Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/454

442 CHATHAM public voice spoke in a way that was not to be mistaken. Probably no English minister ever received in so short a time so many proofs of the confidence and admiration of the public, the capital and all the chief towns voting him addresses and the freedom of their corporations. From the political deadlock that ensued relief could only be had by an arrangement between Newcastle and Pitt. After some weeks negociation, in the course of which the firmness and moderation of " the Great Commoner, " as he had come to be called, contrasted favourably with the characteristic tortuosities of the crafty peer, matters were settled on such a basis that, while Newcastle was the nominal, Pitt was the virtual head of the Government. On his acceptance of office he was chosen member for Bath. This celebrated administration was formed in June 1757, and continued in power till 1761. During the four years of its existence it has been usual to say that the biography of Pitt is the history of England, so thoroughly was he identified with the great events which make this period, in so far as the external relations of the country are concerned, one of the most glorious in her annals. A detailed account of these events belongs to history; all that is needed in a biography is to point out the extent to which Pitt s personal influence may really be traced in them. It is scarcely too much to say that, in the general opinion of his contemporaries, the whole glory of these years was due to his single genius ; his alone was the mind that planned, and his the spirit that animated the brilliant achievements of the British arms in all the four quarters of the globe. Pos terity, however, has taken the liberty of revising this en thusiastic verdict, and has placed his renown on what seems a truer and therefore a firmer basis. It has recognized more fully than his contemporaries the independent genius of those who, as subordinates or allies, carried out his pur poses. The heroism of Wolfe would have been irrepres sible, Clive would have proved himself rt a heaven-born general," and Frederick the Great would have written his name in history as one of the most skilful strategists the world has known, whoever had held the seals of office in England. But Pitt s relation to all three was such as to entitle him to a large share in the credit of their deeds. It was his discernment that selected Wolfe to lead the attack on Quebec, and gave him the opportunity of dying a victor on the heights of Abraham, He had personally less to do with the successes in India than with the other great enterprises that shed an undying lustre on his adminis tration ; but his generous praise in Parliament stimulated the genius of Clive, and the forces that acted at the close of the struggle were animated by his indomitable spirit. Frederick the Great s Seven Years War might well have been another Thirty Years War, if Pitt had not furnished him with an annual subsidy of 700,000, and in addition relieved him of the task of defending Western Germany against France. Contemporary opinion was, of course, incompetent to estimate the permanent results gained for the country by the brilliant foreign policy of Pitt. It has long been generally agreed that by several of his most costly expe ditions nothing was won but empty glory. It has even been said that the only permanent acquisition that England owes directly to him is her Canadian dominion ; and, strictly speaking, this is true, it being admitted that the campaign by which the Indian empire was virtually won was not planned by him, though brought to a successful issue during his ministry. But material aggrandizement, though the only tangible, is not the only real or lasting effect of a war policy. More may be gained by crushing a formidable rival than by conquering a province. The loss of her Canadian possessions was only one of a series of disasters suffered by France, which radically affected the future of Europe and the world. Deprived of her most valuable colonies both in the East and in the West, and thoroughly defeated on the Continent, her humiliation was the beginning of a new epoch in history. The victorious policy of Pitt destroyed the military prestige which repeated experience has shown to be in France as in no other country the very life of monarchy, and thus was not the least considerable of the many influences that slowly brought about the French Revolution. It effectually de prived her of the lead in the councils of Europe which she had hitherto arrogated to herself, and so has affected the whole course of Continental politics to the present time. It is such far-reaching results as these, and not the mere acquisition of a single colony, however valuable, that constitute Pitt s claim to be considered as on the whole the most powerful minister that ever guided the foreign policy of England. The first and most important of a series of changes which ultimately led to the dissolution of the ministry was the death of George II. on the 25th October 17GO, and the accession of his grandson, George III. The new king had, as was natural, new counsellors of his own, the chief of whom, Lord Bute, was at once admitted to the cabinet as a secretary of state. Between Bute and Pitt there speedily arose an occasion of serious difference. The existence of the so-called family compact by which the Bourbons of France and Spain bound themselves in an offensive alliance against England having been brought to light, Pitt urged that it should be met by an immediate declaration of war with Spain. To this course Bute would not consent, and as his refusal was endorsed by all his colleagues save Temple, Pitt had no choice but to leave a cabinet in which his advice on a vital question had been rejected. On his resignation, which took place in October 1761, the king urged him to accept some signal mark of royal favour in the form most agreeable to himself. Accordingly he obtained a pension of ,3000 a year for three lives, and his wife, Lady Hester Grenville, whom he had married in 1754, was created Baroness Chatham in her own right. In con nection with the latter gracefully bestowed honour it may be mentioned that Pitt s domestic life was a singularly happy one. Pitt s spirit was too lofty to admit of his entering on any merely factious opposition to the Government he had quit ted. On the contrary, his conduct after his retirement was distinguished by a moderation and disinterestedness which, as Burke has remarked, " set a seal upon his char acter." The war with Spain, in which he had urged the Cabinet to take the initiative, proved inevitable ; but he scorned to use the occasion for " altercation and recrimina tion," and spoke in support of the Government measures for carrying on the war. To the preliminaries of the peace concluded in February 1763 he offered an indignant resist ance, considering the terms quite inadequate to the suc cesses that had been gained by the country. When the treaty was discussed in Parliament in December of the pre ceding year, though suffering from a severe attack of gout, he was carried down to the house, and in a speech of three hours duration, interrupted more than once by paroxysms of pain, he strongly protested against its various conditions. The physical cause which rendered this effort so painful probably accounts for the infrequency of his appearances in Parliament, as well as for much that is otherwise inex plicable in his subsequent conduct. In 1763 he spoke against the obnoxious tax on cider, imposed by his brother- in-law, George Grenville, and his opposition, though un successful in the house, helped to keep alive his popularity with the country, which cordially hated the excise and all connected with it. When next year the question of

general warrants was raised in connection with the case of