personal favour, and "relief to himself, an interview of one quarter of an hour, or of even a few minutes," to receive the Minister's advice and direction. To this application, urged with all earnestness and delicacy, Lord Chatham begged "to be allowed to decline the honour."

At last, the emergency becoming more pressing, the King was induced to propose, as Lord Chatham could not come to him, he would go down to Lord Chatham at Northend. The King in his chariot was the Deus ex machinâ; and under this pressure, to escape the royal visit, Lord Chatham consented to see the Duke of Grafton-but, as it seems, only once, or at most twice, for a few moments, and to no purpose! Of this hindrance to the public business an instance happened, which seems to have greatly perplexed the Minister and his circle. A charter for a certain mining company was to pass the privy seal, but some objection being made to it, it became necessary that the Lord Privy Seal should hear the parties. The confusion into which this unexpected difficulty threw the court, the cabinet, and Lord Chatham's family, is quite ludicrous: every one, even the King himself, seemed afraid to take any steps that could in any way offend or even discompose the Minister at last, after a six weeks' search for precedents and expedients, Lord Chatham was forced to resign the seal into the hands of three commissioners, who heard the cause, and on the 21st of March, 1768, the seal was immediately re-delivered to my Lord at Hayes by a deputation of the Privy Council.

At length, Lord Chatham discovered, for the first time, that his deplorable state of health rendered it necessary that he should resign, which he had no sooner done than there was a sudden improvement in his health; he soon resumed his attendance in the House of Lords; and threw himself into faction with a vigour and brilliancy of genius equal or superior to those of his best days.

Lord Chatham, in spite of his own experience, his success in 1759, when he governed with the Whig party, and his failure in 1767, when he attempted to govern without them,

still clung, in spite of uncertain health, and the small number of his followers, to the notion of being sole Minister, supported by the King and the country. Thus, in the end of the year 1774, Burke writes to Lord Rockingham: "One cannot help feeling for the unhappy situation in which we stand from our own unhappy divisions. Lord Chatham shows a disposition to come near you, but with those resources (query reserves), which he never fails to have, as long as he thinks that the closet door stands ajar to receive him. The least peep into that closet intoxicates him, and will to the end of his life." In this spirit he spoke when he called upon Lord Rockingham in the beginning of January: "Lord Chatham, in point of looks, is very well, and in the extent of our conversation I thought his countenance denoted more than a transient appearance of a tendency to something like cordiality; but our interview lasted near a full hour, and I confess I was neither much edified, and perhaps had as little reason to be satisfied with some of the ideas and some of the expressions which he dropped."

CLAMOUR IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS.-DIGNIFIED CONDUCT OF LORD CHATHAM.

Mr. Thackeray relates the following strange occurrence, (in 1770,) in the House of Lords, "by which a meeting at the lowest tavern would have been disgraced, and which plainly proves that passion reduces men, whether clothed in ermine, or in the most abject garb of poverty, to the same disgraceful level."

The Duke of Manchester having risen to make a motion relative to the state of the nation, spoke in strong terms of the supineness and inability of the administration. His Grace then adverted particularly to the state of Gibraltar and Minorca ;

* Lord Rockingham himself was no orator. When Lord Sandwich, with ready talent and with much bitterness, attacked the Prime Minister in the House of Lords, he made no reply, and Lord Gower, addressing Lord Sandwich, said, "How cruel it is of you to worry the poor dumb animal so."

the former of which, he said, was utterly defenceless. He was here interrupted by Lord Gower, who desired that the House might be cleared of all but those who had a right to sit there. There was a standing order of the House, he said, against the presence of every one who was not a Peer. The order was then read, when the Duke of Richmond rose and defended what the Duke of Manchester had said, observing, that though it was very true that any Lord had a right to order the House to be cleared, yet that their doing it now would alarm the people, who would immediately suppose that they were afraid their proceedings should be known. Immediately a violent outcry arose, and all became noise, clamour, and confusion.

Clear the House! Clear the House! were the only sounds which were intelligible. Shocked at the indecency of the scene, and hoping that some respect would be paid to his services and years, Lord Chatham now rose, and addressed the furious assembly: but the form of the noble senator was beheld with indifference, and his words were uttered in vain. The tumult continued. Members of the House of Commons, as well as strangers, were compelled to withdraw by the personal interference of several of the younger peers. But Lord Chatham's nature was not easily to be overborne. After continuing to speak for some time without being able to command attention, he requested the Duke of Richmond to inform the Speaker that he desired to speak to the construction of the standing order. This appeal also was ineffectual. Not even the interposition of Lord Mansfield could restore order. The clamour and tumult increased. At length, disgusted with the uproar, and wearied in attempting to subdue it, Lord Chatham declared that if he was to be denied the privilege of a Peer of Parliament in the exercise of free debate, his presence among them was unnecessary and absurd. He then, accompanied by about eighteen Lords, quitted the House with a dignity which never forsook him, and which was now heightened by the contrast which the conduct of others presented.

The Members of the House of Commons were subsequently

compelled to withdraw. They then returned in a considerable body with a bill, having delivered which, they were again. compelled to retire.

LORD CHATHAM DENOUNCES “THE MONIED INTEREST."

This memorable denunciation oceurs towards the close of Lord Chatham's speech upon the Spanish Insults to the British Flag, in 1770.

"The public credit of the nation" (said his Lordship) "stands next in degree to the rights of the constitution; it calls loudly for the interposition of Parliament. There is a set of men, my Lords, in the City of London, who are known to live in riot and luxury upon the plunder of the ignorant, the innocent, the helpless-upon that part of the community which stands most in need of, and best deserves, the care and protection of legislature. To me, my Lords, whether they be miserable jobbers of Change-alley, or the lofty Asiatic plunderers of Leadenhall-street, they are equally detestable. care but little whether a man walks on foot, or is drawn by eight horses or six horses; if his luxury be supported by the plunder of his country, I despise and detest him. My Lords, while I had the honour of serving His Majesty, I never ventured to look at the Treasury but at a distance; it is a business I am unfit for, and to which I never could have submitted. The little I know of it has not served to raise my opinion of what is vulgarly called the monied interest; I mean, that blood-sucker, that muck-worm, which calls itself the friend of Government-that pretends to serve this or that administration, and may be purchased on the same terms by any administration, that advances money to Government, and takes special care of its own emoluments. Under this description I include the whole race of commissaries, jobbers, contractors, clothiers, and remitters. Yet I do not deny that, even with these creatures, some management may be necessary. I hope, my Lords, that nothing I have said will be understood to extend to the honest, indus

G

trious tradesman, who holds the middle rank, and has given repeated proofs that he prefers law and liberty to gold. I love that class of men. Much less would I be thought to reflect upon the fair merchant, whose liberal commerce is the prime source of national wealth. I esteem his occupation, and respect his character."

LORD CHATHAM AT BURTON-PYNSENT.

This fine estate lies within a cove on the top of a bold ridge of hills, which rises, with a steep ascent, 400 feet from West Sedgmoor, on the north side of the parish of CurryRivel, in central Somersetshire. The scenery is beautiful: the slope is finely indented, and clothed with hanging woods, which alternately swell into bold projections, and recede into hollows, forming a grand profile when viewed from east or west. Burton-Pynsent occupies the very summit of the ridge: the house is large and irregularly built; the principal front, north, commanding a rich and extensive prospect of the flat country between Mendip and the Quantock Hills, the Channel and Welsh mountains. Immediately under the eye is a moor, level as a bowling-green, and finely turfed, to the extent of nearly six miles in length, and from one to three miles in width, skirted with villages: from this point more than thirty churches might be distinctly seen in the time of Collinson, the historian of Somerset, in 1791. At about two furlongs from the mansion, on the north-west point, is a fine column of white stone, 140 feet high, built on a smooth green projecting knoll, with a steep declivity of more than 300 feet, down to the edge of the moor. This pillar was erected by Lord Chatham to the memory of Sir William Pynsent, and bears on the pedestal the following inscription :

SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF SIR WILLIAM PYNSENT.

HOC SALTEM FUNGAR INANI MUNERE.

The south or back front of the house looks into a level park, thickly wooded with elm and other trees: the pleasure