William Pitt and the Great War by John Holland Rose (book club reads txt) 📕

Lords Castlereagh and Hawkesbury, having obtained

permission from the physicians to interview their chief, communicated

news which had a most agitating effect. Pitt afterwards assured the

Bishop "that he felt during that conversation some sensation in his

stomach which he feared it might be difficult to remove."[777] It is

surprising that the physicians allowed an interview of an agitating

nature; but the ministerial pressure brought to bear on them may have

overborne their better judgement. In matters of Cabinet discipline Pitt

was an autocrat, insisting that no important action should be taken

without his cognizance. Probably, then, it was his own sense of

responsibility which exposed him to the death blow.

 

Certainly the question at issue was of the gravest kind. Should

Ministers order the return of the British reinforcements last sent to

Hanover? That expedition was the work of Pitt. He it was who had reared

the fabric of a European Coalition; and, even after the withdrawal of

Austria, he clung to the hope that Prussia would take her place, and,

with the help of British, Prussian, Russian, and Swedish troops, drive

the French from North Germany and the Dutch Republic. How could his

colleagues order back a large part of the British force, thereby

justifying the vacillations of Prussia and ensuring a parliamentary

triumph to Fox and Grenville? And yet Ministers knew, better than Pitt

could know, the danger of relying on the Court of Berlin. Though not yet

fully aware of its resolve to take Napoleon's side, they had strong

reasons for expecting this course of action; and in that case the

British expedition would be in grave danger between the Prussians on the

east, the Franco-Dutch forces on the south-west and the ice-floes which

were forming on the River Weser. Prudence counselled the timely return

of our troops who were yet on board ship at or near Bremen.[778]

Patriotic pride prompted a bold offensive. But the King and Pitt alone

could utter the decisive words. The King approved the return of the

last reinforcements, and Pitt, it seems, must have conceded the point.

But the concession struck him to the heart. It was the last of the

deadly stabs which fate dealt him thick and fast in his time of

weakness.

 

Nevertheless, on the morrow he drove out in his carriage, but was

visibly weaker than before the interview. For a few minutes he saw his

brother and then Lord Wellesley. The latter found his mind as clear as

ever; and he uttered these remarkable words about Sir Arthur Wellesley:

"He states every difficulty before he undertakes any service, but none

after he has undertaken it." What a prophecy of Vittoria and Waterloo

there is in these words--the swan-song of Pitt. It was too much for him.

He fainted before Wellesley left the room. On the 18th he rallied for a

time, and the doctors saw a gleam of hope.[779]

 

In reality there was only one faint chance of recovery, that good news

might arrive. The chief cause of physical collapse was the torture of

the brain; and it was possible that the whole system might even now

rally under the vitalizing thrills of hope. But as day by day passed by

and brought nearer that dreaded occasion, the opening of Parliament on

22nd January, this last chance vanished. The news which reached the

Foreign Office became more and more gloomy. On 10th January Mulgrave

decided, when recalling Harrowby, to entrust his mission at Berlin to

the Earl of Harrington, in the hope that that Court would keep

troth.[780] But all negotiation was useless. By the 19th the conduct of

Prussia respecting Hanover appeared so threatening that Ministers

ordered the immediate recall of the whole British force.[781] Thus,

England had sent forth some 60,000 troops in order to bring them back

again. She had paid a million sterling to Austria, and the results were

Ulm and Austerlitz. Nearly as much had gone to Russia, and the outcome

was the armistice. A British subsidy had been claimed by Prussia, and in

return she was about to take Hanover as a gift from Napoleon. It is to

be hoped that Ministers kept the last bitter truth from Pitt; but from

their silence he must have augured the worst. Surely death itself was

better than to be driven from power by the combined attacks of Fox,

Grenville, and Windham, the success of which was now assured.

 

A touching instance of Pitt's thoughtfulness during these days of waning

strength is recorded by Robert Plumer Ward. He had accepted office as

Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs; but, in the event of the overthrow

of the Ministry, he would be in a far worse position than before. Pitt

remembered this fact, and whispered to Farquhar the words "Robert Ward."

He also made signs for paper and ink and sought to pen a request for a

pension; but he succeeded only in tracing strokes which could not be

deciphered.[782] His thoughts were also with his nieces, especially Lady

Hester Stanhope. Farquhar sought to prevent a parting interview with

her; but during his temporary absence she slipped into the bedroom,

there to receive the blessing of her uncle and an affectionate farewell.

To her brother James, who then came in, he said; "Dear soul, I know she

loves me. Where is Hester? Is Hester gone?" Early on the 22nd he

dictated these words to the bishop: "I wish £1,000 or £1,500 a year to

be given to my nieces if the public should think my long services

deserving it; but I do not presume to think I have earned it."[783] He

then named those to whom since 1801 he owed sums of money: Long, Steele,

Lords Camden and Carrington, the Bishop of Lincoln and Joseph Smith; he

also entrusted his papers to the bishop and to Lord Chatham.

 

Already Bishop Tomline had warned him of his approaching change and

besought him to prepare his mind for the Sacrament. This he declined,

alleging his unworthiness to receive it. Thereupon the bishop prayed

with him. He calmly murmured the responses and humbly confessed that he

had too much neglected prayer. Nevertheless, he affirmed the steadiness

of his religious faith and principles, and declared that he had ever

sought to fulfil his duty to God and to mankind, though with many errors

and failures. While the bishop was overcome with emotion, the dying man

thanked him earnestly for all his kindness throughout life. Once his

thoughts recurred to his own conduct; he expressed heartfelt

satisfaction at the innocency of his life, and declared that he died in

perfect charity with all mankind.[784]

 

He lingered on to the early hours of 23rd January, the twenty-fifth

anniversary of his entry into Parliament. During that night the cares of

state once more pressed upon him. He spoke often about a private letter

from Lord Harrowby, probably the pathetic effusion quoted above. At

times he asked his nephew the direction of the wind, and on hearing it

was in the east he murmured: "East--ah that will do: that will bring him

quick."[785] Then he fell into conversation with a messenger, or, again,

he murmured "Hear, hear," until sleep enfolded him. The last thoughts of

Napoleon are said to have centred in his early love and his

army--"Joséphine:--Tête d'armée" he gasped as he neared his end. In

Pitt's being there was but one master passion; and to it his wandering

fancies returned during a last brief spell of consciousness. As James

Stanhope listened to the breathing, there fell on his ears with a

strange clearness the words: "My country! How I leave my country!" Then

the sufferer fell once more into a deep sleep; and so he lay, until,

some three hours before the dawn, his spirit passed away in a long-drawn

sigh.

 

FOOTNOTES

 

[735] G. Jackson ("Diaries," i, 270) gives a supposed instance of her

interference in favour of Haugwitz.

 

[736] _Ibid._, i, 301, 305, 314-9.

 

[737] Metternich, "Mems.," i, 57 (Eng. ed.); Hardenberg, "Mems.," ii,

220-4.

 

[738] Hardenberg, "Mems.," ii, 292-300.

 

[739] "Malmesbury Diaries," iv, 340.

 

[740] Pretyman MSS.; "Life of Wilberforce," iii, 412.

 

[741] Rose, "Third Coalition," 208-20. In "F. O.," Russia, 59, is a

ciphered despatch of 25th October 1805 that, if circumstances favoured,

a second British expedition (_i.e._, besides that destined for Hanover)

would be made ready to seize Walcheren.

 

[742] Pitt MSS., 142.

 

[743] See Hansing, "Hardenberg und die dritte Coalition" (Appendix), for

a comparison of these terms with those of the Anglo-Russian treaty of

11th April 1805.

 

[744] Czartoryski, "Mems.," ii, ch. ix. The editor wrongly gives the

date of Vorontzoff's letter as 17/29 September 1805, though it contains

references to Ulm and Trafalgar. It is of 18th-21st November. "F. O.,"

Prussia, 70. Mulgrave to Harrowby, 23rd November.

 

[745] _I.e._, the Prussian mediation by Napoleon.

 

[746] Harrowby MSS.

 

[747] See "Pitt and Napoleon Miscellanies" for the letter in full.

 

[748] Rose, "Third Coalition," 230-5.

 

[749] The French held the fortress of Hameln.

 

[750] Rose, "Third Coalition," 259.

 

[751] _Ibid._, 260, 261.

 

[752] Pitt MSS., 142.

 

[753] Pretyman MSS.

 

[754] G. Jackson, "Diaries," i, 377, 381, 384. Harrowby left Berlin on

7th or 8th January 1806 (_ibid._, 390).

 

[755] Harrowby MSS.

 

[756] G. Jackson, "Diaries," i, 381.

 

[757] Peach, "Historic Houses of Bath." The "Bath Herald" of 11th

January 1806 has an ode containing the lines:

 

                          Oh prepare, prepare

    The renovating draught! He comes by stealth

    (For so unconscious worth is ever seen)

    With thoughts uplifted but retiring mien.

 

[758] Ruville, "Chatham," iii, 246.

 

[759] Chevening MSS.

 

[760] Thomas Hardy ("The Dynasts," i, Act vi, sc. 7) places the incident

in the week after Austerlitz. The date is impossible.

 

[761] Stanhope, iv, 369.

 

[762] Pitt MSS., 337.

 

[763] _Ibid._, 121. See, too, in his letter of 23rd December

("Castlereagh Corresp.," vi, 92).

 

[764] J. Bagot, "Canning and his Friends," i, 227. The statement about

the gout corrects Malmesbury ("Diaries," iv, 343) that the attack of

gout left Pitt far weaker and with digestion impaired. Malmesbury was

not at Bath. Frere's father had lately died.

 

[765] Bagot, "Canning, etc.," 415-9; H. Newbolt, "Year of Trafalgar,"

190-3.

 

[766] Pitt MSS., 121.

 

[767] "Castlereagh Corresp.," vi, 70-85.

 

[768] Pitt MSS., 121.

 

[769] "Castlereagh Corresp.," vi, 100; "Malmesbury Diaries," iv, 344.

 

[770] Gifford, "Life of Pitt," vi, 802; Lord Rosebery, "Tomline's

Estimate of Pitt" (1903), p. 16.

 

[771] Pitt MSS., 142.

 

[772] In the "Hardenberg Memoirs" (ii, 353) it is stated that Harrowby

offered Holland to Prussia. Every despatch that I have read runs counter

to this assertion. If Harrowby made the offer, it was in sheer

desperation and on his own authority; but he nowhere mentions it.

 

[773] Chevening MSS.; "Notes and Queries," 12th November 1864. Mr. John

Upham of Bath on 10th March 1806 sent these particulars to Lord Chatham.

Gifford ("Life of Pitt," vi, 803) wrongly states that the journey took

four days.

 

[774] The house has been very little altered since 1806, and not at all

on the side shown in the accompanying sketch, which, by kind permission

of Mr. and Mrs. Doulton, was done by my daughter. The room over the

veranda is that in which Pitt died.

 

[775] Pretyman MSS.

 

[776] Stanhope, iv, 374.

 

[777] Pretyman MSS.

 

[778] "Castlereagh Corresp.," vi, 103-112, 119.

 

[779] Stanhope, iv, 375; "Malmesbury Diaries," iv, 346; "Dropmore P.,"

vii, 327

 

[780] "F. O.," Austria, 77. Mulgrave to Harrington, 10th January 1806.

 

[781] "Castlereagh Corresp.," vi, 126.

 

[782] R. P. Ward, "Memoirs," i, 176.

 

[783] Pretyman MSS.

 

[784] Lord Rosebery, "Tomline's Estimate of Pitt," 18; "Dropmore P.,"

vii, 330.

 

[785] Stanhope, iv, 381.

 

EPILOGUE

 

    Now is the stately column broke

    The beacon-light is quench'd