William Pitt the Younger

The Right Honourable William Pitt the Younger (28 May 1759 – 23 January 1806) was a British politician during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He served as Prime Minister from 1783 to 1801, and again from 1804 until his death. He is known as William Pitt the Younger to distinguish him from his father, William Pitt the Elder, who also served as Prime Minister of Great Britain.

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• What I have now offered is meant merely for the sake of my country, for the simple question is: will you change your Ministers and keep the Empire, or keep your Ministers and lose the Kingdom?
  • William Cobbett, "Parliamentary History".
  • Speech in the House of Commons, supporting a motion of censure on the government of Lord North, 15 March 1782.

• I will repeat then, Sir, that it is not this treaty, it is the Earl of Shelburne alone whom the movers of this question are desirous to wound. This is the object which has raised this storm of faction; this is the aim of the unnatural coalition to which I have alluded. If, however, the baneful alliance is not already formed, if this ill-omened marriage is not already solemnized, I know a just and lawful impediment, and, in the name of the public safety, I here forbid the banns.
  • John Almon and John Debrett, "Register of Parliament".
  • Speech in the House of Commons, 21 February 1783. Referring to the Fox-North Coalition which was already agreed in outline.

• You may take from me, Sir, the privileges and emoluments of place, but you cannot, and you shall not, take from me those habitual and warm regards for the prosperity of Great Britain which constitute the honour, the happiness, the pride of my life, and which, I trust, death alone can extinguish.
  • "The War Speeches of William Pitt", Oxford University Press, 1915, p. 7
  • Speech in the House of Commons, 21 February 1783, on the peace treaty with the United States. Pitt, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer, knew the government would lose the vote and he would have to resign.

• Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
  • Speech in the House of Commons (November 18, 1783). Compare: "And with necessity, / The tyrant's plea, / excus'd his devilish deeds", John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book iv, line 393.

• We must not count with certainty on a continuance of our present prosperity during such an interval [15 years]; but unquestionably there never was a time in the history of this country when, from the situation of Europe, we might more reasonably expect fifteen years of peace, than we may at the present moment.
  • "The War Speeches of William Pitt", Oxford University Press, 1915, p. 16
  • Speech in the House of Commons, 17 February 1792, introducing the Budget. His prediction was a vain hope.

• We owe our present happiness and prosperity, which has never been equalled in the annals of mankind, to a mixture of monarchical government.
  • "The War Speeches of William Pitt", Oxford University Press, 1915, p. 29
  • Speech in the House of Commons, 1 February 1793.

• The amount of our danger, therefore, it would be impolitic to conceal from the people. It was the first duty of ministers to make it known, and after doing so, it should have been their study to provide against it, and to point out the means to the country by which it might be averted.
  • "The War Speeches of William Pitt", Oxford University Press, 1915, p. 314
  • Speech in the House of Commons, 18 July 1803, opposing a vote of censure on his successor Henry Addington.

• I return you many thanks for the honour you have done me; but Europe is not to be saved by any single man. England has saved herself by her exertions, and will, as I trust, save Europe by her example.
  • "The War Speeches of William Pitt", Oxford University Press, 1915, p. 351
  • Speech at the Guildhall, City of London, 9 November 1805. This was Pitt's last speech in public.

• Prostrate the beauteous ruin lies; and all
  That shared its shelter perish in its fall.
  • The Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin, No. xxxvi, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

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• Most accursed, wicked, barbarous, cruel, unnatural, unjust and diabolical.
  • On the American Revolutionary War

• Roll up that map, it will not be wanted these ten years.
  • Upon seeing a map of Europe in January 1806 after hearing of the Battle of Austerlitz.

• Oh, my country! How I leave my country!
  • Sometimes quoted as "How I love my country". Said to have been his last words but generally thought to have been invented.

• I think I could eat one of Bellamy's veal pies.
  • Also said to have been his last words.

About

• Not merely a chip of the old 'block', but the old block itself.
  • Nathaniel Wraxall, "Historical Memoirs of My Own Time", part 2.
  • Edmund Burke's reaction to Pitt's maiden speech in Parliament. The 'old block' was William Pitt the Elder.