Here, from our Historian, is the List of them in order of time;STAGES OF PITT'S COURSE, he calls it:--1. "DECEMBER, 1734, Comes into Parliament, age now twenty-six;Cornet in the Blues as well; being poor, and in absolute need of some career that will suit. APRIL, 1736, makes his First Speech:--Prince Frederick the subject,--who was much used as battering-ram by the Opposition; whom perhaps Pitt admired for his madrigals, for his Literary patronizings, and favor to the West-Wickham set.
Speech, full of airy lightning, was much admired. Followed by many, with the lightning getting denser and denser; always on the Opposition side [once on the JENKINS'S-EAR QUESTION, as we saw, when the Gazetteer Editor spelt him Mr. Pitts]: so that Majesty was very angry, sulky Public much applausive; and Walpole was heard to say, 'We must muzzle, in some way, that terrible Cornet of Horse!'
--but could not, on trial; this man's 'price,' as would seem, being awfully high! AUGUST-OCTOBER, 1744, Sarah Duchess of Marlborough bequeathed him 10,000 pounds as Commissariat equipment in this his Campaign against the Mud-gods, [Thackeray, i. 138.]--glory to the old Heroine for so doing! Which lifted Pitt out of the Cornetcy or Horse-guards element, I fancy; and was as the nailing of his Parliamentary colors to the mast.
2. "FEBRUARY 14th, 1746, Vice-Treasurer for Ireland: on occasion of that Pelham-Granville 'As-you-were!' (Carteret Ministry, which lasted One Day), and the slight shufflings that were necessary.
Now first in Office,--after such Ten Years of colliding and conflicting, and fine steering in difficult waters.
Vice-Treasurer for Ireland: and 'soon after, on Lord Wilmington's death,' PAYMASTER OF THE FORCES. Continued Paymaster about nine years. Rejects, quietly and totally, the big income derivable from Interest of Government Moneys lying delayed in the Paymaster's hand ('Dishonest, I tell you!')--and will none of it, though poor.
Not yet high, still low over the horizon, but shining brighter and brighter. Greatly contemptuous of Newcastle and the Platitudes and Poltrooneries; and still a good deal in the Opposition strain, and NOT always tempering the wind to the shorn lamb. For example, Pitt (still Paymaster) to Newcastle on King of the Romans Question (1752or so): 'You engage for Subsidies, not knowing their extent;for Treaties, not knowing the terms!'--'What a bashaw!' moan Newcastle and the top Officials. 'Best way is, don't mind it,' said Mr. Stone [one of their terriers,--a hard-headed fellow, whose brother became Primate of Ireland by and by].
3. "NOVEMBER 20th, 1755, Thrown out:--on Pelham's death, and the general hurly-burly in Official regions, and change of partners with no little difficulty, which had then ensued! Sir Thomas Robinson," our old friend, "made Secretary,--not found to answer.
Pitt sulkily looking on America, on Minorca; on things German, on things in general; warily set on returning, as is thought; but How?
FOX to Pitt: 'Will you join ME?'--PITT: 'No,'--with such politeness, but in an unmistakable way! Ten months of consummate steering on the part of Pitt; Chancellor Hardwicke coming as messenger, he among others; Pitt's answer to him dexterous, modestly royal. Pitt's bearing, in this grand juncture and crisis, is royal, his speakings and also his silences notably fine.
OCTOBER 20th, 1756: to Newcastle face to face, 'I will accept no situation under your Grace!'--and, about that day month, comes IN, on his own footing. That is to say, "NOVEMBER 19th, 1756, to England's great comfort, Sees himself Secretary of State (age now just forty-eight). Has pretty much all England at his back; but has, in face of him, Fox, Newcastle and Company, offering mere impediment and discouragement;Royal Highness of Cumberland looking deadly sour. Till finally, "APRIL 5th, 1757, King bids him resign; Royal Highness setting off for Germany the second day after. Pitt had been IN rather more than Four months. England, at that time a silent Country in comparison, knew not well what to do; took to offering him Freedoms of Corporations in very great quantity. Town after Town, from all the four winds, sympathetically firing off, upon a misguided Sacred Majesty, its little Box, in this oblique way, with extraordinary diligence. Whereby, after six months bombardment by Boxes, and also by Events, JUNE 29th, 1757"-- We will expect June 29th.
[Thackeray, i. 231, 264; Almon, <italic> Anecdotes of Pitt <end italic> (London, 1810), i. 151, 182, 218.]
In these sad circumstances, Preparations so called have been ****** for Hanover, for America;--such preparations as were never seen before. Take only one instance; let one be enough:--"By the London Gazette, well on in February, 1756, we learn that Lord Loudon, a military gentleman of small faculty, but of good connections, has been nominated to command the Forces in America;and then, more obscurely, some days after, that another has been nominated:--one of them ought certainly to make haste out, if he could; the French, by account, have 25,000 men in those countries, with real officers to lead them! Haste out, however, is not what this Lord Loudon or his rival can make. In March, we learn that Lord Loudon has been again nominated; in an improved manner, this time;--and still does not look like going. 'Again nominated, why again?' Alas, reader, there have been hysterical fidgetings in a high quarter; internal shiftings and shufflings, contradictions, new proposals, one knows not what. [<italic> Gentleman's Magazine <end italic> for 1756, pp. 92, 150, 359, 450.] One asks only:
How is the business ever to be done, if you cannot even settle what imbecile is to go and try it?
"Seldom had Country more need of a Commander than America now.