Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/247

 128. III. MARCH 31, 1917.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

241

LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 31, 1917.

CONTENTS. No. 66.

STOTES : William Pitt's Last Speech, 241 -Contributions to European Travel : Thomas Coxe, 242 Correspondence of Richard Edwards, 244 Shrapnel Family Words of William Donaldson, 248.

QUERIES: A. Poetical Enigma 'The Works of King Alfred the Great' De Ewell Family Orpiment Le petit Fleury, Com^dien, 249 Millais: 'Christ in the Car- penter's Shop '- Sixteenth-Century Maps Cutting off the Hair as a Preservative against Headache Inscriptions relating to Durham Woodcroft Manor' Memoirs of the La Touche and Guinness Families' "Ward Room" Major-General Champagne's Regiment Arms of St. Wil- frid, 250.

REPLIES: A Riming Will, 261 " Cadua "From Liver- pool to Worcester, 252 Mediaeval Work on Enamel Richard Lambert Jones Tennyson and Grindrod Bal- leny Island, 253 Rimes on St Thomas's Day Inscrip tions in Grosvenor Chapel, 254 Brassey Family Sir Henry Mildmay's Wedding, 255 "A ring, a ring ol roses," 256 Old Inns Queen Elizabeth's Palace, Enfield. 257 Butler's 'Analogy' Greatest Length of Service, 258 Wall Street, New York The Angelica Jacob or James The Sight of Savages, 259.

NOTES ON BOOKS : The Thirty-third Novel of Masuccio The Journal of Henry Hough, R.A., 1812-13 "The Hanmers of Marlon and Montford, Salop.'

Notices to Correspondents.

WILLIAM PITT'S LAST SPEECH.

THIS was made at the Lord Mayor's Banquet at Guildhall on Nov. 9, 1805. Macaulay in ' Miscellaneous Writings,' vol. ii. p. 368 preprinted from ' The Encyclopaedia Bri- tannica,' "William Pitt "), gives this account of the speech :

" When his health was drunk, he returned thanks in two or three of those stately sentences of which he had a boundless command. Several of those who heard him laid up his words in their hearts ; for they were the last words that he ever uttered in public : 'Let us hope that England, having saved herself by her energy, may save Europe by her example.' "

Stanhope in his 'Life of Pitt' (1861), vol. iv. p. 346, gives the following account of the speech :

" At the banquet the Lord Mayor proposed his health as ' the Saviour of Europe.' Then Pitt rose, and spoke nearly as follows : ' I return you many thanks for the honour you have done me ; but Europe is not to be saved by any single man. England has saved herself by her exertions, and will, as I trust, save Europe by her example.' With only these two sentences the Minister sat -down. They were memorable words. They sank deep into the minds of his hearers. For, besides their own impressive beauty, they were "the last words that Mr. Pitt ever spoke in public."

Stanhope then quotes the account he received of the speech in 1838 from the Duke of Wellington :

" On that occasion [referring to the Lord Mayor's Banquet] I remember he [Pitt] returned thanks in one of the best and neatest speeches I ever heard in my life. It was in very few words. The Lord Mayor had proposed his health as one who had been the saviour of England, and would be the saviour of the rest of Europe. Mr. Pitt then got up, disclaimed the compliment as applied to himself, and added : ' England has saved herself by her exertions, and the rest of Europe will be saved by her example ! ' That was all, he was scarcely up two minutes ; yet nothing could be more perfect." Stanhope, ' Life of Pitt,' vol. iv. p. 347.

From what source did Stanhope get his version of the speech ? I have no doubt that he made it up from what the Duke of Wellington told him. It will be noticed that he says that Pitt " spoke nearly as follows." I cannot find that the speech is quoted in any book before Macaulay wrote his article in ' The Encyclopaedia Britannica ' in January, 1859.

The Lord Mayor's Banquet was noticed in The Times of Nov. 11, 1805, p. 3, as follows :

" Mr. Pitt's health was next drank with equal approbation, and, in return, he addressed the company. His observations were principally directed to the late brilliant victory, and to the unanimity manifested by the whole nation to resist and humble the common enemy."

I also find the following account in The Morning Herald of the same date :

" After dinner the Lord Mayor gave Mr. Pitt's health with three times three.

" He returned thanks in a short speech, in which he said that Great Britain had done her duty, and that he trusted the Continental Powers would do the same."

From these extracts it appears that the newspapers do not refer in any way to Pitt having been described as the saviour of Europe or England and his reply thereto, and Stanhope, the Duke of Wellington, and Macaulay do not give the part of his speech in which he referred " to the late brilliant victory " of Trafalgar of Oct. 21, 1805.

Is there any other report of Pitt's speech anywhere to be found ? Is it known where Macaulay got his version from ? It is clearly incorrect, as it omits to state that the Lord Mayor personally referred to Pitt as the saviour of Europe or England.

Lord Rosebery in his ' Pitt,' p. 255, says :

" Pitt replied hi the noblest, the tersest, and the best of all his speeches. It can be here given in its entirety."