"MY DEAR MOTHER,

"Tuesday night, Feb. 27, 1781.

"If the length of the debate yesterday, and of a late supper after it, had not made me too lazy this morning, I intended to have been at Hayes to-day. Tomorrow I must be early in the House of Commons, to attend the Lyme election, and am therefore doubtful whether I can ride to Hayes and back again in time, which makes me wish to write to you one line at least, in case I should not.

"I know you will have learnt that I heard my own voice yesterday, and the account you have had would be in all respects better than any I can give if it had not come from too partial friend. All I can say is

that I was able to execute in some measure what I intended, and that I have at least every reason to be happy beyond measure in the reception I met with. You will, I dare say, wish to know more particulars than I fear I shall be able to tell you, but in the mean time you will, I am sure, feel somewhat the same pleasure that I do in the encouragement, however unmerited, which has attended my first attempt.

"I hope when I come to find you better than I left you, and I trust that will not be later than Thursday at furthest. Pray give my love to Harriot, and best compliments to Mrs. Stapleton.1

"Your most dutiful and affectionate son,

"W. PITT."

"It is a curious fact," writes Lord Macaulay, "well remembered by some who were very recently living,

4 Mrs. Stapleton was an aunt visitor, and at last for many years of the first Lord Combermere. the constant companion, of Lady She was the friend and frequent | Chatham.

that soon after this debate Pitt's name was put up by Fox at Brooks's."

The merits of Mr. Pitt's performance continued for some days to be discussed in political circles. Lord North said of it, with generous frankness, that it was the best first speech he had ever heard. Still more emphatic was the praise of Mr. Burke. When some one in his presence spoke of Pitt as "a chip of the old block," Burke exclaimed, "He is not a chip of the old block: he is the old block itself!" Dr. Goodenough, subsequently Bishop of Carlisle, exults in one of his letters that the great Lord Chatham is now happily restored to his country. "All the old members recognised him instantly: to identify him there wanted only a few wrinkles in the face." 5

It appears that a little time previously, Pitt had made the earliest trial of his debating powers in a party of some young friends. Mr. Jekyll, who was at this time like himself a barrister on the Western Circuit, thus relates the fact:-" When he first made his brilliant display in Parliament, those at the Bar who had seen little of him expressed surprise; but a few who had heard him once speak in a sort of mock debate at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, when a club called the Western Circuit Club was dissolved, agreed that he had then displayed all the various species of eloquence for which he was afterwards celebrated." "

5 To the Rev. Edward Wilson, Feb. 27, 1781. Life of Lord Sidmouth, by Dean Pellew, vol. i. p. 27.

6 See a valuable note (of which I shall give the rest in another place) contributed to Bishop Tomline's Life, and inserted in that

On the 31st of May Mr. Pitt made his second speech in the House of Commons. The subject was a Bill to continue an Act of the last Session for the appointment of Commissioners of Public Accounts. When Lord North, who had argued the question at considerable length, sat down, Fox and Pitt rose together. But Fox, with a feeling of kindness to the young member, immediately gave way,' and Pitt, proceeding in a strain of forcible eloquence, contended that the House of Commons, which the constitution had entrusted with the power of controlling the public expenditure, could not in the faithful discharge of their duty delegate any part of that trust to persons who were not of their own body.

In the division which ensued Colonel Barré and Mr. Pitt were appointed Tellers on the same side. It was far from affording any cause of triumph to the young orator, since Lord North carried his negative by 98 votes against 42.

A few days later we find Mr. Wilberforce refer to this second speech as follows in a letter to a friend at Hull :

"The papers will have informed you how Mr. William Pitt, second son of the late Lord Chatham, has distinguished himself. He comes out as his father did, a ready-made orator, and I doubt not but that I shall one day or other see him the first man in the country. His

work at vol. i. p. 42. The Bishop | stances also which plainly identify does not name the writer, but de- his correspondent with Mr. Jekyll. scribes him as "very intimate with Mr. Pitt on the Western Circuit," and as 'holding an honourable station in the Court of Chancery" in 1820; adding other circum

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7 See Tomline's Life, vol. i. p. 33. Lord Macaulay, by a trifling oversight, has transferred this incident to Pitt's first speech (Biographies, p. 152).

famous speech, however, delivered the other night did not convince me, and I stayed in with the old fat fellow (Lord North)."

In the same month of May Wilberforce himself had for the first time taken part in the debates. He seems on this occasion to have attracted little notice. But ere long he gained the success which his abilities and character deserved, and by degrees grew into high favour with the House as an earnest and excellent speaker.

Mr. Pitt spoke for the third time this Session on the 12th of June, upon a motion of Mr. Fox tending to conclude a peace with the American colonies. It does not appear that the young orator had any thoughts of taking part in this debate, but he was unexpectedly called up by several misrepresentations of his father's sentiments. Here is his own account to Lady Chatham the next day.

"June 13, 1781.

"The business of yesterday was a triumph to Opposition in everything but the article of numbers, which was indeed some abatement of it-172 to 99. I found it necessary to say somewhat which was very favourably and flatteringly received, in answer to Mr. Rigby and Mr. Adam, who chose to say that my father and every other party in the kingdom who had objected only to the internal taxation of America, and had asserted at that time the other rights of this country, were accessories to the American war. This you may imagine I directly denied, and expressed as strongly as I could how much he detested the principle of the war. I gave several general reasons which occurred to me for the necessity, in every point of view, for an inquiry into the state of the

war (which was what Mr. Fox moved for), but avoided saying anything direct on the subject of independence, which in that stage of the business I thought better avoided. I hope you will excuse the haste of this account, as I have a person waiting for me whilst I write."

But besides thus vindicating the opinions of Lord Chatham in regard to the American war, Mr. Pitt took occasion to state with the utmost force his own. "A Noble Lord who spoke early" (here he alluded to Lord Westcote) "has in the warmth of his zeal called this a holy war. For my part, though the Right Hon. gentleman who made the motion and some other gentlemen have been more than once in the course of the debate severely reprehended for calling it a wicked or accursed war, I am persuaded, and I will affirm, that it is a most accursed, wicked, barbarous, cruel, unnatural, unjust, and diabolical war. . . . The expense of it has been enormous, far beyond any former experience, and yet what has the British nation received in return? Nothing but a series of ineffective victories or severe defeats-victories only celebrated with temporary triumph over our brethren whom we would trample down, or defeats which fill the land with mourning for the loss of dear and valuable relations slain in the impious cause of enforcing unconditional submission. Where is the Englishman who on reading the narrative of those bloody and well fought contests can refrain lamenting the loss of so much British blood shed in such a cause, or from weeping on whatever side victory might be declared?"

In reply to Pitt rose Henry Dundas, Lord Advocate, the same who was destined through many coming years