William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, and the growth and division of the British Empire, 1708-1778; . lamationwas technically extra-legal, and those who acted un-der it subjected themselves to penalties; Ministersproposed to pass an Act indemnifying the inferioragents, but the Opposition believed they had foundan opportunity of damaging the Administration ;they declaimed against the stretching of the prerog-ative, and moved to include Ministers themselves inthe proposed indemnity. Chatham began his speechwith a characteristic and ** eloquent description ofhis feelings, from the new situation in which
William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, and the growth and division of the British Empire, 1708-1778; . lamationwas technically extra-legal, and those who acted un-der it subjected themselves to penalties; Ministersproposed to pass an Act indemnifying the inferioragents, but the Opposition believed they had foundan opportunity of damaging the Administration ;they declaimed against the stretching of the prerog-ative, and moved to include Ministers themselves inthe proposed indemnity. Chatham began his speechwith a characteristic and ** eloquent description ofhis feelings, from the new situation in which hespoke, in an unaccustomed place, before the mostknowing in the laws, in the presence of the heredit-ary legislators of the realm, whilst he could not lookupon the House without remembering that it hadjust been filled by majesty, and by all the tendervirtues which encompass it. How different wasthis last characteristic encomium from the haughtyaddress to the Speaker, * Even that Chair, Sir,sometimes looks towards St. Jamess ! His defenceof the embargo was perfectly constitutional: it was. ^^«CC« ^ 1769] The Chatham Ministry. 287 an act of power justifiable before Parliament on theground of necessity.^ The Opposition were rightin compelling Ministers themselves to ask for indem-nification, and Chatham accepted this view. It wasa maladroit remark of Camdens, that this was atworst but a forty-days tyranny which increasedpopular interest in the affair, and created an openingfor much eloquence against the prerogative fromMansfield, Grenville, and other warm friends of lib-erty. A month later the Bill of Indemnity was dis-cussed in the Lords, and a famous scene occurredbetween Richmond and Chatham, who at this date,December loth, had been harassed into a feverishirritabiHty by abortive negotiations with the variousparties. Lord Chatham said, that when the people should con-demn him, he should tremble ; but would set his faceagainst the proudest connections in this count
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectpittwil, bookyear1901
