he told the King that the 
 country would not stand Fox and that such a ministry would 
 end in greater confusion than ever. At last the King gave 
 way and told Hardwicke to bring him the best ministry he 
 could. It was indeed time. Even the House of Commons 
 was becoming restive at the delay in forming a government. 
 
 1 AU. MSS. 35416, f. 212. 
 
PITT-NEWCASTLE MINISTRY, 1757 323 
 
 Once it refused to adjourn on the motion of a minor minister, 
 and on June 10, • after sitting an hour in silence and suspense,' 
 applauded George Townshend when he expressed a hope that 
 at its next meeting it would ' resume its ancient right (too 
 Long disused) of advising the Crown in this dangerous crisis.' ^ 
 On June 18, after several more meetings with Newcastle, 
 Bute and Pitt, Hardwicke brought the King a list of a ministry 
 on which they were agreed. Some further delay arose about 
 legal appointments which made Pitt very impatient, as well 
 he might be in the critical condition of the country : 
 
 I should be very sorry [be writes to Hardwicke on June 26] that 
 any minuticB should retard the execution of a plan which every 
 hour is becoming more necessary for the King and kingdom ; but 
 when it is considered what mutilations and changes, in essentials, 
 the paper of arrangements has undergone, I trust your lordship 
 will be of opinion that it is quite necessary for me to see what little 
 remains of the system proposed go into execution at one and the 
 same time. On that foot, I am ready, any day, to begin to take 
 my part whatever forebodings of mind I carry about me. 
 
 On that very day everything was settled, and on June 29, 1757, 
 the new ministers kissed hands. Waldegrave, who went ' to 
 entertain himself with the iimocent, or perhaps ill-natured 
 amusement of examining the different countenances,' said 
 that Pitt and his friends ' had neither the insolence of men 
 who have gained a victory, nor were they awkward and dis- 
 concerted, like those who come to a place where they know 
 they are not wanted.' 
 
 Pitt himself on entering his great Ministry once more 
 changed his seat in ParUament. Bath, his second home, and 
 a borough uninfluenced by any patron, had a vacancy. The 
 corporation, with whom then rested the right of election, 
 unanimously asked him to stand ; Ealph Allen managed 
 everything for him ; and he was not even called upon to be 
 present at the election on July 8. On the following day a 
 member of the corporation wrote to him : ' I believe your 
 election may be easily secured to you as long as you Hve . . . 
 
 1 Add. MSa. 32871, i. 266. 
 
 y2 
 
324 MR. SECRETARY PITT AT WORK 
 
 you have not only the vox corforationis but also the vox popuU, 
 which I hope you will ever retain.' ^ 
 
 After his part in setthng the Ministry Hardwicke declared 
 with pardonable self-satisfaction that it was looked upon 
 as the strongest administration that had been formed for 
 years. ' Then this thing is done, and, my lord, I thank you 
 ^heartily,' said the King, and seemed a changed man. Pitt's 
 / great object had been to retain control of the chief executive 
 ; offices ; and he had succeeded. He returned to his office 
 of~Becretary of State for the Southern Department and still 
 had the pHable Holderness as his colleague in the Northern 
 Department. Viscount Barrington, a fair administrator, who 
 then professed to be a follower of Pitt, was kept at the War 
 Office.^ The Admiralty had been a difficulty. The King 
 would not hear of Temple, or of Legge, who was Pitt's second 
 choice. Hardwicke then suggested his son-in-law Anson, 
 an idea welcomed by the King and Newcastle and readily 
 concurred in by Pitt and Bute.s But Pitt insisted that the 
 rest of the Navy Board, so vital to his plans, should consist 
 of his friends.* Newcastle returned to the Treasury with 
 Legge as Chancellor of the Exchequer and James Grenville 
 a junior lord as a counterpoise to Newcastle's friends Nugent 
 and Duncannon. George GrenviUe was again Treasurer of 
 the Navy and Pox became Paymaster — with a warning from 
 the King that if he interfered with the House of Commons 
 he would turn him out.^ Henley, an Oxford contemporary of 
 
 * Chatham MSS. 38 : J. Grist to Pitt. The seat at Bath was vacated by 
 Henley, when he became Lord Keeper. On July 26 Pitt had applied to 
 Newcastle for the Chiltem Hundreds, for, though dismissed, he had not been 
 superseded and was therefore held not to have a new appointment. 
 
 2 Barrington even adopted Pitt's language. In a debate of May 2 it was 
 noted, he professed ' no attachment to persons but to things.' 
 
 ' Calcraft says this appointment of Pitt's was unpopular. (Chatham MSS. 
 86, July 8, 1757.) 
 
 * Admirals Boscawen and Temple West, Hay, T. O. Hunter, his former 
 agent at the Pay Office, Gilbert Elliot and Admiral John Forbes. When West 
 died in August Anson was anxious to get Sir Edward Hawke in his place. 
 ' Mr. Pitt,' says Lady Anson, ' very civilly and reasonably says . . . that as 
 there was nobody on it [the Board] whom Lord Anson had chosen he thought 
 it very proper he should recommend him now.' But Newcastle had a politician 
 for whom he wanted a job. (Anson, Anson, p. 149.) 
 
 s AU. MSS. 32871, f. 216. 
 
PITT KEEPS CONTROL OF BUSINESS 32^ 
 
 Pitt, became Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, Temple Lord Privy- 
 Seal. Hardwioke had hoped that his son Charles Yorke would 
 succeed Henley as Attorney-General, but Pitt insisted on the 
 appointment of his old Eton comrade, Pratt, the most liberal- 
 minded lawyer of the day. Lord Granville stayed on as Lord 
 President, Devonshire was consoled for the loss of the Treasury 
 with the Chamberlain's staff, and Bedford was made Lord-Lieu- 
 tenant of Ireland. It was a Ministry, unhke Pitt's first Ministry, 
 formed on the broadest basis and therefore more in conformity 
 with his considered theory of administration. The Newcastle 
 faction, the Bedfords, Cumberland, Leicester House, Pitt's 
 own following, and even the Tories, all had their representatives 
 in the Ministry. With Newcastle's obedient majority in the 
 -House of"-6omffiions to support him, and the City men and 
 Tories constantly faithful to him, Pitt was himself in the 
 position of a ^ctator. His experience from 1754 to 1757 had 
 taught him that a majority so obtained was not a wholesome 
 condition for Parliament ; but this was not the time to con- 
 sider constitutional reforms. In the middle of a great war 
 he felt that he must govern by the best means to hand, but 
 above all he must govern.^ 
 
 II 
 
 In Pitt's day the two Secretaries of State were responsible 
 for every act of administration not immediately concerned 
 with finance. Between them, in fact, they shared the duties 
 of the modem Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary, and Colonial 
 S^^eretary, and to some extent of the First Lord of the Admiralty , 
 and the Secretary at War. In an emergency one Secretary ' 
 could perform the work of both offices, but nominally there 
 was a rough division between them. The principal Secretary 
 of State for the Southern Department had charge of all British 
 
 ^ For the negotiations which resulted in Pitt's great Ministry, besides the 
 books of memoirs, see Add. MSS. 32870, 32871 passim. There are also some 
 details in Caloraft's correspondence. {Chatham MSS. 86.) 
 
326 
 
 MR. SECRETARY PITT AT WORK 
 
 dependencies and of diplomatic relations with France, Spain, 
 Portugal, Italy, Turkey, the Barbary States, and Switzerland.^ 
 All other foreign countries and Scotland came within the 
 province of the Northern Department; Both Secretaries 
 sent tirders to the War Office,' the Admiralty, and the 
 Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Both dealt with criminals^ 
 and patents for companies, ordered troops to suppress riots 
 and appointed commissions to investigate them, directed the 
 times of sailing for mail packets, and generally were responsible 
 for the internal administration of England. A more incon- 
 venient division of labour could hardly be conceivedL_In 
 foreign affairs,_for example, Pitt negotiated with Turkey, but 
 soleTy, asll"&appened, on questions arising out of ourconnection 
 with Prussia, for which Holderness was nominally responsible. 
 Even more absurd was the system whereby the two Secretaries 
 might be sending independent orders to the military and 
 naval departments during the progress of a great war. Fortu- 
 nately the practice was not as absurd as the theory, inasmuch 
 as one Secretary generally overshadowed the other and dictated 
 the_ common policy. Thus Townshend had left Newcastle 
 
 ' The headings in Record Office, Foreign, Various, 68-71, the precis books 
 of Pitt'a department, show the variety of the Southern Secretary's functions. 
 These are : — 
 Spain 
 
 Spanish Consuls 
 Portugal 
 Naples 
 Venice 
 Florence 
 Turin 
 
 Leghorn Consul 
 Malta Consul 
 Switzerland 
 Turkey 
 
 Barbary Consuls 
 Gibraltar 
 East Indies 
 West Africa 
 
 N America 
 
 operns.) 
 
 Governors of : — 
 
 Nova Scotia 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 New York 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Virginia 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Newfoundland 
 ' For example, Calcraft in a letter to Lord Frederic Cavendish says he has 
 been told by Wood that Pitt had ' a particular delicacy ' in interfering in a 
 criminal case arising out of Minden, and that it would be better to apply to 
 Holderness instead of Pitt for a pardon in the case in question. (Chatham M3S. 
 86, July 29, 1760.) 
 
 Indian Affairs (America) 
 
 Jamaica 
 
 Barbados 
 
 Leeward Islands 
 
 Bahamas 
 
 Bermuda 
 
 Ireland 
 
 Board of Trade 
 
 Criminal 
 
 Treasury and Customs 
 
 Post Office 
 
 CouncU Office 
 
 Petitions 
 
 Admiralty 
 
 War Office 
 
 Ordnance 
 
 Foreign Ministers 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE IN 18TH CENTURY 327 
 
 little to do ; Newcastle had been equally master of all his 
 subsequent colleagues except Carteret ; during Pitt's ministry 
 Holderness was hardly more than his clerk. Originally 
 Pitt had desired the Northern Department, in order to direct , 
 German policy, but he soon found he could do so equally well 
 in the Southern Department. In the conduct of the war, 
 especially the American operations, which naturally fell 
 within his province, nobody ventured to interfere with him.^ 
 
 For the multifarious work of his office in Cleveland Eow 
 Pitt had a very small staff, consisting of two under-secretaries, 
 James Eivers and Eobert Wood, and nine clerks ; he also 
 shared with Holderness a staff for duties common to both 
 offices.^ Wood, his principal under-secretary, was a man 
 of some fame in his day as a scholar and author, and was 
 thereby brought to Pitt's notice : he was a good official and 
 probably none the worse in his chief's eyes for having no 
 original ideas on business. For Pitt was the opposite of j^ 
 Newcastle, of whom it was said that he did his secretary Stone's 
 work while Stone did his. He allowed nobody in the office | 
 but himself to take responsibility. Even on a question of I 
 transferring a packet boat from the Corunna to the New 
 York station Rivers dare not give a decision without taking 
 Mr. Pitt's pleasure.* In externals he maintained great state/ 
 and exacted the utmost deference from his subordinates : 
 he never appeared at his office save in full dress and tie- 
 wig, and, if Shelburne is to be trusted, would never suffer 
 his under-secretaries to sit in his presence. He expected 
 
 1 Almon's story that Pitt insisted in his second Ministry that Anson's 
 Admiralty Board should sign all orders he sent them without reading them is 
 obviously untrue. Anson and Bosoawen were not men to agree to such a 
 humiliating expedient. Moreover, it was unnecessary for Pitt's purposes. As 
 Secretary of State he issued all orders to the Admiralty for the preparation 
 and destination of expeditions and gave instructions to the admirals command- 
 ing. The Admiralty merely had to issue detailed orders for the equipment 
 demanded by Pitt. See Knox, Extra-Official Papers, i, 14, 'Neither the 
 Admiralty, Treasury, Ordnance, Navy, or Victualling Boards can move a step 
 without the King's commands signified by a Secretary of State.' 
 ^c ' This staff included a bishop — Willes of Bath and Wells, in whose family 
 the post of Decypherer of Dispatches seems to have been hereditary. The 
 Secretary of State's salary was £5,680 ; after paying office expenses it came to 
 about £3,000. {Chatham MSS. 71.) 
 
 ' Record Office, 0. 0. S.52. (March 1761). 
 
328 MR. SECRETARY PITT AT WORK 
 
 hard work and good work from them, and punished any act 
 of carelessness in the severest possible way by taking the 
 blame on himself. One day Wood's servant lost an important 
 dispatch, and Pitt writes to Wood that it is 'a most over- 
 whelming misfortune and disgrace to myself, and on all 
 accounts the most distressful event that has yet happened 
 to me in the course of my Hfe.' ^ Intelligence and industry 
 were the best passports to his favour. When young Francis 
 came as a clerk to the office, old Dr. Francis asked Wood the 
 best way to get his son noticed by Pitt, and was told he had 
 better write a full account of all he had seen and heard in his 
 recent visit to Lisbon. When this memoir had been shown 
 him, Pitt singled out Francis, made him his amanuensis, and, 
 when anybody was in doubt about the gender of some Latin 
 word, would turn to him, saying, ' Ask the St. Paul's boy.' 
 Unless Pitt's office had been methodical and well-ordered the 
 furious energy which enabled him to work miracles of 
 organisation would have been largely wasted ; but he took 
 care that it should be. He had abstracts prepared for himself 
 of all negotiations and business on hand with every foreign 
 court in Europe when he came into the Ministry ,2 and for his 
 own department instituted an exhaustive and apparently new 
 system of recording imder headings every order he issued 
 and every letter he received, so that the state of any question 
 during his administration could be and can still be seen at a 
 glance.^ On all he impressed the serious nature of the work 
 they were called upon to do for the country. ' In the present 
 most dangerous and critical situation of Europe,' he writes 
 to one of his ambassadors, ' not only the general ways of 
 thinking concerning the public system of the world, but the 
 ebbs and flows of the more particular dispositions and interior 
 
 ^ Chatham M8S. 68. Wood deprecates Pitt's ' anguish of mind ' and takes 
 the blame on himself. Fortunately the dispatch was picked up and restored 
 unopened. 
 
 2 Chatham MSS. 84. 
 
 ^ Record Office, Foreign, Various, 68-71. The precis unfortunately ends 
 abruptly in the middle of 1760. The next volume, 72, contains a precis of Bute's 
 departmental business during 1761, but is merely a letter-book, whereas Pitt's 
 books are arranged under headings (see above, p. 326, note). The later 
 books of Pitt's department may have been lost. 
 
PITT'S VIGOUR IN OFFICE 329 
 
 passions of every considerable court in Europe are to be 
 watched with the greatest vigilance and improved with the 
 utmost dexterity of management and ability of conduct.' ^ 
 
 Much as he asked from his subordinates, Pitt gave more i" 
 himself. He had trained himself for directing campaigns 
 by his military~studfes, for diplomacy by his industry in ' 
 acqmring a knowledge of French history and standard works i 
 on treaties and negotiations.^ He took endless trouble with 
 his dispatches, correcting and re-correcting them until they 
 expressed his exact meaning and nothing else. During his 
 administration, says Sir James Porter, the English ambassador 
 in Turkey, ' there was such a correct knowledge and such an 
 active spirit to be seen in all the . . . concerns of government, 
 and such a striking alteration in the manner as well as the 
 matter of the official communications that these circumstances 
 alone would have perfectly convinced me of Mr. Pitt's 
 appointment or resignation.' Where his own knowledge 
 was deficient he was always ready to learn from those better 
 informed ; and welcomed the information and plans of cam- 
 paign showered upon him by sea-captains, army officers. West 
 India planters, agents for the colonies, provincials, clergymen, 
 joumahsts, or City merchants. Sometimes, in spite of his 
 readiness to see people, his presence proved too awe-inspiring 
 for their ease : one poor clergyman rushed off to talk to him 
 about Eochefort without waiting ' to dress with decency,' 
 and was so overcome ' by the unaccountable power over the 
 minds of men of a person of his rank and character that 
 though he endeavoured to recollect his mind and fortify it, 
 it was all in vain.' ^ But the general experience was different. 
 
 ^ Record Office, Foreign, Naples and Sicily, 15 : Pitt to Gray, September 16, 
 1757. 
 
 ^ Among other exercises in diplomacy Pitt employed himself in copying out 
 and translating long passages from the memoirs of Comte d'Avaux, a noted 
 diplomatist employed by Mazarin (see Chatham MSS. 6) . 
 
 ' Ghatham MSS. 24 : Kev. Jos. Brooksbank. A few of Pitt's informants 
 during his administration, noted in the Chatham MSS., are Alderman Sayre, 
 Gumming, Captain Thos. Cole, W. BoUan and Denys de Berdt (successively 
 agents for Massachusetts), Governor Pownall, Abercromby, Lieutenant Clark, 
 Captain Barrett, Ephraim Biggs of Philadelphia, Major Caldwell, all of whose 
 information Pitt used. 
 
330 MR. SECRETARY PITT AT WORK 
 
 ' The first time I come to Mr. Pitt upon any matter I find 
 him extremely ignorant,' says the Quaker Gumming ; " the 
 second time I come to him I find him completely informed 
 upon it.' A Carolina merchant complains to Pitt that his 
 servant had been kept waiting five hours for an answer to his 
 letter asking for an interview : Pitt replies at once that, had 
 he known, there would have been no such delay and appoints 
 the interview for the next day. ' The easiness of our access 
 to you,' write the aggrieved owners of the Anti-GalHcan galley, 
 ' and your generous protection in our rights and polite treatment 
 in your office, filled every heart with a joy rather to be conceived 
 than expressed, as well knowing that your undertaking this 
 affair was more than an omen of success.' ^ 
 
 His regular system of intelligence from foreign countries 
 was admirably organised. His spies, according to his grand- 
 daughter, were ' hardy sailors who would get at any risk 
 into a port to see how many ships there were and how many 
 effective men, or a pedlar to enter the camp, and the like ' ; and 
 she describes her meeting with a woman on the front at Southsea 
 who recognised her by her likeness to her grandfather, and told 
 her she used to dress up as a sailor and send Pitt valuable 
 information in code language from America. But Pitt 
 probably made no great improvement on Newcastle's 
 intelligence system, which was excellent : his wonderful in- 
 sight into foreign politics lay in his resemblance to Oliver 
 Cromwell, whom he described ' astonishing mankind by his 
 intelligence : he did not derive it from spies in the Cabinet 
 of every prince in Europe ; he drew it from the cabinet 
 of his own sagacious mind.' ^ 
 
 All these advantages — a well-ordered office, his own 
 industry and knowledge, good intelligence — were subservient 
 to the daemonic energy with which he executed his plans. 
 His maxim was that ^nothing^ was impossible. When an 
 admiral came to him with a tale that his task was impossible : 
 ' Sir, I walk on impossibilities,' repHed Pitt, showing his two 
 
 1 Letter quoted in the pamphlet For Our Country, An Ode . . to E. Hon. 
 Wm. Pitt (London 1757). 
 
 2 Speech of November 22, 1770. 
 
' NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE ' 331 
 
 gouty crutches, and bade him be off to the impossible task. 
 The men he Uked for his work were those of the stamp of 
 Boscawen, to whom he said : ' When I apply to other officers 
 respecting any expedition, they always raise difficulties : you 
 always find expedients.' He himself left nothing to chance. 
 He made separate victualling contracts to supplement the 
 Treasury's, on the principle that an excess of provisions was 
 preferable to a chance of his armies starving. When a service 
 was urgent he broke through all official rules and went to the 
 man most Ukely to see it through. Man;f are the stories told 
 of his energy. Impatient at a delay in procuring transports 
 for some horses, he wrote to EUiot, a Junior Lord of the 
 Admiralty, ' to use the most uncommon diligence in the 
 matter. . . . Let me entreat my dear Elliot to animate this 
 very urgent service with some of his ardour for the public' 
 On another occasion the Admiralty were making difficulties 
 about transports for artillery which was needed urgently at 
 Portsmouth ; Pitt, ill in bed with gout, said it should go by 
 land, a method never before used, and told the officer in charge 
 to send him an express at every stage and see that those guns 
 reached Portsmouth next day. They started at seven o'clock 
 that night, and by seven o'clock the following morning were at 
 Portsmouth. General Harvey had come to take leave of Pitt 
 before returning to the army in Germany. ' Well, have all your 
 needs been suppUed ? ' Pitt asked him. ' No,' he answered, 
 and mentioned several things wanting. Pitt called in his 
 under-secretary, made him write out orders in the names of the 
 several heads of department : next day, when Harvey started, 
 everything was ready for him. And he was as secret as he 
 was swift, for no one ever understood better than Pitt the art 
 of bewildering an enemy by preparations here, there and 
 ever3rwhere. ' Can you keep a secret. Sir ? ' he once asked 
 a Lord Mayor who inquired of him the destination of a secret 
 expedition. ' Yes, Sir, on my honour,' replied the inquisitive 
 magistrate. ' And so can I,' said Mr. Pitt, with one of his 
 low sweeping bows. 
 
 When selecting men for his work he offered them no higher 
 reward than that of his own approbation and their consciences. 
 
332 MR. SECRETARY PITT AT WORK 
 
 With dispensing political favours he would have nothing to do. 
 The making of deans, bishops and other placemen he con- 
 temptuously resigned to Newcastle. Electoral corruption 
 he thought beneath him : when Lord Falmouth, brother of 
 his favourite admiral, threatened that his five members 
 should vote against the Government unless he got the 
 garter, ' As long,' said Pitt, ' as I remain in the Cabinet 
 your lordship shall not receive that distinction ' ; adding 
 to the bystanders, ' optat ephip'pia hos.' He as steadily 
 refused to meddle with the regular promotions in the army 
 and navy. He insisted, indeed, as soon as he could, on choosing 
 the commanders for his expeditions, men whom he could trust 
 for the tasks he set them ; but their staii he left to their own 
 choice, and all other appointments to the ordinary rules of the 
 service. ' I have declared in the most expUcit manner on 
 my legs in the House of Commons,' he wrote to an influential 
 supporter asking for a colonel's commission, " my opinion 
 concerning promotion of favour . . . and I have, as it were, 
 publicly pledged myself to that meritorious class [of heutenant- 
 colonels] that I would never contribute from any considerations 
 of family or parliamentary interest to their depression.' Once 
 when he had made an exception in favour of two promising 
 lads, for whom he secured commissions. Wood writes to their 
 father, Keith, ' Whatever partiahty Mr. Pitt may have towards 
 you, he would not have interfered did he not know your sons 
 deserved attention.' ^ Such a spirit in the Secretary and such 
 care for the best interests of the service awakened a response 
 in the breasts of those whom he most cared to gain. Rodney 
 volunteered for an irksome duty, ' to contribute something 
 to make his Administration what I sincerely wish it to be ' ; 
 Wolfe thought nothing of his miserable condition of health, 
 if he might serve under him ; Clive recognised in him a master , 
 spirit. ' No man,' said Barre in his funeral oration, ' ever 
 entered the Earl's Closet who did not feel himself, if possible, 
 braver at his return than when he went in.' 
 
 Pitt's Cabinet on the whole worked well with him, for the 
 members rarely ventured to oppose him. Newcastle was cowed 
 
 1 Keith, Memoirs and Correspomlence. 
 
PITT AND HIS CABINET 333 
 
 and could always be brought to reason by a threat of resigna- 
 tion from Pitt ; Holderness was too devoid of convictions to ; 
 give much trouble ; the Lord Keeper Henley had not found | 
 his feet ; Temple was devoted to his brother-in-law and not yet i 
 jealous ; Anson and Ligonier were really no more than chiefs i 
 of the navy and army staffs ; Legge was timid ; Halifax, of | 
 the Board of Trade, was only admitted on sufferance ; Devon- \ 
 shire and Bedford took little part ; Hardwicke was kept in 
 order by Granville, who had generally dined and pleased himself ; 
 with unpalatable truths about his colleagues ; and Mansfield, \ 
 if he ever had an opinion to express, was reduced to 
 silence by Pitt's withering ' the Chief Justice of England has 
 no opinion to give on this matter.' ^ Pitt was certainly 
 not accommodating. At a conference held at his house in 
 St. James's Square, when he was in acute pain from gout, high 
 debate arose between him and two of his colleagues on a 
 measure of which he disapproved. Francis, who was present 
 taking notes, relates that ' Pitt, on being asked his reasons, 
 rephed passionately : " My lords, the reasons why I consider 
 the measure injudicious are so obvious that I wonder you 
 should be required to be told them. I will venture to assert 
 they will occur to that youth. Speak, Francis : have you 
 heard the question ? " " Yes, Sir." " Then teU their Lord- 
 ships why I object to their proposals." It was an awful 
 moment,' says Francis, ' but I gave an instant reason, on 
 which Pitt, pleased, said, " I told you how it would be : you 
 cannot answer a boy." ' 
 
 But, though he sometimes looked in vain to have his meaning 
 taken, he was always careful to explain aU his actions to the 
 Cabinet. In the winter months, when plans were being 
 settled, councils were frequently called by Pitt, and Newcastle 
 remarked that he always sent draughts betimes to Hardwicke 
 and himself. Pitt's chief trouble was to persuade them to 
 attend enough to business, and his impatience at their indolence 
 was sometimes expressed in warm terms. ' I am fortunately 
 
 ^ All these ministers are found attending full Cabinet meetings ; but many . 
 decisions were taken by an inner committee — sometimes attended only by 
 Pitt, Holderness ^rid Newcastle, / 
 
334 MR. SECRETARY PITT AT WORK 
 
 come home from my learned brethren,' he writes to Lady 
 Hester, ' most of whom I have beheld actually sleeping over 
 the Hterary correspondences of all Europe : the only thing that 
 waked us was an American wasps' nest, almost as great a 
 curiosity as any birds' nest I remember at Eaton School.' 
 To the sluggards themselves he was scarcely less frank. New- 
 castle had excused his absence from a Cabinet at Christmas 
 time, on the plea that he was entertaining a bishop. Pitt 
 raphes that he had hoped for the duke's counsel 
 
 concerning so important and extensive a scene as the campaign in 
 America, where England and Europe are to be fought for, and where 
 all the data on which we are to ground any plan are so loose and 
 precarious that I confess I do not see my way as clearly as I wish to 
 do in matters where I make myself responsible. I cannot, however, 
 after the desire your Grace has expressed not to break the agreeable 
 engagements at Claremont, press any further.^ 
 
 Pitt once spent upwards of five hours at night, weighing every 
 word of an important dispatch that Holdemess was to send to 
 Prussia, ' weighing words more than matter,' grumbles Holder- 
 ness at three o'clock in the morning ; ' tout ceci est bel et bon 
 four une fois, but I would not pass such another evening for 
 the Kmg's revenue, or for what is perhaps still more valuable, 
 Mr. Pitt's abilities . . . for I neither can nor will be detained 
 for hours upon the introduction of a monosillable.' ' Even 
 during his illnesses Pitt infected his colleagues with some 
 of his own contagious energy. One day he asked Newcastle to 
 come to his house to discuss plans. The duke found him iU in 
 bed in a very cold room. Pitt had much to say, and the duke 
 found the cold unbearable ; at last, spying another bed in the 
 room, he crept into it, and the two statesmen were found talking 
 and gesticulating at one another from under the bed-clothes. 
 Every week, too, Pitt insisted on a meeting at the Treasury 
 to hear from the duke and West, the Secretary, the exact state 
 of the army contracts. In after years the duke used to joke 
 at Pitt's despotic manner at these meetings ; but it was no sub- 
 
 ' Chatham M88. 5. " Add. MSS. 32876, fi. 453-61 
 
 ' Ibid. 32878, f. 30. 
 
PITT'S EXACTITUDE 335 
 
 jeot of merriment at the time, for Pitt used to threaten that if 
 any want of provisions or money were found he would impeach 
 the duke in the ensuing session : and the duke beUeved him. 
 
 The King's feelings towards Pitt became insensibly modified 
 as he grew to appreciate his minister's capacity. It is true 
 there were still difficulties. While Pitt's mind was running on 
 America, George II was troubled about his electorate : ' Your 
 America,' he said, ' your lakes, your Mr. Amherst might ruin 
 you, or make you rich, but in all events I shall be undone ' ; 
 and occasionally George II indulged in outbursts of violent 
 invective against the man who had become his master. But 
 he was a good judge of a man and showed the right Pitt spirit 
 when he growled out to the courtier, who told him Wolfe was 
 mad : ' I wish then he would bite some of my other generals.' 
 Fortunately, too, Pitt now had a staunch ally in Lady 
 Yarmouth. He is said to have publicly praised her in the 
 House, and wrote ' for how many right things done, and fatal 
 ones prevented, ought we to be grateful to her.' ^ 
 
 Had everything been smooth for Pitt at home, his 
 task in directing operations over most of the habitable globe 
 would have been difficult enough. The slowness of com- 
 munication was one serious hindrance to his undertaking. 
 ' Seas roll and months pass,' said Burke magniloquently,^ 
 ' between the order and the execution ; and the want of a 
 speedy explanation of a single point is enough to defeat a whole 
 system.' Letters took any time between six months and a year 
 to reach India, and, though military operations were left to the 
 Company's servants, Pitt had to decide on the dispatch of 
 reinforcements of men and ships on information which might 
 be entirely useless by the time he received it. His orders 
 to America were rarely received in less than six weeks in 
 the New England ports ; if they had to be sent to generals 
 or governors up-country there might be a further delay of 
 months before they reached their destination.^ So great was 
 
 1 AU. MSS. 32876, f. 461. 
 
 ' Speech on American Conciliation. 
 
 ' In 1758 Amherst, travelling by forced marches along a comparatively 
 good road from Albany to the military base at Lake George took three weeks 
 to cover the 260 milea. -Forbes, travelling in Viiginift W the same year. 
 
 \ ,/ 
 
336 MR. SECRETARY PITT AT WORK 
 
 this difficulty of communication that previous ministers had 
 generally been content to send out the men and leave them to 
 work out their plans on the spot ; but Pitt, knowing nothing of 
 America except what he had learned by books and hearsay, and 
 trusting to the cabinet of his own sagacious mind, every year 
 laid down the broad outlines of the campaign for his comman- 
 ders. How to carry out his plans with the men at his disposal 
 was a harder problem. No governor or general had yet been 
 able to overcome the jealousies and suspicions of the provincials. 
 No colonial levy could be reckoned upon for more than a year ; 
 supplies of money and provisions were uncertain ; billeting 
 soldiers from England was a grievance ; backward colonies 
 hindered the zeal of those more forward. Maryland and the 
 Quakers of Pennsylvania, though attacked on their own 
 borders, would hardly contribute anything to the common 
 cause. The Indians, too, invaluable for skirmishing and 
 scouting work, partly through tactless management, partly 
 owing to the impression made by the first French victories, 
 were everywhere out of hand. Cherokees, Choctaws, Chicka- 
 saws and Creeks in the South were a constant terror to the 
 lonely border settlers ; even the Six Nations, the traditional 
 friends of the English, occupying the territory between New 
 England and the lakes, had been half won over by Montcalm. 
 The men Pitt found in high commands in the American army 
 were not fitted to help him out of his difficulties. Webb, 
 Abercromby, and Loudoun, like Braddock, were all of the type 
 which the British army seems to evolve in the fat years of 
 peace, before it has warmed to its work : conscientious plod- 
 ding men with the best intentions, but dull, unenterprising and 
 tactless, breeders of discontent, inspiring more terror in their 
 own side than in the enemy's. Some of these difficulties Pitt 
 overcame ; many remained to the end as a touchstone of his 
 motto, ' Nothing is impossible.' 
 
 complained that his letters took three months to reach him from the coast. 
 Some of the correspondence with the southern governor^ yi'as six months on the 
 
 way, 
 
A GLOOMY SCENE ABROAD, 1757 337 
 
 III 
 
 Pitt's own phrase, ' a gloomy scene for this distressed, 
 disgraced country,' well describes the state of affairs when he 
 resumed control in June 1757 after three months' absence. In 
 the records of the Southern Department there is an almost 
 complete blank for those three months, yet there was great 
 need of action. The__expedition planngd „for. . S.enegai and 
 Goreghadbeen dropped. Holburne, who was to have reached 
 Louisburg in May and, after capturing it, to attempt Quebec 
 in June, had not started before Pitt was dismissed, and only 
 reached Hahfax on July 9, ten days after he resumed office. 
 Prom India the terrible tidings of Calcutta and the Black 
 Hole had arrived in June. Spain was being goaded out of her 
 attitude of neutrality by the English privateers' attacks on 
 her shipping. In the West Indies and America the Prench 
 were superior at sea. In Germany Prederic's victories over 
 the Austrians at Eeichenberg and Prague had been succeeded 
 on June 18 by his crushing defeat at Kolin, where he lost 
 20,000 men. News of this disaster reached England on the 
 day Pitt's new Ministry kissed hands, and created such 
 profound depression that, had it arrived a day sooner, Pitt 
 might, it was said, have failed to form his Cabinet. In 
 consequence of it Frederic had been obliged hurriedly to 
 abandon the siege of Prague and retire into Saxony. With 
 victorious Austrians to the south, with Eussians and Swedes 
 concentrating on Pomerania to the north and east, and with a 
 Prench and imperial army under Soubise advancing through 
 WestphaHa to the west, it seemed as if he could not hold out 
 long. On May 1 a second Treaty of Versailles had been signed, 
 whereby Prance engaged herself to provide greatly increased 
 succours in men and money to the Empress. This treaty, which 
 plunged France still deeper into the morass of German cam- 
 paigns, as useless to her as Carteret's had been to us, proved 
 of the greatest advantage to England before the war was over. 
 But its immediate effect was greatly to increase Frederic's 
 difficulties, and, in conjunction with Kolin, considerably to 
 
 VOL. I. ^ 
 
338 MR. SECRETARY PITT AT WORK 
 
 raise the tone of the Viennese Court. The Imperial Ambassadoi' 
 abruptly left London, and the Empress handed over to the 
 French troops the Flemish ports of Ostend, Nieuport and 
 Bruges ; communication with Cumberland's army was thus 
 almost entirely cut off. Cumberland himself had been hope- 
 lessly out-matched and out-manoeuvred by d'Estrees at 
 the head of another French army of 100,000 men. d'Estrees 
 had seized Wesel and the passage of the Rhine in April, while 
 Cumberland was slowly gathering his troops at Bielefeld, 
 100 miles farther east. In June Cumberland, who never had 
 more than 40,000 men under him, had to abandon Bielefeld 
 and expose Hesse-Cassel and the flat plains of Hanover to the 
 French invaders : Emden, the landing-place for his suppUes, 
 also fell into d'Estrees's hands ; Stade was the only port 
 left him. 
 
 Pitt's first thought was for America. From the Admiralty 
 report in his office he saw the strength of the French fleets 
 there, and on July 1, two days after his return, sent a rein- 
 forcement of four ships to Holburne. On the same day, and 
 on July 18, he sent him orders to carry out the operations 
 already planned, then to follow the French fleet home, and 
 generally ' to act with the greatest vigour against the enemy . . . 
 in this critical and urgent conjuncture. . . . and effectually 
 answer the great views of His Majesty and the general expecta- 
 tions of the nation.' He also drafted reinforcements of High- 
 landers and artillery to Loudoun. Since there were no more 
 fleets to blockade in the French ports, he recalled Boscawen 
 from Brest, to have a fleet ia readiness to waylay the French 
 fleet that he hoped Holburne would be soon chasing from 
 America. 
 
 On July 14 and 26 he summoned cabinet councils to discuss 
 the measures to be taken in consequence of KoUn and of 
 Cumberland's retreat.^ With all the ports of landing in French 
 hands it was useless to consider sending reinforcements to 
 Cumberland, even if they could be spared, but he offered a 
 subsidy to Frederic, and again attempted without success to 
 persuade Denmark to send ships against Russia in the Baltic. 
 
 >■ Torrens, ii, 402, and Add. MSS. 32997, f . 233. 
 
OFFER OF GIBRALTAR, 1757 339 
 
 Frederic proudly waived the subsidy : if his plans against his 
 enemies failed, he told the English envoy Mitchell, he would 
 be so discomfited that the King of England's money would be 
 wasted on him ; if he succeeded he might then reconsider it. 
 But he pressed all the more for an English fleet in the Baltic. 
 Pitt had no intention of wasting English ships, required in 
 America, in the Mediterranean and off the coast of France, in 
 the vain attempt to blockade Eussia. His policy was to 
 help Frederic as well as ourselves by creating diversions 
 against France. He thought of forming a close alliance with 
 Sardinia and Naples as well as Spain against France and the 
 Empress, and offered inducements to the two Italian Powers 
 to combine against the Austrian domination in North Italy .^ 
 But his boldest bid was for a Spanish alliance. In addition 
 to concessions about disputed captures and a contested right 
 of logwood-cutting in Honduras, he offered as a supreme 
 inducement to hand over Gibraltar to Spain in exchange 
 for Minorca, which was to be recovered with Spanish aid. 
 Gibraltar was then considered less valuable for our Medi- 
 terranean trade than Minorca ; the Governor, Lord Tyrawley, 
 had reported unfavourably of its defences, adding that it 
 was ' a matter of great indifference to our neighbours, by sea 
 and land, whether we are at Gibraltar or settled upon the 
 Eddystone, in respect of the use this place is of to us.' To 
 the Spaniards there was every reason to think that the bait 
 would prove irresistible. Ever since its capture by Sir 
 George Eooke in 1704, the sight of their ancient enemies on 
 this noble fragment of Spanish soil had been deeply wounding 
 to their pride. ' Lord of Gibraltar ' was still retained in the 
 Spanish king's long list of high-sounding titles ; thrice in fifty 
 years attempts had been made to recover it by force ; and 
 Philip V used to declare there could be no peace with England 
 while she retained it. But that Pitt and the Cabinet which 
 
 1 See Record Office, Foreign, Sardinia and Savoy, 67, and Naples and 
 Sicily, 15, 16, 17. The inducement offered by Pitt to Naples was security 
 to Don Carlos for retaining the throne of Naples in his family when he 
 succeeded to Spain on Ferdinand's death, and to Turin an accession of territory 
 on the same event. 
 
 e2 
 
340 MR. SECRETARY PITT AT WORK 
 
 met on August 18, 1757/ should have decided to exchange it, 
 even for Minorca, shows the straits to which they thought 
 England reduced. Once before Walpole had made the offer 
 of Gibraltar, and, on its becoming known, had needed all his 
 skill to avert impeachment by an indignant nation. Pitt in 
 his dispatch of August 23 to Keene, the ambassador at Madrid, 
 enjoined the utmost secrecy and took elaborate precautions 
 against misunderstanding.^ He dictated the precise language in 
 which Keene was to make the proposal, and said that it was 
 not to be regarded as a ' revival and renewal of any former pre- 
 tended engagement ' or as one to be left open if not accepted 
 immediately. Fortunately the Spanish Ministry was not to be 
 induced, even by this offer, to undertake a war with France. 
 Nevertheless Pitt succeeded in abating Spanish Hi-humour 
 by his vigorous repression of the English privateers' licentious- 
 ness and in preserving Spanish neutrality for the critical years 
 of the struggle. 
 
 Another stroke against France, more congenial to his 
 temper, Pitt already had in preparation, the first of those sudden 
 raids on the French coast suggested by Frederic in the previous 
 December, which became one of the features of Pitt's strategy. 
 Even the abortive expedition to L'Orient in 1746 had, according 
 to information in his possession, drawn off men from Saxe's 
 victorious army in the Low Countries : » he hoped by better 
 planned attempts to achieve even more. On July 7 Pitt 
 ordered the Admiralty to take up transports for ten battalions 
 of infantry, 160 horses, ordnance and hospital equipment, 
 victual them for two months and bring them round to the 
 Isle of Wight. On the 20th he sent instructions for a fleet 
 of sixteen ships of the Une to assemble at Spithead under 
 Hawke. Anson told him he could not find the ships : ' I 
 shall impeach you, if you do not,' said Pitt ; and Anson found 
 them. In the early part of August several meetings of the 
 Cabinet and of a committee composed of Pitt, Anson, Holder- 
 
 1 Chatham MSS. 92, and Add. M88. 32997, f. 245. 
 
 ^ In the of&oe pr^ois-book the dispatch ia noted aa ' on a subject not to be 
 abstracted.' (Record Office, Foreign, Various, 68.) 
 
 ^ See above, p. 164. In Chatham MSS. 74 is a paper showing the effect 
 on Saxe's army. 
 
ROCHEFORT EXPEDITION PLANNED 341 
 
 ness and Ligonier were held to consider a scheme proposed 
 by Pitt for a raid on Eochefort. The naval and miUtary 
 commanders chosen for the expedition attended ; Lieutenant 
 Clark, who had recently visited the fort, and Thierry, a French 
 pilot, were closely examined on the best mode of attack ; 
 and a statement on the distribution of the French army in 
 July was produced, showing that the coastline from St. Valery 
 to Bordeaux was guarded by only 10,000 men.^ As a result of 
 these dehberations Pitt instructed the commanders of the 
 expedition to attack Eochefort and destroy its shipping and 
 arsenals, and afterwards attempt other descents and keep 
 the French coast in a state of panic. 
 
 But the expedition was doomed to failure from the outset. 
 Had it depended on the King, the troops collected for the 
 secret expedition would have been sent over to Cumberland, 
 who was clamouring for reinforcements. But Pitt stood firm 
 to his own scheme. ' He would defend it with his head,' he 
 told Newcastle, ' and whoever stopped it should answer for 
 it.' ^ Other obstacles were not so easily overcome. During 
 the weeks of waiting at Portsmouth the expedition was talked 
 down as Mr. Pitt's mad enterprise. At the last moment 
 Hardwicke, behind Pitt's back, obtained an order from the 
 King that it should return within a month.s The escorting 
 squadron had good officers, with Hawke to command it, and 
 Howe, Keppel and Eodney among the captains. But it was 
 otherwise with the land force. Pitt had asked for Colonel 
 Conway, Horace Walpole's friend, to command the troops ; 
 but the King said he was too young, and appointed over him 
 Mordaunt, an older man, who had lost his nerve. James 
 
 1 The Court Martial on Mordaunt, a pamphlet in the British Museum, 
 reports Pitt's evidence on December 14, 1757, in which he gives details of these 
 meetings. He mentions incidentally that at the committees Holderness ' held 
 the pen and not he,' that Clark's proposal was the subject of two nights' 
 conversation, and that Thierry underwent examination ' with a readiness and 
 presence of mind that few men in higher life are equal to.' The full 
 Cabinet's formal approval of the scheme was given on August 4. ^ {Add. 
 MSS. 32997, f. 241.) Thierry's examination and the memoir on the distribution 
 of French troops are to be found in Chatham MSS. 85. 
 
 2 Add. MSS. 32997, f. 256. 
 
 ' Pitt afterwards got this order countermanded. 
 
342 MR. SECRETARY PITT AT WORK 
 
 Wolfe, a colonel of bhirty, who went as quartermaster, was 
 the only senior officer of spirit and capacity. 
 
 On September 8, after many delays, Hawke weighed 
 anchor. He did not reach Basque Eoads till September 19, 
 when Mordaunt and Conway wanted to turn back, to comply 
 with Hardwicke's order. But Hawke refused to Usten to 
 such pusillanimous counsels. On the 23rd Howe, with the 
 Magnammeliin3~Earfieur, silenced the fort on the He d'Aix, 
 guarding the approach to Eochefort, and Wolfe set foot ashore 
 to reconnoitre the mainland. He reported favourably on an 
 attempt against the town ; Hawke was ready to supply boats 
 and to shell it from his ships ; but Wolfe's superiors had Uttle 
 stomach for the venture. Five days were spent in reconnoi- 
 tring excursions and in vain debates about the best method 
 of attack, when at any moment a bold assault on the under- 
 manned fort would almost certainly have succeeded.^ At 
 last Hawke washed his hands of the whole affair, and told 
 the generals that unless they could decide on prompt action 
 he should return. Another council was held and the generals 
 decided to abandon the enterprise. On October 3 the squadron 
 and transports were back in Portsmouth, with nothing to 
 show for all the imposing preparations but a few useless forti- 
 fications razed on the He dAix : as Walpole said, it seemed 
 like breaking windows with guineas. 
 
 Popular opinion against Mordaunt rose almost as high as 
 it had against Byng, and his trial was demanded. Pitt was 
 loud in his indignation : he attributed Mordaunt's hesitations 
 no less than Loudoun's in America to the influence of the 
 King and Cumberland who looked with disfavour on military 
 activity outside Germany, complained that the officers of 
 the expedition were screened by the King, who allowed 
 them ' to stand round his chair at the opera,' ^ and declared 
 that either he himself or Mordaunt should stand his trial. 
 Mordaunt's court-martial, held in December, brought out 
 
 ^ In Chatham MSS. 85 is a letter written from France in 1758 saying that 
 at the time of the expedition there were under 4,000 men in the place and that 
 an assault would easily have carried it. 
 
 » Add. MSS. 32997, f. 289. 
 
ROCHEFORT EXPEDITION FAILS, 1757 343 
 
 no definite charge against him, even from Pitt, who admitted 
 that Clark and Thierry had not promised more than the 
 capture of the He d'Aix ; and Mordaunt was honourably- 
 acquitted. Excessive caution and want of spirit can indeed 
 rarely be brought home to a man ; but Pitt was confirmed in 
 his determination to employ for the future vigorous young men 
 with a dash of his own spirit instead of superannuated and 
 carping veterans, and was unshaken in his pohcy of raids. 
 The failure of the attempt on Eochefort was chiefly deplorable 
 because it confirmed the orthodox military critics in their 
 objections to Pitt's new strategy, and made it more difficult 
 for him to repeat the experiment. In its main purpose of 
 confusing the enemy it had served its purpose well. Before 
 the expedition set off Soubise and EicheUeu had feared that 
 it might have Emden or the Flemish ports for an objective, 
 and had modified their plans accordingly. Pitt had evidence, 
 which he produced at the court-martial, that on the first 
 news of Hawke's approach no less than seven battaUons 
 of French guards and ten line regiments had been ordered 
 from Paris to the west coast.^ On the coast towns, one of 
 his correspondents told him, merchants were burying their 
 treasure, and even inland the harvest was being entirely carried 
 by women owing to the arming of every able-bodied man.^ The 
 panic had even spread to the Mediterranean : Leghorn feared 
 a cowp de main, and the Empress sent 5,000 troops to Trieste 
 to secure that far-off Adriatic port from Hawke.^ 
 
 Pitt had good cause to grasp any possible weapon of offence 
 against France, since one of those on which he counted had 
 broken in his hand. On September 8, the very day Hawke 
 set sail, Cumberland by the Convention of Closterseven had 
 signed away the army of observation, which was to pro- 
 tect Frederic's flank and save Hanover. Throughout July 
 
 1 For the evidence given at Mordaunt's court-martial, see the pamphlet 
 referred to on p. 341, note. Corbett (i, 227-8, note) quotes the official return of 
 the movements of French troops in consequence of the Eochefort expedition. 
 See also report of August 29, that the French had brought 30,000 men to the 
 coast, in Add. M8S. 32997, f. 243 ; and intelligence in Chatham MSB. 85. 
 
 2 Chatham MSS. 74 : Captain Barrats to Pitt, August 30, 1757. 
 
 " Record Office, Foreign, Various, 68 : Gray to Pitt, September 23, 1757 ; 
 see also ibid., Admiralty heading (August 27, 1757). 
 
 f 
 
344 MR. SECRETARY PITT AT WORK • 
 
 d'Estrees had been gradually pushing Cumberland eastwards 
 and had beaten him at Hastenbeck on the 26th. Richelieu, 
 fresh from the glories of Minorca, then superseded d'Estrees 
 and began pillaging the electorate more ruthlessly than his pre- 
 decessor. Cumberland had taken no advantage of Richelieu's 
 bewilderment at the preparations for the secret expedition, 
 which caused him to disperse his forces unnecessarily, but 
 remained cooped up round Stade, his port on the estuary of 
 the Elbe. On August 11, George II, seriously perturbed for his 
 electorate, without telHng his English Ministry, empowered 
 his son to treat with Richelieu.^ Cumberland promptly acted 
 on this permission. By the convention of September 8 he 
 agreed to send home his Hessian and Brunswick troops and to 
 remain quiet with the Hanoverians at Stade ; the Duchy of 
 Verden was given up to Richelieu, who could now deal with 
 the rest of Hanover as he pleased. 
 
 The news of this convention came on the EngUsh ministers 
 as a thunderclap. On August 9 they had decided to give 
 George II a subsidy of £100,000 as long as the French were 
 drawing on the resources of Hanover ; on September 5 they 
 ordered a squadron to cruise at the mouth of the Elbe and 
 supphes to be sent to Cumberland.^ Only on September 10 
 Pitt heard of the King's letter empowering Cumberland to 
 treat. He instantly declared it a breach of faith to Frederic, of 
 which for their own honour English ministers should disculpate 
 themselves,^ and, in the hope that it had not been acted upon, 
 caused orders to be sent to Cumberland to move towards 
 Magdeburg, to relieve the pressure of Soubise's Westphalian 
 army on Frederic. At that moment the position of Frederic, 
 encompassed by enemies, was critical. Immediately after the 
 convention Richelieu sent a detachment to reinforce Soubise. 
 Pitt knew that if Soubise was once able to overwhelm Frederic 
 the French would overrun the Low Countries and be free to 
 devote yet more of their attention to India and America. 
 When Cumberland's dispatch arrived, on September 17, even 
 
 1 Waddington, i, 490, 502. 
 
 = Add. MSS. 32997, flf. 243, 252. 
 
 " Torrens, ii. 414-5 ; see also Waddington, i, 495. 
 
CONVENTION OF CLOSTERSEVEN, 1757 345 
 
 the King was furious. He could not deny he had given his 
 son full powers, but, finding to his disgust that the humiliation 
 of the surrender was not counterbalanced by any promise to 
 respect the neutraUty of Hanover, called his son a coward and 
 disclaimed all responsibihty for his actions. 
 
 The Cabinet took prompt measures. They sent a memo- 
 randum to Frederic drawing a sharp distinction between the 
 English and Hanoverian Governments, and declaring that the 
 former had not sanctioned the convention and would not be 
 influenced thereby.^ Pitt was for refusing to ratify it, but was 
 saved the trouble of taking the iirst step by the French, who, 
 contrary to stipulation, disarmed the Hessian troops on their 
 way home. On October 7 the Cabinet, at Pitt's instigation, 
 decided that while the convention remained in force England 
 would not spend a penny on the army in Germany, but from 
 the moment it took the field against France in concert with 
 the King of Prussia, England would take the Hanoverians into 
 her pay .2 ' If only we show spirit now,' he told his colleagues, 
 ' it is in our power to prevent the French wintering in Germany.' ^ 
 ' The present moment is decisive ; and that moment so seldom 
 seized, is rarely offered twice,' he wrote to Newcastle, underlining 
 the words in his agony of impatience.* The King was 
 delighted at the prospect of breaking the convention and of 
 having his Hanoverians paid by England. On October 10 
 Holdemess wrote to Frederic that the convention would be 
 repudiated and offered the command of Cumberland's army 
 to Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, one of the ablest of 
 Frederic's lieutenants. 
 
 Strongly as he felt about the convention, Pitt behaved 
 with chivalry to Cumberland when he returned in disgrace 
 to his father's Court. He had no cause to love the man, to 
 whose representations he owed his dismissal in April, but he 
 was too great to lose his sense of justice or triumph over a 
 
 1 Add. MSS. 32997, f. 273 ; 32874, f. 129. This declaration to Frederic 
 had been decided upon on September 14, before the convention was known, 
 but was sent afterwards. 
 
 ^ Hardwioke says the Cabinet minute was ' written by Mr. Pitt ' {Add. 
 MSS. 35870, f. 284). 
 
 2 Torrens, ii. 420. " Add. MSS. 32875, f. 40. j 
 
346 MR. SECRETARY PITT AT WORK 
 
 fallen foe. ' I gave him no orders to conclude this treaty,' said 
 the King. ' But full powers, Sir, very full powers,' answered 
 Pitt ; and to the Cabinet, after seeing all the papers, ' I must,' 
 he said, ' as a man of honour and a gentleman, allow everywhere 
 that H.E.H. had full powers to do what he has done.' He 
 was one of the first to pay his duty at the duke's levee, 
 and Cumberland owned himself obliged to him for his very 
 honourable behaviour. But, though courteous to him privately, 
 he was not sorry on pubhc grounds to lose a commander- 
 in-chief in whom he had so Httle confidence. He made no 
 effort to stop the duke from resigning all his military appoint- 
 ments, and suggested in his place the vahant and still vigorous 
 veteran Ligonier, his fellow-member in the representation 
 of Bath. The King was at first incHned to retain the chief 
 command of the army himself, but yielded to the united 
 representations of Pitt, Newcastle and Hardwicke in favour 
 of Ligonier.^ The new commander-in-chief's military know- 
 ledge proved useful to the Secretary of State, and, unlike 
 Cumberland, he had no inclination to oppose Pitt's plans from 
 personal or political motives. 
 
 The news from America filled up the cup of Pitt's dis- 
 appointments during his first year of office. Loudoun, called 
 by Frankhn ' a St. George on the signposts, always on horse- 
 back but never advancing,' spent the first five months of the 
 year in squabbles with the colonists about their levies, the 
 billeting of the troops, and trivial matters of account, and in 
 reporting the squabbles at inordinate length in his dispatches. 
 By the end of May he had collected at New York all the troops 
 that could be spared from the defence of the Carolinas and 
 Virginia and the northern frontier, and prepared to transfer 
 them to Halifax. He showed soldierly instinct in taking the 
 risk of meeting Beauffremont's superior squadron, then off 
 the coast, and reached Halifax by June 30. Here his activity 
 ended. For three weeks after Holburne's arrival with the 
 fleet and reinforcements on July 9 he kept his 12,000 men 
 
 ^ Pitt expressed great gratitude to Newcastle for the tact with which he 
 overcame the King's objections. Pitt also insisted that Ligonier should get 
 tiie Guards as a mark of royal confidence. (Add. MSS. 32997, f. 289.) 
 
FAILURES IN AMERICA, 1757 347 
 
 ' making sham forts and planting cabbages,' to the openly- 
 expressed disgust of his second-in-command, Lord Charles 
 Hay.^ Holbume meanwhile had looked into Louisburg 
 Harbour, where he found the united squadrons of de la Motte, 
 Beauffremont, and de Eevest, numbering seventeen ships to 
 his own sixteen. This shght superiority and reports of im- 
 pregnable fortifications at Louisburg decided a council of 
 war to do nothing further that year. Loudoun justified himself 
 to Pitt for following the advice of this council on the plea that 
 he had ' returned to the method follow'd ever since he com- 
 manded in America to advise with all he could get benefit from,' 
 and prophesied that even if the English fleet arrived earlier 
 next year, and proved superior to the French fleet, Louisburg 
 could not be taken. 
 
 On August 30 Pitt heard that his plans for taking Louis- 
 burg and possibly Quebec were dropped. On September 18 
 he had news of a disaster. On the northern frontier of 
 Albany Loudoun had posted Monro with a garrison of 2,600 
 men to hold Fort William Henry at the head of Lake George, 
 and General Webb with 1,600 at Fort Edward, six hours' march 
 to the south. Montcalm, instead of waiting to be attacked, 
 while Loudoun planted cabbages, brought his whole available 
 strength, to the number of 8,000, to_ Ticonderoga,^ ' some 
 miles to the north of Lake George. Transporting boats, guns, 
 provisions and equipment through dense forests to the lake, 
 he reached Fort William Henry on August 4. Monro sent 
 to Fort Edward for reinforcements, but, receiving none, sur- 
 rendered five days later with the honours of war to Montcalm's 
 overwhelming force. Montcalm's victory was imhappily sul- 
 lied by his Indian allies, who massacred some of the defenceless 
 English soldiers retiring on Port Edward, an act of barbarity 
 which excited widespread horror and indignation in England 
 and America, and was not forgotten when the French were 
 suing for terms four years later. Montcalm was satisfied 
 
 ^ It is characteristic of Loudoun that of the three dispatches he sent home 
 on August 6, two were occupied solely with complaints of Lord Charles Hay 
 and justifications for putting him under arrest. (See Chatham MS8. 78, and 
 Foreign, Variovji, 68-71.) 
 
 '^ Also called Fort Carillon; 
 
348 MR. SECRETARY PITT AT WORK 
 
 with this victory and retired without attempting Fort Edward. 
 Had he done so, he would have found it an easy prey. Webb 
 had not only refused help to Monro but was panic-stricken for 
 himself. He quietly appropriated the militia reinforcements 
 promptly sent up by Governor Pownall of Massachusetts, 
 and was content to congratulate himself on not having lost 
 Eort Edward. 
 
 This ended the campaign for 1757. Loudoun returned 
 to his favourite occupation of dispatch-writing.^ He told 
 Pitt he had no plans for the next year, but deprecated plans 
 formed in England, which might not prove practical in America, 
 and made the officers there go about ' with a halter on their 
 necks.' ^ Holburne, whose fleet had been raised to twenty 
 ships by the reinforcement sent by Pitt in July, cruised about 
 the coast of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton in the hope of 
 catching de la Motte's squadron on its return to France ; but 
 on September 24 he was caught by a terrible gale which 
 dismasted six of his ships and disabled the rest from keeping 
 up the blockade, de la Motte, though he had suffered also 
 inside Louisburg Harbour, seized the occasion to escape in 
 safety to France. 
 
 I long to come instead of writing [was Pitt's message to his wife 
 when he heard of the disaster] ; but alas ! most calamitous news 
 demands me this night, and many. Holbume's fleet is ruined by 
 a hurricane ofi Cape Breton . . . this matter must yet be unspoken 
 of. I fear we do not stand in the smUe of Heaven. May a degenerate 
 people profit in the school of misfortune.* 
 
 Small wonder that Pitt felt despondent. In Germany, 
 on the coast of France, in America, disaster seemed to dog his 
 steps. The desperate news from America and Eochefort, he 
 told Sackville, ' have simk me into little less than despair of the 
 country . . . the state of the nation is indeed a perilous one 
 
 1 Franklin, passing through New York, found Loudoun hard at work 
 writing dispatches with his own hand. They were so long that some of them 
 were never finished, which accounts for Pitt's complaint that he got no informa- 
 tion from Loudoun. 
 
 2 See Foreign, Various, 68-71 : Loudoun to Pitt, August 16 to October 17, 
 1757 ; and dispatches in KimbaU. 
 
 = Chatham MSS. 5. 
 
ATTEMPTS TO RETRIEVE DISASTER 349 
 
 and fitter for meditation than discourse . . . and demands all 
 
 the ability the age can furnish.' ^ This abiUty he looked for 
 
 vainly in the senior ranks of the army and navy, and he told 
 
 the House plainly in the following session where he thought the 
 
 fault lay. He abused, says Calcraft,^ both land and sea officers December 
 
 exceedingly. Loudoun he mentioned by name, taxing him 1*' ^''^'^■ 
 
 with his inactivity in spite of his superior force to the French, 
 
 and wondering what he had been doing from July 9-to August 5, 
 
 for he had received from him only one short letter and no plans 
 
 for the next campaign. He even despaired of the future as 
 
 long as American affairs remained in such hands. In humiliating 
 
 contrast to the mismanagement — ' treachery,' Pitt called it to his 
 
 wife — of the regular ofi&cers came the glorious news from India 
 
 of Olive's recovery of Calcutta, a testimony to what one man 
 
 of vigour could do unhampered by barrack-yard traditions. 
 
 Even at home the Militia Act, on which Pitt had counted to 
 
 arouse the people, was causing riots and disturbances in many 
 
 counties.3 But though he was despondent he did not despair. 
 
 To keep himself in health he ' drew the village air of his country 
 
 house at Hayes by snatches ' during the almost unceasing labour 
 
 of councils, departmental work, and deep meditations for the 
 
 country's good, which, he told GrenvUle, 'pernodant nobiscum, 
 
 feregrinantur, rusticantur* A few days before he wrote 
 
 these lines he had sent out Hawke and Boscawen to intercept 
 
 the French fleet returning from Louisburg, and was ready for 
 
 the turn of the tide when at last it came. 
 
 On November 9 England was awakened to almost delirious 
 joy by the news of Eossbach, fought on November 5, 1757 
 Frederic had long been preparing for this stroke. He had. 
 shaken off the Russians and Swedes in September and then\ • 
 marched against Soubise, who was at the head of the/ 
 French and imperial armies in Westphalia. Soubise was in- 
 clined to despise the Prussians, and walked unsuspectingly 
 into the trap laid for him by Frederic, who gave him the 
 
 ^ Historical MS8. Commission, IX, iii, 10. 
 • ' Chatham MSS. 86 : Caloraft to Loudoim. 
 
 ' For events in India, see Vol. ii., chap. xiv. For the militia see below, 
 chap. xiii. 
 
 ' Qrenville Papers, i, 228. 
 
350 MR. SECRETARY PITT AT WORK 
 
 soundest beating the French had suffered since Marlborough's 
 
 days. After two years of almost unbroken success the 
 
 French had not onlj' been beaten but humiliated in the 
 
 sight of Europe, and that by a kingdom of mushroom 
 
 ; growth. In England this victory was felt to be something 
 
 ' more than a mihtary triumph. Eeligion did not count for 
 
 much with the ruling classes, who inade most of the wars ; but 
 
 deep down in the, English character it still held firm root. This 
 
 victory of the Protestant hero over the two great Catholic 
 
 powers of the Continent aroused an enthusiasm which even 
 
 its great material advantage could not have stimulated. The 
 
 clergy, echoing the views of their congregations, preached of 
 
 it as a triumph of faith over the powers of darkness ; the 
 
 saintly Mr. Whitefield gave solemn thanks at the Tabernacle 
 
 for Frederic as the champion of Protestantism. The next 
 
 anniversary of Frederic's birth was celebrated with illuminations 
 
 and fireworks more gorgeous than if he had been a member of 
 
 the English reigning family. Frederic was, perhaps, a curious 
 
 champion of any religious belief, but at any rate he had a hatred 
 
 of that superstitious Eomanism which stUl prompted the 
 
 Courts of Vierma and Versailles to acts of religious oppression 
 
 whenever they had the opportunity.^ 
 
 Pitt, more than any statesman of his time, tinged his poli- 
 tics with a deep religious emotion. He hated Eome and all her 
 works, and had a passion for liberty in religion as well as in 
 the State.3 jje admired Frederic not only as England's best 
 ally, ' who stands,' he wrote to Mitchell, ' the unshaken bulwark 
 of Europe against the most powerful and malignant confederacy 
 that ever yet has threatened the independence of mankind,' 
 but also as the author of " the late signal success in Germany 
 that has given,' he said in the King's Speech, ' a happy turn 
 to affairs for the great object which I have at heart, the preserva- 
 tion of the Protestant religion and the liberties of Europe.' 
 He was thus well prepared to interpret and turn to the best 
 
 1 The Emperor's oppression of the Protestants of Thorn was still recent, 
 and the Calaa case illustrates the cruel bigotry of the French system at that 
 time. 
 
 " See above, pp. 176, 216. 
 
1I*FECT OF nOSBACH, 1757 351 
 
 advantage his countrymen's enthusiasm at this victory. 
 Casting aside as inadequate the plans already made for the 
 ensuing campaign, he postponed the meeting of Parliament 
 from November 15 to December 1, 1757. In the interval he 
 entirely altered his proposals, taking Eossbach as a starting- 
 point for the happier and more glorious campaign he now 
 foresaw. 
 
CHAPTEE XII 
 
 THE TIDE OF VICTOKY SETS IN 
 
 Kal yjjv tpaye7iTay vavrlKois trap' ^KiriSa, 
 
 ^scHTLtrs, Agam. 899.' 
 
 Pitt's system of administration was simple and regular. At 
 the beginning of each session he took the people into his con- 
 fidence with the broad statement of his policy in the King's 
 Speech. This was in November or December. During the 
 I winter months he worked away at the detailed plans for 
 carrying this policy into effect, and flashed out the orders day 
 by day to the Admiralty, War Office and other departments ; 
 he then left matters to his generals and admhals, giving them 
 full discretion to act as circumstances occurred. But winter, 
 spring, summer and autumn he was always on the watch, 
 ready to repair a defeat by fresh exertions or clinch a victory 
 by one more shattering blow. In the winter of Rossbach, when 
 Parliament met on December 1, he made the King's Speech 
 turn principally on Germany and the new hope sprung from 
 thence : 
 
 I have the firmest confidence [it ran] that the spirit and bravery 
 of this nation, so renowned in all time, and which have formerly 
 surmounted so many difficulties, are not to be abated by some 
 disappointments. These, I trust, by the blessing of God and your 
 
 ' ' The day of victory cometh at last as the sight of land to storm-tossed 
 mariners.' 
 
 362 
 
A TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE 353 
 
 zeal and ardour for my honour and tte welfare of your country, 
 may be retrieved. It is my first resolution to apply my utmost 
 efiorts for the security of my kingdoms, and for the recovery and 
 protection of the possessions and rights of my crown and subjects 
 in America and elsewhere. . . . Another great object which I have 
 at heart is the preservation of the Protestant religion and the 
 liberties of Europe. ... In this critical conjuncture the eyes of 
 all Europe are upon you. In particular I must recommend it to 
 you that my good brother and ally, the King of Prussia, may be 
 supported in such a manner as his magnanimity and active zeal 
 for the common cause deserve. . . . Nothing [it concluded] can be 
 so conducive to the defence of all that is dear to us, as well as for 
 reducing our enemies to reason, as imion and harmony amongst 
 ourselves. 
 
 In this speech, which by the touch of sympathy in the use of 
 the pronouns seemed for the first time to identify the King with 
 the efforts, aspirations and weaknesses of his people, the most 
 expressive word was thought to be ' elsewhere.' Everyone saw 
 that Hanover was intended thereby, and yet it passed, says 
 Walpole, ' as a phrase of course hke the town of Berwick-upon- 
 Tweed.' In the House not a whisper of opposition was heard. 
 Pitt himself, speaking on the army estimates, encouraged this December 
 confidence by his description of a united Ministry that nothing ^*' ^'^^''• 
 could separate, all animated by the same spirit and aiming at , ^ , 
 the same goal, and by his pja^j^ricon the King — ' burning with 
 zeal for the country's happiness.' A month later, on the vote January 
 of £100,000 for the Hanoverian and allied army, he roused ^^' ^'^®- 
 the House to enthusiasm by his eulogy of Frederic's achieve- 
 ments in the common cause and by his eloquent pleading for 
 the army of observation under Prince Ferdinand, as the best 
 means of supporting a king vrhose interests were so closely 
 bound up with England's.'^ A Polish prince who heard this 
 speech said of it disdainfully that it was not the speech of a 
 Secretary of State but of a tribune of the people : to Pitt no 
 higher compliment could have been paid. 
 
 1 Schaefer (7 jahriger Krieg, i, 665, and ii', 530) gives accounts from Prince 
 Czartoriski and the Prussian envoy of these speeches. The account of the first 
 speech corresponds very closely with Walpole's. Walpole has no mention of 
 the second. 
 
 VflT.. T- 2 A 
 
354 THE TIDE OF VICTORY SETS IN 
 
 Pitt had forestalled the sanction of Parliament. In 
 November he was urging on Newcastle that the allied army 
 should ' begin in time and go to work roundly, eleariag the 
 electorate and putting an end to the insolence and rapine of 
 the French army in that suffering country.' ^ Immediately 
 after Eossbach he secured Frederic's consent to the appointment 
 of Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, whose first action on taking 
 up his command was formally to disown the convention. 
 In him Pitt found a leader of a different mettle from the Duke 
 of Cumberland. Trained in the best school of arms in Europe, 
 he had some of Frederic's fire and much of his ability to hold 
 his own against heavy odds. He was too good a soldier, when 
 he had Englishmen under him, to give occasion for complaints 
 of favouritism to his own countrymen ; and he knew how to 
 get the best work from all. ' How extraordinarily civil the 
 Prince is to-day,' remarked an Enghsh grenadier. ' Yes,' 
 grumbled a veteran in the same company, ' I observed it too, 
 and be damned to him ! You'll find he is always so before we 
 are to be damnably peppered.' Within a month of assuming 
 the command at Stade he had driven Eichelieu's army back 
 almost to the Weser, and by April 1758 had sent Clermont, 
 Eichelieu's successor, flying across the Ehine with more haste 
 than d'Estrees had crossed it into Hanover the previous year. 
 Moreover, by taking the Hanoverians as well as the Hessians 
 and Brunswickers into English pay, Pitt made certain that the 
 army would fight for English objects and was able to insist that 
 it should act only on instructions from an English Secretary of 
 State.2 Thus all fear of another convention of Closterseven 
 was for the future averted, and Pitt had succeeded, where 
 all his predecessors had failed, in reversing the old relations 
 and making Hanover a province dependent on England.*" 
 
 Frederic had followed up his victory of Eossbach by turning 
 south with lightning speed on the Austrians, whom he defeated 
 at Lissa on December 5, 1757, thereby earning a period of 
 comparative rest till the following April. During these early 
 months of 1758 there was a certain coolness between Pitt and 
 
 1 Add. MSS. 32997, f. 341. = Ibid. 32876, f. 152. 
 
 ^ So thought Jojeph Yorke at The Hague {Pol. Corr. xvi, 364). 
 
PITT AND FREDERIC, 1758 355 
 
 Frederic. Each had grievances against the other. Pitt, 
 possibly remembering Frederic's frequent changes of front 
 in the last war, wanted to bind him irrevocably to England by 
 a closer treaty and a subsidy. Frederic, still uneasy lest 
 Hanover should attempt another treaty of neutrality, kept 
 harping on his old string of an English squadron in the Baltic 
 to overawe Eussia, and demanded besides that Enghsh troops 
 should be sent over to reinforce Ferdinand. He made it a 
 condition of signing the new treaty or even accepting the 
 proffered subsidy that these terms should be granted. Pitt's 
 answer was that he could not spare the ships or the men 
 from home defence and his other expeditions. He had the 
 additional reason for refusing the men, that public opinion 
 was not yet ripe for this further development of German 
 policy. Early in the session he had told the House that he December 
 would not send ' a drop of our blood to the Elbe, to be lost ^^' ^'^^" 
 in that ocean of gore,' and in response to his Tory supporters, 
 who were becoming uneasy at Prussia's demands, was several 
 times called upon to repeat this assurance.^ Pitt's weapon 
 against Frederic was the menace of withdrawing Ferdinand's 
 army from his flank : Frederic's against England that he would 
 make peace with Prance. The chief sufferers from the growing 
 irritation of the two great men were their respective envoys. 
 Michel, the Prussian minister, was sharply rebuked by Frederic 
 for paying too much deference to Pitt, ' as if that minister's 
 thoughts were to decide the fate of Europe,' and reminded 
 that he was not Mr. Pitt's secretary but the King of Prussia's 
 envoy.2 Mitchell in Berlin was as strongly suspected by Pitt 
 of having abetted Frederic in his demands for Enghsh troops : 
 
 Andrew Mitchell [he writes to Newcastle] ia not a fool and therefore 
 he must be something not fit to be the instrument of the present 
 system of administration ... in a word, if your Grace is not able 
 to eradicate this lurking diffusive poison a Uttle more out of the 
 mass of Government, especially from the vitals, I think it better 
 for us to have done. I do not intend for one that Andrew Mitchell 
 shall carry me where I have resolved not to go. 3 
 
 1 Chatham MSS. 86 : Calcraft to Lord Home, February 26, 1758. 
 
 • Pol. Gorr. xvi, 253. ' Add. MSS. 32877. f. 256. 
 
 2 a2 
 
356 THE TroE OF VICTORY SETS IN 
 
 At a Cabinet held in Pitt's house on February 23, 1758/ 
 an ultimatum was drawn up refusing English troops and English 
 ships except in co-operation with another Baltic Power and 
 demanding an immediate answer from Frederic about the new 
 treaty. The same night Pitt, who was most anxious not to 
 drive Frederic to extremities, took infinite pains correcting 
 Holderness's dispatch, and sent Joseph Yorke with it 
 to supersede Mitchell. On the way Yorke met Frederic's 
 envoy Knyphausen, with full powers to sign the treaty : for 
 Frederic was as little anxious as Pitt for a breach in the 
 alUance. On April 11, 1758, this was renewed and made 
 closer by the second treaty of Westminster. After his experience 
 of Pitt's diplomacy Frederic called him ' un homme bien vif 
 et fort entete,' but admired him the more. The two men 
 might well call quits in the trial of strength. By this treaty 
 both Kings were bound not to make peace without the other's 
 consent ; George II engaged to pay Frederic a subsidy of 
 £670,000, Frederic to augment his forces and use them for 
 objects common to both parties. Prussia received no promise 
 of English troops or ships ; on the other hand Pitt promised 
 to send an English garrison to Emden, to make further descents 
 on the French coast, and to bring diplomatic pressure on 
 Sweden and Eussia in Frederic's favour ; before many months 
 had passed he complied with the demand for an English 
 contingent to reinforce Ferdinand's army.^ 
 
 Pitt's rapid conversion to the need of sending English 
 troops to Germany is characteristic of his sensitiveness to 
 a change of conditions. In December, when he refused to 
 allow a drop of English blood to be ' lost in that ocean of 
 gore,' he was still under the impression of the Convention of 
 Closterseven and of the Enghsh Ministry's inability to prevent 
 it. But after four months' experience of Prince Ferdinand's 
 work he felt that the case was entirely altered. The army was 
 beating the French and helping to preserve Frederic, and its 
 commander was in full sympathy with his own behef that ' a 
 
 1 Add. MSS. 32997, f. 372. Only Pitt, Newcastle, Hardwioke and Holder- 
 ness were present; see also ibid. 341. 
 
 2 For the treaties of 1756 and 1758 and the further conventions of 
 December 1758, of 1759 and 1760, see Almon, iii. 
 
ENGLISH TROOPS SENT TO GERMANY, 1758 357 
 
 year of vigorous warfare would do less harm to my army and 
 more damage to the enemy than two years of slack defensive 
 warfare.' ^ At the same time Ferdinand, whose force was the 
 only obstacle to a junction between the two French armies of 
 Clermont and Soubise, was dangerously weak, being inferior 
 in numbers to either Clermont or Soubise separately. His 
 defeat would have left Hanover and all Western Germany at 
 the mercy of France, and Frederic hemmed in on every side. 
 By the end of March Pitt had determined to send English 
 troops to Germany. His iirst step was to send Brudenell's 
 regiment to garrison Emden, which had been hastily aban- 
 doned by the French on the appearance of Commodore Holmes 
 with a frigate and cutter.^ He thus made sure of an important 
 base of supply. His only reason for further delay in sending 
 English reinforcements to Ferdinand's army in the field was 
 a fear that the King would insist on appointing Cumberland 
 to command them.s But by two brilliant victories Ferdinand 
 put his right to command beyond question. Following 
 Clermont across the Ehine he drove him out of his camp at 
 Eheinberg on Jime 13, and on the 23rd beat him again at 
 Crevelt. On the 24th, George II signed the order for 5,000 
 troops to be sent to Germany.* When news came of Crevelt, 
 Pitt increased the draft to 6,000, and a week later to 9,000. 
 
 ' We are sending twelve squadrons of English cavalry to 
 this glorious school of war and I hope to share a sprig of 
 Germanic laurel very soon,' wrote Pitt with boyish fervour to 
 Grenville ; and his disgust at the poor spirit shown by the 
 army at Eochefort may weU have been one of his reasons for 
 sending it to Germany. As Bute said, ' Nothing would assist 
 the army more and recover discipUne than sending them to 
 some scene of action.'^ Most of the officers were delighted 
 at the prospect of fighting pitched battles according to rule 
 instead of marching through swamps and forests in America 
 
 ^ From Pitt's draft (in French) of the King's letter to Ferdinand. {Ghatkam 
 Corr. i, 309.) 
 
 " March 29, 1758 (Becord Office, F<yreign, Various, 68-71). 
 
 ' See d'Abreu's account of Pitt's hesitations in March in Chatham Corr. i, 
 294^300 ; see also Pol. Corr. xvii, 22, &o. 
 
 • Add. MSS. 32881, f. 35. ' Bute to Pitt (n.d.), Chatham MSS. 24 
 
 ■V 
 
358 THE TIDE OF VICTORY SETS IN 
 
 or ' buccaneering,' as Sackville called it, on the French coast ; 
 and hardly a murmur was heard from the public— hitherto 
 taught by Pitt to suspect all German adventu^es^ On July 11 
 the first detachment embarked at Gravesend, and by August 21 
 the Duke of Marlborough had joined Ferdinand with six 
 regiments of foot and six of horso.^ Ferdinand had asked for 
 two more battalions to garrison Stade, but Pitt would not 
 agree to sending another man that year. At a Cabinet Council 
 on August 2 he declared that if more could have been spared 
 he would have sent them in the first instance, for he did not 
 beUeve in doing things by halves. His expeditions to France 
 were already cramped by the dispatch of the 9,000, and home 
 defence had to be thought of. When 50,000 German and 
 9,000 Enghsh troops were in their pay they could not be 
 accused of starving the continental campaign. Eather than 
 send English soldiers to garrison a Hanoverian town he would 
 hire 4,500 Bavarians : ' You see by this,' he said to Newcastle, 
 ' I don't mean to avoid the expense but to give the assistance, 
 if it properly can.' ^ 
 
 The English reinforcement enabled Ferdinand to hold his 
 own. Though defeated once by Soubise, be succeeded by 
 rapid marches and counter-marches between the two French 
 armies in driving them out of Hanover and Hesse and retired 
 into winter quarters in a strong position covering both princi- 
 paUties. Frederic's activity was even more marvellous than in 
 1757. Driven out of Bohemia by Daun in July, he turned on 
 the Eussians, who were threatening Berlin, and defeated them 
 at the bloody battle of Zorndorf on August 25 and 26. Beaten 
 again by Daun at Hochkirch in October, he was, nevertheless, 
 at the end of the year still in possession of every inch of the 
 territory he owned in 1757. For Pitt the continental campaign, 
 had done more than he could have hoped. Frederic was still - 
 safe ; the French had been signally defeated at Crevelt ; 
 two French commanders, Eicheheu and Clermont, had been dis- 
 graced ; over 100,000 French soldiers and French millions sorely 
 needed for the defence of America and India had been wasted. 
 
 ' One of these was Pitt's old regiment, 1st Dragoon Guards (Bland's). , 
 2 AM. MSS. 32882, f. 199. "^ 
 
FERDINAND & FREDERIC'S CAMPAIGNS, 1758 359 
 
 The disappointment of the Rochefort expedition did 
 not prevent Pitt from projecting Uke enterprises in 1758. 
 Frederic and Ferdinand both urged them, the Leicester House 
 party encouraged him to ignore ' passion and faction ' and 
 proceed in a policy which was pronounced ' safe and~easy,' on 
 the ground that the French garde-cotes were worse fighters 
 than our own peasants.^ The French were reported to be 
 making preparations for invasion at Boulogne, Calais, Brest 
 and Eochefort ; 2 an attack on their coasts would give them 
 something else to think about. In April Pitt gave his first 
 orders to prepare for a descent ' in order to cause such a 
 division of the forces of the enemy as may influence the grand 
 operations of this campaign without going at too great a 
 distance from this country.' s On May 8 he ordered trans- 
 ports for 13,000 troops and set Commodore Howe, who had 
 captured the fort on He d'Aix,* to get ready an escorting 
 squadron ; on May 20 he ordered Anson himself to assume 
 command of a covering fleet to watch the western ports, and 
 the Duke of Marlborough, Master-General of the Ordnance, 
 to take command of the troops. He was determined not to 
 risk another Eochefort for want of good men. Hawke, jealous 
 of Howe's appointment, had struck his flag, but Pitt, who 
 could be severe enough on a bad man, ' received with temper ' 
 the account of Hawke's petulance, and, wishing ' some means 
 might be found by which he might be preserved to the service,' 
 welcomed Anson's suggestion that Hawke should return as 
 his second-in-command.* On taking leave of the generals 
 he said everything he could to encourage them to risk action, 
 and, in the hurry of their departure, characteristically found 
 time to dash off a line to his wife, urging her to think more 
 of her ' dear, dear health,' and telling her that " the troops 
 are said to breathe nothing but ardor. Heaven go with them.' « 
 
 1 Chatham MSS. 24, Bute to Pitt, n.d. 
 
 " See Record Office, Foreign, Various, 68-71, March 13 and April i, 1758. 
 On March 13 a letter reporting preparations at Boulogne and Calais came to 
 Pitt. On the same day he ordered the Admiralty to send boats to look into 
 these ports. On the 23rd he had their report. 
 
 " Chatham MSS. 85. ' See above, p. 342. } 
 
 ' Anson, Anson, p. 153. ' Chatham MSS. 6. 
 
 y 
 
36o THE TIDE OF VICTORY SETS IN 
 
 On June 1 Howe sailed with his imposing convoy, and came 
 to anchor in Cancale Bay on the 4th. No time was wasted in 
 prehminaries : on the 5th two brigades were landed, and on 
 the 7th all the shipping and stores in the harbour, to the value 
 of £500,000, were burned. But on news of French troops 
 approaching under the Governor of Brittany the commanders 
 deemed it prudent to abandon the attack on St. Malo and 
 hurriedly re-embarked the troops.^ The remainder of June 
 was spent in useless demonstrations against Havre, Caen, 
 Honfleur and Cherbourg. 
 
 On the return of the expedition Granville, who had ' no 
 great expectations ' from such adventures, wished to put an 
 end to them, and Beckford, a good barometer of public feeling 
 in the City, reported that ' the St. Maloes expedition was con- 
 sidered an idle scheme, which is as much ridiculed in France 
 and other places as our late expedition to Eochefort.' But 
 Pitt would not hear of drawing back : keeping France in alarms 
 upon the coast was the most effectual way to distress her, he 
 said, and he even asserted that L'Orient, Eochefort and 
 St. Malo would all be in our possession had not the generals 
 made a present of them to the French.^ At the moment he 
 was busy sending off the English contingent to Germany ; 
 without interrupting this business he rained orders on the 
 Admiralty to supply Howe with cables, anchors, provisions, 
 beer, forage and water, so that a fresh start might be made 
 forthwith ; he would hardly allow Howe to land his men until 
 he heard they had become ' sick, ragged and lousy ' from 
 long confinement on shipboard. But he had to change his 
 generals. Sa ckvill e, who had been second-in-command to 
 Marlborough, wrote ' representing the disagreeable situation 
 he found himself in ' and threatening to resign from the army 
 if he were not appointed to a German command. Next day 
 Pitt saw him and the Duke of Marlborough and consented 
 
 ^ So hurried was the embarkation that the Duke of Marlborough left his 
 spoons behind. These the Duo d'AiguiUon considerately sent after him in a 
 cartel ship. 
 
 ^ For an account of this Cabinet discussion, see Dodington, 409. After Pitt 
 
 had spoken; Ligonier, turning to Granville, began : ' You must admit ' 
 
 ' My Lord,' interrupted Granville, ' I will admit nothing. Your Lordship is 
 apt to admit, but I will admit nothing.' 
 
'/ 
 
 RAIDS ON THE FRENCH COAST, 1758 361 
 
 to let them go to Germany ; Bligh, who had originally been 
 intended for that command, had, much to his disgust, to take 
 their place. But Pitt made up for this loss of prestige for his 
 .expedition by obtaining permission for Prince Edward, George 
 II's second grandson, to embark in Howe's ship. On August 1 
 Hawe sailed again with instructions from Pitt to ' add life 
 and strength to the common cause.' On the 8th Cherbourg 
 was captured and its forts and shipping destroyed, a fine was 
 levied on the inhabitants, hostages taken, and twenty-four 
 brass guns and the town bells carried off as trophies. But/ 
 again, as at St. Malo, the approach of French troops caused/ 
 a precipitate retreat to the ships, before Pitt had time to 
 signify his intention of holding Cherbourg until the end of thd 
 war. On August 19 Howe was back in Portland harbour 
 refreshing his crews. 
 
 The next point of attack was ill chosen. In Brest Howe /-/-i^' 
 
 would have found the French departments of war and marine \ 
 disputing about the control of the port-batteries instead of pre- 
 paring for defence ; in most of the coast towns the militia were 
 starving, in rags and deserting by hundreds : but St. Malo, 
 warned by the attack three months earlier, was prepared. At 
 St. Lunaire, west of this town, Howe and BHgh decided to land 
 for another attempt on September 3. The landing was rough 
 and the guns and stores could not follow the troops. Howe took 
 his ships for shelter to the Bay of St. Cast, farther west, leaving 
 Bligh, who soon gave up any idea of attacking St. Malo, to 
 wander across the peninsula back to the ships. d'Aiguillon, 
 the Governor of Brittany, acting on a precept which Pitt 
 himself would have endorsed — ' to make straight for the 
 enemy when his position is discovered, to make the best dis- 
 positions possible and then trust to Providence ' — came with 
 10,000 men and thirteen guns by forced marches within a few 
 miles of Bhgh on the evening of the 10th. Bhgh struck his 
 camp at night amidst loud drum-beating, and next morning 
 allowed his men to straggle away to the coast. Here the boats 
 were ready to take the men off, but before this operation 
 had well begun d'Aiguillon was attacking. For a time the 
 guns of the fleet kept down d'Aiguillon's artillery, and the 
 
362 THE TIDE OF VICTORY SETS IN 
 
 difiSculty of the ground afforded some protection to the English 
 
 troops embarking ; but the Guards, left to the last, suffered 
 
 cruelly. A great many were cut down on the beach, some 
 threw themselves into the sea and were drowned, and several 
 boatloads of them were overturned and sunk. The English 
 loss was reckoned at between 1,000 and 3,000 in this ' ill-com- 
 bined and worse executed ' expedition, so young Phihp Francis, 
 who was present as Bligh's secretary, called it.i 
 
 The ridicule excited in England by the failure of this last 
 attempt to singe the King of France's beard was so great that 
 Pitt had to abandon this method of warfare for over a year. 
 The ill-humour or incompetence of all the military commanders 
 entrusted with these descents makes it surprising that they 
 were not more disastrous. But, in spite of tactical failures, 
 the effort had not been entirely wasted. The harbours of 
 St. Malo and Cherbourg, nests of the French privateers that 
 preyed on English commerce, had been destroyed. Anson's 
 blockade of the coast, an integral part of Pitt's scheme, had 
 been so close that no ships had dared leave Brest either to 
 attack Howe or to sail to America. Prince Ferdinand thought 
 Howe's raids so useful in diverting attention from himself 
 that he begged Pitt to continue them as long as possible. In 
 September, according to the Duke of Marlborough, eighteen 
 battalions and four cavalry regiments were taken away from 
 Contades for coast defence. In Brittany alone d'Aiguillon had 
 some 10,000 regulars besides militia, and the whole seaboard 
 from Dunkirk to Bordeaux had to be protected. Pitt, there- 
 fore, was not far wrong when he boasted that by his excursions 
 and alarms he had occupied at least 30,000 troops that might 
 have been fighting in Germany or America. 
 
 In the beginning of the year, in the midst of preparations 
 for the American campaign, Pitt had given renewed orders 
 for i^e_JWest African expedition suggested by Gumming.^ 
 A small squadronTuSder Captains Marsh and Mason arrived at 
 the Senegal Eiver on April 23, 1758, and on May 1 received the 
 
 * Waddington, iii, 348 sqq., has some interesting details about the St. Cast 
 disaster. Dr. Holland Rose publishes in the English Hist. Rev. for Oct., 
 1913, one of the less favourable French reports on these raids from Chatham 
 MSS. 85. 2 See above, pp. 300-1, 337. 
 
WEST AFRICAN EXPEDITIOI^'^1758 \ 363 
 
 surrender of Fort Lou is,aind of.all progarty belonging to the 
 French company. On June 13 Pitt had news of this his first 
 ■WiEcess; on the same day he sent out reinforcements to the 
 garrison at Fort Louis, and at the end of August, on the advice 
 of his friindT, Alderman Sayre,'- prepared to send a larger 
 force to reduce^ Goree, a French island to the south of 
 Senegal. In Octo¥er Keppel should have sailed with five 
 sHps of the line and some frigates carrying a battalion from 
 Cork, but was delayed by violent storms till November. On 
 December 28 he appeared off Goree, and, after a feebly re- 
 sisted attack, captured it. Such was the zeal Pitt had inspired 
 in the troops that they complained they had no opportunity of 
 proving their mettle, owing to the ' French not doing their 
 duty.' The grievance was one that appealed to Pitt : 
 
 Though the ill behaviour of the enemy [he replied] did not afford 
 the land forces under your command any opportimity to distinguish 
 themselves on that occasion, yet the King does not doubt from the 
 readiness and ardour they showed they would have performed their 
 duty in such manner as would have supported the honoiur of His 
 Majesty's arms. 
 
 Ajl^ the French factories in West^ Africa_fell.into EngUsh hands 
 by^these_easy conquests, as well as the French trade with the 
 interior in gumT^old, ivory, corn and cattle. But the loss 
 (STthe slave trade was the worst blow to the enemy, and as 
 a result of the EngUsh victory the London, Bristol, Liverpool, 
 Plymouth and Guernsey merchants, who annually sent some 
 forty ships and carried some 4,000 slaves from West Africa 
 to the plantations, were set free from all danger of molestation^ 
 It was not a great undertaEng, but Pitt's management of it 
 illustrates his clean-cut methods. He sent out the right 
 number of men and no more, chose young and vigorous 
 commanders, and showed the same driving force in starting 
 Keppel's httle squadron as he appUed to greater enterprises.^ 
 
 1 Chatham MSS. 55. 
 
 ^ Keppel, for example, lost an ordnance ship in the storm, and Pitt told him 
 not to delay his departure ' one moment ' for it but to let it follow him. Many 
 other such touches are to be found in the correspondence (see Chatham MSS. 
 100, and Becord Office, Sierra Leone, 12). 
 
364 THE TIDE OF VICTORY SETS IN 
 
 After the victories he was mindful of those who had done 
 good work : Gumming, the origiual projector, obtained a 
 pension ; the French pilot, who guided Keppel at Goree, 
 was also recommended for a pension ; ^ and Keppel himself 
 was marked out for future service of a hazardous nature. 
 
 II 
 
 All these schemes for Germany, the coast of France, and 
 West Africa were subordinated to the main business of the 
 war, ' the succour and preservation of America.' The American 
 campaign of 1768 was the first for which Pitt was entirely 
 responsible. He had come into office too late in 1756 to do 
 inore than forward to the best of his ability Loudoun's vague 
 projects for the capture of either Louisburg or Quebec. In the 
 interval he had been collecting numerous suggestions from 
 men who knew the country well. One of his most useful 
 correspondents was James Abercromby,^ agent for Virginia 
 and North CaroUna, who gave good advice about his fellow- 
 provincials and the way to avoid the mistakes of the past in 
 dealings with them ; from his knowledge of the country he 
 could point out the weak spots in the defences of Canada. 
 Then Bollan, the agent for Massachusetts,^ supphed informa- 
 tion about the French forces in Canada and the strength of 
 Quebec, and suggested remedies for the grievances under 
 which his province was suffering ; Pownall, the energetic 
 governor of the same province, sent voluminous reports on 
 the French fortresses dotted about America and on the 
 attitude of the Indians, and suggestions for a plan of campaign ; 
 Denys de Berdt,* a merchant interested in the American 
 trade, urged him to abandon the policy of attempting 
 to capture French fortresses piecemeal, and to concentrate 
 
 ^ Record Office, Dom. Entry Booh, 21. The man's name was Julien du 
 Chene. 
 
 " Not to be confounded with the general of the same name. This man's 
 letters, written from Craven Street, Strand, are in Chatham MSS. 17, 95, and 
 97 ; see also Beer, British Colonial Policy, p. 55, note. 
 
 = Chatham MSS. 20. « Ibid. 19 ; Beer, ibid. pp. 175-6. 
 
PLANS FOR AMERICA, 1757-8 365 
 
 for a grand attack on Quebec ; Bradstreet/ who had first seen 
 service as colonel of a Maine militia regiment in the Louisburg 
 expedition of 1745, and had distinguished himself in the present 
 war, proposed that three simultaneous attacks should be 
 delivered on Quebec on lines which Pitt ultimately adopted ; 
 and, lastly. Brigadier Waldo, who had also been in the last 
 Louisburg campaign, sent him plans of the fortress and a 
 well-considered scheme for its capture.^ 
 
 By December 30, 1757, Pitt had matured the plans, which 
 he expounded in eight masterly dispatches to the governors 
 and the general in America. » By the exordium to most 
 of these he signified the spirit in which he expected them to 
 act : ' His Majesty having nothing more at heart than to repair 
 the losses and disappointments of the last inactive and unhappy 
 campaign and by the most vigorous and extensive efforts to 
 avert, by the blessing of God on his arms, the dangers impending 
 on N. America.' In the previous year he had allowed Loudoun 
 and Holburne to decide whether they should attempt Louisburg 
 or Quebec first. This year Pitt left no doubt. He was con- 
 vinced that Quebec was the key of Canada and the chief goal 
 of the campaign, but Louisburg, standing as a sentinel at the 
 entrance of the St. Lawrence, was no less the key of Quebec. 
 Its magnificent harbour also made it a danger as a refuge for 
 French fleets and the privateers that preyed on the New England 
 trade and fisheries. Louisburg, therefore, was to be the first 
 object of the next campaign. But, in expectation of its early 
 fall, Pitt also made every provision for the capture of Quebec 
 itself in the same year. The naval and military force destined 
 against the Cape Breton fortress was after its capture to pro- 
 ceed up the St. Lawrence to the ancient capital of Canada ; in 
 co-operation with the fleet a land force was to be advancing 
 down Lake George, where Montcalm had beaten Monro the 
 year before, capture the French forts Ticonderoga and Crown" 
 Point at the head of Lake Champlain, and approach Quebec 
 
 1 Chatham MSS. 95. 
 
 ^ Waldo's letters, dated November, 1757, are in Record Office, CO. 5.52. 
 His scheme was substantially that adopted by Amherst and Bosoawen. 
 ' These are all giren in Kimball, i. 
 
366 THE TIDE OF VICTORY SETS IN 
 
 by the Richelieu river and the St. Lawrence. He also provided 
 for a separate force to protect the southern colonies, and, 
 later in the season, for an attack by the fleet on the French 
 settlements in Mississippi. 
 
 To carry out this bold and all-embracing scheme, Pitt's first 
 need was for better men to take command. Holburne was 
 put aside and Admiral Boscawen — ' wry-necked Dick ' the 
 sailors called him — taken from the Admiralty to command 
 the fleet. Loudoun was recalled from his cabbages and his 
 dispatches, and in his place Abercromby, one of his brigadiers, 
 promoted to the chief command. It was not a good appoint- 
 ment, for he was old and had shown no sign of great capacity : 
 but Pitt had little choice, for the King would not appoint 
 young officers to high command, and the best seniors preferred 
 fighting in Europe. At any rate, though Pitt thought well 
 of Abercromby at first,i he took care to have a young man 
 ! whom he could trust at his elbow, and dispatched Lord Howe, 
 elder brother of the commodore, as a brigadier on his staff. 
 ' The best officer in the British army,' Wolfe called Howe ; 
 and indeed he ran Wolfe close. With less genius than Wolfe, 
 he had all his love for the profession of arms and more personal 
 charm. A favourite in London society, he was beloved by his 
 men and by all the provincials who met him.^ On campaign he 
 lived as sparingly and simply as the humblest soldier, taught 
 his men to use their wits, and cared for their comfort ; in 
 the rough warfare of America he made them cast to the winds 
 the regulation stocks, gaiters and periwigs which hampered 
 their movements. The colonists he won by treating them 
 as equals and humbly seeking to learn in their school of border 
 fighting.3 With such a man beside him Pitt hoped that 
 Abercromby would be able to raise the colonial levies without 
 friction, and to direct the secondary Crown Point expedition 
 entrusted to him. The main operations against Louisburg 
 
 ^ According to Newcastle (Torrens, ii, 473). 
 > ^ Wolie, on the other hand, shared the usual contempt in the army for 
 ' the provincial mUitia. 
 
 ^ There is an account of him on the day before his death lying on a 
 bearskin by the sunlit shores of Lake George plying Stark, the great colonial 
 ranger, with questions as to the best way of approaching Tioonderoga. 
 
HOWE AND AMHERST 367 
 
 Pitt took entirely out of his hands. For this task he chose 
 Colonel Jeffrey Amherst, then commissary of the Hessian 
 troops, a contemporary of his own, they both having taken 
 their first commissions in 1731. The King made great diffi- 
 culties about promoting so junior an officer, and yielded only 
 to the entreaties of Lady Yarmouth, backed by Pitt's threat 
 that he would abandon the Louisburg expedition if he did not 
 have his way.^ Amherst was a cautious man of no briUiance 
 and of few words, whose merit, says Walpole, it required 
 penetration to admire. But his caution was not that of the 
 Loudouns and Mordaunts who feared danger ; it was more akin 
 to that of a Fabius Cunctator. His very slowness inspired 
 confidence in his men, helped by the belief he showed in them. 
 ' My service to the gentlemen under you,' he wrote to one 
 of his brigadiers. ' Our trade is a fickle one, but proper measures 
 and perseverance in executing them will in the end prevail 
 with the bravery of the British troops, though every day of 
 battle cannot be a day of victory.' 2 By the happiest of com- 
 binations Pitt added the fire of a Wolfe to Amherst's caution. 
 He had marked the young colonel as the only military officer 
 who showed any dash at Eochefort, and accordingly named 
 him quartermaster to the Louisburg contingent. For the 
 southern command he chose Forbes, just such another as 
 Amherst, dogged and tenacious to the death. Then, remem- 
 bering Webb's incapacity at Fort Edward, he even selected 
 the man to take charge of the lines of communication from 
 Albany to Lake George — a Colonel Stanwix, who had already 
 distinguished himself in the South. Thus Abercromby, the 
 old-fashioned general, became the sedentary commander, as 
 Chesterfield called him ; Amherst, Howe and Wolfe, young, 
 vigorous and burning with zeal, were to be the acting officers. 
 With such men and with his friend Boscawen to command 
 the fleet, Pitt could feel some confidence that his plans would 
 be understood and followed; especially if both services combined 
 in the spirit of the recommendation, which he invariably 
 inserted in his instructions : 
 
 1 Add. MSS. 32876, f. 461, and 32997, f. 310. 
 
 2 Chatham MSS. 96. 
 
368 THE TIDE OF VICTORY SETS IN 
 
 Whereas the success of this expedition will very much depend upon 
 an entire good understanding between our sea and land officers, 
 we do hereby strictly enjoin and require you on your part to maintain 
 and cultivate such a good understanding and agreement, and to 
 order the saUors and marines under your command to assist our 
 land forces, and to man the batteries when there shall be occasion 
 for them and when they can be spared from the sea service ; as we 
 have instructed our General ... to order that the soldiers under 
 his command shall man the ships when there shall be occasion for 
 them, and when they can be spared from the land service. 
 
 The fleet put under Boscawen consisted of twenty-three 
 ships of the line, besides frigates and smaller craft. Amherst's 
 army, some 13,000 strong, was also entirely provided by the 
 mother-country, with the exception of 500 colonial rangers. 
 
 I Pitt possibly felt that since the colonials had captured Louis- 
 burg uTlhe last war 'the regulars should have a chance of 
 showing what they could do there. Abercromby's army was 
 to be composed partly of regulars but chiefly of local levies, 
 and Forbes, to whom only a battaUon and a half of English 
 troops were allotted, had to make up his complement with 
 colonials. Pitt was prepared to give of the best that England 
 could afford for his great enterprise, but he expected the 
 Americans to help themselves and the mother-country more 
 generously than in the past/ To attain this object he did not 
 gird at them. He assumed that the King's ' faithful and brave 
 subjects in America will cheerfully co-operate with, and second 
 '^ to the utmost, the large expense and extraordinary succours 
 
 / supphed by this kingdom for their preservation and defence,' 
 
 / and, in calling for 20,000 men from the northern provinces, 
 averted disputes about each quota by urging all to raise the 
 
 - utmost possible number, ' his Majesty not judging it expedient 
 to limit the zeal and ardour of any of his provinces by making 
 a repartition of the force to be raised by each respectively.' 
 It was not asking over much, since arms, equipment and 
 rations were found by the King, and a grant in aid of pay and 
 clothing was promised to the provinces that showed zeal.^ He 
 also removed a grievance which was a serious obstacle to 
 willing service by the Americans. Since 1754 a royal warrant 
 
 ' Nevertheless it was a great saving in expense to employ colonial levies 
 in place of regulars, whose transport to America was very costly. 
 
^ ARMY RANK FOR COLONIALS 369 
 
 had been in force, subordinating all colonial rank to the lowest 
 rank in the regular army ; according to this even a colonial 
 staff-of&cer might be called upon to take his orders from some 
 callow English ensign or cornet, a cause of intense and just 
 irritation to provincials, who had some reason for thinking they 
 understood the local conditions of warfare better than the ; 
 martinets bred in Braddock's school. Pitt cut away this 
 injustice. With his dispatches of December 30 he sent a j 
 warrant ordering that for the future American officers were to ' 
 take rank with the regulars, according to the date of their 
 commissions. He showed his confidence in the colonial troops 
 further by especially ordering one of their officers. Colonel 
 Bradstreet of Maine, to be given an important command. 
 These concessions, putting the colonials on a par with their 
 English brethiren, had more effect in raising men in America - 
 than all Loudoun's bullying or even the New Bnglanders' 
 hatred of the French. In some cases the effect was instan- 
 taneous. When the dispatch announcing the new royal 
 warrant arrived, Pownall was in difficulties with his assembly, 
 who were haggling over a levy of 2,000 men that he had asked 
 of them : next morniag, when the dispatch had been read 
 out, the assembly voted that Massachusetts should provide 
 the whole 7,000 originally asked from all the northern provinces. 
 For 1758 the northern provinces voted 17,500 men and the , 
 southern 5,300 — as much as could be expected of their sparse 
 populations, and more than double what they had ever voted 
 before ; ^ and for the rest of the war they continued voting 
 about the same numbers. Every encouragement, too, was 
 offered to regain the Indians, Abercromby being told to be 
 especially careful that all presents voted for the tribes should 
 reach their destination and be equitably distributed. 
 
 When the broad principles of the campaign were laid 
 down, Pitt turned to the details. Transports fully victualled 
 to carry troops from New York to Halifax were sent to America ; 
 orders were given for a preliminary reconnaissance of Louisburg, 
 
 ' In 1756, for example, Parkman says that the New England colonies and 
 New York together raised only 5,000 men (Montcalm and Wolfe, i, 397). For 
 the numbers of men raised by the various colonies in each year of the war, 
 see Beer, loc. cit. pp. 55-71. 
 
 vnr. T 2 B 
 
370 THE TIDE OF VICTORY SETS IN 
 
 for laying down c areening wharve.S-.at Halifax, and for the 
 building of special flat-bottomed boats suitable for the naviga- 
 tion of Lake George, Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence, 
 under the eye of Captain Loring, an experienced officer sug- 
 gested by Waldo ; and steps were taken to collect a gang of 
 eighty artificers for the siege. Pitt also took care to clear 
 the way for his expedition, by preventing the French from 
 concentrating a superior fleet at Louisburg, as they had done 
 in 1757. Sir Charles Hardy with a small squadron was sent 
 ahead of Boscawen to watch the St. Lawrence, and Enghsh 
 fleets were posted in European waters to intercept any attempt 
 of the enemy to steal another march across the Atlantic. 
 
 Duquesne and de la Clue were known to be making prepara- 
 tions in the Mediterranean ports : all through the winter 
 Osborn and Saunders, with ten saU, were on the look-out 
 for them at Gibraltar. Osborn had constant information 
 from the English consuls in Italy and Spain and was ready for 
 de la Clue when he sailed from Hyeres in November with six 
 ships. The French admiral, not daring to pass him, put into 
 Cartagena to wait for Duquesne. But at Toulon the prepara- 
 tions for Duquesne's fleet had been much hampered by diffi 
 culties about money, artificers and even sailors. At length, 
 by dint of engaging men from foreign ports, Duquesne was able 
 to send two ships to join de la Clue early in February, and at 
 the end of that month put to sea himself with three more. 
 Before fee could join de la Clue he fell in with Osborn and 
 Saunders, who immediately gave chase. The two largest of 
 Duquesne's three ships, the Foudroyant and the Or'phie, were 
 captured after gallant fights ; the third was driven ashore. 
 After this disaster de la Clue gave up the attempt to sail out 
 and returned to Toulon, leaving Osborn master of the Mediter- 
 ranean. Hawke had been sent out to watch the Biscay ports. 
 Here the French had been working under cruel difficulties, for 
 half Brest was down with the putrid fever brought back by de la 
 Motte in his foul ships from America. They managed, however, 
 to equip a mihtary convoy for Louisburg in March, but Hawke, 
 sent out in the nick of time, turned them back and drove them 
 aground in Eochefort roads early in April. 
 
J BOSCAWEN SAILS, 1758 371 
 
 Long ere this Boscawen had started, for Pitt had none of 
 his old difficulty with dilatory departments, now they had all 
 tasted his temper. In 1757 Anson had professed to be unable 
 to find ships for some of Pitt's expeditions : in January 1758 
 he produced Boscawen's twenty-three ships the day after he 
 received Pitt's order, and, when one of them was lost, on the 
 very same day found for him the Dublin, another ship of the 
 same rating. On February 19 Boscawen announced to Pitt 
 that he had weighed anchor in this laconic note : 
 
 Namure at St. Hellens, 
 at 2 o'clock in the morning, February 19, 1758. 
 
 Sir, — I am now under sail with his Majesty's ships named in 
 the Margen little wind at last and by South, I am, 
 
 S"", your most obedient 
 
 and most tumble servant, 
 
 E. Boscawen. 
 
 But in spite of this early start he did not reach Halifax till 
 May 12. ' Prom Christopher Columbus' time to our day there 
 perhaps has never been a more extraordinary voyage,' said 
 Wolfe, who suffered torture from sea-sickness in the almost 
 unceasing storms. Amherst himself in the Dublin (Captain 
 Eodney) did not arrive until the 28th. Without setting foot 
 on land he joined Boscawen and with him left Halifax at 
 the head of 23 ships of the line, 18 frigates, and 116 transports 
 carrying the 13,000 troops assembled for the siege.^ 
 
 Louisburg hes on a spit of land between the Bay of Gabarus 
 on the west, exposed to the long Atlantic rollers, and a land- 
 locked harbour on the east. Its fortifications, so far from 
 being impregnable, as Loudoun had been ready to beheve, 
 were somewhat neglected, and Drucour, the Governor, had only 
 3,500 men in garrison ; a fleet of thirteen sail lay in the harbour 
 under des Gouttes, an incompetent officer. The strength of the 
 fortress lay in its inaccessibility except by the harbour, which 
 could be blocked by sinking a couple of ships in the entrance, 
 and by the storm-beaten coast of Gabarus Bay. On June 2, 
 
 1 Record Oface, America and West Indies, i, 79 gives a list of ' Troops 
 destined for the siege of Louisburg, May 24, 1768,' amounting to 12,659 
 regulars and 538 rangers. 
 
 2b2 
 
372 THE TIDE OF VICTORY SETS IN 
 
 ■when the English armament hove in sight of Lotdsburg, 
 Boscawen looked into the harbour and Amherst took his two 
 brigadiers, Lawrence and Wolfe, to pitch upon landing-places 
 in Gabarus Bay. Many of the sailors thought a landing too 
 risky and urged Boscawen to call a council of war to consider 
 it ; but he preferred the advice of an old sea captain, who told 
 him to have nothing to do with councils and shoulder the re- 
 sponsibility himself, and he declared he would not leave Gabarus 
 Bay without landing the troops. On Jime 8, the first possible 
 day, Wolfe was told off to make a landing at Freshwater Cove 
 while the fleet and other boat parties distracted the enemy 
 elsewhere. The breakers were formidable and even Wolfe was 
 within an ace of turning back, but one of his boat-loads took 
 the matter into their own hands and made a landing. Then 
 the rest of his party, following Wolfe, drove their boats ashore, 
 overcame the French outpost at the cove, and secured a landing 
 for the whole army. After this the fall of Louisburg was 
 merely a question of time ; but Amherst took no risks and 
 approached methodically with parallels and entrenchments. 
 Boscawen meanwhile was dealing with des Gouttes. He 
 captured two out of three frigates that tried to escape, set 
 fire with his shells to three ships as they lay in the harbour, 
 and on July 25 sent in some boat-loads of sailors, who burned 
 one of the remaining ships to the water's edge and towed away 
 another as a capture. Next day Drucour, who had made 
 a brave fight, surrendered his garrison as prisoners of war 
 and ceded the fortress of Louisburg, with the islands of Cape 
 Breton and St. Jean, to England. Amherst had been slow, 
 but he and Boscawen had destroyed a French squadron, that 
 could ill be spared, had 4,000 prisoners and 220 pieces of cannon 
 as trophies, and had taken the main outwork of Canada. 
 One of the most encouraging circumstances of the joint 
 operation was the hearty co-operation and good fellowship 
 between the two services. Instead of the bickering and 
 jealousies which had been the rule since Vernon's expedition 
 to Cartagena,^ ' the admiral and the general,' writes Wolfe, 
 ' have carried on the public service with great harmony, 
 
 ^ See above, p. 81. 
 
LOUISBURG, 1758 373 
 
 industry and union. Mr. Boscawen has given all and even 
 more than we could ask of him. He has furnished arms and 
 ammunition, pioneers, sappers, miners, gunners, carpenters, 
 boats, and is, I must confess, no h&d fantassin himself, and an 
 excellent back hand at a siege.' ^ 
 
 Unfortunately this success was counterbalanced by a 
 disaster to the army, which was to co-operate in the attack on 
 Quebec. The ' sedentary ' general did not belie his reputation. 
 At the beginning of July, thanks chiefly to Pitt's elaborate 
 provisions, Abercromby was ready to embark his 9,000 
 provincials and 6,000 regulars on the 1,000 boats prepared for 
 the crossing of Lake George. The flotilla drifted past the 
 enchanting scenery of the lake in all the pride of war, with 
 bands playing and flags flying. ' I never saw a sight more fair,' 
 said one who sailed in this procession ; and all were full of 
 hope, for was not Howe with them ? But on the morning 
 of the 6th Howe was struck down by a stray bullet in the 
 maze of trees between Lake George and Ticonderoga at the 
 head of Lake Champlain. ' In Lord Howe,' says Mante, 
 the historian of the campaign, ' the soul of General Aber- 
 cromby 's army seemed to expire. From the unhappy moment 
 ... a strange kind of infatuation usurped the place of resolu- 
 tion.' Montcalm had arrived at Ticonderoga on June 30, 
 when he had a garrison of only 4,000 men to set against 
 Abercromby 's 15,000. But he had a well-founded contempt 
 for the British general, ' Mrs. Nabbycromby,' as the colonials 
 called him, and within a week had formed outside his ramparts 
 a huge breastwork of forest trees, rough-hewn and spiked. 
 His only weak spot was Eattlesnake Mountain, which domin- 
 ated the fort : for want of men to hold it he had to trust to 
 Abercromby's overlooking it. On July 8, two days after Howe's 
 death, Abercromby sent his army towards Ticonderoga by an 
 easier and shorter track than that previously chosen. He him- 
 self remained in his camp at the foot of Lake George and kept 
 with him his guns which would have been decisive on Rattle- 
 snake Mountain. The assault on the fort, which lasted the long 
 summer day, was nothing but a senseless carnage. Time after 
 
 ' Historical MSS. Commission, Stopford Saokville, ii, 264. 
 
374 THE TIDE OF VICTORY SETS IN 
 
 time Pitt's Highlanders and the other brave battalions dashed 
 themselves against the impenetrable obstacle, only to be 
 spitted on the protruding spikes or shot down at point-blank 
 range.^ In the evening Abercromby drew off his exhausted 
 troops, and though he still had more than three times as many 
 men as Montcalm, hastily re-embarked them and paddled 
 back to the head of Lake George, where he remained idly in 
 camp for the rest of the season. 
 
 After the capture of Louisburg Amherst had been anxious 
 to continue the voyage to Quebec, but Boscawen thought the 
 season too far advanced, and when Abercromby's panic- 
 stricken dispatches arrived at Louisburg, Amherst agreed 
 that it was no longer to be thought of. He took prompt 
 measures to relieve Abercromby's anxieties : he sent pilots 
 to take soundings of the St. Lawrence and detachments to 
 reconnoitre Gaspe and destroy French fisheries, to encourage 
 the French in the belief that he was still coming to 
 Quebec and induce them to withdraw troops from Lake 
 Champlain to Quebec. Then with the six battalions he 
 had taken across to Boston by sea, he made a forced march 
 to Abercromby's camp. Abercromby, on the ground that 
 it was too late for further operations, sent him back 
 next day. 
 
 Abercromby was the only man found wanting of aU those 
 chosen by Pitt for his campaigns in America. Bradstreet, 
 against the commander-in-chief's wish, persisted in an expedi- 
 tion to Forts Oswego and Frontenac on Lake Ontario, and, 
 even when his men were falUng off from desertion and sickness, 
 wrote, ' Should the numbers be reduced so low, as that we caimot 
 make out above one thousand men fit to proceed to Lake Ontario, 
 with them I will do my best.' His pluck and determination 
 were rewarded by the capture of the forts, important links in 
 the chain of communication between Canada and the Ohio, 
 and a vantage-ground from which to overawe the Six Nations, 
 the Indian allies of England. 
 
 Forbes, too, nobly justified Pitt's choice of him for the 
 
 ' Sir A. Quiller Couch's Fort Amity gives a vivid picture of this day's 
 fighting, and indeed of Abercromby's whole campaign. 
 
FORBES AT PITTSBURG, 1758 375 
 
 hard task of defending the frontiers of the Southern States and 
 surmounted all his difficulties by indomitable courage. His 
 idea of defence was to attack the enemy's post at Fort Duquesne, 
 which had already been the cause of two battles. The pre- 
 hminary mustering of troops was heart-breaking work, for 
 excepting a battalion of Highlanders and a detachment of the 
 Eoyal Americans he had entirely to depend on provincial levies. 
 Virginia raised her 2,000 without difficulty, but Maryland and 
 Pennsylvania proved more obdurate. Negotiations with the 
 Indians also took time, and disputes as to the route between 
 colonies anxious to profit by the supplying of provisions to 
 the column. Finally, at the beginning of July, he started from 
 Philadelphia with 1,500 regulars and 4,500 Americans, choosing 
 the Peimsylvania route as shorter and less open to attack. 
 He was ni when he started, and during most of the march had 
 to be borne ia a litter. Through an almost unknown country his 
 men had to cUmb ranges of mountains and hew a path through 
 dense forests, carrying along with them large supplies for the 
 posts established at intervals to guard the communications.^ 
 Almost at the goal a party that he had sent forward to reconnoitre 
 was cut up by the French, but when he and the main body 
 arrived at Fort Duquesne on November 26 the garrison had 
 fled. Forbes left behind a smaU detachment to hold the fort 
 till the summer and was carried back in agony to die in Phila- 
 delphia. His report to Pitt is dated from Pittsburg, a name 
 for which he thus accounts : 
 
 I have used the freedom of giving your name to Fort Duquesne, 
 as I hope it was in some measure the being actuated by your spirits 
 that now makes us masters of the place. ... I hope the Name 
 Fathers will take them [Pittsburg and Forts Ligonier and Bedford] 
 under their protection, in which case these dreary deserts will soon 
 
 1 Forbes, writing to Pitt on October 20, 1758, told him that he derived the 
 idea of these posts ' from Turpin's Essay sur la Ghterre. Last Chaptre ith 
 Book. Intitled Principe sur lequel ou pent etabler un projet de Campagne, if 
 you take the trouble of looking into his book, you will see the generall principles 
 upon which I have proceeded' — a detail of information which Pitt would 
 appreciate. It is wprth noting that the Pennsylvania Railway follows the 
 general alignment of Forbes's route to Pittsburg (see Hurlbut, Historic High- 
 ways, V, 204). 
 
376 THE TIDE OF VICTORY SETS IN 
 
 be the richest and most fertile of any possesst by tbe Britisb in 
 Nortb America.i 
 
 The recovery of this fort, the establishment of which by 
 the French was the reason for Washington's mission and 
 the ostensible cause of the war, finally disposed of the French 
 claim to exclude the English from the Ohio ; and Forbes's 
 great march wiped out Braddock's disgrace. Pitt was quick 
 to recognise the achievement of this fine old soldier, whom 
 the Indians dubbed ' Head of Iron.' He offers his own ' par- 
 ticular congratulations and sincere wishes for the recovery 
 of your health ' in the dispatch announcing the King's appro- 
 bation of ' the indefatigable zeal you have shewed . . . 
 your constant and unwearied application and perseverance . . . 
 at a time while you laboured under such an unhappy state 
 of health as your distinguished duty alone to the King and 
 uncommon ardor for the honor of His Majesty's arms could 
 have enabled you to struggle with.' These words were written 
 in January 1759 : Forbes died in March. If fate was kind 
 and the winds propitious, the brave man's dying moments 
 may have been gladdened by this tribute from the man whose 
 approval he had been seeking to deserve in the uphill fight 
 against all his difficulties. 
 
 Ill 
 
 The loss of Minorca, Byng's hesitations, Braddock and 
 Monro's defeats, the Black Hole of Calcutta, Closterseven, and 
 the failures at Eochefort and Louisburg in 1757 had almost 
 brought Englishmen to feel that the glories of Elizabsth's, of 
 Cromwell's, and of the Great Deliverer's days had gone never 
 to return. The revulsion of feeling was aU the greater in 
 England and America as news of victory came pouring in : 
 first Senegal, then Crevelt, the destruction of the nest of 
 
 1 Misa Pitt-Taylor, a descendant of Chatham, attended the oommemoration 
 of Pittsburg by invitation of the town, and presented it with part of a dessert 
 service that had belonged to her ancestor and was stamped with his arms. 
 
REJOICINGS FOR LOUISBURG, 1758 377 
 
 privateers at St. Malo, the sack of Cherbourg, Osborn and 
 Hawke's victories at sea, Frederic the Great's victory at 
 Zorndorf, and, last, the crowning glory of Louisburg. In 
 America Governor Lawrence celebrated the capture of the 
 ' Gibraltar of the West ' by fetes attended by the heroes of 
 the siege, and it is said that 60,000 gallons of rum were drunk 
 in honour of the occasion ; Boston had a stately bonfire, 
 and her preachers held services of thanksgiving ; New York 
 and Philadelphia were not behindhand, and the New England 
 chaplains in Abercromby's defeated army gave praise for 
 the blow to the servants of the Scarlet Woman. ^ In England 
 the populace celebrated the victories with candles, fireworks 
 and bonfires, with beer-drinking and noisy rejoicings. Pitt 
 and the King of Prussia were the heroes of the hour. Even 
 Horace Walpole was fain to tear himself from his medals 
 and pictures, hobnob with bargemen on the all-absorbing 
 topic, and give them wherewithal to drink the King of Prussia's 
 health. At Plymouth a great ball was given, attended by 
 Prince Edward, who kissed all the ladies to enhance their 
 joy. At Bath Miss Aim Pitt lit a great bonfire in front of her 
 brother's house in the Circus — ' to be sure, no such bonfire ever 
 was for beauty,' she said with becoming pride — procured all 
 the music she could to help the company sing ' God bless 
 great George our King,' and distributed ten hogsheads of 
 strong beer. 
 
 Pitt himself, on news of Louisburg, which came on August 18, 
 sent off a mounted messenger to his wife at Hayes and had 
 by return her note of triumph on the event so ' happy and 
 glorious for my loved England, happy and glorious for my 
 most loved and admired Husband. I feel all your joy, my 
 Life, the joy of the dear brothers, the joy of my friend Mrs. 
 Boscawen, and the joy of the people of England ' ; and Temple 
 wrote an effasive letter to his ' dear brother Louisburg.' Pitt 
 also took order for the stately celebration of the victories. To 
 commemorate Louisburg he had a medal struck, especially 
 emphasizing the hearty co-operation of fleet and army ; he 
 ordered the guns of the Tower and the Park to tell the victory to 
 
 ' See Wood, Logs of the Conquest of Canada, p. 79. 
 
378 THE TIDE OF VICTORY SETS IN 
 
 the clouds, the Lord Steward to light the usual bonfires near 
 the royal palace, the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's to hold a 
 solemn service of praise, and the Archbishop of Canterbury 
 to issue a special form of prayer and thanksgiving to be used 
 in all churches and chapels within the bills of mortality on 
 August 20, and in all others on the following Sunday.^ Later 
 the twenty-four guns and the captured bells of Cherbourg ^ were 
 dragged from Portsmouth to the Park to be inspected by the 
 King, and the colours taken at Louisburg were paraded before 
 him at St. James's Palace and then deposited in St. Paul's 
 December Cathedral. In the following session, on Pitt's motion, the 
 6, 1758. thanks of the House were awarded to Boscawen, Amherst 
 and Osborn. Boscawen as a member received his on the spot 
 and answered in a few modest words. Amherst's were sent 
 to him in America. Osborn, the old sea dog who, during 
 his faithful watch through the winter months to prevent 
 reinforcements for America passing Gibraltar, had become 
 paralysed and lost an eye, answered in a letter worthy of 
 the great service to which he belonged : ' As the House of 
 Commons is so gloriously watchful to encourage the greatest 
 merit, by rewarding the least, England can never want good 
 officers.' 8 
 
 Pitt was justified in making the most of victories, for he 
 never concealed or under -rated defeats. Two days after the 
 news of Louisburg came the dispatch aimouncing Abercromby's 
 defeat and the death of Lord Howe, and he sent it at once to 
 the Gazette. The loss of his friend affected him, he wrote to 
 Grenville, ' more than a public sorrow. He was by the universal 
 voice of army and people a characber of ancient times : a 
 complete model of mihtary virtue in all its branches. I have 
 
 ^ On this occasion Pitt seems to have contented himself with the Arch- 
 bishop's form of prayer. In the following year, on the occasion of another 
 victory, he made a correction in the draft submitted to him by his Grace. 
 
 ' These bells gave occasion for a good deal of official red tape. They were 
 brought over by Lieut. -Colonel DesaguUiers and ordered to be lodged in the 
 Tower. Before this could be done the Secretary of the Customs exacted duty 
 on them. Six months later Colonel Desaguiliers, who regarded them as his 
 private property, claimed their value ; in November 1759 Pitt ordered them to 
 be restored to him. 
 2 Chatham MSS. 79. 
 
PITT'S NEW PLANS, 1758 379 
 
 the sad task of imparting this cruel event to a brother ^ who 
 loves him most tenderly,' a task, GrenvUle replies, which 
 ' no man living could do with so much gentleness and affection, 
 with so much honour and credit both to the dead and to the 
 living.' The reverse to our arms also affected him — Bute 
 thought too strongly, and sought to console him by a declaration 
 from the young Prince of Wales that when he ascended the 
 throne he would ' by restoring virtue and religion make this 
 country great and happy.' 
 
 Pitt did not wait for that event ; success and disappoint- 
 ment alike spurred him to redoubled energy. On the very 
 next day, though engaged on refitting Howe's squadron for 
 his third venture on the coast of Prance, he ordered drafts of 
 2,150 men to assemble at Plymouth and Portsmouth to replace 
 Abercromby's losses. Newcastle, indeed, alarmed at the cost 
 of the war, was already beginning to think that we ought to 
 be satisfied with the capture of Louisburg and make peace 
 at once by exchanging it for Minorca. But Pitt had no 
 intention of repeatiag the fiasco of Aix-la-Chapelle ; he aimed 
 at expelhng the French once for all from North America, and 
 was already on the look-out for other conquests as a set-off to 
 Minorca. ' The_only_ way to have peace,' he reminded New- 
 castle, ' is to prepare for war.' 2 For this policy he could 
 count on the support of his City friends. Beckford wrote to 
 him a week after the news of Louisburg, imploring him to 
 retain it as a valuable fishing centre, and both Beckford and 
 Sir Theodore Jansen urged that compensation for Minorca 
 should be sought among the French West Indian Islands, 
 recommending Martinique as the island most worth conquering 
 and presenting no great difficulties, if the commanders of 
 the expedition were young and bold.s Pitt also found an 
 unexpected ally against Newcastle in the King, who 
 had suddenly become as eager for conquests in America 
 as he had previously been indifferent : ' We must keep 
 Cape Breton, take Canada, drive the French out of 
 
 1 Commodore Howe, who by his brother's death became Viscount Howe. 
 
 = Add. MSS. 32884, f. 436. 
 
 » Chatham MSS. 19 and 98 ; and Chatham Corr. i, 352. 
 
38o THE TIDE OF VICTORY SETS IN 
 
 America, and have two armies in Germany consisting together 
 of 80,000 men,' he said to Newcastle ; and to Pitt he added, 
 ' we must conquer Martinique as a set-off to Minorca.'^ On 
 September 4 Newcastle had an inkling of a scheme being con- 
 certed by Pitt with Cleveland, the Secretary of the Admiralty, 
 for an attempt on Martinique,^ and was much disturbed when 
 he discovered the lengths to which his restless colleague had 
 already gone. On August 28 Pitt had given instructions to 
 the Admiralty to take up transports for foreign service, and 
 a fortnight later he ordered a squadron to be made ready at 
 Spithead. When Howe returned from his last unfortunate 
 raid to St. Cast, some of his ships were at once transferred to 
 the new armament, and on October 16 the secret instructions 
 for an attack on Martinique were sent to Captain Hughes, 
 the naval commander, and General Hopson, in command of 
 the land forces of the expedition.^ By November 20 Hughes 
 was writing to Pitt that he was beating down Channel on 
 his way to join Commodore Moore on the West' Indian 
 station. 
 
 In the Speech from the throne, which two days before 
 the meeting of Parliament he had read over to the Speaker 
 and an appreciative audience of supporters,* Pitt could point 
 to achievements justifying the confidence he had always 
 expressed in himself and the nation. After an enumeration 
 of the year's successes — ^Louisburg, Cape Breton, the Island 
 of St. John, Prontenac, Senegal, and the destruction of the 
 Cherbourg forts — he justified in one terse phrase the continental 
 war, which ' found full employment for the armies of Prance 
 and her confederates ; from which our operations both by 
 sea and in America have derived the most evident advantage,' 
 
 > AU. MSS. 32883, £. 114 ; 32884, f. 436. 
 
 2 Ihid. 32883, f. 273 ; see also 32884, fi. 27 and 79. 
 
 ' Halifax, the First Commissioner of Trade, in a letter of November 5, 
 suggested to Pitt that, after Martinique, St. Lucia and other islands should 
 be attacked, since we might have to give up Martinique at the peace ' if the 
 balance of war should unfortunately be against us in other parts of the 
 world ' {Egerton MSS. 929, f. 176). Pitt had abeady empowered Hughes 
 and Hopson to do so, if they thought fit. 
 
 * Add. MSS. 32998, f. 185. 
 
PITT ON NATIONAL DUTY, 1758 381 
 
 gloried in the struggle as one for ' liberty and independency,' 
 and rejoiced in the unparalleled security of commerce owing 
 to the fleet's vigilant protection. In place of appeals for 
 union as in 1756 and 1757, ' His Majesty,' the Speech said, 
 ' takes so much satisfaction in that good harmony which subsists 
 amongst his faithful subjects that it is more proper for him now 
 to thank you for it, than to repeat his exhortations to it.' The 
 Address was moved and seconded in a strain of almost hyper- 
 bolical eulogy of Pitt. He was compared to a blazing star ; 
 one speaker said he would lend all he was worth to support 
 the war ; another, not to be outdone, said he would give 
 all he was worth ; and, adds Lord Bath, Pitt said he would 
 take all they were both worth. Beckford declared that the 
 late events had put him in such good humour that though 
 he preferred fighting in America he would give £2,000,000 even 
 to the German war. Pitt fairly warned the House that the November 
 
 go 1 nKQ 
 
 war would yet cost many millions, which his friend Legge ' 
 would have to find. It was not a time to look too closely 
 %t expense : the ship was at sea ; she had winds and waves 
 CO meet ; and all obstructions must be removed before another 
 campaign, which might prove the last. 
 
 So much for England's duty to herself. But in the hour of 
 triumph Pitt thought even more of England's debts of honour. 
 Now that she was again mistress of the ocean it behoved her, 
 he said, to show self-restraint and not set all the neutral Powers 
 against her by the excesses of her privateers. England's 
 obligations to her great ally also preoccupied him. Bemis, 
 the French minister, had already made overtures of peace 
 through Denmark. They were rejected on the ground that 
 Frederic had not been included in the offer, but Pitt had a 
 foreboding that he might not always be able to hold his 
 countrymen to their duty to Frederic. Already Codington 
 had pubUshed an anonymous pamphlet against the 
 German war, and it was known that many sympathized 
 with him. Pitt therefore once more defended our support 
 of Frederic, and, looking full at Dodington, he drew 
 himself up, and called out in his loudest tone, ' Is there 
 an Austrian among you ? Let him stand forth and 
 
382 THE TIDE OF VICTORY SETS IN 
 
 Daoember reveal himself.' ' Again, on December 6, he dwelt upon 
 ' ' our duty to our ally. Beckford had expressed a hope that 
 no British minister would be bold enough to propose the 
 restitution of Louisburg and Cape Breton. Time enough, 
 said Pitt, to decide on that when the war was concluded and 
 the successes of England and her allies were known. If 
 he were called on as minister to decide on the terms of peace, 
 his principle would be that no ally of England should become 
 a victim of his attachment to us or lose one iota of territory 
 for British considerations, for till all our allies were satisfied 
 it touched England's glory and dignity that no regard should 
 be paid to actual or future conquests in America. ^ 
 
 ' Torrena, ii, 400, quotes West's account in Newcastle MSS. ; see also 
 Schaefer, ii i, 560, Climenson, ii, 153, and Walpole. 
 ' Pol. Corr. xvii, 436. 
 
CHAPTEE XIII 
 
 PITT AND CHOISEUL 
 
 No thought of flight. 
 None of retreat, no unbecoming deed 
 That argued fear ; each on himself relied 
 As only in his arm the moment lay 
 Of victory. 
 
 Milton, Paradise Lost, vi, 238. 
 
 In Prance no leader worthy of Pitt's steel had hitherto 
 appeared. Louis XV, Madame de Pompadour and the Abbe de 
 Bernis were contemptible enemies. Endowed by nature with 
 ability and poUtical sagacity, Louis XV allowed his talents to 
 rust in sloth and luxury, reheved only by rare flashes of insight 
 never followed up. Tenacious of the personal and irresponsible 
 power bequeathed to him by his great-grandfather, he had not 
 the resolution to use that power for a consistent national policy, 
 but frittered it away in secret intrigues against his own ministers 
 and the projects which he had himself sanctioned. No flattery 
 was too gross for his inordinate vanity, no pleasure of the sense 
 too scandalous for his jaded appetite. Wearied of every sensa- 
 tion but that of his own existence, to which he clung with a 
 pusillanimous terror of the hereafter, he showed during his 
 long life no trace of a single virtue, or of one amiable character- 
 istic. Faithless to man and woman, he would dismiss with a 
 curt word of displeasure and without thought of faithful service 
 to himself or the nation the minister who would not pander to 
 his whims, or the mistress who had ceased to satisfy his passing 
 lust or seemed to be endangering his prospect of heaven. In 
 religion he was a bigot and believed that, as the anointed of 
 
 383 
 
384 PITT AND CHOISEUL 
 
 the Lord, God would not permit him to be damned as long 
 as he protected and supported the Catholic faith. Nothing 
 indeed reconciled him so much to the Austrian alliance as the 
 conviction that it would enable him to crush the Protestant 
 power of Prussia. Of this vilest of the Bourbons Pope Benedict 
 XIV had said some years earlier : ' No better proof of the 
 existence of a Providence is needed than the sight of Prance's 
 prosperity under Louis XV.' 
 
 As the master, so the crew that surrounded him. Madame 
 de Pompadour, the mistress en titre, was all-powerful. By 
 flattery and yet more odious methods she held the King in 
 leash, appointed and dismissed ministers and generals, made 
 and unmade treaties, and had the wealth, the wit and the 
 art of Prance at her command. There was no secret about 
 it. When the two nations were at peace Newcastle paid 
 his court to France by sending pineapples from Claremont to 
 Madame de Pompadour ; when Kaunitz thought of negotiat- 
 ing an alliance with Louis XV he first secured the goodwill 
 of Madame de Pompadour ; French generals in Germany, even 
 those who were princes of the blood, found it necessary to 
 address their letters containing sorely-needed self-justifications 
 in terms of flattery to Madame de Pompadour. This power was 
 not Hghtly gained or held. With an industry truly amazing 
 she gave daily interviews to ministers, was always at the King's 
 beck and call, wrote long letters of advice to her favourite 
 generals in the field, and kept a watchful eye on every branch 
 of government. But of statesmanship she showed no trace. 
 To secure her own influence by saving the King trouble and 
 keeping every agent of government dependent on her will was 
 the whole extent of her statecraft, and therein she was supremely 
 successful. Lately it is true, after Damiens's attempt on his 
 life, Louis XV, in passing terror of future retribution, had 
 excluded her from his presence. But he quickly recovered, 
 forgot his pious apprehensions, recalled the favourite and at 
 her instigation dismissed the ministers of war and finance to 
 whom he had confided his scruples and who had dared to 
 show some independence of her influence. 
 
 Bernis had risen to notice by his services to Madame de 
 
INCAPACITY OF FRENCH GOVERNMENT, 1758 385 
 
 Pompadour in negotiating the treaty of Versailles behind the 
 back of the foreign minister, EouQle, and on its conclusion he 
 had been promoted to that minister's place. He was a man 
 of some capacity and patriotism, but had spent so much of his 
 life in the triviaUties of an idle society that he was quite 
 unequal to the strenuous work of administration. Unduly 
 elated by the treaty which he had helped to make and by the 
 early successes of the war, he was as easily cast down by 
 recent difficulties and disasters. Even early in 1758 he had 
 hinted at peace to Vienna and had asked for some remission 
 of the subsidies due from France, owing to the vast expenses 
 of the war. Indeed, the financial burden was becoming almost 
 intolerable. France had been committed by Bernis and his 
 predecessors not only to Vienna but also to Bavaria, the 
 Palatinate and Cologne, to the princes of Liege and Anhalt- 
 Zerbst, to Wurtemberg, Zweibriicken and Mecklenburg, to 
 the Margraves of Anspach and Bayreuth, and to the Eepublic 
 of Genoa for annual payments amounting altogether to some 
 £2,000,000. Subsidies to Denmark and Sweden were also 
 under consideration. During the course of 1758 Bernis changed 
 his tone almost daily with the fortunes of the war, and by 
 his vacillations imperilled the Empress's confidence in the 
 French alliance. To Madame de Pompadour he complained 
 that his ideas were always hazy and his head in a whirl, and 
 by September had become so conscious of his own incapacity 
 that he was begging for a successor, as the only means of 
 saving his Ufe. A few weeks after making this request he 
 received a cardinal's hat, the chief object of his ambition, and 
 a letter from the King authorizing him to resign his office. 
 
 The successor appointed at Bernis's express desire was his 
 friend the Due de Choiseul, then ambassador at Vienna. 
 Etienne Francois, Comte de Stainville and Due de Choiseul, 
 was born in 1719, and was thus the junior by eleven years of 
 the great EngUsh minister with whom he was to cross swords. 
 Like Pitt he began hfe as a soldier, but was more fortunate in 
 being granted the chance of distinguishing himself at Dettingen 
 and in other campaigns of the last war. At Court, in spite 
 of an unpleasing countenance and a poor figure, his wit, his 
 
 VOL. I. 2 C 
 
386 PITT AND CHOISEUL 
 
 self-confidence and his audacity brought more than one of 
 his amorous campaigns to a successful issue and gained him 
 many friends and enemies. Among the latter was Madame 
 de Pompadour, whose favour, however, he found means of 
 gaining by an act of complaisance characteristic of his society.^ 
 Thenceforward his fortune was made. Named ambassador at 
 Eome and Vienna successively, in both capitals he revived the 
 arrogant traditions of Louis XIV's diplomacy without sacrifice 
 of the national interests, and by his tact and agreeable manners 
 ingratiated himself with Pope and Empress, and with Kaunitz, 
 the ' coachman of Europe.' 
 
 When Choiseul took over affairs in December 1758 Prance 
 outwardly still seemed the greatest Power in Europe, certainly 
 more than a match for the Uttle island kingdom. In extent 
 of territory she exceeded the limits even of Louis XIV's glorious 
 age. Lorraine as well as Alsace was French, and the fleur- 
 de-lys waved over Minorca and Corsica ; in America, Canada 
 and Louisiana and the richest West Indian islands still belonged 
 to her, and the islands of Bourbon and Mauritius guarded the 
 ocean highway to her prosperous factories in India : if Eng- 
 land's oversea possessions rivalled hers in extent, they were 
 less closely knit and less materially profitable to the mother- 
 country. While England had a population of barely eight 
 millions to draw upon, France had nearly twenty million 
 inhabitants.^ France could keep armies of 100,000 men in 
 the field in Germany and have 70,000 more for an invasion 
 of England, besides the troops guarding her own coasts and 
 frontiers and the detachments overseas ; England, by putting 
 forth her utmost strength, could raise only 90,000 regulars for 
 all parts of the world, and some 26,000 militia for home defence.^ 
 Even the navy of Prance was not markedly inferior in the 
 
 ' A cousin of Ma liad excited the King's passion, and had hopes of sup- 
 planting Madame de Pompadour. This afiair had gone so far that the King 
 had sent her a declaration of his desires. She consulted Choiseul on the matter, 
 whereupon he showed the King's letter to the Pompadour, who exiled her 
 rival from the Court and always remained grateful to Choiseul. 
 
 * Mirabeau, quoted by Young, Travels in France, oh. v, states that the 
 population of France in 1755 was 18,107,000. For the population of Great 
 Britain, see below, vol. ii, p. 50 note. 
 
 ' This was in 1761 : see Chatham M8S. 76. 
 
RESOURCES OF FRANCE 387 
 
 number of ships on the active list to that of the rival sea- 
 power. According to Pitt's intelligence, in March 1758 France 
 had ninety-two ships at sea or ready to start,i three of which 
 had since been lost by Duquesne, while England had some 
 106 in commission.2 But for all her imposing aspect Prance was 
 like the image with feet of clay. She had a grave weakness 
 in her fleet : owing to the neglect of Pleury and his successors 
 the ships were ill-found, the officers were discontented and often 
 incompetent, and it was almost impossible to make up the crews 
 to their full complements. The state of the French finances was 
 even more serious. In 1759, owing to the wasteful and unequal 
 system of taxation, France, with a population nearly two and 
 a half times as great as England's, could barely raise twelve 
 millions sterling, while England, thanks to the enterprise of her 
 merchants and to the ability of Walpole and Pelham in the 
 past, had no difficulty in raising eight and a half millions.^ 
 
 But France's greatest need was for a man to direct her. 
 For years she had been guided by a succession of weak foreign 
 ministers — Puysieulx, EouUle, and BerniS' — and served by a set 
 of incompetent generals — •Eichelieu, Clermont and Soubise — 
 who had lowered her credit throughout Europe. Choiseul 
 soon breathed a new spirit into French diplomacy and adopted 
 a tone more suited to his country's ancient glories. 
 
 I am determined [he wrote a few days after his promotion to 
 his friend Bernstorfi, the Danish minister] to drop all negotiaticna 
 for peace. Undeterred by the fear of misfortunes and confident 
 in the strength and resources of my country, I believe that by 
 patience and firmness alone we shall bring our enemies to a reason- 
 able attitude ; and I should think the same, even if we had lost 
 Normandy and Brittany. 
 
 To Kaunitz he wrote a few weeks later : 
 
 Three months ago we believed all was lost. Nothing was lost 
 
 * Chatham M88. 87 (Advices from France). La Cour-Gayet, La Marine . ; . 
 lous Louis XV, 261, reckons the strength of the English and French navies in 
 seaworthy ships and frigates at 110 and 85 respectively in 1755. 
 
 ' On February 20, 1760, according to a statement drawn up for Pitt 
 {Chatham MSS. 79). 
 
 ' For the French finances, see Waddington, iii, 456 sqq. For English, see 
 vol. ii, p. 48. 
 
 2o2 
 
388 PITT AND CHOISEUL 
 
 but tie heads of some of us. . . . The King will not make peace 
 without his allies, . . . and we shall fight until our enemies are 
 destroyed. 
 
 He was sure that France could fight and no less sure of whom 
 she would have to fight. ' In our hearts and in all our actions 
 we are the enemies of England,' he said, ' enemies now more 
 than ever, and we neither see nor wish to see the end of this 
 enmity.' In fact his feeling about England was a counterpart 
 of Pitt's about France. 
 
 I have so great an idea of the power of this country [he 
 wrote again], that under the direction of a strong man, who has 
 courage and patience, I believe she can always recover from her 
 losses. The King, therefore, is determined to fight against England 
 up to his last crown and his last man.^ 
 
 These brave words were a prelude to vigorous action. 
 His first care was to consolidate the alliances of France and 
 form a vast confederacy against England. Vienna, much 
 disquieted by Bernis's suggestions of peace, was restored to 
 good humour by a new treaty, in which Choiseul re-asserted 
 the determination of France to co-operate in the German war 
 and laid down the minimum conditions of peace : in return 
 the Austrians were persuaded to abate their demands for sub- 
 sidies. Most of the small German princes were already in the 
 pay of France, but the more important northern Powers had 
 been strangely neglected. Choiseul made approaches to Eussia, 
 hitherto held at arm's length by Louis XV, chiefly from motives 
 of personal pique. He succeeded in drawing closer together 
 Sweden and Denmark, whose friendship with France had been 
 neutrahzed by mutual jealousies, and in March 1759 induced 
 those two Powers and Eussia to form a league against England 
 with the object of excluding foreign men-of-war from the 
 Baltic and safeguarding the interests of neutrals. He en- 
 couraged the Eepublioan and anti-Enghsh party in Holland 
 and secretly urged the Dutch to make the most of their 
 complaints against EngUsh privateers. But he pinned his 
 
 ' See Correspondance entre Bernstorff et Choiseul (Copenhagen, 1871), and 
 Waddington, ii, 484. 
 
CHOISEUL IN POWER, 1758 389 
 
 faith chiefly to the hope of gaining over Spain. Though 
 wiUing to make the most of the Austrian aUiance which he 
 found existing, he had no illusions as to its value in a maritime 
 war with England. The only nations able to influence the 
 balance of power, he explained to the French ambassador 
 in Madrid,! were those possessing colonies, commerce and 
 naval strength : thus even Austria, Eussia and Prussia were, 
 he said, secondary Powers compared with England, Prance, 
 Holland and Spain. Of these Holland had become subordinate 
 to England, and Prance was being crushed by her ; unless, 
 therefore, Spaia came to Prance's assistance, England would 
 have no rival on the sea and would impose her will on the con- 
 tinent of Europe. Before he had been in office many days 
 Choiseul was prophesying the imminent fall of Canada unless he 
 could obtain help from Spain, and warning that country of her 
 own danger unless that fall was averted. ' Urge them,' he 
 wrote to the French ambassador on December 21, 1758, 'to 
 make common cause with us. . . . Moments are precious and 
 there is not one to lose. . . . Only the concerted navies of the 
 two crowns can impose respect on our common enemies.' ^ As 
 long as the feeble King Ferdinand lived, Choiseul had little 
 chance of stirring Spain to action, but, by his careful and 
 tactful diplomacy before Ferdinand's death in August 1759, 
 he planted the seeds of a pohcy which in due course was to 
 bear fruit. 
 
 His activity was not confined to foreign affairs. The 
 discipline and administration of the army and navy engaged 
 his attention even when he was only foreign minister ; in 1761 
 on Belleisle's death he took over the ministry of war and, later, 
 that of marine, and in both departments cut down wasteful 
 expenditure and aroused a better spirit of service. Within 
 a year, too, of assuming office he reheved the country's finances 
 by reducing to a half the foreign subsidies of 52,000,000 livres. 
 Thus, to his country's great advantage, he soon acquired 
 such control over all branches of administration as no minister 
 had held suace Fleury's death. Though hampered by Louis XV, 
 
 ' A. Bourguet, Choiseul et V AUiance Espagnole, p. 159. 
 ^ Ibid. p. 5. 
 
390 PITT AND CHOISEUL 
 
 who occasionally undermined his foreign policy, he had the 
 skill to render Madame de Pompadour innocuous, while allow- 
 ing her to believe that she was still all-powerful. In his days 
 of power he contemptuously eschewed all support from Court 
 intrigues, showed no rancour to political opponents, and had 
 something of Pitt's ability to make use of any instrument 
 likely to be of service to the country. He was especially 
 free, no doubt owing to his own want of convictions, from 
 the religious bigotry of his Court. When a complaint was 
 made to him that the Spanish minister. Wall, whom he was 
 anxious to gain for political reasons, was a dangerous Jansenist, 
 ' however that may be,' he repUed, ' the amount of confidence 
 we have in his sentiments and intentions will depend not on 
 his behaviour as a Christian but on his thoughts and actions 
 as a minister.' ^ Above all, in days of national despondency he 
 always kept a brave heart. When told of a crushing defeat 
 his ready retort was, ' Misfortunes cannot discourage us : they 
 only spur us on to redoubled efforts.' ^ 
 
 But, though far superior to any of Louis XV's recent 
 ministers, Choiseul was no match for Pitt. This was partly 
 due to the circumstances with which he had to contend. At 
 the end of 1758 England had gained too great a start for the 
 ground to be recovered in one war. The entanglement of the 
 Austrian alhance was a serious hindrance, and with such a 
 monarch as Louis XV the confusion in French foreign and 
 domestic administration was too great for one man to set 
 right in a few years. In spite, too, of abundant activity and 
 a high conception of his country's honour, Choiseul's own 
 qualities were not those of which the greatest statesmen are 
 made. His better judgment was apt to be carried away by the 
 impulse of the moment : thus he was more moved by Frederic's 
 stinging gibes at Louis XV and France in 1759 than by all 
 Frederic's previous victories.^ Ingenuity rather than profound 
 thought mark his attempts to retrieve disaster : he wasted 
 much energy in negotiations bound to be fruitless with Denmark, 
 Sweden and Holland ; when the French fleets might have been 
 
 ' A. Bourguet, Choiseul et rAUiance Espagnole, p. 194. 
 
 ' Bernstorff et Choiseul, p. 50. ^ See Waddington, iii, 455. 
 
CHOISEUL COMPARED WITH PITT 391 
 
 usefully employed in carrying relief to Canada and India he 
 frittered them away in abortive attempts to invade England ; 
 and even his great stroke of an alhance with Spain came too 
 late to avoid disaster to either country. His industry was 
 more fitful than Pitt's, his brilliant improvisations less effec- 
 tive from the want of that stability, which was the outcome 
 of Pitt's intense convictions. As a diplomatist Choiseul won 
 many passing triumphs by his wit and cleverness, but made 
 little impression on the actions of the two greatest ministers 
 of his time, Kaunitz and Pitt. Nevertheless he was the best 
 that France could then produce and better than the France 
 of Louis XV deserved. Both he and Pitt paid one another 
 notable compUments. Choiseul said of Pitt : ' Glory is his 
 passion : though intoxicated by success he is capable of form- 
 ing the most extensive designs. But though he knows he wUl 
 have to quit office the moment his master has no further need 
 of him, which wiU be the moment peace is signed, he looks 
 on that day with haughty indifference.'^ Of Choiseul after 
 his fall Pitt said with pardonable exaggeration that, 'since 
 the days of Cardinal Eichelieu, France has had no minister so 
 great as the Due de Choiseul.' ^ The French minister's fellow- 
 countryman, Besenval, was perhaps nearer the mark in saying 
 that under Louis XIV Choiseul would have seemed fashioned 
 on a small scale, but that under Louis XV, when the proportions 
 of everything, including the Crown, had dwindled, he fitted 
 well iato the place of a great minister. 
 
 Pitt soon learned that he had a more vigorous enemy to 
 deal with at Versailles. In the early days of his ministry 
 Choiseul formed a bold conception for the campaign of 1759 — 
 no less than to turn the tables on Pitt by imitating his raids 
 on a larger scale. His first idea was that French fleets from 
 Toulon and Brest should meet in the Channel and escort Soubise 
 with an army of 50,000 men to invade the south of England. 
 In combination with them a joint expedition of 12,000 more 
 French troops under the Due d'Aiguillon, 12,000 Eussians and 
 
 ' Quoted by A. Bourguet, Btudes sur la Politique Strangere du due de 
 Choiseul, p. 152. 
 
 = Gorrespondance de Madame du Deffand, i, 340 ; and Walpole, Memoirs o 
 6eorge III (January 25, 1771). 
 
392 PITT AND CHOISEUL 
 
 12,000 Swedes were to sail under escort of a Swedish fleet to 
 Scotland. To secure the co-operation of Eussians and Swedes 
 he carried on active negotiations at St. Petersburg and Stock- 
 holm, and had proclamations prepared for distribution 
 broadcast in Scotland, inviting the submission of the inhabitants 
 and offering to grant peace on British soil.'^ In December 1758 
 Pitt had hints of the danger and talked over schemes of defence 
 with Newcastle,^ but he did not allow an enemy to dictate to 
 him a plan of campaign, nor was he lightly to be diverted 
 from a considered policy of aggression by a menace nearer 
 home. Before attending seriously to Choiseul, therefore, he 
 completed his arrangements for foreign expeditions. 
 
 That to the West Indies was already well in train. 
 Hughes's squadron, destined for ^Martinique, had sailed in 
 November 1758.' Owing to storms and other delays it did not 
 reach the meeting- place at Barbados until January 1759. Here 
 Moore, the commodore on the West India station, took over 
 command of the joint squadron, and Hopson supplemented 
 his six regiments from England with troops inured to the 
 climate, whom Pitt had ordered the West Indian governors 
 to have in readiness. As in his first two American campaigns, 
 Pitt had to make the best of a senior general unsuited 
 to his methods, for Hopson, like Abercromby, was too old. 
 He took care, however, that a capable second-in-command 
 should go with him. This was the Secretary at War's brother. 
 Brigadier Barrington, whose appointment out of his turn 
 caused murmurs against Pitt but was justified by his conduct.* 
 The attempt on Martinique failed, although the guns of the fleet 
 had silenced the batteries of Port Eoyal, owing to Hopson's 
 refusal to attack some strong entrenchments of the French. 
 After this check Moore and Hopson decided to make an attempt 
 on Guadeloupe, as Pitt had authorized them in his secret in- 
 structions of October 16, and on January 24 they landed without 
 opposition at Basseterre, the French retiring to the mountainous 
 
 ^ These are to be seen in Aff. Etr. Angl. Corr. Pol. 442. 
 2 Add. MSS. 32888, f. 431. 
 ^ See above, p. 380. 
 
 ■• Lord Barrington himself had sho^vn rare public spirit in refusing to urge 
 his brother's claims for the appointment. 
 
PITT'S PLANS FOR 1759 393 
 
 districts of the interior. On March 6 Pitt received their dispatch, 
 and immediately answered that if, as he hoped, Guadeloupe 
 was already in their hands, they should reduce St. Lucia, 
 useful for its excellent harbour of refuge during the hurricane 
 months. 1 
 
 The plans for the American campaign of 1759 were in hand 
 almost as soon as those for the West Indian expedition. On 
 September 18, 1768, a month after the news of Ticonderoga, 
 Pitt recalled Abercromby and appointed Amherst to the 
 supreme command. During October and November he was 
 considering the instructions to be given for the capture of 
 Quebec, the crucial enterprise of the American war.^ Quebec 
 could be approached either entirely on shipboard by sea from 
 Louisburg and up the river St. Lawrence, or by a land army 
 starting from the miUtary base at Albany. For the land army 
 there was also a choice of routes — one due north by the two 
 long narrow lakes George and Champlain and the river Eiche- 
 lieu, striking the St. Lawrence midway between Quebec and 
 Montreal — the other westward by the Mohawk river, across 
 a carrying-place to Lake Oneida, then by Lake Ontario to the 
 place where it falls into the St. Lawrence some way above 
 Montreal. Abercromby's plan had been to take the first of 
 these mainland routes, but he was stopped at the outset by his 
 failure to capture Ticonderoga ; Bradstreet, by his capture of 
 Fort Frontenac, where Lake Ontario joins the St. Lawrence, 
 had opened the second. Both required a large fleet of canoes 
 and flat-bottomed boats to carry troops over lake and river ; 
 but these had already been prepared for Abercromby. Beck- 
 ford strongly urged Pitt to confine himself to the sea and river 
 approach from Louisburg, and Wolfe, on his return in Novem- 
 ber with Boscawen, also recommended this plan ; Pitt, \^ 
 however, decided that attacks should be delivered both by sea 
 and by the mainland. 
 
 ' The secret instructions are summarised in Record OfSoe — Foreign, Variolic, 
 68-71 ; Pitt's dispatch, dated March 9, 1759, is in Kimball, ii, 56. 
 
 ^ In a plan submitted to Pitt in 1756 it is said : ' When the spring is diverted 
 or cut off the river must dry up. Such is the position of Quebec that it is 
 absolutely the key of North America, and our possession of it would for ever 
 lock out every Frenchman.' (Chatham MSS. 95.) 
 
394 PITT AND CHOISEUL 
 
 On December 9, 1758, he sent out his first batch of dispatches, 
 caUing on the provincials to redouble their efforts for the next 
 campaign and ordering Amherst to build forts on Lake George 
 and at the carrying-place to Lake Oneida, and to collect his 
 boats for an early advance. On DecemKer 29, a week after his 
 conversation with Newcastle on Choiseul's plans of invasion, 
 he sent his final orders, clear 'and detailed as usual. The main 
 attack was to be by sea and river from Louisburg, as Wolfe had 
 recommended. Commodore Durell, with the ten ships already 
 ia American waters, was at once to blockade the mouth of 
 the St. Lawrence and prevent all communication with France. 
 Transports were ordered from England to New York, where 
 Amherst was to embark 12,000 men to be conveyed to Louisburg. 
 Here a second fleet of fourteen sail, also from England, was 
 to arrive in time for the whole force to start up the St. Lawrence 
 not later than May 7. Simultaneously another army was to 
 advance from Albany for the subsidiary attack by land, river 
 and lake, either to Montreal or Quebec itself. Lastly, Forbes's 
 work of the previous campaign was to be completed by posting 
 Enghsh garrisons in Forts Duquesne and Oswego and expelUng 
 the French from their remaining forts at Niagara and on Lake 
 Erie, thus entirely cutting them off from the Ohio and from 
 communication with the south. 
 
 Exactly the same care as before is shown by Pitt for details 
 affecting the comfort and efficiency of the troops — such as a 
 provision of spruce beer and rum against scurvy, of whale-boats 
 for navigating the St. Lawrence, of a battering train and car- 
 penters for the siege ; the same sense of proportion in subordin- 
 ating minor matters to the paramount consideration of rapid 
 and vigorous action, as exempHfied in orders to ' forbear making 
 dispositions of arms &c. in Europe that would cause the least 
 delay to the sailing either of the ordnance ships or of the trans- 
 ports to New York,' ^ or in orders to hire additional ships for 
 sending on belated equipments ; the same wise confidence in 
 allowing Amherst to choose his own route to Montreal or 
 Quebec by lakes George and Champlain, or by the more 
 westerly way of Lake Ontario, ' according as you shall from 
 ' To Saunders, January 20, 1759 (Kimball, u, 11). 
 
PLAN FOR QUEBEC EXPEDITION 395 
 
 your knowledge of the countries, through which the war is to be 
 carried, and from emergent circumstances, not to be known here, 
 judge all or any of the said attempts to be practicable.' ^ 
 
 In this campaign Pitt had nothing left to fear from his 
 generals and admirals. From Amherst as commander-in-chief 
 and leader of the land attack, if he could not expect dashing 
 adventures, he was certain of courage and persistence. For 
 the combined naval and military expedition by the St. Lawrence 
 he gave independent commands: Admiral Saunders replaced 
 Boscawen, who had been promoted to the Mediterranean fleet 
 when Osborn was invaUded home. Saunders was one of that 
 brilUant band who had sailed round the world with Anson in 
 1740 ; since then he had done good service with Hawke in the 
 late war, and more recently as second in command to Osborn 
 at Gibraltar and to Anson in the Bay of Biscay ; he had also 
 learned something of the seas to which he was now destined, 
 as commander on the Newfoundland station. Anson and 
 Pitt had found in him the power of swift decision and the 
 courage essential for the adventure they entrusted to him. 
 And a perilous adventure it was. He was responsible for 
 forty-nine men-of-war,^ and was to escort some scores of trans- 
 ports up the uncharted course of the St. Lawrence, past shoals, 
 reefs and narrows, hitherto thought impassable for a hostile 
 force unused to the channel. 
 
 To command the land forces of this main Quebec expedition 
 Pitt chose just such another as himself. James Wolfe had 
 not yet completed his thirty-third year, but had spent more 
 than half his life in the King's service. The son of a soldier, 
 he entered the army at fifteen, had fought at Dettingen and 
 Culloden, and was a Heutenant-colonel at twenty-three. A 
 long, ungainly figure gave little promise of the spirit within, 
 to which his flashing eyes alone bore outward witness ; ^ at 
 
 ' To Amherst, December 29, 1758 (Kimball, i, 432). 
 
 ^ Durell already had ten men-of-war in America, Saunders was to take out 
 fom^teeu more ; the remaining twenty-five were frigates, sloops and bomb- 
 ketches. 
 
 3 Wood, The Fight for Canada, 317-8, gives reason for believing that the 
 traditional portrait of Wolfe, with its weak chin, retreating forehead and turned- 
 up nose, is not authentic. He gives a portrait showing a far more pleasing 
 countenance ; but of his ugly red hair and his gawky figure there is no doubt. 
 
396 PITT AND CHOISEUL 
 
 home and in camp he was always subject to attacks of gravel 
 and rheumatism, and in the long voyages, to which his duty 
 called him, he suffered misery from almost constant sea- 
 sickness. But he loved his profession with a passion that 
 consumed his frail body. Like all great soldiers he studied 
 military science and history deeply.^ Intrepid in danger, 
 he took no chances except of his own life. ' My maxim is 
 slow and sure,' once said to him an engineer of the dilatory 
 school. ' And mine,' retorted Wolfe, ' is quick and sure — 
 a much better maxim.' The training he gave his regiment 
 (the 20th) endeared him to his fellow-of&cers and men, and 
 created in it a tradition of good service still abiding ten years 
 after his death. In the present war he was the one officer 
 in high command at Eochefort who had shown determina- 
 tion, and at Louisburg he had been chosen by Amherst to 
 bear the lion's share of the danger. After the conquest of 
 Louisburg he had prepared himself for the next campaign, 
 exploring the mouth of the St. Lawrence, interviewing river 
 pUots, forming his views of the force necessary for the siege of 
 Quebec. In England the reputation of the young soldier had 
 grown so high that a common toast associated ' the eye of a 
 Hawke and the heart of a Wolfe,' and so evident was his fitness 
 for the Quebec command that after his departure three of his 
 fellow-colonels in America wrote to Pitt asking that he should 
 be appointed.^ This choice had already approved itself to 
 the Secretary of State. Wolfe himself had been eager to fight 
 in Germany, but hearing of Pitt's intentions for him, 'at once 
 put himself at his disposal. 
 
 Writing on December 1, on his way to Bath to nurse his 
 ailments and court Miss Lowther, he said, ' I have this day 
 signified to Mr. Pitt that he may dispose of my slight carcass 
 as he pleases, ... I am in a very bad condition both with 
 gravel and rheumatism, but I had much rather die than decline 
 any kind of service that offers.' During the month Pitt saw 
 
 ' See for example hia letter of July 18, 1756, quoted in Beokles Wilson, 
 Life. (p. 295) ; and referred to above, p. 42 n. 
 
 ^ See Beoklea Wilaon, Life, p. 401. Many of the details in this account of 
 Wolfe are taken from that book. 
 
WOLFE 397 
 
 him to discuss plans. He could not spare more than half the 
 men Wolfe asked for, but comphed with all his other requests. 
 Finding that Wolfe attached great importance to an early 
 blockade of the St. Lawrence and distrusted Durell's activity, 
 he sent repeated orders to America to hasten Durell's move- 
 ments. He allowed Wolfe to choose his own staff and chief 
 subordinates, and insisted on his hst being accepted without 
 alteration. When the King objected to the young colonels 
 he found there, and especially to Carleton, who had spoken 
 disrespectfully of the Hanoverians, Pitt bade Ligonier 
 
 tell his Majesty . . . that in order to render any general completely 
 responsible for his conduct lie should be made, as far as possible, 
 inexcusable if lie should faU ; and that consequently whatever 
 an officer entrusted with a service of confidence requests should be 
 complied with. 
 
 Two of Wolfe's brigadiers chosen by himself were Murray and 
 Monckton, the third was Pitt's friend, George Townshend, 
 whose eminence in the political world enhanced the compli- 
 ment he paid Wolfe in volunteering for service under him. 
 The last time Pitt saw Wolfe was the day before he sailed, at 
 diimer with Temple. The story goes that during dirmer Wolfe 
 was most abstemious, but afterwards, much to the astonish- 
 ment and disgust of his hosts, began walking excitedly round 
 the room, flourishing his sword and talking wildly of what he 
 should do. The story may well be true of Wolfe. Though 
 naturally modest, he had an immense and well-founded 
 belief in his own military capacity, and though calm in 
 action he had an excitable temperament, which had once 
 before allowed him to run riot in a moment of strain. It 
 is less credible that Pitt, as Temple represented, should, 
 even for an instant, have been shaken in his faith in Wolfe. 
 He also had his moments of arrogant self-confidence and could 
 understand them in such another. On February 14, earlier 
 in the year than any previous expedition to America, Admiral 
 Holmes, with the vanguard of Saunders's squadron and sixty- 
 six transports, set sail from St. Helen's. 
 
 The preparations in France for the defence of Quebec 
 
398 PITT AND CHOISEUL 
 
 had been very different. At the end of 1758 Bougainville, 
 Montcalm's aide-de-camp, had been sent home to represent 
 the colony's desperate situation and to beg for reinforcements. 
 Bougainville saw Madame de Pompadour and all the ministers, 
 but Choiseul, who was already supreme, gave him cold comfort. 
 All the men and ships available were required for his new scheme 
 of invading England ; nothing could be spared for Canada 
 except a few cargoes of provisions and stores and plenty of 
 good wishes ; and with this Bougainville had to content himself. 
 Choiseul had no great belief in the value of Canada to Prance, 
 and probably regarded the colony as already past praying for — 
 as indeed it was without more assistance from the mother 
 country. Of the 20,000 combatants Montcalm could still put 
 in the field only 8,500 were regulars from France and 1,500 
 trained Canadians ; the rest were composed of untrained 
 Canadian militia and Indians.^ The French were thus in a 
 marked inferiority to the EngUsh, who could muster nearly 
 50,000.'' The want of harmony between the self-suf&cient and 
 incompetent governor Vaudreuil and the commander-in-chief 
 Montcalm, and the shameless robberies of the intendant Bigot 
 and his rapacious subordinates, added to the difficulties with 
 which the French had to contend. The soldiers Montcalm, 
 Levis, Bourlamaque and Bougainville were the only strength 
 of the colony : they, especially their great-hearted leader 
 Montcalm, were worthy representatives of the courageous 
 adventurers and administrators who had made French Canada. 
 With such men to lead, a few more battalions and a few more 
 ships might well have made hopeless the task which even 
 Wolfe and Saunders found all but impossible ; and, had they 
 been sent, they would almost certainly have arrived in time. 
 For Wolfe's forebodings about Durell were justified. He had 
 not begun to blockade the St. Lawrence when Saunders arrived 
 
 ^ Cp. Parkman, li, 178. Waddington (iii, 254) estimates the French numbers 
 at only 10,000, but on p. 266 enumerates over 16,000. 
 
 ^ This figure, even if the levies from both northern and southern provinces 
 are included, is rather above the mark. The colonial troops never reached 
 the figure of 20,000 asked for by Pitt. The regulars in America at the highest 
 amounted to under 30,000 ; in 1760, for example, the total is stated at 29,396. 
 {Chatham MiSS. 96; see also ibid. 76, Army 1757-74.) 
 
QUEBEC NEGLECTED BY FRANCE 399 
 
 at Halifax in May, and had allowed Bougainville with his 
 storeships to sUp past him into Quebec. 
 
 India also called to Pitt during these busy winter months, 
 and not in vain. He sent out Coote with a newly-raised 
 regiment, two men-of-war and a convoy in January 1759, 
 and a few months later promised to obtain a grant of £20,000 
 to assist the Company in their struggle with Prance. Nor was 
 Gibraltar neglected : in spite of the drain of men he never 
 allowed the garrison to fall below four regiments.^ In 
 December 1758 Prince Ferdinand asked for 12,000 more 
 Enghsh troops, and George II's Hanoverian ministers pre- 
 sented demands for large increases in the German contingent 
 of the army of observation. With the menace of a French 
 invasion hanging over England, Pitt refused to let another 
 man leave the country save for the capital operations in 
 America and the East and West Indies ; ^ but he agreed to 
 the 12,000 additional Hessians. In his speech proposing the January 
 Hessian and Prussian subsidies he appealed for unanimity on ^^' ^^^^' 
 behalf of the Protestant cause and the liberties of Europe, a 
 unanimity which, he said, ' on great occasions made the 
 universal vox gppttH the vox Dei.' 
 
 His own business dispatched, Pitt had leisure to think of 
 Choiseul's intentions. From December onwards through the 
 first half of 1759 Pitt and the Cabinet were kept informed of 
 Choiseul's preparations through intercepted letters and spies. 
 In January it was known that Choiseul's proposal to Sweden 
 to reinforce his expedition against Scotland with 8,000 men 
 from the army destined for the invasion of Prussia had been 
 coolly received ; but it was also known that the French were 
 preparing to embark 40,000 of their own troops : ^ intelligence 
 came in February of the work being carried on at Brest, Eoche- 
 fort, Toulon and other French ports, and in April of troops 
 
 ' In his speech of December 2, 1777, Chatham claimed that he always 
 kept at Gibraltar eight battalions, reckoned at 6,000 men. This was an over- 
 estimate, for according to the army lists in Chatham MSS. 76 the four regiments 
 at Gibraltar never exceeded an effective strength of 4,354 men, and sometimes 
 fell considerably below this. 
 
 2 Manners's Oranby, p. 73, and Add. MSS. 32886, fE. 323, 431. 
 
 3 Add. MSS. 32887, f. 252. 
 
400 PITT AND CHOISEUL 
 
 assembling at St. Omer, Dunkirk, Bruges, Ostend and Lille ; i 
 and in July an escaped English prisoner brought over a full 
 account of all that the French were doing in their ports.^ 
 All this seemed very terrible to Newcastle, who had lost 
 Minorca in 1756 from his fear of a similar invasion, and now 
 thought the only way to avoid destruction was by giving 
 up Pitt's wild schemes of conquest and obtaining peace at 
 any price. ' To think of being able to extirpate the French 
 from North America,' he moaned, ' or, if we could, that our 
 business was done by so doing, or that such a nation as Prance 
 would sit down tamely under it, is to me the idlest of all 
 imaginings. '3 Pitt was less moved by Choiseul's preparations 
 than by his intrigues with the Swedes, Danes and Dutch. 
 He was not anxious to have more enemies on his hands, and 
 was aware that these nations had grievances against the 
 English privateers which would dispose them to listen to 
 Choiseul's overtures. It seemed to him not unhkely that the 
 Danish and Dutch fleets, taking advantage of a moment of 
 unreadiness in England, might seek to avenge their injuries 
 by swooping down on the Channel and attaching themselves to 
 the French fleet.* One of his first precautions, therefore, was to 
 remove a grievance which he had always felt to be well founded. 
 Ever since he had become Secretary of State the Enghsh 
 privateers had given Pitt trouble. The French navy being 
 unable to protect its own commerce, this was generally trans- 
 ferred to neutral bottoms, where it was scarcely more respected 
 by the English than if it had been in French ships. Any 
 enterprising ruffian who could afford a few guns for his craft 
 turned privateer, attacked neutrals and enemies indis- 
 criminately, and seized cargoes whether contraband or not. 
 Neutral ports were not always safe from their depredations, 
 even the person of a Spanish ambassador was not respected 
 on a Danish ship, and several instances occurred of prize-ships, 
 released by an English court, being waylaid as they came 
 into the Channel and recaptured by the same or another 
 
 ' Add. MSS. 32890, f. 70. 
 
 " Record Omce— Foreign, Various, 68-71 : Rigby to Wood, July 3, 1759. 
 
 » Add. MSS. 32890, f. 130. " Ibid. 32886, f. 431. 
 
PITT REPRESSES PRIVATEERS, 1759 401 
 
 privateer. In the first year of the war the Spanish ambassador 
 gave Pitt a list of fifty such complaints, and the list was always 
 growing. Denmark and Holland were hardly less exasperated. 
 In 1759 the Dutch had 110 ships detained in English ports and 
 sent over special commissioners with peremptory instructions 
 to obtain their release. Nor was the grievance confined to 
 European waters : American skippers took to privateering 
 with still less ceremony than their English brethren and found 
 a rich harvest in the Dutch and Spanish ships engaged in the 
 West Indian trade.'- Pitt had always discountenanced such 
 proceedings : ' England the mistress of the Ocean should not 
 act despotically there,' he told the House of Commons ; and 
 he sent stringent instructions to English consuls in European 
 ports and governors in America and the West Indies ' to 
 apprehend and bring to condign punishment the persons 
 concerned in a crime of so atrocious a nature,' telling them that 
 the King had the ' utmost horror and detestation ... of 
 practices which, if not repressed, must involve his Majesty 
 in odious disputes with all the neutral Powers of Europe,' 
 orders which resulted in the hanging of four pirates in Antigua, 
 He also made efforts to hasten the dilatory proceedings of 
 Enghsh prize courts, and on rare occasions persuaded captors 
 to release their prizes of their own accord. But, finding that 
 the abuses still continued and that neutrals were growing more 
 clamorous, in May 1759 he introduced a bill giving him greater 
 powers of repression. The bill was extremely unpopular, for 
 every little port in England had its privateer, and the com- 
 mercial community was interested in a business for which it 
 provided a large part of the capital. In 1758 Bristol alone 
 fitted out fifty-one privateers, armed with 996 guns, and 
 manned them with crews numbering 6,000 altogether.^ i Beck- 
 ford, generally a warm supporter, opposed the bill in the 
 House, as the representative of the merchants : but Pitt's 
 arguments prevailed : s 
 
 I have often [he said] had the happiness of having my ideas of May 4, 
 
 ' The American traders showed their impartiality in the pursuit of gain I'""- 
 by their equal wiUingness to supply the French with provisions and munitions 
 of war. (See Beer, British Colonial Policy, 73-4, 130-1.) 
 
 2 Chatham MS8. 78. ^ The Act is 32 Geo. ii. c. 25. 
 
 VOL. I. 2D 
 
402 PITT AND CHOISEUL 
 
 carrying on tlie war approved by the majority of my countrymen ; 
 but when it is otherwise I must do the best I can. In such a case 
 the government is bound to show firmness till the prejudices and 
 misinformations of the people are dispelled. The misfortunes 
 accruing to this country from the robberies committed by privateers 
 are such that, unless a step is timely made, the coimtry is undone. 
 Were we to sufier the practice longer, the neutral nations woidd 
 all be ofEended. Great moderation is consistent with true dignity 
 and it is best to use it before the storm (which might happen in a 
 month) should break over our head. Then concession would 
 be taken for fear.^ 
 
 Pitt's bill did not entirely remove the grievances of neutrals, 
 but it secured better control over the swarm of privateers and 
 reduced their numbers, and, as an earnest of England's pacific 
 incHnation, removed any desire in Holland and Denmark to 
 join the French against England. 
 
 Pitt did not await the passing of this biU to take more 
 active measures of defence against France. He ordered the 
 thirty-four ships of the line in home waters to be put into com- 
 mission as soon as possible, and, finding from a return presented 
 to him in February that the crews were short, he contrived 
 that within three months the number of sailors available should 
 be raised from 18,000 to 25,500 men.^ Having, according to 
 his wont, made all preparations on his own responsibiUty, on 
 May 8, 1759, he called a full meeting of the King's Servants to 
 settle on the disposition of forces. He was now able to practise 
 what he had preached in 1756. There was no sending for 
 Hanoverians and Hessians. The first hne of defence against 
 invasion was to be the home fleet, based on Torbay 
 and keeping watch up and down the Channel ; a force of 
 regulars was estabUshed in the Isle of Wight ready to be 
 drafted instantly to a point of danger ; and as a third 
 line of defence the new miUtiamen were called out to defend 
 their own homes. Pitt still took the danger of invasion less 
 
 ' For this speech cj). Hist. MSS. IX, iii, 78 b (Frederick's aooount to Sack- 
 ville), and Torrens, ii., 499 (West to Newcastle). 
 
 ^ See Chatham MSS. 78. On February 19, 1759, there were eighty-seven 
 ships and frigates in home waters with crews amounting to 18,049 men ; on 
 May 9 the crews had risen to 25,525 men. 
 
PREPARATIONS AGAINST INVASION, 1759 403 
 
 seriously than some of his colleagues, but, as he told them at 
 this meeting, ' we have given the alarm, we must now make 
 people easy by taking proper measures for their security.' 
 He first demanded a vote of credit for £1,000,000, and sent May 22, 
 a message to the House calling out the militia. He insisted so. 1759. 
 that this message should be a spirited document about 
 the ' imminent danger of invasion,' ^ and in introducing it 
 expatiated on the different kinds of fear, defining the fear 
 which prompted his motion as due not to pusillanimity but to 
 magnanimity. The address in reply reflected Pitt's spirit and 
 possibly his language. The House declared unanimously that 
 its members would 
 
 support the King with their lives and fortunes ; Ms faithful 
 Commons, with hearts warm with afieotion for His Majesty's sacred 
 person and government, and animated by indignation at the daring 
 designs of an enemy, whose fleet has hitherto shunned, in port, the 
 terror of his navy, wUl cheerfully exert the utmost efiorts to repel 
 all insults, and efiectually to enable His Majesty not only to 
 disappoint the attempts of France but, by the blessing of God, to 
 turn them to their own confusion. 
 
 The militia service, on which Pitt pinned his faith to 
 take the place of German mercenaries, had not at the outset 
 been welcomed by the people. When the Act was first put 
 into force in July 1757 there was still much distress in the 
 country and suspicion of the Government's intentions. In 
 1756, in Fox's time, militiamen embodied under previous 
 Acts had been drafted into foreign service regiments against 
 their wiU,^ and when the ballot for service under the new 
 Act was instituted in the autumn of 1757, fears of the same 
 breach of faith caused serious riots in many of the counties. 
 Magistrates who attempted to carry out the provisions of 
 
 ' Bedford Corr. ii, 374 ; Add. MSS. 32891, ff. 77, 233, 267. It is charao- 
 teristio of Pitt's care for accuracy that he insisted on the phrase ' imminent 
 danger of invasion,' but rejected ' imminent danger from invasion ' ; he knew 
 the French had every intention of attempting an invasion, but was convinced 
 there was no danger to be feared from such invasion and refused to alarm the 
 people by hinting that there might be, even when he wanted to obtain 
 £1,000,000 for defence. The vote of credit was asked for on May 22, the 
 message about the militia brought down on May 30. 
 
 2 Chatham Corr. i, 259. 
 
404 PITT AND CHOISEUL 
 
 the Act were mobbed and the ballot lists seized and burned. 
 At Cirencester, Lechlade and Gloucester Pitt had to send 
 five companies of foot to repress the tumults. Lord Eobert 
 Sutton, a county magistrate, went in danger of his life at 
 Nottingham ; Potter reported serious disturbances in Bed- 
 fordshire and Lord Irwia in the East Eiding ; houses were 
 demolished at York ; Woburn House was threatened, the Duke 
 of Dorset attacked at Knole, and the Speaker insulted 
 at GuUdford.i Though many of the magistrates did their 
 duty, several showed excessive timidity, and others plainly 
 expressed their disapproval of the Act. The worst offender 
 in this respect was Lord Hardwicke, who had always disliked 
 it, and advised his son Lord Eoyston not to pay attention to the 
 Secretary of State's instructions for raising the militia ia his 
 county.^ Pitt took a thoroughly democratic view of the situ- 
 ation. If he found the opposition to the militia universal, he told 
 Newcastle, he would give it up altogether, but if it was merely 
 local to some counties, he would make severe examples to main- 
 tain the law.' It proved as he thought, merely local, and by 
 some salutary punishments of ringleaders in the riots and plain 
 language to recalcitrant lords-lieutenant and magistrates Pitt 
 calmed down the excitement.* 
 
 Within two months of the House of Commons address 
 of May 30, 1759, Pitt had called out the militia of eleven 
 counties, and by the end of the year of thirteen more.^ Some 
 difficulties stUl remained. A few more disturbances had to 
 be suppressed, the publicans of Winchester and the mayor of 
 Appleby, who objected to billeting the mUitia, had to be met 
 
 ^ For accounts of these riots, see Manners, Oranby, p. 45 ; Beoord Office — 
 Foreign, Various, 68-71 ; Add. MSS. 32997, f. 273. 
 
 2 Add. MSS. 35352, fi. 74-9. 
 
 3 Ihid. 32997, ff. 252, 273. 
 
 ■* Lord Exeter wrote Pitt an insolent letter accusing him of some breaon of 
 faith about the Rutland militia. In answer Pitt informed him that ' the 
 matter of your Lordship's letter surprises me as much as the style and manner 
 of it. I never deceive, nor suffer any man to teU me I have deceived him. . . . 
 I desire, therefore, to know what you Lordship means by presuming to use the 
 expression of being deceived by me. ... I delay going out of town till I hear 
 from your Lordship.' (Chatham Corr. i, 293.) 
 
 ' Record Office— If .0. i, 678-9, In-Lctters. For the numbers called out in 
 1761, see Ghatham MSS. 76. 
 
MILITIA CALLED OUT, 1759 405 
 
 partly by persuasion, partly by peremptory orders. But these 
 were the last flickers of opposition. In November 1759 Pitt 
 told Bedford, ' 14,000 men were in actual service, headed by 
 gentlemen of the best families and properties in the kingdom, 
 . . . many of them from before haymaking and harvest . . . 
 and serving without a murmur.' Within two years thirty-nine 
 counties had their militia embodied, and the number of men 
 mustered had been doubled. Most of the mihtiamen were 
 collected in three camps, at Chatham, Winchester and Ply- 
 mouth, which Pitt himself went to inspect.^ The principal 
 use he made of these citizen soldiers was to man fortresses and 
 garrison towns and to guard French prisoners of war, of whom 
 there were already hundreds at Winchester and other towns, 
 thereby setting free a corresponding number of regulars for 
 more active service. In expatiating to Parliament on the 
 unselfishness of the militia, he declared that it would enable 
 him to land a fresh body of troops in Germany in the following 
 spring.^ But the chief value of this embodiment of the militia 
 was its moral effect on the people. Men thought the more of 
 their country for being called upon to fight for her instead of 
 trusting to foreign hirelings ; and Pitt's militia welded together 
 discordant classes and parties in a way nothing else had done. 
 Tory country gentlemen, who for the last fifty years had sulked 
 in their villages, were proud to take mihtary rank in the new 
 force : Churchmen and Dissenters learned to sympathize with 
 each other in a common interest. Lord Shaftesbury, relating 
 to Pitt his experience of the Dorset miUtia, notices 
 
 tte remarkable zeal testified for His Majesty, His Royal Faraily, 
 and government amongst all ranks and degrees, Churclimen and 
 Dissenters (many of whom as well officers as privates are in the 
 battalion) joining most cordially to promote the public service.* 
 
 Lord Poulett writes of the Somersetshire contingent that 
 
 the establishment of the militia has already given people in this 
 
 ' See speech of December 11, 1777. 
 
 " Historical MSS. Commission, Weston Underwood, p. 319 (November 23, 
 1759) 
 
 ' Chatham MSS. 56. 
 
4o6 PITT AND CHOISEUL 
 
 part of the country such a military turn as to make it become the 
 fashion even for those who are not of the elect to learn the manual 
 exercise and many of the better sort of people, the modern yeomen 
 of these days, have formed themselves into separate companies and 
 learnt to do the Prussian exercise very well under the name of 
 Prussian Volunteers. Another very great advantage has arisen 
 from having planned this militia in such a proper manner as has 
 in a great measure destroyed all distinction of parties in this county, 
 for none who voluntarily enlists in his Majesty's service and take up 
 arms in his defence can go any longer under any denomination than 
 friends to the Government. Gentlemen now associate and act 
 together who were very shy lately and scarce knew one another.^ 
 
 Pitt's steadfastness in carrying his miKtia policy against 
 the opposition of all the chief Whigs and in nursing it through 
 its early stages earned its reward. ' The people of England,' 
 said Beckford, ' look on you as the patron of the mihtia, and 
 every measure that is taken which shall affect this constitutional 
 body of men will be ascribed to your councU and direction.' ^ 
 
 In addition to the militia, many towns and individuals 
 raised special volunteers to meet the emergency. The mayors 
 of Berwick, Bristol and Liverpool asked for arms and 
 ammunition to enable the inhabitants to defend themselves 
 against the invader, requests which Pitt promptly granted. 
 The Common Council of London resolved on August 14 to 
 offer bounties to able-bodied men enhsting at the Guildhall 
 in the land forces ; next day Pitt informed the Lord Mayor 
 of the King's entire satisfaction ' in this signal proof of unshaken 
 resolution of the City to support a just and necessary war, 
 undertaken in defence of the rights and honour of the Crown, 
 and for the security of the colonies, trade and navigation of 
 Great Britain.' A regiment of Light Dragoons was raised 
 from the footmen and chairmen of London by Colonel John 
 Hale, who boasted he would lead them against the King of 
 France's best household troops. Pitt was dehghted with the 
 spirit of the chairmen and their colonel's boast, and referred 
 to them with pride in the House of Commons. Eleven new 
 infantry regiments and six dragoon regiments were raised 
 in 1759, several at the expense of patriotic individuals. The 
 
 ' Chatham MSS. 53. 2 jj,^^ ^q 
 
FRANCE AND ENGLAND, 1759 407 
 
 heir to the Throne, following the example of his brother, who 
 sailed with Howe in 1758,i petitioned for a military employment. 
 While Pitt was thus busied during the first half of 1759, 
 Choiseul had been developing his original plan of invasion and 
 pushing forward preparations with all his natural impetuosity. 
 It was a brave effort and the task harder than any Pitt had to 
 face in his worst days. For Choiseul had to deal with a people 
 seething with discontent and hating the war, with soldiers 
 demoralized by the incompetence and rapacity of their chiefs, 
 with a navy spiritless and cowed by Enghsh successes and 
 with a Treasury unable to find the money for current wages 
 and pay. His allies, too, were useless. Sweden and Denmark, 
 to whom he had appealed, refused to co-operate with him. 
 With buoyant optimism he nevertheless persisted in his grand 
 project. Canada was starved of men for it, and the resources 
 of the Treasury, the dockyards and the army were strained to 
 the uttermost. Flat-bottomed boats to convey troops across 
 the Channel were hastily constructed at Havre and other 
 northern ports. De la Clue was ordered to bring out his 
 Toulon fleet and once more attempt to run the gauntlet of 
 Gibraltar and work round to Brest. There another fleet was 
 being equipped under Conflans, who was to be reinforced 
 by de la Clue, by Bompart, recalled from the West Indies, 
 and by la Marniere from the Pacific. Choiseul's final scheme 
 was that Confians's great fleet should engage the attention 
 of the Enghsh home fleet and, under cover of this diversion, 
 two expeditions should invade Great Britain. A force of 20,000 
 men under the Due d'AigmUon was to be embarked at Brest 
 on ninety ships and, escorted by nine men-of-war, to sail 
 round Scotland and attack Edinburgh. Another army of 50,000 
 was to be conveyed in the flat-bottomed boats from Norman 
 and Flemish ports to the Thames. To command this force 
 Soubise was taken from the Westphalian army, with Chevert 
 from the army of the Ehine as his second. Thurot, an enter- 
 prising young privateer, was taken into the King's service 
 and entrusted with six ships and 1,200 men for an independent 
 raid from Dunkirk. And, in spite of aU these extraordinary 
 
 1 See above, p. 361. 
 
4o8 PITT AND CHOISEUL 
 
 exertions, Choiseul piqued himself on maintaining and even 
 increasing the numbers of his armies in Germany, where it 
 was important to leave Prince Ferdinand no leisure to interfere 
 with the preparations in the Flemish ports. In this he had 
 been successful until July ; for Ferdinand had suffered a 
 reverse at Bergen and had lost the important fortresses of 
 Minden and Munster. 
 
 By August the two rivals had everything ready for 
 move and countermove. Choiseul, who had staked all on his 
 great plan of invasion, had his fleets at Toulon, Brest - and 
 Dunkirk, his regiments in Brittany, Normandy, Picardy and 
 Flanders, and his flat-bottomed boats to receive them. Pitt 
 was ready at home with his militia garrisons, his reserve of 
 regulars, and his flying corps, encamped in the Isle of Wight ; 
 and he had strengthened the army in Ireland with two 
 battahons brought from Gibraltar. But these home defences 
 were in bis eyes chiefly valuable to give confidence to the 
 people : for safety he trusted entirely to ships. At every 
 possible approach from France he had squadrons posted on 
 the watch. Boscawen and Brodrick were at Gibraltar to 
 stop de la Clue, Hawke in the Bay of Biscay on the look-out 
 for Conflans, Eodney was sent to bombard the flat-bottomed 
 boats in Havre, Boys to keep an eye on Thurot in Dunkirk, 
 while Sir Peircy Brett was stationed in the Downs. And with 
 aU this defensive armament Pitt had not allowed one" of his 
 distant expeditions to suffer. Not a man had been withdrawn 
 from Germany, and the campaigns in India, the West Indies, 
 and America were allowed to proceed as if England had no 
 reason whatever for fear at home. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 Svottiswoode X' Co, Ltd., Printers. Colchester, London and iSt&ft. 
 
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