Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/453

Rh CHATHAM 441 new ministry reap the fruits of the victory to which he had so largely contributed. The so-called &quot; broad-bottom &quot; administration formed by the Pelhams in 1744, after the dismissal of Carteret, though it included several of those with whom he had been accustomed to act, did not at first include Pitt himself even in a subordinate office. Before the obstacle to his admission was overcome, he had received a remarkable accession to his private fortune. The eccentric -duchess of Marlborough, dying in 1744, at the age of ninety, left him a legacy of 10,000 as an &quot;acknowledg ment of the noble defence he had made for the support of the laws of England and to prevent the ruin of his country.&quot; As her hatred was known to be at least as strong as her love, the legacy was probably as much a mark of her detestation of Walpole as of her admiration of Pitt. It may be mentioned here, though it does not come in chronological order, that Pitt was a second time the object of a form of acknowledgment of public virtue which few statesmen have had the fortune to receive even once. About twenty years after the Marlborough legacy, Sir William Pynsent, a Somer setshire baronet to whom he was personally quite unknown, left him his entire estate, worth about three thousand a year, in testimony of approval of his political career. It was with no very good grace that the king at length consented to give Pitt a place in the Government, although the latter did all he could to ingratiate himself at court, by changing his tone on the questions on which he had made himself offensive. To force the matter, the Pelhams had to resign expressly on the question whether he should be admitted or not, and it was only after all other arrange ments had proved impracticable, that they were re -instated with the obnoxious politician as vice- treasurer of Ireland. This was in February 1746. In June of the same year he was promoted to the more important and lucrative office of paymaster-general, which gave him a place in the Privy Council, though not in the Cabinet. Here he had an opportunity of displaying his public spirit and integrity in a way that deeply impressed both the king and the country. It? had been the usual practice of previous paymasters to appropriate to themselves the interest of all money lying in their hands by way of advance, and also to accept a com mission of one-half per cent, on all foreign subsidies. Although there was no strong public sentiment against the practice, Pitt altogether refused to profit by it. All advances were lodged by him in the Bank of England until required, and all subsidies were paid over without deduc tion, even though it was pressed upon him, so that he did not draw a shilling from his office beyond the salary legally attaching to it. Conduct like this, though obviously dis interested, did not go without immediate and ample reward, in the public confidence which it created, and which formed the mainspring of Pitt s power as a statesman. The administration formed in 1746 lasted without material change till 1754. It would appear from his published correspondence that Pitt had a greater influence in shaping its policy than his comparatively subordinate position would in itself have entitled him to. His conduct in supporting measures, such as the Spanish treaty and the Continental subsidies, which he had violently denounced when in opposition, had been much criticized. One of his biographers, Mr Thackeray, takes the trouble to offer an elaborate defence of it ; but the vindication is in part unnecessary, and in part unsatisfactory. Within certain limits, not indeed very well defined, inconsistency has never been counted a vice in an English statesman. The times change, and he is not blamed for changing with the times. Pitt in office, looking back on the commencement of his public life, might have used the plea &quot; A good deal has happened since then,&quot; at least as justly as some others have done. Allowance must always be made for the restraints and responsibilities of office. In Pitt s case, too, it is to be borne in mind that the opposition with which he had acted gradually dwindled away, and that it ceased to have any organized existence after the death of the prince of Wales in 1751. Then in regard to the important question with Spain as to the right of search, Pitt has disarmed criticism by acknowledging that the course he followed during Walpole s administration was indefensible. All due weight being given to these various considerations, it must be admitted, nevertheless, that Pitt did overstep the limits within which inconsistency is usually regarded as venial. His one great object was first to gain office, and then to make his tenure of offica secure by conciliating the favour of the king. The entire revolution which much of his policy underwent in order to effect this object bears too close a resemblance to the sudden and inexplicable changes of front habitual to placemen of the Tadpole stamp to be altogether pleasant to contemplate in a politician of puro aims and lofty ambition. Humiliating is not too strong a term to apply to a letter in which he expresses his desire to &quot; efface the past by every action of his life,&quot; in order that he may stand well with the king. In 1754 Henry Pelham died, and was succeeded at the head of affairs by his brother, the duke of Newcastle. To Pitt the change brought no advancement, and he had thus an opportunity of testing the truth of the description of his chief given by Sir Robert Walpole, &quot; His name is treason.&quot; But there was for a time no open breach. Pitt continued at his post ; and at the general election which took place during the year he even accepted a nomination for the duke s pocket borough of Aldborough. He had satfor Seaford since 1747. When Parliament met, however, he was not long in showing the state of his feelings. Ignoring Sir Thomas Robinson, the political nobody to whom Newcastle had entrusted the management of the Commons, he made frequent and vehement attacks on Newcastle himself, though still continuing to serve under him. In this strange state matters continued for about a year. At length, just after the meeting of Parliament in November 1751, Pitt was dismissed from office, having on the debate on the address spoken at great length against a new system of Continental subsidies, proposed by the Government of which he was a member. Fox, who had just before been appointed Secretary of State, retained his place, and though the two men continued to be of the same party, and afterwards served again in the same Government, there was henceforward a rivalry between them, which makes the celebrated opposition of their illus trious sons seem like an inherited quarrel. Another year had scarcely passed when Pitt was again in power. Ths inherent weakness of the Government, the vigour and eloquence of his opposition, and a series of military disasters abroad combined to rouse a public feeling of indignation which could not be withstood, and in Dec ember 1756 Pitt, who now sat for Oakhampton, became Secretary of State, and leader of the Commons under the premiership of the duke of Devonshire. He had made it a condition of his joining any administration that Newcastle should be excluded from it, thus showing a resentment which, though natural enough, proved fatal to the lengthened existence of his Government. With the king unfriendly, and Newcastle, whose corrupt influence was still dominant in the Commons, estranged, it was impossible to carry on a Government by the aid of public opinion alone, however emphatically that might have declared itself on his side. In April 1757, accordingly, he found himself again dismissed from office on account of his opposition to the king s favourite Continental policy. But the power that was in sufficient to keep him in office was strong enough to make any arrangement that excluded him impracticable. The V. 56