| — | William Pitt the Younger, in the Commons 21 February 1783 (via ladycashasatiger) |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0tHmYEaqok&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Quite a fun listen, although interesting to note that I have seen him give the same talk on two separate occasions and there was virtually no difference in content (I’m guessing he’s got it pretty much memorised now!).
I…
Have to agree - I think Pitt was well past his sell by date by the time he died. He’d dominated politics for so long, even when he was out of office, that he’d become something of a blockage. How might things have turned out if he’d died in 1801, instead of resigning and hanging around for another five years? Useless to speculate, I know - but intriguing!
Greatest Speeches in History - William Pitt The Younger (by Alexandre Litterae)
Oh, to have been there.
Assignat de 15 sols. Dimensions : 7,9 cm × 6,8 cm.
Assignats were paper money issued by the National Assembly in France from 1789 to 1796, during the French Revolution. The assignats were issued after the confiscation of church properties in 1790.
On a rather lighter note, here’s a slightly altered version of Karl Anton Hickel’s painting of Pitt addressing the House of Commons. It always struck me that this was what Pitt seemed really to be doing. Apologies for the quality but I have lost the original file so this is a photograph of an ancient printout!
I used to do a lot of drawing when I was younger (I think the last picture I drew was in 2005). I’ve always intended to go back to it, but I haven’t yet found the time. Below is my version of the print of Pitt the Younger as Colonel Commandant of the Cinque Ports Volunteers (the original is at Walmer Castle). I drew this for a website I set up on the history of the CPV, but made a coloured version for myself just for a laugh. I rediscovered it this morning.
The Second Earl of Chatham may be virtually invisible in the history books, but he appeared more or less frequently in the newspapers of the day. Clearly his activities—dull and pedestrian as they often were (“Lord Chatham has gone to his estates/to take the waters/visit a friend/gone hunting” etc…
Let’s hear it for John!
I can’t resist, though, sneaking in a quote from Joseph Farington’s diary of 1794, which I’ve been reading recently.
G. Dance told me an intimate friend of Ld. Chatham had spoken to him on the inconvenience attending his laying in bed till the day is advanced, as Officers &c were kept waiting. Ld. Chatham said it did not signify, it was an indulgence He cd. not give up.
It must have been a family thing, as Pitt was also notorious for staying in bed till all hours, particularly as his health declined.
In the run up to the Thatcher funeral on Wednesday, the BBC looks at how past prime ministers have been laid to rest.
There are three different types of funeral which former prime ministers have received: state, ceremonial and private.
A state funeral is usually only granted to monarchs but may, by order of the reigning monarch and by a vote of Parliament providing the funds, be granted in exceptional circumstances. It includes a period of lying in state and a military procession.
A ceremonial funeral is very similar, but does not require a vote in Parliament, and the gun carriage bearing the coffin to the lying in state has, since the funeral of Queen Victoria, been drawn by horses rather than Royal Navy sailors, as is the case in a state funeral. Baroness Thatcher has been granted a ceremonial funeral.
A private funeral is one arranged by the deceased’s family.
The other prime ministers mentioned are Spencer Perceval (1812, private); Sir Robert Peel (1850, private); the Duke of Wellington (1852, state); Lord Palmerston (1865, state); Benjamin Disraeli (1881, private); William Gladstone (1898, state); Sir Winston Churchill (1965, state); Harold Macmillan (1986, private); Harold Wilson (1995, private); Sir Edward Heath (2005, private).
So if this list is accurate, Lady Thatcher is the first former prime minister to receive a ceremonial funeral since William Pitt in 1806.
