Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/37

Rh diaries. This position was recognized and acknowledged by Chatham himself in the often-quoted letter to Calcraft, in which, speaking of Lord Rockingham and his friends, he says, "The Marquis is an honest and honourable man, but that 'Moderation! moderation!' is the burden of the song among that body. For myself I am resolved to be in earnest for the public, and shall be a scarecrow of violence to the gentle warblers of the grove, the moderate Whigs and temperate statesmen." Not a bad foreshadowing this of the character which would be assumed by, or given to that Radical party, to the origin of which the great orator certainly contributed.