CHATHAM, William Pitt, 1sT EARL' or ("The Great Commoner"), British statesman: b. Westminster, 15 Nov. 1708; d. Hayes, Kent, 11 May 1778. He was the younger son of Robert Pitt, M.P. for the family borough of Old Sarum, and afterward of Boconnoc, Corn wall. He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Oxford. From boyhood he was a martyr to gout —indeed throughout his career he was persistently dogged by ill health; and he was compelled for health reasons to leave col lege without taking his degree, and was advised to travel. At the age of 23 he ob tained a cornetcy in the Blues, and was re turned M.P. for Old Sarum in 1735. He joined the opposition to Sir Robert Walpole, and in his maiden speech so incensed that minister that he declared "we must muzzle that terrible cornet of horse," and Pitt was at once cashiered and his commission canceled. His speeches in the House, however, steadily advanced his reputation in Parliament and the country. He was appointed groom of the chamber to Fred erick, Prince of Wales, who was at enmity with his father, and to whom the members of the Parliamentary opposition looked for promotion or place on his succession on the death of the old king, George II. Pitt soon became the most prominent member of the House of Commons. His denunciation of Walpole's convention with Spain in 1739 was followed a few months later by that statesman reluctantly embarking in a war with that country, which he conducted with lethargy. Pitt was the head and front of the opposition to Walpole, and succeeded in driving him from office in 1742. But though driven from office, he was still the power behind the throne. Pitt incensed the King by the freedom with which he denounced the policy of the British Cabinet as conceived in the interest of the King's foreign dominion —"this absurd, un grateful and perfidious partiality to the German interest. If ministers prefer the interests of Hanover, Parliament regards only the interests of Great Britain." He also opposed the policy of buttressing Maria Theresa by means of Brit ish money and troops. Pitt afterward modified his views; but the King was difficult to placate. In 1744 he received, as a mark of appreciation of his patriotism, a legacy of £10,000 from the Duchess of Marlborough — a welcome wind fall to a man whose private income was only £100 ayear. In 1746 Pitt, who had cut from the Prince of Wales, received the subordinate post of joint vice-treasurer of Ireland in the Broad Bottom administration, and later in the same year was made general of the army. His refusal in the latter office to accept a commission on subsidies to foreign powers and other "perquisites" of the office — amounting to many thousands of pounds per annum,— which his predecessors and suc cessors accepted, greatly increased his hold on the country. On the death of Pelham he pushed his claims to cabinet rank; but the hostility of the court stood in his way, and Sir Thomas Robinson, a creature of Newcastle's, was ap pointed to lead the Commons. Pitt took his revenge by flouting both Newcastle and Robin son, and in November 1755 he was dismissed from office. He never at any time commanded any number of votes in the Commons —he placated no magnates and he gave no bribes; his strength lay with the people. He married on 15 Nov. 1754, Hester Grenville, the only sister of Earl Temple, and the marriage was one of unclouded happiness.
Pitt at this period might well have despaired. The personal hostility of the King appeared unappeasable, and without his consent he could not reach the position at which he aimed and to which the country was insistently calling him. A series of grave reverses to British arms brought about the fall of Newcastle; the Duke of Devonshire was called upon to form an ad ministration, in which Pitt became secretary of state for the southern department and leader of the House of Commons (4 Dec. 1756). He had
the country with him; but the King and the magnates succeeded in compassing his fall, and in April 1757 he was again dismissed from office. But 11 weeks later he was recalled to office, and then began his great administration which lasted to 5 Oct. 1761. Newcastle was his co-ordinate in the ministry, and in his accom plished hands the patronage and jobbery were retained; but almost absolute power was in the hands of Pitt. The Seven Years' War had broken out: Frederick of Prussia was threatened by a confederacy of five powers; France asserted her claim to the whole of the North American continent from the sources of the Mississippi to Hudson Bay and was bent on hemming in the English colonists to the sea board east of the Alleghanies. Pitt had a true appreciation of tne value of sea power ana ne determined on the .destruction of French influ ence in America. He began by expeditions against Rochefort, Saint Malo and Cherbourg, which while they did not achieve any decided success, were of assistance to Frederick in his conflict against the continental alliance. He spared no labor; the plans of campaign, the choice of commanders — in which he discarded seniority— the preparation of the armaments, were all in his hands. "The ardor of his soul set the whole kingdom on fire," and he culti vated the loyal co-operation of the colonists in American campaigns. Louisburg was taken; the valley of the Ohio secured; the conquest of Can ada was completed; the dominating influence in North America passed from France to Great Britain. "'With the triumph of Wolfe, the his tory of the United States began," says J. R. Green, the historian; "Pitt laid the foundation of the great republic of the West." Guadeloupe was taken from the French; Boscawen won a victory off Cape Lagos, and Hawke off Quiberon Bay. Pitt's. reign of power also synchronized with French defeats in India and with the foundation of the British empire in the peninsula. "The position which Pitt occupied at the end of the reign of George the -Second was the most enviable• ever occupied by any public man in English history. He had conciliated the King; he domineered over the House of Commons i he was adored by the people; he was admired by all Europe. He was the first' Englishman of his time; and he had made England the first country in the world.' George III's accession to the throne was followed by the undermining of Pitt's influence: the young monarch was desirous of keeping the affairs of state pretty much in his own hands, and was under the influence of his mother and the Earl of Bute, his groom of the stole. Pitt became aware of the family corn pact between France and Spain in September 1761, and wanted to declare war on Spain while she was unprepared, and failing to secure his policy, resigned office. He was offered the governorship of Canada or the chancellorship of the duchy of Lancaster; but accepted a pension of 1,000 a year for his own and two lives. In the following year, when Pitt's pre diction became fulfilled and Spain declared war, he urged the vigorous continuance of the war, by which both France and Spain would per haps have been totally exhausted; but peace was concluded in 1763. In 1765, Pitt fell heir to the estate of Burton Pynsent in Somersetshire, with a rent roll of f3,000 a year, which was be queathed him by Sir William Pynsent, a man he had never seen, in acknowledgment of his public services.