Pitt

William, Earl of Chatham (1708-1778), a famous English statesman. He was born at Westminster and was educated at Trinity College, Oxford. He served for a time as a cornet in a regiment of dragoons. He entered Parliament in 1735. He remained in public service for the rest of his life. He rose to be premier. He was for many years the head of the British government. In a speech on the Excise Bill, he spoke as follows on the rights of the common people. "The poorest man may, in his cottage, bid defiance to all the force of the crown. It may be frail; its roof may sink; the winds may blow through it; the storms may enter it; the rain may enter in; but the king of England cannot enter. All his forces dare not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement."

Pitt shaped the policy of Great Britain during the French and Indian War. The acquisition of Canada was due largely to him. The city of Pittsburg, occupying the former site of Fort Duquesne, was named in his honor. Although Pitt believed in the authority of Parliament "to bind the colonies in all cases, whatsoever," he was regarded as a man of just views and a friend of the colonists. In 1766, when the repeal of the Stamp Act was under consideration, he said, "Taxation is no part of the governing or legislative power. Taxes are the voluntary gift or grant of the commons alone. I rejoice," said he, "that America has resisted. Three millions of people so dead to all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to have become slaves would be fit instruments to make slaves of the rest."

In a speech of December, 1777, with reference to the employment of Hessians and Indians, he said: "If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms,--never! never! never!"