Earl Of William Pitt Chatham
Earl Of William Pitt Chatham [1]
A great British statesman and orator, born in Cornwall; determined opponent of Sir Robert Walpole; succeeded in driving him from power, and at length installing himself in his place; had an eye to the greatness and glory of England, summoned the English nation to look to its laurels; saw the French, the rivals of England, beaten back in the four quarters of the globe; driven at length from power himself, he still maintained a single regard for the honour of his country, and the last time his voice was heard in the Parliament of England was to protest against her degradation by an ignoble alliance with savages in the war with America; on this occasion he fell back in a faint into the arms of his friends around, and died little more than a month after; "for four years" (of his life), says Carlyle, "king of England; never again he; never again one resembling him, nor indeed can ever be." See Smelfungus on his character and position in Carlyle's "Frederick," Book xxi. chap. i. (1708-1775).
