[8] Whether Lady Hester Stanhope was justified in entertaining expectations of the G. property and title, I am unable to say; but having by me a copy of the grant to the first Lord Chatham, it is inserted here as conclusive against her ladyship, as far as regards the pension. The circumstances were these:—the day following his (then Mr. Pitt’s) resignation of office, a pension of £3,000 a-year was settled on himself and two other lives, and at the same time a title was conferred on his lady and her issue. He resigned office Oct. 9th, 1761, and the next published Gazette announced all these transactions. The notification ran thus:—That a warrant be prepared for granting to the Lady Hester Pitt, his wife, a Barony of Great Britain, by the name, style, and title of Baroness Chatham, to her heirs male, and also to confer upon the said William Pitt an annuity of £3,000 sterling during his own life, that of Lady Hester Pitt, and her son, John Pitt. Shortly after his death, May 11th, 1778, His Majesty sent a message to the Commons thus:—George R.—His Majesty having considered the address of this house, that he will be graciously pleased to confer some signal and lasting mark of his royal favour on the family of the late William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, and being desirous to comply as speedily as possible with the request of his faithful Commons, has given directions for granting to the present Earl of Chatham, and to the heirs of the body of the late William Pitt, to whom the Earldom of Chatham may descend, an annuity of £4,000 per annum, payable out of the Civil List revenue; but his Majesty, not having it in his power to extend the effects of the said grant beyond the term of his own life, recommends it to the house to consider of a proper method of extending, securing, and annexing the same to the Earldom of Chatham in such a manner as shall be thought most effectual to the benefit of the family of the said William Pitt, Earl of Chatham.
Signed “G. R.”
On May 20th, in the House of Commons, Mr. Townsend moved in a committee on the king’s message—“That the sum of £4,000 be granted to his Majesty out of the Aggregate Fund, to commence from 5th July, 1778, and be settled in the most beneficial manner upon the present Earl of Chatham and the heirs of the body of the late William Pitt, to whom the Earldom of Chatham shall descend.” The resolution was agreed to without opposition, and a bill was ordered to be brought in thereon, which passed the Commons without debate.
[9] “The second day of the king’s illness, and when he was at his worst, the P. of W. went in the evening to a concert at Lady Hamilton’s, and there told Calonne (the rascally French ex-minister) ‘Savez vous, Monsieur de Calonne, que mon pere est aussi fou que jamais.’”—Diaries and Correspondence, v. 4, p. 20.
[10] Audi alteram partem is a maxim that holds good wherever accusations are levelled against individuals, illustrious or mean. Lady Hester may have maligned the Prince from personal pique or from some other cause; and, whilst she placed his foibles and failings in a conspicuous point of view, may have studiously concealed the good qualities which he possessed. Sir Walter Scott, who read men’s characters if any body could, has left upon record a very different opinion of him; and, unless we suppose that Sir Walter had motives of his own for eulogizing him, we must place his testimony in the balance against Lady Hester’s spite. In a letter, he describes George IV. as—“A sovereign, whose gentle and generous disposition, and singular manners, and captivating conversation, rendered him as much the darling of private society, as his heart felt interest in the general welfare of the country: and the constant and steady course of wise measures, by which he raised his reign to such a state of triumphal prosperity, made him justly delighted in by his subjects.”—Letter from Sir W. Scott, p. 65, vol. ii., Mem. of Sir Wm. Knighton, Bart.—Paris edit. Sir Walter could not have written worse prose if he had tried. It shows how difficult it is to string words together on a subject where perhaps the convictions of the heart were not altogether in unison with the sentiments expressed.
[11] Louisa, in her own right Countess of Mansfield, is here meant.
CHAPTER IV.
Conscription in Syria—Inviolability of consular houses—Panic and flight of the people of Sayda—Protection afforded by Lady Hester—Story of a boy—Mustafa the barber—Cruelty to mothers of Conscripts—Conscription in the villages—Lady Hester’s dream—Inhabitants of Sayda mulcted—Lady Hester’s opinion of negresses—Severity necessary in Turkey—Case of Monsieur Danna—Captain Y.—Mustafa Pasha’s cruelty.
November 18, 1837.—The conscription for Ibrahim Pasha’s army, called the nizàm or regular troops, was going on at this time, and created much distress in the towns and villages. Forced levies were unknown previous to the conquests of that ambitious prince; as it was customary for the pashas to keep in their pay mercenary troops, composed chiefly of Albanians, a nation that for some centuries had sent its hordes into different parts of the Turkish empire, under the guidance of enterprising chieftains, to seek military service. There were also Bosnians, Kûrds, and some Mograbýns or Moors: these, with the Janissaries or standing militia, had exempted the inhabitants in general from enlistment; and, although the martial and turbulent disposition of the Mohametans had frequently manifested itself in their provincial insurrections and in the petty contentions between neighbouring chieftains, yet a man always went to the camp from choice and from the hopes of booty, and quitted it when tired of the service. But Ibrahim Pasha, among the innovations which he found it necessary or politic to introduce for the furtherance of his father’s views, saw that his whole dependance must be on the adoption of a conscription, after the manner of France and other European states. He had already drained Egypt, in this manner, of all her able-bodied youths; and, to supply the constant waste of men carried off by war and disease, he had, since his first taking possession of Syria, made an annual levy after harvest time.
At first, the idle, vagabond, thievish, and ardent part of the population supplied the numbers he required; and, as fast as they could be collected, they were shipped off to Egypt; where, marched to the Hedjàz and to distant wars, the major portion of them left their bones, whilst some gained rank and lucrative situations, and a few returned to tell the story of their exploits. For with Ibrahim there was no defined term of service; once a soldier, every man continued so until death or desertion broke the chain. In the same way the Egyptian conscripts were sent into Syria: so that no sympathy, in either case, existed between the troops and the people amongst whom they were quartered, which acted as a direct check upon the spirit of insurrection.