The evidence of the decline in Pitt’s physical powers was clear. Ward said that ‘he exhibits strong marks of bad health. Though his voice has not lost any of its depth and harmony, his lungs seem to labour in those prodigious sentences which he once thundered forth without effort.’19 Yet overall, the inspiring call to arms, the denunciation of France and the characteristic call for a financial plan for the waging of war left many Members in little doubt as to who would be best placed to fight it. The contrast with Addington, who rather risibly turned up in the House in the uniform of an officer of the Woodley Yeomanry, and delivered an uninspiring effort, could not have been greater.
In delivering this epic oration, Pitt was doing much more than putting on a memorable performance. He was consciously adopting a new strategy which was intended to take him back to power while remaining true to his stated commitments and self-defined character. Despite the progressive decline in his health, he simply could not bear to be away from the action when so much was at stake. Both duty and ambition impelled him towards his comeback. Yet he still felt the pull of his initial commitments to Addington, even after the rupture of the recent negotiations, and was reluctant to indulge in all-out opposition which would offend his many friends within the government and make it harder for him subsequently to form an administration. He therefore embarked on a ‘middle course’ in which he would not immediately attempt to overthrow the government, much to the frustration of Canning and Grenville, but would assiduously attend the House of Commons and begin to dominate affairs through sheer merit. He would speak against ‘weak or pernicious half measures’.20 He would, quite simply, show activity, knowledge and purpose which would make him indispensable.
It is hard to fault Pitt’s judgement in taking this approach. The alternatives to it were all unpalatable: to go into sudden outright opposition to Addington so soon after the April negotiations would have seemed opportunistic and would have involved going back on his word; to continue to give unstinting support to Addington would have been intellectually dishonest; and to resume a lofty absence from Parliament at a time of war would have been so far from Pitt’s nature as to be intolerable to him. Nevertheless, his strategy of ‘constructive engagement’ had the one serious drawback of being a potentially lonely one. Out of office, even more than when he was in it, Pitt neglected to cultivate a following or to create any sense of ‘party’ around him. The flattering of less-talented MPs was neither in his nature nor in accordance with his view of how politics should work; he thought that ability and character should always count for more than partisan manoeuvres by which politicians tried to foist themselves upon the King. Such an attitude was, of course, an integral component of the status and respect he enjoyed, but its drawback was that when out of office he could not presume on the automatic support of any massed ranks of MPs. Since most MPs were aligned in one way or another with government or one of the opposition factions (there was an Old Opposition led by Fox and a New Opposition clustered around Grenville), the number of votes for a ‘middle course’ would not be large.
This much became very clear on 3 June, less than two weeks after Pitt’s electrifying speech. When the opposition tabled a motion of censure against the government, Pitt did not wish to support it, but nor did he wish to see it heavily defeated. Instead, he suggested to the government that it move ‘the Orders of the Day’ to shelve the debate. An indignant Addington, discovering more backbone now that he was up against the wall, refused to countenance a tactic which would have implied that the government feared defeat. Caught between the two sides, Pitt decided to move ‘the Orders of the Day’ himself, but could muster only fifty-eight votes in the division, while the followers of Addington, Fox and Grenville amassed 335 votes together to make sure they could go on to fight each other. Pitt and those who had voted with him thereupon left the House, and the government easily defeated the censure, sponsored by Grenville’s faction, by 275 to thirty-four.
These divisions were a reminder of what Pitt should have known, that a government was very difficult to overthrow if it retained the confidence both of the King and of the country gentlemen in Parliament. Many MPs might have been happy to see Pitt at the helm again, but that did not mean that they would vote to turn out the King’s government within days of the outbreak of war. While the King expressed ‘much pleasure’21 to Addington on the result, Canning reflected on Pitt that ‘to have a hearty following, he must take an intelligible line of conduct’,22 and Pitt privately admitted that he had not shown ‘good generalship’.23 This setback may have contributed to Pitt’s disillusionment that month with the idea of returning to government at all. He wrote to Dundas on 19 June: ‘The more I reflect on the whole state of things and parties, the more convinced I am that all idea of my returning to office (especially in the precarious state of my health) ought from the present (to say the least) to be considered as wholly out of the question; and I ought to look only to remaining a private man, making use of the few occasions which may offer in which, by any opinion in Parliament I can contribute to do any good or prevent any mischief.’24
It would take many months and rising uncertainty about Addington’s conduct of the war before Addington would have to face the prospect of Commons defeats. His position was stronger than Pitt had expected. Yet Pitt seems to have been confident that his own depth of experience gave him more influence than the voting totals of 3 June suggested. He persisted in his overall approach, often supporting the government but picking a quarrel with it when he thought it was wrong. Addington’s budget on 13 June involved reinventing income tax, which had been abolished only the preceding year. It was proposed that income would now be taxed at source, getting round the massive scale of evasion which had plagued Pitt’s earlier efforts. Pitt objected to income from property and government debt being treated differently. He pressed his point tenaciously, exchanging some sharp words with Addington. Once again he forced a vote against the government, and although he was again defeated (150 to fifty), the government caved in the following day.
Not surprisingly in these circumstances, the relationship between Pitt and Addington steadily deteriorated. While an anxious Addington still referred to Pitt in the House as his ‘Right Honourable Friend’, Pitt had ceased to use this mark of alliance when referring to Addington. When he found the government dilatory in pursuing the necessary scale of military conscription, he declared that he would move a motion on it in the Commons himself. Once again, Ministers caved in to his demands. The war had only just begun, but the government was finding that Pitt was a very big thorn to have regularly in its side. As the parliamentary session came to an end in August, and Pitt made for Walmer Castle, it was decided within Addington’s circle that moves should be set in hand to diminish Pitt’s reputation. A pamphlet entitled ‘A few cursory Remarks upon the State of Parties during the Administration of Mr. Addington’ appeared under the authorship of a ‘Near Observer’, attacking Pitt for his conduct towards Addington and his apparent arrogance in the April negotiations. It went on to praise Addington, maintaining that his only fault was his deference towards Pitt. The amount of inside information suggested that sources extremely close to Addington had assembled the material, although Addington himself would always deny that he had been in any way involved.
In publishing this pamphlet Addington’s supporters were making a serious mistake, for they were needling a proud man who was highly conscious of his reputation and who could still do far more damage to the government than he had thus far attempted. By early October, Pitt was telling Rose that the pamphlet was ‘one of the most malignant, false and artful statements he ever saw’.25 He was sufficiently incensed to initiate the publication of a counter-pamphlet, and ‘to superintend the work, to throw in fresh materials, and to suggest new arguments’.26 The work of the ‘Near Observer’ was thereupon answered by a ‘More Accurate Observer’ giving a ‘Plain answer to the Misrepresentations and Calumnies’ previously circulated. This in turn opened a general ‘pamphle
t war’, bringing forth a further rejoinder and a raft of other publications flying back and forth. For politics to be conducted in this way was something of an innovation, made possible by advances in printing and distribution. While not reaching the wider public, it created intense feelings among the participants, Malmesbury considering that it ‘produced no other effect than creating a degree of personal enmity between them they till now never had, nor ever would have entertained, if these officious scribblers had not come forward’.27 Pitt’s own direct involvement showed, however, that it was not just ‘scribblers’ who were at work, as the remnants of goodwill which he felt for Addington were being destroyed. But although Pitt was put out by the growing animosity, it seems unlikely that he was consumed by it. For, that autumn at Walmer, he found additional company and new activities which would unexpectedly provide a most fulfilling period of his life.
The return to active participation at Westminster had produced an immediate impact on Pitt’s health, but the inventive attentions of Farquhar seemed to have brought things under control. As Farquhar remembered it:
Upon his return to Town … political Events again involved him in care, fatigue, & anxiety, which brought on a renewal of the former unpleasant Symptoms. He could retain nothing on his Stomach, nor could he sit down to dinner without being sick. It was evident to me that these debilitating Feelings were considerably encreased [sic] by the long & constant attendance in the House of Commons & still more aggravated by the lateness & irregularity of the hour of dinner. I therefore suggested the indispensable necessity of guarding against such fasting, by having every day at 2 o’clock a hot Luncheon with 1 or 2 glasses of good brisk Ale. Mr. Pitt first objected strongly to this, but particularly to the Ale, as his old & valued Friend Dr Addington had constantly forbidden his taking it, – however with his usual good nature he consented to make the trial. This Plan which was adopted and adhered to with great regularity produced the most beneficial effect, & enabled him to go through his Parliamentary Duties with comparative ease & comfort to himself.28
Returning to Walmer in August 1803 in this fragile but tolerable state, Pitt astonished his friends by doing something which, while characteristically kind, was most uncharacteristically accommodating to a woman. The death of his mother a few months earlier had left his niece, Lady Hester Stanhope, adrift. Her mother, Pitt’s sister Hester, had died when she was four years old, and Lady Hester had long since been unable to live with her eccentric and intolerant father (Lord Mahon, by now third Earl Stanhope), from whom Pitt was also now estranged. Having toured the Continent for a few months, this vivacious and attractive twenty-seven-year-old returned to England homeless.
Pitt’s initial reaction when this problem was first foreseen had been unsurprising: ‘Under no circumstances could I offer her a home in my own house.’29 But faced with the reality of her situation, he relented. Her nephew and Pitt’s biographer the fifth Earl Stanhope later wrote: ‘He welcomed his niece to his house as her permanent abode. Henceforth she sat at the head of his table, and assisted him in doing the honours to his guests … Lady Hester quickly formed for him a strong and devoted attachment, which she extended to his memory so long as her own life endured. On his part he came to regard her with almost a father’s affection … On the whole her young presence proved to be, as it were, a light in his dwelling.’30 She was indeed overjoyed to be given a home which was the centre of so much activity and attention, writing in November:
To express the kindness with which Mr. Pitt welcomed my return, and proposed my living with him would be impossible; one would really suppose that all obligation was on his side. Here, then, am I, happy to a degree; exactly in the sort of society I most like. There are generally three or four men staying in the house, and we dine eight or ten almost every other day. Military and naval characters are constantly welcome here; women are not, I suppose, because they do not form any part of our society. You may guess, then, what a pretty fuss they make with me.31
Tall and ‘handsome’ rather than beautiful, Lady Hester evidently abounded in wit and mimicry, which entertained the indulgent Pitt and must have markedly enlivened the long-established bachelor atmosphere of his home. Lord Mulgrave commented that Pitt was ‘as good as he is great’ to take compassion on her ‘in a way which must break in upon his habits of life’.32 He, like many other visitors, would later be at the sharp end of her wit. After unexpectedly becoming Pitt’s Foreign Secretary in 1805 he arrived at the Pitt household for breakfast and remarked that he had been given a broken spoon, receiving the retort: ‘Have you not yet discovered that Mr. Pitt sometimes uses very slight and weak instruments to effect his ends?’33 Lady Hester was withering about politicians she found pompous or boring, referring to Castlereagh as his ‘monotonous Lordship’.34 When Lord Abercorn received the Knighthood of the Garter from Addington and wore it conspicuously, ‘she humiliated him in public by alluding to his infirmity, asking if he used the order to tie up his broken leg’,35 and she was rude about the Prince of Wales and the ‘broad bottom’ Grenville. Such behaviour must have rankled with many, but it never seemed to disturb Pitt’s tolerant good humour. It was typical of him to make the very best of a friendship brought about by circumstance and necessity, but for which he would never have gone looking.
Coincident with this uplift in Pitt’s domestic circumstances, necessity on a larger scale brought about a second change in his lifestyle which might have surprised those who thought they knew him. Bookish, intellectual and unhealthy as he was, he now took on a voluntary but active military role as Colonel of a corps of volunteers. With Napoleon massing a huge army and constructing thousands of barges across the Channel, the government embarked in the summer of 1803 on the raising of a great number of armed volunteers. So many hundreds of thousands came forward for enrolment that Addington’s Ministers were caught unprepared: there were insufficient weapons to arm them, and administrative chaos was common. By the end of the year there were 340,000 volunteers enrolled, none of them in a more crucial situation than those on the south coast in the vicinity of the Cinque Ports, where Pitt now applied himself with great enthusiasm to their raising and training. He rode regularly along the Kent coast, preparing plans for the ‘driving of the country’ so that the invaders would be bereft of livestock and transport, and was soon ‘an excellent soldier’, according to Mulgrave.36 Lady Hester Stanhope wrote to a friend that:
Mr. Pitt absolutely goes through the fatigue of a drill-sergeant. It is parade after parade, at fifteen or twenty miles distant from each other … If Mr. Pitt does not overdo it and injure his health every other consideration becomes trifling. You know me too well not to be aware of the anxiety I am under upon this account; and the extreme care I take, or rather endeavour to take, of this blessing (so essential to him in pursuing his active line of conduct, therefore invaluable to his country), is rewarded by his minding me more than any other person, and allowing me to speak to him upon the subject of his health, which is always an unpleasant one, and one he particularly dislikes … He had a cough when I first came to England but it has nearly or quite left him. He is thin but certainly strong, and his spirits are excellent.37
Pitt’s new martial habits were happily coupled with his studious instincts. His surviving notes from this period contain a long series of algebraic formulae and diagrams illustrating the angle and pace at which a wheeling company should turn, and including such discoveries as: ‘if the Front of the Company consists of a greater number of Files than Eight, the distance of this Point of Intersection from the wheeling Flank will increase in the same Proportions’.38
It had not been envisaged for many years that the holder of the sinecure of Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and Constable of Dover Castle would take his responsibilities so literally. Yet Pitt, who had admitted to doubting his own military judgement while Prime Minister, clearly relished applying himself to a task made urgent by extreme national danger. By October he was organising the fitting-out of 170 gunboats stationed be
tween Margate and Hastings, and was disgusted at the lack of cooperation and support such efforts received from the government. As the expectation of invasion neared its peak, Pitt wrote to Rose on 18 October: ‘I am much more inclined than I have ever been hitherto to believe that some attempt will be made soon.’39 By November he thought that his men could give ‘a very good account’ of themselves in the event of invasion, but that if the enemy broke through the initial defences they would soon be in the approaches to London. His experience in what was potentially the front line persuaded him that the Addington ministry was genuinely not up to the job, with the overall preparedness for defence ‘very far short of what it ought to have been, and what it easily might have been’.40
William Pitt the Younger: A Biography Page 60
