Henry Pelham-Clinton, 1st Earl of Chatham

“ Though he had thus already spoken, he wound up the debate for the Ministry, and did so with equal discretion.
This was in February 1750. He seems to have spoken no more that session, but in August Pelham wrote to his brother: 'I think him the most able and useful man we have among us, truly honourable and strictly honest. He is as firm a friend to us as we can wish for, and a more useful oneAug. 3-14, 1750. does not exist.' [190] Such an eulogy, offered in confidence by a Prime Minister, a reticent, unemotional man, seems to us a great mark and epoch in Pitt's career. ”

“ Every one resigned or tried to resign, and there was no one to fill their places. To Pelham himself Carteret had made overtures; but Pelham told the King that the Whig junto would have nothing to do with Bath or Carteret. At last, the only measure left to the hapless monarch was to shut himself up and forbid his door to the crowd that sought admittance in order to give up their keys and staves and official insignia. He was soon compelled to send for Bath and to tell him that it would not do. Bath exhorted him to be firm, and offered by means of the Prince of Wales to secure Tory support. ”

“ I, among the rest, pretending an equal ardour, and an equal interest, and hiding, like many persons in a similar predicament, a most trembling spirit beneath a most valorous exterior.
When the match (which terminated in favour of the lesser champion) was over, “Come, Pelham,” said Dartmore, “let me take up the gloves with you?”
“You are too good!” said I, for the first time using my drawing-room drawl. A wink and a grin went round the room.
“Well, then, will you fence with Staunton, or play at single sticks with me?” said the short, thick, bullying, impudent, vulgar Earl of Calton. ”

“ But since Lord Chatham, and, more particularly, his son’s Administration, the policy has been to annihilate all family unions; indeed, there is not a man of the Corresponding Society more bitter against the aristocracy than Pitt and Canning are. Pelham has resigned the Secretaryship, and the gentle Castlereagh, at the recommendation of Ld. Cornwallis, is to keep it as a principal, no longer as locum tenens. [232]
I have been reading French literature of a desultory sort and in a desultory way, both pernicious to the mind ”

“ The family of Pelham (now represented by the Earl of Chichester) bear, as a quartering, ‘Gules, two demi-belts, paleways, the buckles in chief argent.’ This augmentation was allowed to the family in the early part of the seventeenth century; but they had previously, for many generations, borne the Buckle as a badge. They also occasionally gave it as a crest, together with a cage—both in commemoration of the capture of John, king of France, at Poictiers, by Sir John de Pelham. ”

“ When at length he tendered his resignation the king expressed neither surprise nor regret, but only spoke of filling up his place. Clinging to office with ignominious tenacity, he condescended to procure Lord Mansfield's ‘intercession’ with the favourite. Bute, however, was inexorable, and on 26 May 1762 Newcastle parted with the seals. He refused a pension, but was created (4 May) Baron Pelham of Stanmer, with remainder to his cousin, Thomas Pelham (afterwards first Earl of Chichester) [q. v.] ”

“ Moreover, though on the whole he sided with Newcastle, as Fox sided with Pelham, he could not but be aware of the priceless merits of Pelham as a party manager, as one who allayed animosities, and as one who kept the peace. Pelham, in writing to Newcastle, affects to diminish the value of Pitt's intervention, as he wishes281 to attribute the renewal of harmony to 'natural affection.' But an impartial judgment comes to a different conclusion. Natural affection had not prevented discord, and was insufficient to produce reconciliation. It is at all times an indifferent political cement. ”

“ Mr Pelham destin'd Sir George Lyttelton to be cofferer, whenever that office shou'd open, and there can be no shadow of difficulty in Mr Grenville being made Treasurer of the Navy. Weighed in the fair scale of usefulness to the King's business in Parliament, they can have no competitors that deserve to stand in their way. ”

“ The Pelham ministry resigned in a body. Bath kissed hands as First Minister, and received the seals of the Secretaries of State to transmit to Carteret, who was ill. The new Secretary at once announced by circular his appointment to the foreign ministers. But there all ended. When old Horace Walpole was told that this ministry was settled he shrewdly remarked: 'I presume in the same manner as what we call a settlement in Norfolk; when a house is cracked from top to bottom and ready to fall, we say it is settled.' [174] Winnington was to have been the new Chancellor of the Exchequer. ”

“ Bath. March 9th: 1754.
Dear Sister,—I write to you under the greatest affliction, on all Considerations Private and Publick. Mr Pelham Died Wednesday morning, of a Feaver and St. Anthony's fire. This Loss is, in my notion of things, irreparable to the Publick. I am still suffering much Pain with Gout in both feet, and utterly unable To be carry'd to London. ”

“ On the 9th of the same month Earl Grey announced in the Lords, and Viscount Althorp in the Commons, that ministers had resigned. A week of terrific agitation ensued, but the sequel proved the efficiency and the excellence of the step which had been adopted.
Lord Lyndhurst, the Duke of Wellington, and Sir Robert Peel, were the new advisers selected by his majesty; but they were made acquainted with his majesty’s determination that an extensive reform should be effected. Lord Lyndhurst and the noble Duke were not unwilling to lend themselves to the existing emergency ”

“ The life of Chatham is extremely difficult to write, and, strictly speaking, never can be written at all. It is difficult because of the artificial atmosphere in which he thought it well to envelop himself, and because the rare glimpses which are obtainable of the real man reveal a nature so complex, so violent, and so repressed. What is this strange career?
Born of a turbulent stock, he is crippled by gout at Eton and Oxford, then launched into a cavalry regiment, and then into Parliament. For eight years he is groom-in-waiting to a prince. ”

“ Descendant of Sir John Pelham, who figured in the French wars, described by Froissart, and an immediate relative of a well-known political family of the same name in the last century,—the Earl became an earnest Christian and an active philanthropist for more than half a century. Possessed of wide and varied information respecting men and things, and being eminently genial and altogether free from ostentation, his society could not but be agreeable and instructive. ”

“ PELHAM, GEORGE, D.D. (1766–1827) , bishop successively of Bristol, Exeter, and Lincoln, born 13 Oct. 1766, was third son and seventh and youngest child of Thomas Pelham, first earl of Chichester [q. v.] He was at first in the English army, holding a commission in the guards, but soon changed his vocation to the church. After he had been trained by James Hurdis [q. v.] at the family seat of Stanmer, near Lewes, from 1784, he was sent to Cambridge, graduating B.A. at Clare College, Cambridge, in 1787. As the younger son of a leading whig family, he was quickly promoted. ”

“ One word upon the principles I espouse: they are those which have found their advocates among the wisest and the best; they are those which, hostile alike to the encroachments of the crown, and the licentiousness of the people, would support the real interest of both. Upon these grounds, gentlemen, I have the honour to solicit your votes; and it is with the sincerest respect for your ancient and honourable body, that I subscribe myself your very obedient servant,
"Henry Pelham."
"Glenmorris Castle,"
Such was the first public signification of my intentions; it was drawn up by Mr. ”

“ His judgment of men was sure. He had only three ministers who were men of commanding ability; Walpole, Carteret, and Pitt. Two of these were his especial favourites; to the third, who had mortally offended him, he submitted. For Newcastle he had a supreme contempt; but wisely accommodated himself to one who was useful, who 'did his business,' to whom he was accustomed, and whom he knew through and through. He infinitely preferred Carteret to Pelham, but at the supreme moment he chose Pelham in spite of Carteret. ”

“ Lord Chatham was justly proud of his son, and predicted that he would add honor to the name; nay, more, he expressed a belief that he would some day be one of the first men in Parliament; and, if a minister of state, that he would arrive at the highest dignity. He therefore gave his utmost assistance in forming the future premier’s mind, and incited him to lofty and laudable aspirations. These labors were not in vain; and the Great Earl lived long enough to feel assured that a useful and brilliant career lay before the object of his tender care. ”

“ He now retired, leaving his second wife and two children behind him; and nothing more was heard of him until the year 1802, when he drove up in a carriage to the Queen’s Head Inn, at Keswick, and assumed the name of Colonel the Hon. Alexander Augustus Hope, brother of the Earl of Hopetoun, and member for Linlithgow. Unfortunately some evil genius directed his steps to the once happy cottage of poor Mary, the only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robinson, an old couple, who kept a small public-house at the side of the beautiful lake of Buttermere, Cumberland ”

“ Some of the papers in the same volume are addressed to the Right Hon. the Speaker, Collon (Pelham MSS. fol. 205) . Thomas Pelham, Earl of Chichester, whose name has been often mentioned in this book, died July 4, 1826. A pleasing sketch of Pelham appears in Barrington's Memoirs, i. 180.
[764] Francis Magan (see p. 134, ante) .
[765] It would be unlike Jones if his letters to Lady Moira did not deal with warmer topics than 'antiquities.' Tone's Life contains a letter from Lady Moira to Jones, in which she says: 'As to making a democrat of me, that, you must be persuaded, is a fruitless hope.' ”

“ I can not express how anxious I am for your right behaviour in all respects, upon which alone your happiness must depend. whatever assistance my advice can be to You, you will ever have with the truest affection of a Brother.
Yrs
W. Pitt.
The next letter is pregnant enough, written to Ann at Nevers. Their aunt Essex is dead, but her death only lurks in a postscript. For Pelham is dead and Pitt is a cripple at Bath, disabled from proceeding to the capital, where his fate and that of the future administration are being settled. His restless anguish seems to pierce through these97 few lines. ”

“ Sometimes a political leader in New York who had got power by forbidden ways, has used it for the good of the Republic. I suppose the worst examples of all low political leadership were the Pelhams, the Duke of Newcastle and his brother; yet without them, Lord Chatham's glorious career would have been unknown to the history of English liberty. Chatham used to say: "The Duke of Newcastle lends me his majority to carry on the Government."
Let me not be understood as meaning to compare Roscoe Conkling with such characters. He was fearless. He was a powerful debater. ”

“ So it was with Pitt in 1766, and for a time the general expectation seemed likely to be gratified. On the 18th of March the Bill to repeal the Stamp Act received the Royal Assent. A few weeks afterwards, the Ministry of Lord Rockingham, which passed it, was dismissed by the King, and on the 30th of July Mr. Pitt became Prime Minister as Lord Privy Seal, and, to the general amazement, entered the House of Lords as the Earl of Chatham.
To-day we are dealing with this great man not directly as a Statesman but as an Orator. ”

“ Before retiring, Lord Chatham said, "Your majesty must excuse me if I say, the liberty of the subject is the surest protection to the monarch, and if the prince protects the guilty, instead of punishing them, time will convince him, that he has judged erroneously, and acted imprudently."
The earl retired; but "his labouring breast knew not peace," and he resolved, for the last time, to see the king in private. An interview was requested, and as readily granted. "Well, well," said the king, [57] "I hope no bad news?" "No bad news, your majesty ”

“ Chatham's praise of, 454; position found for, 483, 486; opposes navy reduction, 289 Pragmatic Sanction, maintenance of, 202, 203 Prague, King of Bohemia proclaimed in, 205 Pratt, Charles, 1st Earl Camden, 27, 311 Preston, Mr., 50 'Pretyman Papers,' referred to, 355 Prevot, as a prototype, 441 Prior Park, 112 Protestant Succession, endurance to secure, 198 Prussia, Convention signed at Hanover, 210 Pulteney, Sir William, Earl of Bath, Ann Pitt's designs on, 54, 107; entertained at Stowe, 132; his wit, 254; idolised by the people, 175, 262; Walpole's use of, 176, 219, 505 ”

“ He soon made his own country too hot to hold him, for at one of the races in the county of Carlow he was detected picking the pocket of a nobleman; but, upon restoring the property, his lordship declined any prosecution, and he therefore left Ireland, and for the first time appeared in England in 1773. On his first visit to Ranelagh with a party, he quitted his friends, and picked the pockets of the Duke of Leinster and Sir William Draper of a considerable sum; and he also took from a lady a watch, with all which he got off undiscovered, and rejoined his friends. ”

“ Son of the Earl of Chatham, born 1759, died 1806, and hardly less distinguished than his father as a statesman and orator. He became prime minister at the age of twenty-five, and showed a genius as parliamentary leader which has never been surpassed and rarely equaled, retaining him in power in spite of his feebleness in the conduct of war and diplomacy. His great talents found their most congenial field in the management of home affairs, being the prototype of Mr. ”