HIS LAST SPEECH. 251 "My Lords, I rejoice that the grave has not closed upon me; that I am still alive to lift up my voice against the dismemberment of this ancient and most noble monarchy! Pressed down as I am by the hand of infirmity, I am little able to assist my country in this most perilous conjuncture; but, my Lords, while I have sense and memory, I will never consent to deprive the royal offspring of the House of Brunswick, the heirs of the Princess Sophia, of their fairest inheritance. I will first see the Prince of Wales, the Bishop of Osnaburg, and the other rising hopes of the royal family brought down to the committee, and assent to such an alienation. Where is the man that will dare to advise it? My Lords, his Majesty succeeded to an empire as great in extent as its reputation was unsullied. Shall we tarnish the lustre of this nation by an ignominious surrender of its rights and fairest possessions? Shall this great kingdom that has survived, whole and entire, the Danish depredations, the Scottish inroads, and the Norman conquest; that has stood the threatened invasion of the Spanish Armada, now fall prostrate before the House of Bourbon? Surely, my Lords, this nation is no longer what it was! Shall a people that, seventeen years ago, was the terror of the world, now stoop so low as to tell its ancient inveterate enemy, 'Take all we have, only give us peace?' It is impossible! "I wage war with no man, or set of men. I wish for none of their employments; nor would I co-operate with men who still persist in unretracted error; or who, instead of acting on a firm decisive line of conduct, halt between two opinions, where there is no 252 SEIZED WITH MORTAL ILLNESS. middle path. In God's name, if it is absolutely necessary to declare either for peace or war, and the former cannot be preserved with honour, why is not the latter commenced without hesitation? I am not, I confess, well-informed of the resources of this kingdom, but I trust it has still sufficient to maintain its just rights, though I know them not. But, my Lords, any state is better than despair. Let us at least make one effort; and if we must fall, let us fall like men!" When Chatham sat down, Lord Temple said to him, in allusion to some plan for the pacification of America, "You have forgot to mention what we have been talking about. Shall I get up?" Lord Chatham replied, "No, no, I will do it by-and-by." The Duke of Richmond then replied. He spoke of Chatham with the greatest courtesy, but in the course of his remarks gave expression to sentiments with which, as was evident by his countenance and gestures, the Earl disagreed. When the Duke sat down, Chatham made an effort to rise; but after several attempts to maintain an erect position, suddenly pressed his hand to his heart, and fell down in convulsions. The Duke of Cumberland, Lord Temple, Lord Stamford, and some other peers who were sitting near, caught him in their arms.* Amidst a scene of singular emotion * "Every person was upon his legs in a moment, hurrying from one place to another, some sending for assistance, others producing salts, and others reviving spirits; many crowding about the Earl to observe his countenance: all affected, most part really concerned, and even those who might have felt a secret pleasure at the accident, yet put on the appearance of distress, except only the Earl of Mansfield, who sat still, almost as much unmoved as the senseless body itself."-Lord Camden to the Duke of Grafton. DEATH OF CHATHAM. 253 and disorder, the debate was adjourned, and the House cleared. The dying statesman was carried to the residence of the Sergeant-at-Arms in Downing Street, where medical assistance was procured, and he so far recovered as to be able to bear removal to Hayes. In that well-loved home he lingered for a few weeks, soothed by the affectionate attention of his wife and children. A devoted husband, a fond father,* he had never shown towards them that occasional irritability and arrogance which had marked his intercourse with others; and they had repaid him with the tenderest admiration. On the 11th of May, he expired, preserving to the last his fortitude and calmness. He was in his 70th year. The The news of his death awakened throughout the kingdom a feeling of profound sorrow; and friends and foes united to do honour to his vast services and lofty genius. The King alone showed no concern.† House of Commons voted at once a public funeral, and made provision for the payment of his debts. An annuity of £4000 was settled upon his heirs, Lord Nugent seizing the occasion to make known a last instance of the deceased statesman's exalted patriotism. His eldest son, Lord Pitt, having been ordered to join the garrison at Gibraltar, * While his health permitted, he never suffered a day to pass without giving a lesson of some kind to his children; and seldom without reading a chapter of the Bible with them. + Lord Brougham comments very justly on "the truly savage feeling,”—a hatred, says Buckle, that seemed barely compatible with a sane mind,-which George the 3rd cherished towards Chatham. See ADOLPHUS, "History of George III.,' ii. 568; BROUGHAM, 'Sketches of Statesmen,' i. 22, 23; BUCKLE, 'History of Civilization,' i. 408. 254 INTERRED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. had repaired to his father's death-bed to say farewell. Go, my son," said Chatham, "go where your country calls you; let her engross all your attention; spare not a moment which is due to her service in weeping over an old man who will soon be no more." The City of London petitioned that the Earl's remains might be deposited beneath the roof of its Cathedral of St. Paul; but arrangements had already been made for their interment in Westminster Abbey. They lay in state in the Painted Chamber at Westminster on the 7th and 8th of June; and on the 9th were borne, with the pomp of solemn pageantry, to their last resting-place near the northern door of the Abbey. Close at hand sleeps his great contemporary, Mansfield, and, within a narrow area, reposes the dust of his illustrious son, of that son's illustrious rival, Fox, of William Wilberforce, and Grattan, and one who resembled Chatham in his patriotic pride, the gifted Canning. They seem all covered by the shadow of Chatham's stately monument, with its effigy graven by a cunning hand,"* so worthy of the man, so faithfully preserving the marked features of that regal countenance. The generation which reared this noble memorial of a country's gratitude has passed away; and the time has come when its judgments can be impartially reviewed by posterity, and rectified or adopted. So far as Chatham is concerned, history deliberately declares-and all Englishmen gladly acknowledge-that among England's "illustrious sons of long, long ages none has left a purer fame, none has * Executed by the sculptor Bacon. COWPER ON CHATHAM AS AN ORATOR. 255 deserved better of the Commonwealth, than William Pitt, Earl of Chatham. "In him, Demosthenes was heard again, Spoke from his lips, and in his looks gave law. And all his country beaming in his face, He stood, as some inimitable hand Would strive to make a Paul or Tully stand. No sycophant or slave that dared oppose Her sacred cause, but trembled when he rose. And every venal stickler for the yoke, Felt himself crushed at the first word he spoke." * Cowper, Table Talk. The strongest proof of Chatham's greatness is the influence he exercised upon his contemporaries. He * Lord Lyttelton (the second lord, born 1746, died 1779, the hero of the ghost story told by Boswell (a), thus describes Chatham's oratory (b) :— "The two principal orators of the present age (and one of them, perhaps, a greater than has been produced in any age) are, the Earls of Mansfield and Chatham. The former is a great man; Ciceronian, but, I should think, inferior to Cicero: the latter is a greater man; Demosthenean, but superior to Demosthenes. The first formed himself on the model of the great Roman orator; he studied, translated, rehearsed, and acted his orations; the second disdained imitation, and was himself a model of eloquence, of which no idea can be formed, but by those who have seen and heard him. His words have sometimes frozen my young blood into stagnation, and sometimes made it pace in such a hurry through my veins that I could scarce support it. He, however, embellished his ideas by classical amusements, and occasionally read the sermons of Barrow, which he considered as a mine of nervous expressions; but, not content to correct and instruct his imagination by the works of mortal men, he borrowed his noblest images from the language of inspiration." (a) It is repeated by Sir Walter Scott in his Letters on Demonology.' (b) In the Letters attributed to him. |