The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-03-19


fairly delivered to you-not from love
Of censura in me, bur OF truth; and be-
cause it is history ] am writing, not ro-
nance"
The facts bear out Mr. Harrisons asser-
ton that in eight centuries England has
known but four great creative statesmen
men who have been founders or creators
Of new order Of things.' Unquestion-
ably William the Conqueror made all Eng
land an organic nation. Edward l., when
he determined to conquer Scotland, con-
ceived and founded Great Britain. Crom-
well made the United Kingdom Of Great
Britain and Ireland reality and founded
England's sea power II was reserved
for Chatham TO become the founder Of the
British Empire. There ia no doubt that
Mr.. Harrison is right when he avers that
for good and for evil, through heroism
and through spoliation, with all its vast
and far-reachinR consequences, industrial,
economic, social and moral, the founda-
ton Of the empire was the work Of Chatham.
He changed the course OF Engand's his
tory-nay, the course Of modern history
For century and half the development
Of our country has proceeded on the inn
perial lines Of Chathams ideals. Succeed
ing statesmen have based the keynote Of
their policy on eniaTging the range Of
these ideals, in wardinR of the dangers
they involved, in curbing or in stimulating
the excuses they bred
As TO Chatham's prominence among
Englands creative statesmen, there Is
con, census Of competent opinion. Fred
erick the Great of Prussia, who had a right
TO deem himself an expert said of him:
England has long been in labor, and has
suffered much to produce Mr.. Pitt; but,
at last, she has brought forth a man By
contemporary observers in France the rise
and fall Of Chatham was watched anX-
iously a. being equivalent to the loss or the
gain OF a decisive campaign. Contem-
porary memoirs ring with anecdotes Of
his personal asoendancy and the terror he
inspired at home and abroad. In our
authors eyes, his hyperbolio self-will. his
almost grotesque arrogance, are excused
by the Difference Of all with whom he acted
and the timidity Of all whom he confronted.
when Chatham said to a colleague, I
know that can save this country and that
no one else can, it was not regarded as
arrogance and presumption, but was
treated as simple truth, which no doubt
Il was" We have already reproduced an
excerpt from Horace Walpole's estimate Of
Chatham. Another sentence OF Walpole's
runs thus: The admirers Of Mr.. Pitt ex-
tolled the reverberation he gave TO our
councils the dependency he banished, the
spirit he infused. the conquests he made,
the security he affixed to our trade and
plantations the humiliation Of France, the
glory OF Britain carried under his ministra-
lions to a pitch at which 1t never had ar
rived-and all this is exactly true
Mr. Harrison goes on 20 show how in
both his own age and ours Chatham seems
10 have cast a spell over mems minds, 20
that he has usually been spoken Of in super
lativcs Of praise. On his monument in
Westminster Abbey We read that during
his administration Great Britain was eX-
allied ito a height Of prosperity and glory
unknown TO any former age" In the
Gulldhall we read that William Pitt was
raised up by Providence "as the principal
instrument in his memorable work. IL
should be noted that both these memorials
were erected many years after the states
mans fall and retirement from public life.
The first monument was ordered by Parlia-
nent under the Ministry Of Lord North
whom Chatham had ficrcely opposed and
denounced. The second inscription was
composed by Edmund Burke his opponent
and severe Judge In 1850 a Frenchman
the Able Raynal, declared in his History
Of Indian Commerce" that Chatham had
raised the heart Of England so high that
his administration was nothing but a chain
Of conquest Lord Brougham in his
Historical Sketches recognizes that
Chatham is the person TO whom evory
one would point il desired 10 name the
mott successful statesman and most bril-
liant orator that this country ever pro-
duced.- As regards many things Mac
aulay was a harsh critic Of Chatham;
nevertheless he concluded his description
Of the monument in the Abbey with the
acknowledgment that history, while
for the warning Of vehement, high and
daring natures she notes his IChatham'sl
many errors, will yet deliberately pro-
nounce, that among the eminent men
whose bones lie near his. scarcely one has
left a more stainless, and none a more
splendid name Mr.. Harrison further
reminds us that in our own time Mr.. J. X.
Green was fascinated by -the personal
and solitary grandeur OF Chatham by
the depth Of his conviction, his passionate
love Of all he deemed lofty and true, his
fiery energy, his poetic imaginatiyeness,
his purely public spirit Again Green
tT~tihes Of Chatham that 'he loved Eng
land with an intense and personal love.
lie believed In her power, her glory, her
public virtue, ill England learned to
believe In herself Mr.. LeclIy, though
relatively cold and circumspect, admits