He was not one to suffer fools

An excerpt of Pitt the Elder

Pitt the Elder has been strangely neglected, although, in a fashion, that neglect is not strange: The great fame achieved by his son and the difficulties involved in comparing his age to our own, doubtless, go no small way to explain it. Nevertheless, as even a brief encounter with the man makes clear, it’s a mistake, and not a minor one. The below is the peroration to a speech he gave on “Lord Limerick’s Motion for an Inquiry into the Conduct of Public Affairs during the Last Twenty Years” on March 9, 1742:

By these, and similar weak, pusillanimous, and wicked measures, we are become the ridicule of every court in Europe, and have lost the confidence of all our ancient allies. By these measures we have encouraged France to extend her ambitious views, and now at last to attempt carrying them into execution. By bad economy, by extravagance in our domestic measures, we have involved ourselves in such distress at home, that we almost wholly incapable of entering into a war; whilst by weakness or wickedness in our foreign measures, we have brought the affairs of Europe into such distress, that is almost impossible for us to avoid it. Sir, we have been brought upon a dangerous precipice. Here we now find ourselves; and shall we trust to be led safely off by the same guide who has led us on? Sir, it is impossible for him to lead us off. Sir, it is impossible for us to get off, without first recovering that confidence with our ancient allies which formerly we possessed. This we cannot do, as long as they suppose that our councils are influenced by our late Minister; and this they will suppose so long as he has access to the King’s closet; so long as his conduct remains uninquired into, and uncensured. It is not, therefore, in revenge for our past disasters, but from a desire to prevent them in future, that I am now so zealous for this inquiry. The punishment of the Minister, be it ever so severe, will be but a small atonement for the past. But his impunity will be will be the source of many future miseries to Europe, as well as to his country. Let us be as merciful as we will, as merciful as any man can reasonably desire, when we come to pronounce sentence; but sentence we must pronounce.. For this purpose, unless we are resolved to sacrifice our own liberties, and the liberties of Europe, to the preservation of one guilty man, we must make the inquiry.