38

A QUARREL IN THE HOUSE.

Pitt replied in an irritable mood, accusing him of "a desire to obstruct the defence of the country." Tierney rose to order. "This language," he said, "is surely not Parliamentary. I must appeal to the Chair for protection." The Speaker, instead of interfering to vindicate the freedom of debate, timidly suggested to the great Minister that he should explain his meaning. Pitt uttered a few words which were accepted as an explanation; but an after reference, in the course of the debate, to this supposed explanation brought him again to his feet: "I gave no explanation," he said, haughtily; "because I wished to abide by the words I had used." The result, in accordance with the evil custom of the time, was a challenge from Tierney; and on Sunday, May 27th, the two parties met on Putney Heath. Mr. Pitt was attended by Mr. Dudley Ryder, afterwards Lord Harrowby; Mr. Tierney's second was Mr. George Walpole. The principals took their ground, after the usual preliminaries had been arranged, at the distance of twelve paces, and fired at the same moment; each, fortunately, without effect. A second case of pistols was produced and fired in the same manner; Pitt, however, discharged his pistol in the air. * The seconds then declared the law of honour to be satisfied.

*

Addington, the Speaker, was a witness of the duel, taking up a position on a small hill near a gibbet on which the body of Abershaw, a felon, was still suspended. "When I arrived on the hill," he says, "I knew from seeing a crowd looking down into the valley, that the duel was then proceeding. After a time I saw the same chaise which had conveyed Pitt to the spot, mounting the ascent, and riding up to it I found him safe, when he said, 'You must dine with me to-day." "Life of Lord Sidmouth, i. 205, 206.

DUEL BETWEEN PITT AND TIERNEY.

39

"Never," says Lord Holland, "did two men meet more ignorant of the use of their weapons. Mr. Pitt, on being cautioned by his second to take care of his pistols, as they were 'hair triggers,' is said to have held them up, and remarked that 'he saw no hair.' Mr. Tierney's second, General Walpole, leaped over the furze bushes for joy when Mr. Pitt fired in the air. Some time, however, elapsed, and some discussion between the seconds took place, before the affair was finally and amicably adjusted. Mr. Pitt very consistently insisted on one condition, which was in itself reasonable, that he was not to quit the ground without the whole matter being completely terminated. On Mr. Tierney's return home, he related the event to his wife. That lady, who was much attached to her husband, although she saw him safe before her, fainted away at the relation—a strange but not a strange but not uncommon effect produced by the discovery of events which, known at the time, would have excited strong emotions. The danger to Mr. Tierney had indeed been great. Had Mr. Pitt fallen, the jury of the times would probably have condemned him to exile or death, without reference to the provocation which he had received, and to the sanction which custom had given to the redress he sought."

Pitt gave the following account of an incident which was creditable to neither party, in a letter to his mother, Lady Chatham:

"You will be glad, I know, to hear from myself, on a subject in which I know how much you will feel interested, and I am very happy to have nothing to tell

40

PITT'S LETTER TO LADY CHATHAM.

that is not perfectly agreeable. The newspapers of to-day contain a short but correct account of a meeting which I found it necessary to have with Mr. Tierney yesterday, on Putney Heath, in consequence of some words which I had used in the House of Commons, and which I did not think it became me to retract or explain. The business terminated without anything unpleasant to either party, and in a way which left me perfectly satisfied with myself and my antagonist, who behaved with great propriety."

It is satisfactory to add that Wilberforce had the manliness to censure both Pitt and his opponent, and to condemn the false code of honour by which they had regulated their conduct.

V.

WHEN the British Parliament assembled at the beginning of 1799, the project of the union of Great Britain and Ireland under a common legislature was recommended to its consideration, as we have already stated, by a message from the Crown. Pitt, in announcing the irrevocable decision of the Government, spoke with great earnestness: "I see the case so plainly," he said, “and I feel it so strongly, that there is no circumstance of apparent or probable difficulty, no apprehension of popularity, no fear of toil or labour that shall prevent me from using every exertion which remains in my power to accomplish the work that is now before us, and on which, I am persuaded, depend the internal tranquillity of Ireland, the interest of the British Empire at large, and the happiness of a great portion of the habitable globe." Pitt's difficulty, however, as he very well knew, did not lie with the British, but the Irish Parliament, which could hardly be expected to receive with much favour a proposal for its own extinction, and for the surrender of Irish independence. Even at the present day the " imperial" idea is not sufficiently powerful in the sister country to reconcile all classes of Irishmen to their position as members, on terms of perfect equality, of our great empire; and in 1799, it hardly existed at all. Ireland had much to gain, and little to lose, by its incorporation with Great Britain; but that

42

UNION WITH IRELAND.

little appealed to the imagination, the historic sentiment of the Irish people; and imagination and sentiment exercise a far more potent influence over the affairs of nations than politicians are apt or willing to believe. "The foremost men in Ireland," says Mr. Massey, “men whose abilities would have raised them to eminence in any country, whose eloquence would have moved any assembly, ancient or modern, and whose patriotism was sincere, had been tempted, but had indignantly refused every offer to betray the independence of their country." That an Imperial Legislature would offer them a wider field for the exercise of their abilities, and provide them with a larger and more distinguished audience for the display of their oratorical powers, was as nothing to them compared with the preservation of Ireland's dignity as a nation. When the Government failed with these, it turned to another class of leading persons-those who had the disposal of the patronage of the Crown. Their answers were dubious and evasive; but the Minister did not fail to understand their purport. He saw that the Union could be carried only in one way, and that way he did not shrink from adopting. He resolved that bribery of every kind, bribery by titles, offices, gifts, and pensions, should be employed, without hesitation and without limit.

For the work that was to be done, Lord Cornwallis, the Irish Viceroy, was not the man. He could negotiate, though reluctantly, and with how strong a reluctance his correspondence plainly shows, the offers of peerages and the higher descriptions of bribes to the chief political leaders; but he neither could nor would interfere in the corruption of the press, nor in the "management" of