From The National Review.

THE YOUNGER PITT AS AN ORATOR.

Beside the general reasons just spoken of, which have tended to lower the repuWILLIAM PITT the younger has not tation of Pitt, there have been certain been fortunate in his reputation. To the special reasons (even apart from the mea. great majority of cultivated persons it greness of their reports) why his speeches would, we believe, sound absurd in the should be held in less esteem now than present day to claim for him a place nearly they were in his own day. Regarded simon a level with that which his father holds. ply as literary compositions, they would Of Chatham, if no other monument re- not quite fall in with our modern judg. mained, the half-dozen passages which ment. And it is very curious to notice Carlyle has dedicated to him in his "Fred-how, in the course of Macaulay's biograerick" would alone be a lasting memorial. phy of Pitt, the private opinion of the Yet in the very form of these panegyrics critic seems to be at war with the prediupon the father, the "one king England lections of the historian of an historian, has had, this king of four years since the too, who is fond of painting his pictures Constitutional system set in," there is in very vivid colors. We first hear of implied a slight upon the memory of the Pitt's almost miraculous gift of eloquence; To a larger audience, Macaulay is of how men used to go away from the the oracle of their political judgments. House of Commons after one of his great No one who takes his ideas from Macau- displays, wondering whether it were poslay is in danger of falling into an excessible for human powers to attain a higher sive hero-worship: a fact to which some flight; and then, again, Macaulay sug part of the writer's popularity is attributa-gests often enough that there was a good ble. But in his short notice of William deal very artificial and unspontaneous in Pitt, the essayist has adopted a tone more this style of oratory, in "those stately patronizing than his wont. His essay on periods of which he seemed to have an Chatham by no means gives that great almost unlimited command," and in the statesman his due; but it is far more character of a speaker "who could have worthy of the subject than is the short written a king's speech off-hand;" and biographical notice which in after years he hints pretty plainly that the unchecked he wrote of the younger Pitt. flow of Fox's oratory would have been a good deal more to his mind. It is probable that, judging from a purely literary standpoint, Macaulay is right.

son.

Many circumstances have contributed to Pitt's decline in reputation after death. But undoubtedly the most direct cause of it was his treatment at the hands of his In truth, Pitt's speeches are interesting own immediate followers. Immediately to us not as productions from a literary after his death, Pitt underwent a fantastic point of view, the best in their kind, but sort of apotheosis whereby he was sol-as some of the best speeches that have emnly set apart to be the Mumbo-Jumbo of the Tory party, and of the most bigoted section of it. And the Tory party, as its best friends must own, did in the early years of this century contain some strange examples of bigotry and ignorance. We know that fifty or sixty years ago it was almost impossible for a man who laid claim to a fair share of "culture," or who professed to be on terms of familiarity with the Zeitgeist, to frankly own himself a Tory; and as the younger Pitt was identified with Toryism in all its questionable shapes, it was equally impossible for the Zeitgeist to have any fair dealings with him.*

"The

ever been delivered by one who fully
understood the responsibilities of states-
manship. By that last expression is meant
something which in these Midlothian days
we can scarcely understand. Mr. Glad-
stone has defined, in one of his beautiful
and picturesque phrases, the business of
an orator as he apprehends it.
speaker," he says, "gives back to his
hearers in a rain what he has received
opinion in England is the judgment of M. Guizot: "Je
puis admettre la superiorité dramatique de Lord Chat-
ham, mais je regarde la superiorité politique et morale
de M. Pitt comme incontestable. C'est à mon avis le
plus grand ministre qui a jamais gouverné en Angle
terre. Au milieu des tempêtes revolutionnaires il l'a
tenue dans l'ordre, et il l'a laissée plus grande en la
laissant libre." (Preface to his translation of Lord

* How different from all this consensus of literary Stanhope's "Life of Pitt.")

from them in a mist." But in more homely | father's admiration for Chatham. His

language, what is this but to say that nowadays the orator is expected to utter the thoughts of his auditors, and not his own? It need not be repeated that Pitt understood his functions as something very 'different. Fox was a speaker much more after the modern pattern; he was, in this as in almost every other particular, the true forerunner of the modern Liberal orator. Fox never spoke with a sense of responsibility. He never minded contradicting in one speech the opinions which he had emphatically advanced in a former speech. He did not aspire to be dignified: a demagogue can do without dignity. And with all these moral and intellectual defects, it is probable that to an intellectual connoisseur Fox's speeches would have afforded choicer food than those of his rival.

brother, his brother-in-law, and his first cousin were all three either in the House of Lords or the heirs to peerages.

It is undoubtedly to these advantages of birth that Pitt in a great measure owed two characteristics which always distinguished him, and which were throughout his career his best allies- I mean his self-confidence and his freedom from vanity. I do not, of course, imply that birth necessarily confers these good traits, but I think that it is certainly rare to find one who has been the entire architect of his own fame and fortune who has not suf fered from one or other of the disabilities from which Pitt was specially free. Great genius will compel a man to rise in despite of his own modest fears; but the want of self-confidence which so often distinguishes men of genius is an injury to themselves and a cause of loss to the world. On the other hand, where there has been no lack of self-trust to keep a man from rising, he is generally weighted by an inordinate vanity, which is harmful to himself and to the world than any excess of diffidence could be. A strong strain of personal vanity was one among the defects which marred the ma

more

was absent from that of his son I consider due to the position which Lord Chatham himself had bequeathed. Some of the earliest speeches of the younger Pitt do, indeed, display a touch of egotism and self-importance: but these defects were very soon laid aside. That he was, upon the whole, remarkably free from vanity appears most strongly from his private correspondence.

Even as compared with his father, Pitt must from the first have been unduly hampered by a sense of responsibility. From his childhood, almost, he may be said to have had his eye upon office. In a sense different from that of Mr. Browning's hero, he was a man born to be king. He must have felt that, with his father's reputation to support his own abilities and training, the premiership of England-jestic nature of Lord Chatham. That it even then its real kingship was almost as certainly within his grasp as if he were to succeed to a hereditary monarchy. He had, in consequence, most of the merits, associated with some of the faults, which characterize those who are born in the purple. He was-thanks to his fathersomething very different from the poor "cornet of horse" who had first made the name of Pitt famous. His social position was an assured and a distinguished one, long before his own abilities had begun to shed any increased lustre on it; and social position counted for much in those days. There had been a time when Chatham had been looked down upon by the great peers with whom he acted. But that time had been long forgotten. From being the Great Commoner he had been for many years the most distinguished peer in England. Men like the Duke of Rutland (Granby's son) were proud to claim the friendship of Pitt on account of their

After some displays of oratory which were rather of the nature of fence than actual combat, the real Parliamentary battle began for Pitt upon the formation of the famous Coalition. In the ministry of Lord Shelburne, which the Coalition was formed to pulled down, Pitt held his first office as chancellor of the exchequer. Now for the first time he was subjected to a formidable criticism; and, perhaps, the first important speech which he delivered must be accounted one on the peace with America, spoken while he still held his

first office of State. Lord Stanhope ac- | up their minds. There was, on the one counts it one of the greatest that Pitt ever hand, the danger from the ambition of delivered. To my thinking it shows far Fox, who, by means of his East India Bill, too much self-consciousness on the part of had sought to secure for himself a posi the orator; and I have no doubt that had tion of power and patronage superior to he been such a mark for the ridicule of the vicissitudes of party, to reign — as the Whigs as he became in the next ses was always the Whig ideal - indepension, this air of self-importance would dent of the crown. But, on the other have been more noticed. But Fox and hand, there was the danger to the country his friends did not yet realize what a for- from the undue power of the crown if the midable rival stood before them. This is king were to be allowed to dismiss a minthe speech in which “in the name of the istry through back-stairs influence, and to public safety," Pitt "forbade the banns "retain one in defiance of a hostile major. of the Coalition marriage — rather theatri- |ity in the House of Commons. In their cally, as I will take leave to think. Far more to my mind is the graceful reference to Shelburne, as one whose merits "are as far above my praise, as the arts to which he owes his defamation are below my notice," or the following passage upon the peace:

In short, Sir, whatever appears dishonorable or inadequate in the peace on your table, is strictly chargeable to the noble lord in the blue ribbon, whose profusion of the public's money, whose notorious temerity and obstinacy in prosecuting the war, which originated in his pernicious and oppressive policy, and whose utter incapacity to fill the station he occupied, rendered a peace of any description indispensable to the preservation of the State.

A sentence which shows that Pitt had from the first that rounded and balanced style, which was always so characteristic of his oratory. In itself that rounded style, to the extent to which Pitt used it, would be a defect. But it suited so well with his lofty and unbending character that it becomes in his case a grace, just as the rather pompous periods of Lord Chatham's speeches become a grace in him.

doubt about their conduct people instinctively turned to the one who showed by his own self-command that he had the capacity of leading men. "I am a king when I rule myself," says the old Stoic proverb. And it is in this way, too, that men vindicate their right of kingship over others. With one false move, one moment of weakness, one sign of fear, and Pitt would have lost his cause, for that time at least. Possibly Fox might have been found in office when the Revolutionary war broke out; and we can guess what kind of governance England would have had then.

In this hard-fought struggle Pitt really does comport himself, and finally issues thence clothed at least in the eyes of those who sympathize with his cause - in something of the victorious valor of a youthful St. George; such an one as Donatello has fashioned for us. And in this light he was regarded by his contemporaries, who, in a majority of ten to one, came to be entirely upon his side and against the Coalition. When first a new writ was moved for Pitt's seat of Appleby, on the ground that the sitting member All this was in the first days of the con- had accepted the offices of first lord of flict, before the Coalition had come into the Treasury and chancellor of the exoffice and soon after been driven thence. chequer, loud and indecorous laughter The hardest stress of battle began when, broke from the opposition benches, where after the fall of the Coalition ministry,, sat the lately dismissed ministers of the Pitt appeared in the House of Commons Coalition. When these found that the charged with the office of first minister of tall of their opponents and their own rethe crown. The battle of the Coalition turn to power were not so immediate as Pitt's Lodi or his Arcola, not less they had expected, their merriment turned momentous to his fortunes than to those to the most bitter resentment. of Napoleon was his Italian campaign. When the war began people had not made

was

Pitt was allowed scarce a moment's breathing-time before attacks were opened

up no back stairs." He knew of no secret influence, and his own integrity would be his guardian against that danger. But the House might rest assured that when he discovered any he would not stay a moment longer in office. "I will neither have the meanness to act upon the advice of others, nor the hypocrisy to pretend, when the measures of an administration in which I have a share are deserving of censure, that they were measures not of my advising. If any former ministers take these charges to themselves, to them be the sting."

upon him from all sides. Fox spoke in | fluence, he told the House that "he came high contempt of the "weakness of young men who accepted office under the present circumstances, and whose youth was the only excuse for their rashness; " and Erskine, whom Pitt had put down a few nights before, took his revenge by reading him a long lecture on the same head. "The public was now reaping the fruits of the intemperate praises which had been lavished upon "the prime minister "in the previous session. If he had attended to the precept of Solomon, 'It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth,' he would not at so early a period have declared against a subordinate situation. But he had declared against being a subordinate, and set himself up to be the first, which, for a time at least (the House would take care that it should not be for long), disturbed and distracted all the operations of government. . . . How different had been the career of his right honorable friend (Fox), who had borne the yoke in his youth, and had now risen by natural process to a superiority in political wisdom and comprehension which the House with delight acknowledged !"

One would have supposed that most wisdom lay in showing that these remarks did not carry any sting. But Lord North was unable to control himself so far. In his reply, he pronounced the "attack of the right honorable gentleman to be the "most gross and scandalous that was ever heard in Parliament" (which it cer tainly cannot be called); and Sheridan, not to be outdone when strong language was toward, declared that "the right honorable gentleman had behaved that day not only with the greatest hypocrisy and meanness, but had held language the most

ever heard." This gives some picture of the temper of the times. It might not have been so hard to deal blow for blow; but Pitt had to accomplish another and a much more difficult task.

At another time Fox, with more of sar-insulting and unconstitutional that he had casm and less of spleen (but always on the one topic, Pitt's youth), said, referring to an observation of Pitt's that there was no member of this government which had promoted the American war, that he supposed he meant in the House of Commons; and, as for that, the prime minister was the only member of the Cabinet in the House of Commons, and certainly he might be acquitted of any share towards or against the promotion of the American

war.

Pitt replied to irony by irony. "So far as he could notice," he told the House, "the principal thing complained of was his youth, a fault which he would attempt neither to palliate nor deny."

He had already shown Erskine that he was not to be overawed, even by Fox's great reputation, when he spoke of him in these terms:

Revering as I do the abilities of the right honorable gentleman, I lament, in common with the House, when those abilities are misemployed, as in the present question, to inflame the imagination and mislead the judgment. I am told, Sir, he does not envy me the triumph of my situation this day; a sort of language which becomes the candor of the honorable gentleman as ill as his present principles.

It was in a House led by men in such a temper as this that Pitt had to attempt to conduct the affairs of government; and before such opponents he rose on the 14th of January, 1784, to introduce his East India Bill, and to make the first of a long series of great ministerial speeches. On rising, he spoke with his customary haughtiness. He told the House that he was neither deterred by the circumstances of the time, nor by the appearance of agitation in that assembly, in rising to move the introduction of a new Bill settling the Government of India; because he knew it to be the most immediate concern of the country, and that which, before all things, calied for the consideration of Parliament.

The whole speech, unfolding the provisions of his measure, is a masterpiece of luminous exposition the quality in which Pitt always shone beyond all others

and considering the circumstances in which the measure was brought forward, the almost certainty that it would not gain a decent hearing, the speech may be In answer to the insinuation that he counted among the very greatest achieve. had come into power through secret in- | ments of the minister, for all the time he

was speaking he did not disguise his ex-|ical constellation, it does not appear that pectation of the result.

He was aware [he said] that in the present circumstances of the time, any proposition that came from him was not likely to be treated with much lenity; and, indeed, from what he had previously heard, he might be permitted to apprehend, not likely to be treated with impartiality or justice; for they had already excited a clamor against what they conceived to be his ideas, and had already condemned without knowing his system.

Explaining that his measure had been submitted to the board of directors, and had obtained their entire approval ·

He knew [he continued] the clamor which would be excited from the members who sat behind the right honorable gentleman (Fox). He knew how capable they would be of deciding on the subject from the notions they would receive from him. . . . But he confessed himself to be so miserably weak and irresolute as not to venture to introduce a Bill into the House on the foundations of violence and corruption.

And then, in a more conciliatory tone, he pleads for the principles of his measure, showing how impossible it was in a country so situated as India to construct an ideally perfect government.

Into such a government there could be introduced no theoretical perfection. It must be a choice of inconveniences; and therefore he trusted that, in the examination of the ideas which he should submit to them, they would take into consideration all these difficulties, and always remember that whatever was suggested, however specious, however promising It might be, must be tried by the event rather than by speculation.

I am not guided by considerations of personal interest nor of personal fame. I have introduced the plan as the deliberate conviction of my mind, made up on the most serious consideration of the most intelligent men. Accept the ideas if they are worth your notice; strengthen them with your wisdom; mature them with your experience; or, in their room, establish a more adequate system, and I am happy.

he had very much regard for their abili his conversations with me," says Bishop ties, excepting only those of Fox. "In Tomline, "Mr. Pitt always spoke of Mr. Fox as by far the ablest of the opposition, as a speaker, in the House of Commons.' This may have been, in part, the effect of old association; for, as a boy, Pitt had begun to look up to the other as his future ally, and as in some sort his exemplar. He scarcely ever used towards Fox the contemptuous and sarcastic tone which he employed towards so many of his rivals; and, on the other hand, Fox for many years spared him the intemperate abuse which it was the delight of the other Whigs and their principal solace to bestow.

"I venerate the character of the young man who holds the reins of government at present. I admire his virtues and respect his ability," was one of Fox's references to Pitt almost at the same time that Sheridan had been telling the house that he behaved with the greatest hypocrisy and meanness, and Erskine had been com-plaining of "his childish impertinent inconsistencies;" while Pitt, on his side, in one of those graceful, polished sentences. which add such a charm to his oratory,. spoke of his rival as "the right honorable: gentleman whose eloquence and abilities, would lend a grace to deformity," or as "one whose extraordinary talents make him an exception to every rule where human abilities are in question."

But for his other opponents he had not the same respect. Even Burke, of whom in after years Pitt always spoke with high veneration, came in at this time for his share of contemptuous notice. Burke did not take a great part in the early attacks upon Pitt. But on one occasion be was overborne by the electric condition of the opposition atmosphere to indulge in language beyond the bounds of Parlia mentary license. Pitt rose to order. “In any attacks upon myself I seldom think it The measure, of course, was rejected, worth while to interrupt the right honoras Pitt anticipated; but in each division able member, or, indeed, to make him any which was taken, the majority of the oppo-reply; but when the acts of the House sition grew smaller and smaller. At last came the dissolution. In the new Parliament the government was firmly seated by an enormous majority, and Pitt's long reign began.

Although Pitt was opposed by a pha. lanx of speakers who afterwards bestowed upon themselves the complimentary title of "All the talents," and whom Whig literature has since raised to form a polit

Sheridan he seems to have considered of very small account, which, indeed, from the weakness of his character, he was. But it was Erskine whom he singled out as the special butt for his irony. Some of these sayings of Pitt on Erskine have become proverbial. As when, following upon a more than usually confused and blundering speech of Erskine - of whom so many speeches in the House of