Essay on Man, his last wish was for his Mr. Fox and Mr. Byng both paid their tribute to the memory of the man, who, they said, had raised his country's glory to an unrivalled pitch. earl of Chatham. The former, after his first campaign, was honoured by his royal mistress with the ducal coronet, and had 5,000l. a year, clear money, settled on him, payable out of the Post-office. When in 1706 he had gained the famous battle of Blenheim, the manors of Woodstock and Wotton were granted to him, and a palace was built for him at the queen's expence. When he lost his only son the marquis of Blandford, the queen caused an act of parliament to pass to settle the family titles on his heirs female and their heirs, in order to secure to his posterity the 5,000l. a year payable to the title, which the Marlborough family enjoy to this day. These were the princely rewards which that great officer had received for his signal services in the field; whilst a paltry nominal 3,000l. a year was the only substantial one which lord Chatham had received; and yet, who would say that England was less indebted to Chatham than to Marlborough? Upon the whole, he felt himself carried by every consideration which could weigh with a just, grateful, and generous mind, not only to second the motion, but to wish most ardently, that the debts affecting the estate might be discharged by the nation. The motion was carried nem. con. May 20. Lord North presented the fol "GEORGE R. Col. Barré assigned his reason for not being beforehand with Mr. Townshend, and making the present motion together with his motion for a public funeral: he said that the task had been assigned to him, because in his professional capacity he had acted in an expedition which the noble earl had planned. He knew that glory was his grand object; and that if it was possible for his illustrious shade to look down upon earth and see what was passing here below, he would be better pleased at the tribute which his country was about to pay his memory at his funeral, than at any provision which might be made for his children. Avarice had never been a part of his character; if it had, the motion would have been unnecessary: he had had it in his power to gratify to the utmost ex-lowing Message from his Majesty: tent, both ambition and avarice; but he was superior to such considerations; and all selfish thoughts were buried in the pursuit of his country's glory, which was intimately connected with his own. He was possessed of the happy talent of transfusing his own zeal into the souls of all those who were to have a share in carrying his projects into execution; and it was a matter well known to many officers then in the House, that no man ever went into the earl's closet, who did not feel himself, if possible, braver at his return than when he went in. He begged to say a few words relative to the pension which the King had been pleased to bestow on the earl. It was rated at 3,000l. a year; but he believed it to be only nominally so much, as he had reason to think that not more than 2,2001. were annually received. He stated the debts which affected the estate of the earl to be very considerable; and the income of the young lord to be consequently small. He drew a comparison between the rewards bestowed on the duke of Marlborough, and those given to the "His Majesty having taken into his consideration the Address of this House, that he will be graciously pleased to bestow some signal and lasting mark of his royal favour on the family of the late William Pitt, earl of Chatham; and being desirous to comply as speedily as possible with the request of his faithful Commons; has given directions for the granting to the present earl of Chatham, and to the heirs of the body of the late William Pitt to whom the earldom of Chatham shall descend, an annuity of 4,000l. per annum, out of the Civl List revenue: but his Majesty, not having it in his power to extend the effect of the said grant beyond the term of his own life, recommends it to the House, to consider of a proper method of extending, securing, and annexing, the same to the earldom of Chatham, in such manner as shall be thought most effectual for the benefit of the family of the said William Pitt, earl of Chatham." May 21. The House being in a Com either this session or the next, move that the monument voted to be erected, should be raised in St. Paul's. mittee on the King's Message, Mr. T. Townshend moved, "That the annual sum of 4,000l. be granted to his Majesty, out of the Aggregate Fund, to commence from the 5th of July 1778, and be settled in the most beneficial manner upon the present earl of Chatham, and the heirs of the body of the late William Pitt to whom the earldom of Chatham shall descend." The Resolution was agreed to, without opposition: and a Bill was ordered to be brought in thereon; which passed the Commons without debate. The following Petition was presented by one of the Sheriffs of London: "To the Honourable the House of Commons, in Parliament assembled. "The humble Petition of the City of London, in Common-council assembled. "Sheweth, That your petitioners humbly beg leave to return their grateful thanks to this honourable House for the noble and generous testimony which it has borne to the services and merits of the late W. Pitt, earl of Chatham. Mr. Rigby said, he was not in a humour to pay such a compliment to the corporation of London, as to separate the body from the monument, which according to the vote of the House, was to be erected in Westminster Abbey. He would boldly speak his sentiments of the corporation, notwithstanding the looks of gentlemen near him, who seemed displeased with his opinion. The common council had madefree with both Houses of Parliament; and he thought he had as good a right to make free with them. His respect for the corporation of London had ceased, when it ceased to be governed by the most opulent and respectable characters in it: the common council he understood intended to assist at the funeral; he was not inclined to indulge, them in their wish to parade; it was contrary to the sense of both Houses of Parliament; in one of which the motion for attendance had been withdrawn; and in the other rejected. When the motion for a funeral was made at a late hour, and in a thin House when gentlemen were "And your petitioners, with all humirather unaware of it, he expressed his dislity, desire that their zeal may not seem approbation of it as an empty honour; unpleasing to this honourable House, cr and suggested the idea of a monument as be interpreted as a wish in your petitioners a lasting homage to the memory of lord to vary from the general sense of their Chatham; and as the body of his lordship country, as expressed in the late votes of had already been brought into the neighthis honourable House, by their request-bourhood of the Abbey, and the monument ing that the remains of the earl of Chatham be deposited in the cathedral church of St. Paul, in the city of London. "Your petitioners farther represent to this honourable House, that they entirely feel the delicacy of their situation, in consequence of the several measures taken by this honourable House, but hope that a favourable interpretation will be put upon any particular marks of gratitude and veneration which the first commercial city in the empire is earnest to express towards the statesman, whose vigour and counsels had so much contributed to the protection and extension of its commerce. By order of the court, Rix." Mr. Dunning expressed his approbation of the stile and purport of the Petition. He said the cathedral of the metropolis was a very proper place for depositing the remains of a man who had raised the commerce of the city to an envied pitch of greatness, by disabling those powers who wished to crush it. If the prayer of the citizens should be granted, he would, was to be raised there, he thought it most proper that the remains and monument, should be in the same place. Mr. Dunning replied, that he saw no impropriety in depositing the corpse in one church, and raising a monument in another. If the family of the late lord had thought proper to bury him at Hayes, or Burton Pynsent, he did not imagine that the right hon. member would have had any objection to erecting the monument in Westminster-abbey. He Mr. T. Townshend said that the petition was the most polite, the most respectful, and perhaps the best written that had ever been laid before that House. knew from the very lords who had composed the majority who voted against the motion for the attendance of the upper House at the funeral, that they did at the time wish for nothing more than an unanimous assent to the motion; they had told him that such was really their wish; and that they had opposed it merely from a regard for the memory of the deceased lord, that might receive an injury in the public opinion, if after an order of the House a few peers only should attend as a House, which must have been the case at this season of the year, when the major part of them would be in the country. Col. Barré said the House had not been taken unawares when the motion was made for lord Chatham's interment at the public expence the melancholy event which had brought on that motion was previously known by the House. The funeral pomp which the right hon. gentleman affected to call an empty vain parade, would be productive of a salutary effect, as it would shew the enemies of this country that the national spirit, in some measure created and always cherished by lord Chatham, was not extinct, but might still make the country victorious over all her foes. The astonishing disinterestedness of the man required every mark of grateful remembrance which a generous people could bestow; though he had passed through the highest employments of the empire, though he had enjoyed the most lucrative places of the nation, though he had been in pos. session of the secrets of the state, still he had had virtue enough to prefer the public good to his own personal interest, and delivered up the posts he had filled with clean hands, and retired to the embraces of a pinching, but to him a glorious poverty. When the right hon. gentleman should have resigned all his places, after displaying as much disinterestedness while he possessed them as the noble earl, whose virtues were then the theme of panegyric, he himself would move for similar honours to be paid to his memory. At this critical situation of affairs, it was to the last degree impolitic to hold forth any language to the public which might tend to destroy that unanimity which was at this juncture the only stay, the only hope, of our political salvation. To say that the poor, the low, the contemptible, were at the head of affairs, could not but give disgust to those respectable characters, in whose hands the government of the city now is. Mr. Rigby said, at the same time that he did not wish that sentiments which were none of his should go out under his name into the world, declared himself undaunted, though such a formidable phalanx was drawn up against him: he denied that he had insinuated, that the government of the city was in the hands of the low, the poor, and the contemptible: he was not afraid to repeat what he had said; it was, that the government of the corporation was in the hands of improper persons; that is to say, in the hands of country gentlemen, when it should be in those of traders: the aldermen were now not traders but politicians: he had in his eye a very worthy gentleman, of very great landed property in the country, who from that very circumstance he pronounced to be unfit for the office of an alderman, though in every other respect an amiable character: numbers of others he could point out in the same predicament, who, however respectable by their birth, connections and fortune, were not, in his opinion, the less disqualified for a magistracy in the city. When he had expressed his disapprobation of a public funeral for lord Chatham, he was far from having the least disrespect for his memory: he would allow with every gentleman, that he had the cleanest of hands, the clearest of heads, the most upright of intentions, and the most honest of hearts; but he was still of opinion that a monument would be a more lasting honour than a funeral; and that the liberal manner in which the House had that day provided for his descendants, would be a more distinguished mark of national regard than the most pompous funeral rites could possibly be. As to the seeming charge brought against himself by the great encomiums nationally paid to the memory of lord Chatham for having retired with clean hands, he was unconscious of having deserved the insinuation: the possession of the secrets of state alluded, he supposed, to Change-alley; he was not afraid to say, that he bid defiance to any man who could bring a charge against him of having had any dealings in the Alley; or having purchased a single guinea's worth in the stocks ever since he became paymaster-general: if any man could accuse him of any thing unbecoming his public character in the discharge of his office, he desired him to stand forth, and if he could prove his accusation, be would most willingly resign his office: but he was sure no such charge could be made against him; and however disagree ble it was to his delicacy to pronounce his own panegyric, yet, bold from conscious innocence, he would not hesitate to say, that he possessed as honest and upright a heart, and had as clean hands as any man who heard him. Mr. Burke joined with those who wished that lord Chatham's remains might be Non-contents 16; and proxies being called for, the proxies for the original motion were 8, against it 4; so that the numbers for the attendance of the House of Lords on the funeral of William earl of Chatham, were 19, Non-contents 20, proxies included. June 2. The order of the day being read for the third reading of the Bill, intitled, "An Act for settling and securing a certain annuity on the earl of Chatham, and the heirs of the body of the late William Pitt earl of Chatham, to whom the earldom of Chatham shall descend, in consideration of the eminent services performed by the said late earl to his Majesty and the public," buried in St. Paul's: that spacious cathedral was particularly calculated for monuments; it was now a mere desart, while Westminster-abbey was over crowded. He dwelt much upon the virtues of the noble lord; and though he knew that there had been some shades in his character, for it was in some degree impossible to be in nature a great character without faults, yet they were so brightened by the resplendent glory of his virtues, that they were to him now, since his death, perfectly invisible. He did not agree with the right hon. gentleman that politicians were unfit for the government of the city: the city politicians had before now saved the city; and it was to the firmness of their politics that the House owed their existence; that a sheriff, a The Duke of Chandos said, he was comprivilege singular in its kind, could appear pelled, by his duty as a member of that at their bar; or indeed that there had House, and from a regard to his country, been any parliamentary bar for them to to oppose the passing of the Bill. His obappear at. The petition, he declared, was jection would not be direct against the worded in a manner which did the com- principle of providing for the family of the posers of it no less honour for the patriotic deceased earl, but against the duration of and respectful sentiments it breathed, than the provision. The ground of objection for the elegance and beauty of the stile in was, the inability of this country to in which it was written. As to the place of crease the additional burthens under which the earl's interment, he hoped the House it now laboured; the immense national would not interfere, and rob his family of debt; the great interest paid to the public a right of which it were a species of sa- annuitants; the prospect, nay almost cercrilege to deprive them-that of deposit-tainty, of a foreign war; all these furnish ing where they should think fit the re-ed the strongest incentive to public economains of this great ancestor, the pride my. This was not a time to scatter the and boast of their family, and the source of future emulation to glorious deeds, such as his example might prompt them to. The Petition was ordered to lie on the table. May 26. The House agreed to present another Address to the King, requesting his Majesty to give orders, that 20,000l. be issued, for the payment of the debts of the late earl of Chatham; and to assure his Majesty, that the House would make good the same. The request was complied with. Debate in the Lords on the Chatham Annuity Bill.] May 13. The earl of Shelburne, after a short preface, moved, That the Mouse do attend the funeral of the late William earl of Chatham, whatever day his Majesty shall appoint. Lord Dudley moved, that the debate be adjourned till to-morrow, and the question being put, the Contents were 16, Non-contents, 15. The main question put by lord Shelburne being now put, the Contents were 16, [VOL. XIX.] national treasure with a profuse or careless hand. If the Bill had made a provision for the present noble earl and his descendants, he should not, probably, have opposed it; but it was framed so as to give the family a perpetuity of 4,000l. per ann. Grants in perpetuity were taxes in perpetuity on the subject, and ought, therefore, to be cautiously and rarely ratified by parliament. The people were already taxed very heavily, and, from the present situation of public affairs, the exigencies of the state might make it necessary to impose additional burthens; on which special consideration, it behoved their lordships, as the guardians of the state and nation, to permit no new tax to be imposed, unless warranted by evident necessity. He disapproved of the Bill on another account, that of precedent; as it would open a door for applications of a similar nature, from men in high stations; from men greedy of emolument, who would be ready at all times not to rate their services at their true value, or their rewards according to the abilities of the state, but to [4K] their own inordinate desires, and the means of gratifying them; or, having the art of rendering themselves popular, without perhaps a tythe of the deceased earl's merit, might, in an unguarded moment, procure similar grants, till the load of taxes so created would become insupportable. His grace said, that if the rule of rewarding men in perpetuity was to prevail, without disparaging the services of, the deceased earl, there would be found several persons now living of equal pretensions.. He could name more than one man in that Houseone of them, a noble lord, by whose valour and skill in his profession, it was probable, their lordships were in a capacity to deliberate and attend on the present occasion (lord Hawke.) The commander of our forces, during the late war in Germany, had, besides, performed very signal services for this country; yet neither of those gallant commanders had annuities settled upon them in perpetuity. He was not averse to the principles of the Bill, and only objected to the manner and the time, the granting a perpetual rent charge on the eve of a bloody and expensive war: the first was an objection he would not give up; and if a perpetuity was insisted on, he should feel himself obliged to give the Bill a direct negative, If, therefore, the present Bill should pass, the public finances must be loaded with additional burthens, which it was by no means in a state to support; or injustice must be done to those of equal merit, but not so high in parliamentary favour. If, indeed, the recommendation had originated with the sovereign, it would have come properly, because it might be properly restrained. By this reservation, his Majesty would have it his power to reward proper objects, and keep the only precedent existing, that of the great duke of Marlborough, within its proper limitations. His grace made several other observations, all which went substantially to the following several points: to put a negative to the Bill, for he proposed no amendment; to suggest the impropriety of making it perpetual, while his arguments were against the Bill entirely: to shew that the nation was not equal to make it perpetual, while he seemed to wish that the provision might be made as long as the title of Chatham continued in the descendants of the living earl; to assert, that lords Hawke, Amherst, prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, and some others, bad performed as great services for this country as the late earl of Chatham; that the King on the throne, for the time being, was the best, or rather only judge, of the deserts of the servants of the public: and to hint to parliament, that the Bill was far from being an accept able present at the Queen's house. The Earl of Abingdon. I rise, my lords, to express my concern for the opposition that has been given to this Bill: an opposition not only ill-founded in itself, but, I fear, is not much to the honour of this House. I say, my lords, that this opposi tion is ill-founded; for after the Commons, who are the purse-keepers of the nation, have thought fit unanimously to apply the public money to this service, opposition on this ground comes with a very ill grace from us. But what is the reason given for the opposition? It is said, that the nation is overloaded with debt, and cannot bear the expence. Indeed, my lords, this is a weighty reason, if it were better applied. Look into the papers now upon your table, you will there find millions that have been squandered away. Look into your Journals, and you will find those very squanderers protected, by the dead majorities of this House, even from censure. And, shall we turn our eyes from a vicious profusion, and look with economy upon a virtuous application of the public money? No, my lords, let us not by such a contrast of conduct, expose ourselves to so much censure. Sorry am I to find a greater spirit of liberality among the Commons than is to be found among the Lords: that what the Commons have done upon a great scale, we would confine within a lesser circle; although, too, my lords, the object of their bounty is one of the members of our own body. I trust, therefore, that this motion will be withdrawn; that it may not be said, that whilst we are giving pensions, titles, and preferments to those who deserve the axe or the halter, we are withholding the reward of services from others, who have a claim upon the public to it. The Duke of Richmond agreed with the noble earl entirely on his ideas respecting public economy. He was perfectly satisfied there never was a time when enquiries into the expenditure of public money was become more necessary; because there never was a period at which public profusion was so much countenanced; nor at which this country called for a more strict frugality. He thought, however, that at the conclusion of a session was no proper time to set about a reformation. Several endeavours had been made relative to this |