1.&27.J . | ISo J 



MONTHLY REVIEW OP LITERATURE, DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN. 



A History of the Right Hon. William 

 Pitt, Earl of Chatham; containing his 

 Speeches in Parliament, Official Corres- 

 pondence, fyc.; by the Rev. Francis 

 Thackeray, A.M. 2 vols. 4to. Looking 

 back upon the commanding talents of the 

 Earl of Chatham as we do with deep respect, 

 we scarcely think any farther details of 

 his life were called for, even if farther de- 

 tails were really within our reach. But 

 when, in fact, nothing farther seems ob- 

 tainable, this new attempt, though his 

 former biographers were but anonymous 

 ones, or mere collectors of anecdotes, must 

 appear to most persons quite superfluous. 

 Though a successful minister, his reign 

 was of short duration ; and if his poli- 

 tical life was a long one, his efforts 

 were, by much the greater part, spent in 

 opposing the measures of the crown ; and 

 such efforts, though never perhaps with* 

 out their influence, leave behind them few 

 permanent or tangible traces. Lord Chat- 

 ham's best fame at least his fame most 

 generally recognized in our days rests 

 on his eloquent and perhaps unrivalled 

 speeches ; and they have been long col- 

 lected and justly appreciated. All that 

 the present writer has been able to add of 

 novelty is his official correspondence with 

 the French and Spanish ambassadors, and 

 the governors and commanders in Ame- 

 rica. The narrative is, however, a very 

 respectable one. The ability of the writer 

 is pretty much of the same calibre with 

 that of Mr. Archdeacon Coxe ; and his 

 books w,ill very conveniently and properly 

 range on the same shelf with Marl borough 

 and Walpole. 



The volumes before us contain all the 

 printed speeches interwoven in the narra- 

 tive. The reader will recollect that, in 

 1738, about three years after Mr. Pitt 

 came into Parliament, the Commons for- 

 bade the publication of their debates. 

 They continued, however, to be given in 

 the periodicals of the day the Gentle- 

 man's Magazine and the London under 

 anagrams and Roman names. Of these, 

 many were written by Dr. Johnson, and 

 might or might not have been heard by 

 him. Anything* like accuracy nobody will 

 expect, who recollects the doctor's own 

 declaration, that he was resolved the 

 Whig-dogs should not have the best of it. 

 The Whigs were then in power ; and Mr. 

 Pitt, though himself a Whig, yet acting at 

 the time with Tories and Jacobites, had of 

 course the benefit of the doctor's Tory 

 resolution. From these trustworthy sources 

 are again re-printed Mr. Pitt's speeches 

 up to 1751, excepting the outlines of some 

 from 1743 to 1745, preserved by the Hon. 



31. M. New Serifs. VOL. IV. No. 20. 



P. Yorke, The speeches from 1751 to 

 1760 are taken from Horace Walpole's 

 Memoirs ; and very animated and cha- 

 racteristic sketches they are. The re- 

 mainder the most eloquent and most 

 memorable are extracted from the Par- 

 liamentary History, of- which many ap- 

 peared originally in Almon's Anecdotes of 

 Lord Chatham's Life, and some were re- 

 ported by the late Sir Philip Francis. Sir 

 Philip's are by far the best ; and by that 

 standard has Mr. Thackeray corrected 

 the phraseology of the rest, where it ap- 

 peared to him too vulgar or too extrava- 

 gant. Mr. Thackeray defends himself on 

 the ground that he has done no more than 

 " modern reporters do, who clothe the 

 thoughts of the most inaccurate speaker 

 in grammatical language." 



To glance over Lord Chatham's career 

 may bring upon ourselves the complaint 

 we have just made of superfluousness ; 

 but glances, brief as ours, are not with- 

 out their use. They freshen the memory 

 at a small expense : and by bringing to- 

 gether all into the narrowest compass^ and 

 condensing the several objects, facilitate 

 comprehension and assist comparison ; 

 and thus pave the way for more correct 

 judgments, and occasionally lead to new 

 and useful deductions. Aliens! then. 



He was born, in 1708, of a good but not 

 an opulent family educated at Eton and 

 resided at Oxford a short time without 

 taking a degree. What became of him 

 for some years after quitting Oxford, is not 

 known. In 1735 he came into Parliament, 

 representative of Old Sarum, by his bro- 

 ther's appointment, and immediately join- 

 ed the ranks of Opposition. About the 

 same time, he obtained a eornetcy in the 

 Blues. His family connexions, which were 

 very numerous, were all Whigs. Though 

 Walpole was a Whig, and headed a Whig 

 ministry, there were of course many dis-' 

 appointed persons of that party, and these 

 were headed by the heir apparent. Mr. 

 Pitt was groom of the chamber to the 

 prince. His opposition to Walpole was 

 not merely unceasing, but vehement and 

 galling ; and Walpole took the unmanly re- 

 venge of depriving him of his commission, 

 which naturally infused a little venom in 

 the after-struggle. On Walpole's unwilling 

 retirement, Pitt was one of the most stre- 

 nuous in urging an inquiry. He was one 

 of the committee of secresy, and even 

 voted for the bill of indemnity to protect 

 the witnesses against the fallen minister; 

 because, says Mr. Thackeray, by way of 

 palliation, " he believed the truth of the 

 charges against the minister." 



Against Walpole's successor, Lord Car- 

 2 B 



