་ The whole speech of lord Chatham, on the repeal of the stamp act, is very fine: "I sought for merit,' said his lordship, "wherever it was to be found. It is my boast, that I was the first minister who looked "for it; and I found it in the mountains of the "north. I called it forth, and drew it into your "service, a hardy and intrepid race of men. Men, "who, when left by your jealousy, became a prey to "the artifices of your enemies, and had gone nigh "to have overturned the state, in the war before "the last. These men, in the last war, were brought "to combat on your side; they served with fidelity, "as they fought with valour, and conquered for you "in every part of the world. Detested be the na"tional prejudices against them! they are unjust, "groundless, illiberal, unmanly. When I ceased to "serve his majesty as minister, it was not the country "of the man* by which I was moved :—but the man of that country wanted wisdom, and held principles. incompatible with freedom." 66 His celebrated reply to Horace Walpole has been immortalized by the report given of it by Dr. Johnson. -On one occasion, Mr. Moreton, the chief justice of Chester, a gentleman of some eminence at the bar, happened to say, King, lords and commons, or," "confound the ministerial orators. His vehement invectives "were awful to Murray; terrible to Hume Campbell; and no "malefactor under the stripes of an executioner, was ever "more forlorn and helpless than Fox appeared under the lash "of Pitt's eloquence, shrewd and able in parliament as Fox "confessedly is; Dodington sheltered himself in silence.” *Lord Bute. (directing his eye towards lord Chatham),-" as "that right honourable member would call them, commons, lords and king." The only fault of this sentence is its nonsense. Mr. Pitt arose, -as he ever did, with great deliberation, and called to order: "I have," he said, "heard frequently in this house, "doctrines, which have surprised me; but now, my "blood runs cold! I desire the words of the honour"able member may be taken down." The clerks of the house wrote the words. "Bring them to me, said Mr. Pitt, in his loudest voice. By this time Mr. Moreton was frightened out of his senses. "Sir," he said, addressing himself to the Speaker, "I am sorry to have given any offence to the right honour“able member, or to the house: I meant nothing. King, lords and commons,-lords, king and com"mons, commons, lords and king;-tria juncta "in uno.-I meant nothing! Indeed I meant no"thing.""I don't wish to push the matter further,” said lord Chatham, in a tone a little above a whisper : then, in a higher note," the moment a man "acknowledges his error, he ceases to be guilty."I have a great regard for the honourable member, and, as an instance of that regard, I give him this "advice:❞—a pause of some moments ensued, then, assuming a look of unspeakable derision, he said in a kind of colloquial tone," Whenever that mem"ber means nothing, I recommend him to say "nothing." Once, while he was speaking, sir William Young called out," Question, question!"-Lord Chatham paused, then, fixing on sir William a look of inex 66 pressible disgust,-exclaimed-" Pardon me, Mr. Speaker, my agitation :-when that member calls "for the question, I fear I hear the knell of my "country's ruin." : When the Prussian subsidy, an unpopular measure, was in agitation in the house of commons, lord Chatham justified it with infinite address: insensibly he subdued all his audience, and a murmur of ap probation was heard from every part of the house. Availing himself of the moment, his lordship placed himself in an attitude of stern defiance, but perfect "Is dignity, and exclaimed in his loudest tone,-" Is "there an Austrian among you? Let him stand "forward and reveal himself!" On another occasion, immediately after he had finished a speech, in the house of commons, he walked out of it; and, as usual, with a very slow step. A silence ensued, till the door was opened to let him into the lobby. A member then started up, saying, "I rise to reply to the right honour"able member."-Lord Chatham turned back, and fixed his eye on the orator,-who instantly sat down dumb :-his lordship then returned to his seat, repeating, as he hobbled along, the verses of Virgil: "Ast Danaum proceres, Agamemnoniæque phalanges, Then placing himself in his seat, he exclaimed, "Now let me hear what the honourable member "has to say to me." On the writer's asking the gentleman from whom he heard this anecdote,if the house did not laugh at the ridiculous figure of the poor member ?" No, sir," he replied, "we "were all too much awed to laugh." ! But the most extraordinary instance of his command of the house, is, the manner in which he fixed indelibly on Mr. Grenville, the appellation of "the Gentle Shepherd." At this time, a song of Dr. Howard, which began with the words, "Gentle "shepherd, tell me where," and in which each stanza ended with that line, was in every mouth. On some occasion, Mr. Grenville exclaimed, "Where " is our money? where are our means? I say again, "where are our means? where is our money!" He then sat down, and lord Chatham paced slowly out of the house, humming the line, "Gentle shep"herd, tell me where."-The effect was irresistible, and settled for ever on Mr. Grenville, the appellation of the Gentle Shepherd." A gentleman mentioned the two last circumstances to the late Mr. Pitt; the minister observed that they were proofs of his father's ascendancy in the house; but that no specimens remained of the eloquence, by which that ascendancy was procured. The gentleman recommended to him to read slowly his father's speeches for the repeal, of the stamp act; and, while he repeated them, to bring to his mind, as well as he could, the figure, the look, and the voice, with which his father might be supposed to have pronounced them. Mr. Pitt did so, and admitted the probable effect of the speech thus delivered. Almost for the last time, lord Chatham displayed his admirable eloquence in opposing the address moved in the house of lords, on his late majesty's speech from the throne in 1778. Some censure having been expressed on the employing of savages against the armies of the insurgent Americans, the measure was defended by his majesty's ministers; and the pompous Suffolk, as he is described by Junius, declared that "administration would have “been highly reprehensible, if, entrusted as they - were with the suppression of so unnatural a rebel"lion, they had not used all the means to suppress "it, which God and Nature had put into their "hands:"Lord Chatham rose, and said, "My "lords, I cannot, I will not join in congratula❝tion on misfortune and disgrace. This, my lords, " is a perilous and tremendous moment-it is not "a time for adulation-the smoothness of flattery "cannot save us in this rugged and awful crisis. "It is now necessary to instruct the throne in the 66 language of truth. We must, if possible, dispel "the delusion and darkness which envelope it; and display in its full danger and genuine colours the "ruin, which is brought to our doors. Can mi"nisters still presume to expect support in their "infatuation? Can parliament be so dead to their dignity and duty, as to give their support to "measures thus obtruded and forced upon them? "Measures, my lords, which have reduced this late "flourishing empire to scorn and contempt. "But yesterday, and England might have stood against the world-now, none so poor to do her |