Nature-based allied health practice : creative and evidence-based strategies amy wagenfeld complete
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“Nature-Based Allied Health Practice is a wonderful and insightful book that explores the transformative power of nature as a therapeutic tool. As someone who has experienced the benefits of outdoor therapy in my practice as a music therapist, behavior analyst, and educator, I found this book to be an invaluable resource that offers a fresh perspective on the healing potential of nature. The authors expertly weave together personal anecdotes, scientific research, and practical tips to illustrate how being in nature can have a profound impact on our physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. In addition, the authors highlight the ways in which nature can complement therapeutic interventions in all fields. Who knew that there was such a powerful therapeutic tool waiting for you right outside your door to incorporate into your therapeutic practice.”
—Marlene Sotelo, EdD, BCBA-D, MT-BC
“Nature-Based Allied Health Practice will transform your perception of the power of nature and its infinite possibilities as a therapeutic tool. Utilizing their extensive knowledge, authors Amy Wagenfeld and Shannon Marder inspire readers to take therapy outdoors (or bring it inside) to increase cognitive function, regulate the sensory systems, and strengthen family ties. This evidence-based and accessible guide is a must-read for those interested in interacting with nature for social, cognitive, and physical wellbeing. Teeming with anecdotes, scientific research, and practical tips, Nature-Based Allied Health Practice educates and inspires while providing a fresh approach.”
“Amy and Shannon’s inspiring resource beautifully combines theory, evidence, and real-life examples of nature based therapy. It uniquely positions nature-based therapy as an evidence-based intervention across the life span, empowering allied health professionals to confidently partner with nature for the wellbeing of our clients, communities, and ourselves.”
—Bronwyn Panter, Nature OT
“In a time of profound mental health needs, Nature-Based Allied Health Practice is just what the doctor ordered to help all our patients heal and thrive.”
—Mona Hanna-Attisha, Flint pediatrician, author of What the Eyes Don't See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City
NATURE-BASED ALLIED HEALTH PRACTICE
of related interest
With Nature in Mind
The Ecotherapy Manual for Mental Health Professionals
Andy McGeeney
Foreword by Lindsay Royan
ISBN 978 1 78592 024 0
eISBN 978 1 78450 270 6
How to Get Kids Offline, Outdoors, and Connecting with Nature
200+ Creative Activities to Encourage Self-Esteem, Mindfulness, and Wellbeing
Bonnie Thomas
ISBN 978 1 84905 968 8
eISBN 978 0 85700 853 4
NATURE-BASED ALLIED HEALTH PRACTICE
Creative and Evidence-Based Strategies
Amy Wagenfeld and Shannon Marder
First published in Great Britain in 2024 by Jessica Kingsley Publishers An imprint of John Murray Press
The right of Amy Wagenfeld and Shannon Marder to be identified as the Authors of the Work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
All pages marked with can be downloaded at https://library.jkp.com/redeem for personal use with this program, but may not be reproduced for any other purposes without the permission of the publisher.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library and the Library of Congress
ISBN 978 1 80501 008 1
eISBN 978 1 80501 009 8
Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Group
Jessica Kingsley Publishers’ policy is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products and made from wood grown in sustainable forests. The logging and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.
Jessica Kingsley Publishers Carmelite House 50 Victoria Embankment
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John Murray Press
Part of Hodder & Stoughton Limited An Hachette UK Company
For all the practitioners who have dared to take it outside with their clients, those who have benefitted from receiving therapy outside, and all who, by reading this book, will be inspired to do so in the future. Go outside and reap the benefits that nature offers. It will change your life, for the better.
Abstracts
Chapter 1: Introduction
This book introduces healthcare professionals, including mental health providers to the value of therapy outdoors and provides straightforward, practical, and doable strategies to consider when facilitating the option of offering therapy services outdoors. The book begins with a chapter discussing important ethical considerations, such as ensuring the client privacy and safety, that are associated with providing therapy outdoors. What follows is an overview of the seminal and current evidence-based research that supports the global benefits of being outdoors and the theories that align with nature and health. The remainder of the book is organized in a developmental, lifespan fashion, beginning with chapters on children and youth and families followed by adolescence, young adulthood, adulthood, and older adulthood. Each of these age spans focuses on the developmental tasks associated with them and specific evidence that supports the applicable client population’s connections with being outdoors, in nature. Also featured are personal stories shared by those who love nature and exemplar case narratives with photographs of current therapy programs offered outside and any evidence research that supports these incredible programs that are facilitated outdoors. A concluding chapter provides resources and suggested ways to measure program outcomes, and the Appendix includes program readiness guides.
Chapter 2: Above All, Do No Harm
Ethical philosophy was introduced in the fifth century bce by the philosopher Socrates. A contemporary definition of ethics is that they are a way to actualize values and to serve as a system of beliefs held by a group that operationalizes what is good and bad or right and wrong. In practice, ethics are used to guide decision making, including how to protect client privacy and confidentiality and facilitate therapy in a safe environment. Protecting client privacy and confidentiality is a high priority in the therapeutic relationship. Practitioners need to be vigilant
about providing a safe environment for clients as well as themselves. In short, and above all, practitioners must do no harm. In this chapter, these issues as they relate to ethical practice are explored and contextualized to bringing therapy services outdoors so that both client and therapist can reap the benefits of being in nature.
Chapter 3: Being in Nature Is Good for Your Health
This chapter explores the expansive evidence base that supports the benefits of interaction with nature. While nature is good for health and wellbeing, the intention of this chapter is to expand this perspective of nature being good for health and wellbeing, to nature also being an important tool to improve the therapeutic services that practitioners provide. Ideally, all therapy could be “taken outside,” but even when circumstances do not allow for taking it outside, there are still health benefits to bringing the outside indoors. The chapter begins with a brief overview of how nature has been used toward health benefits throughout history. It then describes some of the leading theories that explain the mechanisms for how nature heals. What follows is a sharing of some of the evidence-based research that links nature with health and wellbeing. For organizational purposes, here and throughout the book, the research literature related to the therapeutic benefits of nature at all stages of life is organized by type of benefit such as social-emotional, cognitive, and physical. A set of benefits specific to this chapter and relevant to all clients relates to using nature to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in our communities and with the clients we serve. The chapter concludes with ideas for adapting a nature-based program to a variety of indoor and outdoor environments.
Chapter 4: Children and Families
Childhood begins at birth and ends with the onset of adolescence at about age 12–13 years. This chapter begins with an overview of the social-emotional, cognitive, and physical developmental tasks associated with childhood, which are intertwined and rely on each other to “build” a resilient child, adolescent, and, ultimately, an adult. The chapter continues by exploring the literature that links nature with childhood development and family enrichment. This is important because research supports that children’s social-emotional, language/ communication, cognitive, and physical and motor development are enriched through meaningful connections with nature. Many of the findings linking nature with childhood development and family enrichment add an extra layer of authenticity and evidence for setting up an outdoor pediatric therapy program. Integrated into the chapter are examples of child- and family-focused outdoor
therapy programs and how they have changed the lives of those they serve, and there are also practical ideas for including nature in a pediatric outdoor therapy program.
Chapter 5: Adolescents
Adolescence is a period of tremendous development and change in preparation for adulthood and future health and wellbeing. It begins with the end of childhood, around age 13, and ends when a person enters young adulthood, around age 18. In this chapter, an overview of the typical tasks of adolescence are provided, and this is followed by a discussion of the impacts of nature-based interventions on adolescents, which are focused on social-emotional health, education, and physical health outcomes. The bottom line is that nature can be a positive mediator in adolescent development, yet there is cause for concern because adolescence is a life period often characterized by declines in physical activity and time spent outdoors, in nature. Examples of adolescent-focused outdoor therapy programs and how they have changed the lives of those they serve are integrated into the chapter, as are practical ideas for including nature in an adolescent outdoor therapy program.
Chapter 6: Young Adulthood
Spanning from ages 18 to 25–30 years, young adulthood is also referred to as emerging adulthood. It is the transition period between adolescence and adulthood and, like all other periods of development, has its unique tasks and challenges. This chapter looks at the developmental tasks associated with young adulthood and how research supports that nature-based experiences positively impact this stage of life with regard to social-emotional, cognitive, and physical development, as well as its potential for future positive engagement with nature in adulthood. In this stage, when brain development is reaching its peak, nature can mediate and buffer the challenges of navigating through young adulthood. Examples of young adult focused outdoor therapy programs and how they have changed the lives of those they serve are integrated into the chapter, as are practical ideas for including nature in a young adult outdoor therapy program.
Chapter 7: Adulthood
Adulthood follows young or emerging adulthood and precedes older adulthood. This developmental period extends from age 30 to 65, which is the longest in human development. Adulthood is for most people a period of “good”
physical and mental performance, but how people age is multifactorial. The uncontrollable factors that impact aging, such as biological and genetic, are called primary factors. Secondary aging factors refer to elements such as diet, physical activity, and drug and alcohol consumption, which are within our control. In this chapter, some of these factors that are associated with aging are explored. This chapter also provides an exploration of the expansive evidence base of nature-focused research that has been conducted with adults. Much of the research finds that being surrounded by nature and interacting with natural materials have the capacity to improve multiple health outcomes, including mental and physical health, wellbeing, and cognition during adulthood. Examples of adult-focused outdoor therapy programs and how they have changed the lives of those they serve are integrated into the chapter as are practical ideas for including nature in an adult outdoor therapy program.
Chapter 8: Older Adulthood
Older adulthood is understood to begin at age 65. This number is based on the age most commonly found in the research literature. The chapter explores some of the tasks and challenges associated with older adulthood and common misconceptions that can lead to ageism. This chapter looks at the benefits of nature-based interventions for older adults. It also discusses common chronic conditions and potential accommodations; considers the research that supports the benefits of nature connections for older adults; and takes a closer look at a few nature-based programs that have been developed for older adults. In this stage, when older adults are managing chronic conditions and potentially spending more time in leisure, nature can provide both a welcome respite and be an engaging environment. Examples of older adult focused outdoor therapy programs and how they have changed the lives of those they serve are integrated into the chapter as are practical ideas for including nature in an older-adult outdoor therapy program.
Chapter 9: Program Evaluation
Program evaluation can take on many forms and be conducted for various reasons, including seeking funding and outcomes research. Evaluation is a reflective process, and this chapter offers suggestions for how to engage in both quantitative and qualitative study of outdoor therapy programs. Engaging in an evaluation process offers practitioners an opportunity to step back and think about the impact that a program is making on the lives of those we serve and those with whom we work. Research drives innovation, and the reality is that there have
been very few published studies that validate why therapy outdoors provided by licensed healthcare professions, such as music therapy, mental health therapies, occupational therapy, physical therapy, recreational therapy, and speech and language therapy, is important. This chapter offers a call to action for all who are interested in facilitating therapy outdoor programs.
Afterword
The authors describe their respective “This Much I Know” experiences that have shaped their love of nature and commitment to incorporating it into practice.
Appendix: Program Readiness Guides
The Appendix provides practitioners with checklists to set up or modify an existing practice to be outdoors or to bring nature inside.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the two most important people in my life. To my husband Jeffrey Hsi for his enduring support and encouragement to take my skills and passion as an occupational therapist in different directions that positively changed my life, I am deeply grateful. To our son, David Hsi, who as a wise 13-year-old quietly encouraged his then overwhelmed Mom to “just go out in your garden for a while,” you are the true inspiration for the book. That prescient statement transformed my life, for the better. I love you both, very much.
Amy Wagenfeld
I am grateful to Amy Wagenfeld for encouraging me to join this project and mentoring me through years of education and life events. Thank you to Jesse Marder for supporting my interests and being a solid sounding board. Thank you also to Susan and Dan Marder for providing the space and time to work on the project. And lastly, I would like to thank my grandmothers, Ellen, Peggy, Susan, Ethel, Fern, and Dorothy, for inspiring and fueling my enthusiasm and creativity for all things nature, outdoors, and plant related.
Shannon Marder
About the Authors
Amy Wagenfeld, PhD, OTR/L, SCEM, EDAC, FAOTA, is passionate about providing people of all ages, abilities, and cultures equitable, inclusive, and safe access to therapeutic environments in which to regulate their emotional state, engage in physical activity, learn, socialize, and heal. She is on the faculty of the University of Washington’s Department of Landscape Architecture and Boston University’s Post Professional Occupational Therapy Doctoral Program and is the Principal of Amy Wagenfeld | Design, a therapeutic design consulting organization. Amy is a Fellow of the American Occupational Therapy Association, holds evidence-based design accreditation and certification (EDAC) through the Center for Health Design, specialty certification in environmental modifications (SCEM) through the American Occupational Therapy Association, and certification in Healthcare Garden Design through the Chicago Botanical Garden. Amy was recently awarded both the American Occupational Therapy Association Recognition of Achievement for her unique blending of occupational therapy and therapeutic design, and the American Society of Landscape Architects’ Outstanding Service Award.
Shannon Marder, OTD, OTR/L, is most curious about how nature can cultivate community and create a sense of belonging. She is a veteran of the U.S. Navy and graduated from Boston University with a degree in occupational therapy in which her doctoral capstone focused on nature-based interventions to promote socialization among older adults. She has developed curricula for nature-based education programs. Shannon lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and sons. Her clinical interests now lie at both ends of the life course: working with young children and older adults.
Contributing Authors
Our book would not be what it is without the generous contributions from the following people and organizations who care and dared to “take it outside” and have flourished. Your work will undoubtedly inspire others to do so. Thank you so much.
Leg Up Farm—Maura Musselman, Director of Community Engagement
Metro Music Therapy—Chris Monroe, MM, MT-BC, NMT
Monarch School of New England—Kathryn Perry, MA, OTR/L, HTR (lead contributor)
Mood Walks—Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario Division
Mountain States Hand and Physical Therapy—Pam Bohling, PT, MHS, OCS
Occupational Therapist—Samora Casimir, OTD, OTR/L
Ocean Therapy—Carly Rogers, OTD, OTR/L, and Nancy Miller
Outdoor Kids Occupational Therapy—Laura Park Figueroa, PhD, OTR/L
OT OuTside—Courtney Boitano OTD, OTR/L, BCBA-D
Pacific Quest—Suzanne McKinney, MA
Park Rx America—Robert Zarr, MD
Promise Ranch—Danielle Braman, MSOT, OTR/L, C/NDT
Positive Strides—Jennifer Udler, LCSW-C
P.R.O.D.U.C.E.—Lauren Telesmanic, OTD, OTR/L, and Antonio Fotino, OTD, OTR/L
Rush Oak Park Hospital’s Garden Program—Ryan Durkin, OTD, OTR/L, MBA
Serenity Garden (Rocky Mountain College OTD)—Twylla Kirchen, PhD, OTR/L
The Therapeutic Forest—Hannah Broughton, Co-founder and Managing Director, and Caspian Jamie, Co-founder, Speech and Language and Land Lead Therapist
TimberNook—Angela Hanscom, MOTR/L
Triform Camphill Community—Carol Fernandez, JD
Triune Health & Wellness—Judith Sadora, MA, LMFT
Walk with a Doc—Rachael Habash, MA, and David Sabgir, MD, FACC
Willow Family Wellness OT Services—Amanda Hall, MSc.OT, OT Reg. (Ont.), PMH-C, RYT
Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch (Rocky Mountain College OT)—Taylor Clark, OTD, OTR/L
We also extend our profound gratitude to those who shared their beautiful drawings, stories, and connections with nature. “This Much They Know” is that nature plays a meaningful role in their lives.
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
Beginning in late 2019, as we faced the challenges of navigating through the mysteries, stresses, and complexities associated with the COVID-19 global pandemic and considered what the new normal may look like, many people turned to nature as a setting in which to exercise, to socialize in responsible ways, to eat, to worship, to learn, and to receive personal services. School administrators began looking at ways to turn school grounds into outdoor classrooms, gyms offered an array of outdoor workouts, outdoor restaurant seating became more common, and even barbers and hairstylists moved salon operations outdoors. What is missing in this lengthy list of “take it outside” innovations? How about therapy services? What if outdoor environments were reconceptualized and reimagined as alternative spaces in which to provide healthcare services? If we look back through archival records, we learn that therapy outdoors is not necessarily a new idea. In their infancy as professions, mental health and occupational therapies were often facilitated in gardens, and going back further, court physicians of ancient times prescribed strolls in the garden to ease stress and angst. We will
Nature is the greatest teacher
Photo credit: Rebecca Habtour
take a closer look at what the past can tell us about contemporary practice in Chapter 3.
THIS MUCH I KNOW—SAMORA
Lieutenant Samora Casimir, OTD, OTR/L, shared, in her own words, how she “takes it outside.”
I am an occupational therapist who is also in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, working towards protecting, promoting, and advancing the health and safety of the United States. Pursuing that mission involves providing medical care to various underserved populations, delivering rapid and effective responses to public health needs, and fighting against disease and poor health conditions. During the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was working in Red Mesa, Arizona, on a Navajo Native American reservation in a local community outpatient health clinic.
Red Mesa is a stunningly beautiful part of the U.S. It is located within the Four Corners area of the United States (where the borders of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico meet). Red Mesa is approximately three hours northeast of the Grand Canyon and two hours south of Durango, Colorado. Being there was awe-inspiring and humbling, while, at the same time, very isolating. As the clinic’s only occupational therapist, I treated clients of all ages by providing individualized one-on-one care and leading small health and wellness groups. While working with the rest of the rehabilitation team, which included physical therapists,
A weekend group hike Happy at the summit
Photo credits: Samora Casimir
we took groups of clients outside for therapy whenever possible. I was working mostly with clients recovering from a stroke or upper-extremity disorders such as carpal tunnel syndrome, trigger finger, shoulder issues, neck and back pain, and various elbow conditions. When addressing the client’s holistic health, I found a lot of value in facilitating moderate to vigorous physical activities outside to promote and improve my clients’ mental health and physical wellbeing. I discovered that working and just being outside was a positive alternative to the clinical environment; it provided mental relief for the clients, enhanced socialization, and reduced the hospital stigma. The clients enjoyed it much more than being inside, and treatment activities felt more therapeutic and recreational.
In the spring of 2020, I had already been in my position for nearly two years when the COVID-19 restrictions started affecting our lives. The initial fears, ever-changing guidelines, and newly implemented protocols created a situation that felt increasingly isolating. To mediate the loneliness, we went outside. It may seem ironic that initially the large spaces and long distances of the reservation were isolating factors, but that the same vast outdoors became our space to connect. Our therapy staff facilitated 5K walks/runs outside within the community reservation area. We shared the information about the outdoor activities on the local radio stations, posted on the clinic’s website and various social media platforms, and shared the details via word of mouth. In addition to walks and runs, I took spin bikes outdoors for small group classes while maintaining six feet between the bikes. Participants reaped the benefits such as safe socializing, stress relief, positive team building, and exercising outside, in addition to physical health benefits such as weight loss and lowered blood pressure.
I believe that part of the reason for the successes I saw in the clinic was due to the connections I fostered outside of the clinic. For example, we invited a client who had “graduated” from all of her occupational and physical therapy sessions to join the rehab team on one of our long weekend hikes. She did not think she could complete the hike, but with some motivation and encouragement, she still joined us. It was great to see her at the end of the hike. She was very grateful that we invited her, that we believed she could do it, and she felt very accomplished. On a larger scale, I participated in numerous outdoor community events and activities such as National Park hikes, health fairs, yard sales on the reservation, and school events. At first, these activities or events may seem trivial, but they were ultimately meaningful and helped me to build relationships with the Navajo community residents. For me it was important to participate in these types of leisure-related activities to learn more about the history
and culture of the clients with whom I was working. In addition to my own education, this time outside the clinic also helped me become more grounded in cultural humility, cultural awareness, and cultural sensitivity. If I were to recommend anything about taking therapy outside, it would be that practitioners can facilitate any type of intervention with just a few needed adaptations. If a client uses a wheelchair, try seated gardening and greenhouse management, host a reading book club outside, lead a meditation or seated yoga hour, or do puzzles and other cognitive activities outside. Why? Because being outside is less stigmatizing than indoor clinical environments and, for many, is much more enjoyable than having an indoor therapy session. And I would also encourage all therapists to practice cultural humility with all clients of diverse ethnic backgrounds and incorporate each client’s cultural values into their treatment.
There are good reasons to consider a paradigm shift toward providing therapy outdoors. An ample and ever-increasing body of evidence finds that being in nature improves physical, social-emotional, and mental health. It is also shown to improve cognitive function, regulate the sensory systems, and strengthen family ties. Being in nature is, for many, inspirational, comforting, and restorative.
A moment of shared joy and inspiration in nature
Photo credit: Nicole Honoré
First Steps
A first step in “taking it outside” is acknowledging that nature matters as it pertains to improved quality of life and health and wellbeing. A next step is to consider that outdoor environments may be an invaluable option for facilitating therapy services. The purpose of this book is to introduce all health professionals, such as social workers, psychologists, occupational, physical, recreational, and speech therapy practitioners, music therapists, athletic trainers, low-vision and blindness practitioners, and other mental health providers to the value of therapy outdoors and to provide straightforward, practical, and doable strategies to consider in facilitating the option of offering therapy services outdoors. Some outdoor programs such as equine, wilderness, or adaptive sports are best facilitated after you have received formal training. Other outdoor therapy programs, such as walking or gardening, do not necessitate any formal training.
In addition to starting a new outdoor or nature-based therapy program, we also advocate for taking your current practice outside. For instance, if you have access to nearby outdoor spaces, when teaching a home exercise program, go outside to practice the repetitions, practice language skills or handwriting activities at a table outside, or practice using adapted utensils to eat during an outdoor picnic. These are small but significant steps to start taking therapy outside in a less formal manner.
While you, the reader, and we, the authors, come to this book identifying as a specific type of health professional, a common umbrella term that we may want to use to describe therapeutic work outdoors is nature therapy. First and foremost, though, it is imperative to acknowledge that you are a licensed provider using the medium of nature therapy within the scope and under the credentials of your practice to improve the health and wellbeing of your clients. It makes such perfect sense! Miyazaki, Song, and Ikei (2015) describe nature therapy as being “a set of practices aimed at achieving ‘preventive medical effects’ through exposure to natural stimuli that render a state of physiological relaxation and boost the weakened immune functions to prevent diseases” (p.20). This definition bodes well with the overarching goals of therapy and, more so, therapy that involves interaction with nature.
Nature-Based Allied Health Practice is in large part driven by stories. The voices of people of all ages who love nature and the providers who are already “taking it outside” with their clients resonate throughout the book. We want you to feel inspired and empowered to include nature in your respective professional practice. When writing this book, a case narrative provider shared a great quote toward encouraging us to write. Liz Remillard of Empower SCI said, “Be confident and do it; you don’t need anyone else’s permission. You have the power; give yourself permission to make things happen.”
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provided that British sheep and wool were not exported thither. Nine woollen manufacturers of Yorkshire were decidedly of this opinion. The chief clothier of Devizes expected harm from Irish competition only in the cheaper stuffs.349 For the cotton industry the evidence was less encouraging, the witnesses from Manchester claiming that Irish thread could be spun 20 per cent. cheaper than British thread, and that an import duty of 10½ per cent. was needed to protect the home market.350 Representative silk merchants of London and Scotland had little apprehension for the future, until the Irish workers developed skill and taste.351 As for the iron trade, the evidence of eight iron-masters who were examined refuted the reasoning of the Sheffield petition. Provided that Ireland did not pay a smaller duty than Great Britain on imports of bar iron, they asserted that they could hold their own against her small and struggling iron industry.
352
In face of the alarmist statements of Wedgwood in public, his evidence before the committee is of some interest. When asked whether he feared Irish competition in pottery if the duties in both kingdoms were equalized, he replied that “there might be danger of a competition in time, in their own and every foreign market.353 I should think we were safer if earthenware was allowed to be imported free of all duties into both countries.” This was the man who headed the protectionist “Great Chamber of Manufacturers.” Wedgwood’s chief manager admitted that he had only the day before heard that any pottery at all was made in Ireland. Is it surprising that Pitt sharply criticized Wedgwood’s tactics?
Other strange features of this report are, first, that the outcry in England against any relaxation of duties was greatest in the case of the very articles, calicoes and sugar, in which the Irish Parliament had recently imposed higher duties; secondly, that whereas much of the evidence told in favour of inter-insular Free Trade, the committee decided in favour of a system of moderate duties to be agreed on by the two Governments.354 Some such conclusion was perhaps inevitable in view of the popular clamour; but the committee made no suggestion how the two Parliaments, now drifting into fiscal hostility, were to come to terms.
If the evidence contained in the report had been duly weighed, the scare among British traders must have passed away; but official reports are of little avail to thwart the efforts of panic-mongers. In vain did George Rose, in an unsigned pamphlet, point the moral of the case, and appeal to the common sense of his countrymen.355 The Opposition had the ear of the public, and the fate of the Resolutions in their present form was evidently sealed. Probably Pulteney was right in stating that the report came out too late to influence public opinion, and that Pitt had unaccountably underrated the force of the prejudices contending against him. Now, when the vote on the Westminster Scrutiny alarmed him, he became perhaps unduly cautious.356 This may be the true explanation of his disposition to compromise. In his letter of 21st May, to the Duke of Rutland, he dwelt on the difficulties arising from the unscrupulous tactics of the enemy and the very marked independence of a large number of his supporters, so that “we are hardly sure from day to day what impression they may receive.”
This avowal is of some interest. It shows how critical was Pitt’s position in the spring of 1785. As has been seen in a former chapter, he had strained the allegiance of his motley following by taking up too many thorny questions at once. The composite elements—Foxite, Northite, and Chathamite—had not yet been fused into unity by the power of his genius and the threatening pressure of France. Only by the most careful leading could he keep his supporters together, and save the country from the turmoil which a Fox-North Ministry must have caused. There was the danger; and we may be sure that Pitt clung to office, not merely from love of power (though he did love power), but because, in the proud words of Chatham, he knew that he could guide his country aright, and that no one else could.
Viewing the question of the independence of members of Parliament in a more general way, we may hazard the conjecture that in the days of pocket boroughs and small electorates members probably acted more independently than in the present time, when their action is apt to be the resultant of two external forces, pressure from constituents and pressure from the party “whip.” However we may explain the fact, it is certain that Pitt, despite his huge majority, failed to
carry three important proposals in 1785–6; and in the case of the Irish Propositions he hesitated and lost the day.
In the second week of May, 1785, the Prime Minister bent before the storm, and on the 12th presented his modified measure in the form of twenty Propositions. The chief changes were those tending to safeguard our West India planters and merchants against the secret importation of the products of the French or Spanish colonies into this country on Irish ships. He maintained the monopoly of the East India Company in all the seas and lands between the Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of Magellan, but allowed the Company’s ships to export goods from Ireland to the East Indies. Further, he proposed that the Navigation Laws, whether present or future, and the enactments respecting colonial commerce, should be equally binding on both kingdoms. Respecting the reduction of duties in either country, it was suggested that they should not fall below 10½ per cent.; also that no new duties should be imposed except such as would “balance duties on internal consumption.” He also added a Proposition concerning the copyright of books. Respecting Ireland’s contribution to the navy, Pitt annulled the Irish proposal asserting the prior need of balancing income and expenditure, and required that the proposed financial arrangement should be perpetual.
In his speeches of 12th May and succeeding days he showed that most of the petitions against his plan were founded on error, and he refuted the hackneyed assertion that, because Ireland was lightly taxed and wages were low, she would therefore undersell Britons in their own markets. Considering her extreme poverty, he said, her burdens were in effect as great as those of England; her backwardness in industry would long cripple her; moreover, for skilled labour she had to pay as dearly as British employers. He claimed that a liberal scheme of commercial union would benefit both islands, just as the Union with Scotland had immensely furthered the prosperity of Great Britain despite the prophecies of ruin with which it was at the time received.
His opponents now changed their tactics. Seeing that the Propositions had been altered largely in deference to their fears, they
could scarcely meet them with a direct attack. They therefore sought to procure their rejection, if not at Westminster, then at Dublin. Congratulating themselves on having caused the abandonment of the first proposals, as fraught with ruin to Great Britain, they sought to set Ireland in a flame against the amended measure. It is true that Fox deprecated the concession of the proposed advantages to Ireland, on the ground that they would subject our workers to the caprices of the Dublin Parliament. But he reserved his denunciations for the proposals which treated Ireland as a subsidiary State, in the matter of the Navigation Acts. Above all, he declared, he would trust Ireland where the Prime Minister distrusted her, namely, in the contribution to the navy. Put that to her as a debt of honour, said he, and she would discharge it. Compel her, and she would either refuse from injured pride or concede it grudgingly, while perhaps equally withdrawing her support from the army. “I will not,” he exclaimed, “barter English commerce for Irish slavery: that is not the price I would pay, nor is this the thing I would purchase.” Finally he declared that the House could not understand these matters so well as the traders and workers of Great Britain, who had overwhelmingly declared against the measure. Fox did well to disclaim any positive opinions on these subjects; for he took no interest in them, and is known never to have read Adam Smith’s work, which he scoffed at as a collection of entertaining theories.357 We can now understand his conduct in declaiming against the new safeguards for British industry, which he himself had demanded; and if we may judge from Wraxall, the most telling parts of his speech were the personal touches in which he reprobated Pitt’s lofty dictatorial manner, and his novel connection with the “King’s friend,” Jenkinson. Formerly War Secretary under Lord North,358 he had recently been appointed by Pitt head of the new “Committee of Council for the Superintendence of Commerce.” Burke, who must have approved Pitt’s proposals (except the contribution from Ireland, against which he hotly inveighed), made capital out of the new “Coalition,” calling Jenkinson Pitt’s pedestal, and wittily declaring that he envied not the statue its pedestal or the pedestal its statue.359 Other members, including Fox and Pitt, skilfully played with the simile, and thus beguiled the hours of these otherwise exhausting debates, which,
we may note, caused Wilberforce to faint in the midst of his efforts to defend his chief.
The most brilliant, though not the least mischievous, speech of these debates was that of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. It is needless to dilate on the Celtic charm and vivacity of this great littérateur. Descended from an old Irish family, which gave to Swift one of his dearest friends, and to Dublin one of its leading actors and authors, he was born in 1751, doomed to sparkle. Educated at Harrow, and called to the Bar, he soon attracted attention by his speeches and still more by his plays. His “Rivals” and “School for Scandal” attested the versatility of his wit and the cynical geniality of his nature. In 1780 he made what was perhaps the chief mistake of his life in entering Parliament as member for Stafford; for his character was too volatile his satire too caustic, to ensure success except as a frondeur Friendship with Fox condemned him almost entirely to this rôle and exaggerated the recklessness of his utterances. He was the Charles O’Malley of politics. When, therefore, that engaging political satire, “The Rolliad,” appeared, in castigation of Rolle, the somewhat roisterous member for Devonshire, everyone attributed the poems to Sheridan; and his strenuous denial found little credence.360
One of the “Probationary Odes” amusingly hit off the alliance of Jenkinson with Pitt and the increase in the number of the Irish Propositions:
Lo! hand in hand advance th’ enamour’d pair
This Chatham’s son and that the drudge of Bute.
Proud of their mutual love
Like Nisus and Euryalus they move
To Glory’s steepest heights together tend, Each careless for himself, each anxious for his friend.
C
Hail! most prudent Politicians! Hail! correct Arithmeticians!
Hail! vast exhaustless source of Irish Propositions!
Elsewhere in dolorous strains the Muse
Sees fair Ierne rise from England’s flame, And build on British ruin Irish fame.361
In these witticisms we have the high-water mark of the achievements of the Opposition. Sheridan inveighed against the exaction of a contribution from Ireland towards the navy, and the reimposition of the Navigation Laws (certainly the weakest part of Pitt’s case) as implying a legislative inferiority from which she had escaped in 1782. He scoffed at the commercial boons as a mean and worthless bribe, and the whole scheme as “a fraud, cheat and robbery,” fatal to the confidence of the Irish in the good faith of Britain. The playwright further exclaimed that it would be a misfortune if the Irish Parliament dared to pass the Resolutions, and that, as it was not by Parliament that the independence of Ireland had been obtained, so it was not by Parliament that it should be given up. This was tantamount to an invitation to the Irish Volunteers to renew their coercion of the Dublin Parliament; and it was now clear that Fox and his friends, in despair of defeating the proposals at Westminster, were seeking to wreck them at Dublin, if need be, at the cost of civil broils.
In this they succeeded. By substantial majorities Ministers carried the Irish Propositions at the end of May; and the Lords passed them on 18th July. But long before this the storm-centre had moved across St. George’s Channel. Throughout the length and breadth of Ireland an outcry was raised against the state of ignominious dependence in which Ireland would be placed by the contribution now imposed on her for ever in return for greatly diminished advantages. Fox’s telling phrase about the bartering of Irish liberty against British commerce was on every lip. The results were at once obvious. Though Pitt, with his usually sanguine forecast, had expressed the belief that the Dublin Parliament would be more manageable than that of Westminster, it set at naught all the Viceregal blandishments. Some of its members even taunted Pitt with acting treacherously towards Ireland throughout. Grattan, while refraining from this taunt, opposed the new scheme, especially clause iv and the perpetual contribution, in a speech which
the Lord Lieutenant described to Pitt as “seditious and inflammatory to a degree scarcely credible.” Flood excelled himself in recklessness; and in that body of usually subservient placemen, leave to bring in the Bill was granted only by a majority of nineteen (12th August).
In face of this storm-signal the Irish Government decided to furl their sails and come to anchor. The measure was deferred to another session; and of course was never heard of again. Considering the “very great clamour”362 in the country, this was inevitable; and Dublin manifested its joy by a spontaneous and general illumination. Woodfall, an opponent of Pitt’s policy, admitted to Eden that neither the populace nor the members could explain the cause of their recent fury or their present joy.363 The excitement soon abated; and it must be allowed that the popular party in Ireland did not adopt the hostile measures against British trade which might have been expected after the breakdown of these enlightened proposals. Lord Westmorland, during his viceroyalty five years later, admitted that complete harmony existed in the commercial relations of the two kingdoms.
This may have salved the wound which the events of 1785 dealt to Pitt. Up to the very end he had hoped for success in what had been the dearest object of his life. After hearing of the ominous vote of 12th August in Dublin, he wrote to the Marquis of Buckingham in the following manly terms:
Putney Heath, Aug. 17, 1785.364
M D L ,
I have many thanks to return you for your letter. Grenville will probably send you the account we received to-day from Ireland, after a long period of suspense. The motion for bringing in a Bill has been carried only by 127 against 108; and such a victory undoubtedly partakes, for the present at least, of the nature of a defeat. A motion was announced for Monday last, declaratory against the 4th Resolution. The event of this motion seemed to be thought uncertain. The probable issue of all this seems to be that
the settlement is put at some distance, but I still believe the principles of it too sound, not to find their way at last.
To the Duke of Rutland he also wrote in the same lofty spirit, using the words quoted at the head of this chapter, and adding that, when experience had brought more wisdom, “we shall see all our views realised in both countries and for the advantage of both.”
Faith and courage such as this are never lost upon colleagues and subordinates, especially when they can rely on loyal support from their chief. Both to the Duke and to Orde Pitt now tendered his thanks for their tact and resolution in face of overwhelming difficulties, and thus manifested that kindliness and magnanimity which wins heartfelt devotion. For, as usually happens after defeat, envious surmises were rife. Some spiteful influence (probably that of the Marquis of Buckingham),365 had sought to poison Pitt’s mind against Orde as the chief cause of the failure in Dublin. As for Beresford, he believed that some of Pitt’s colleagues had turned traitors. Lesser men might pry into corners to find petty causes for that heart-breaking collapse; but no such suspicions mar the dignity of Pitt’s voluminous correspondence, a perusal of which enables the reader to understand why Orde once exclaimed: “I am so sensible of the manly and noble part which Mr Pitt has acted, that I will die by inches in the cause of his support.”
The real reason of failure, as Pitt clearly saw, was the determination of powerful factions in both kingdoms to wreck his proposals by representing each concession made to the sister-island as an injury or an insult, or both. At all times it is easier to fan to a flame the fears and jealousies of nations than to allay them; and in that age the susceptibilities both of Britons and Irishmen were highly inflammable. Twelve decades, marked by reforming efforts and closer intercourse, have softened the feelings then so easily aroused; and as we look back over efforts of conciliation, not yet crowned with complete success, we see no figure nobler and more pathetic than that of the statesman who struggled hard to bring together those hitherto alien peoples by the ties of interest and friendship; we see also few figures more sinister than those of his political opponents at Westminster who
set themselves doggedly to the task of thwarting his efforts by means of slander and misrepresentation.
CHAPTER XII
PITT AND HIS FRIENDS
(1783–94)
Keep thy friend
Under thy own life’s key. S , All’s Well that Ends Well.
A crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery of pictures, and talk but a tinkling cymball where there is no love.— B .
SOME statesmen merit notice solely from the magnitude of their achievements; others attract attention by the charm of their personality. Pitt claims homage on both accounts. Accordingly I propose to devote this chapter to his private life and friendships during the early part of his career, beginning with the time when he laid down the Chancellorship of the Exchequer and fled to the house of his friend Wilberforce at Wimbledon. In the Diary of the latter we read this brief but suggestive entry: “April 3 [1783]. To Wimbledon, where Pitt, etc., dined and slept. Evening walk—to bed a little past two. April 4. Delicious day: lounged the morning at Wimbledon with friends: foining at night, and run about the garden for an hour or two.”
We can picture the scene. Lauriston House, Wilberforce’s abode on the south side of Wimbledon Common, is a spacious villa, comfortable in its eighteenth-century solidity, and scarcely changed since those days. One of the front bedrooms is known as “Mr. Pitt’s room.” There he would look forth on the Common, which had for him a peculiar charm. At the back, the south windows look upon an extensive
lawn, bordered not too thickly by trees, under one of which, a maple, tradition says that he was wont to lounge away his Sunday mornings, to the distress of his host. At other times the garden was the scene of half riotous mirth. Pitt, Dudley Ryder, Pepper Arden, Tom Steele, and Wilberforce there broke loose from the restraints of Westminster, and indulged in foyning. That old-English word, denoting thrusting or fencing, conjures up visions of quips and pranks such as Horace loved. Would that Pitt had had more time for these wholesome follies!
Imagine these youths, with the freshness of Cambridge still upon them, cheating the hours with fun. Pitt, the stately, austere leader of the House of Commons, who, on entering its precincts, fixed his eyes straight on his seat, and tilted his nose loftily in air during his State progress thither, with not so much as a nod to his supporters367—yet here, on the lawn of Lauriston House, is all fun and laughter, sharpening his wit against the edge of Wilberforce’s fancy, answering jest with jest, quotation with quotation, in a fresh mingling of jollity and culture. As yet all is joyous in the lives of the friends. Wilberforce has inherited from an uncle an ample fortune along with Lauriston House, and adds rooms to it so as fitly to entertain the friends who always cluster about him. The woes of the slaves have not yet struck a chill to his life, and he lives amidst a buzz of friends and admirers. He reminds us of that character in Disraeli’s “Lothair,” who proved an irresistible magnet at every party—no one quite knew why; but every one sought to be next him. The magnetism of Wilberforce is easily intelligible; it lay in his lovable and gifted nature, which welled forth freely in genial anecdote, friendly parody, sparkling retort.
For Pitt, too, there were as yet no oppressive cares. True, at that time, there loomed before him the toilsome career of an impecunious barrister, but that did not daunt his serene and self-reliant nature. Doubtless the troubles of England moved him more, now that the prospect of peace with America and the half of Europe was overclouded by the triumph of Fox and North. But Pitt had that protective faculty, inherent in all great natures, of laying aside personal and even national cares in the company of his dearest friends, and it set him free for life-restoring mirth. Then, too, his nature, shy and stiff to mere acquaintances, blossomed forth radiantly to a chosen circle, such as he found at Wimbledon. Here, then, was seen the real man.
Away went the mask of official reserve, which prudence compelled him to wear at Westminster as a defence against his seniors. Here, among youths and friends, his pranks were startling. One of them must be told in the words of Wilberforce: “We found one morning the fruits of Pitt’s earlier rising in the careful sowing of the garden beds with the fragments of a dress-hat in which Dudley Ryder had overnight come down from the opera.”
Would that we knew more of those bright days! For Pitt the man, not Pitt the statesman, is seen at Wimbledon. The pillar of State, columnar in its Doric austerity, becomes a lithe facile form, twined about with social graces, gay with the flowers of friendship. The hours of recreation, rather than those spent in the office, reveal the inner life. Alas! the self-revealing episodes in the life of Pitt are hidden from us. None of his friends was a Boswell. Wilberforce, who might have been the enlightener, was troubled by defective eyesight, which curtailed his correspondence; and his Diary is a series of tantalizing jottings, a veritable Barmecide feast. As for Pitt’s relatives, they never drew him out of himself. Lord Chatham, though a good talker in general company, seems to have exerted on his younger brother a slightly chilling influence; and their letters were fraternally business-like. We therefore search in vain for those lighter traits of character, those sparkles of wit, which enlivened the joyous years 1783–5. This side of Pitt’s character is little more known to us than are the hidden regions of the moon. We wish to know it all the more because it is not the frozen but the sunny side of his being.
Failing to catch more than one sportive echo of those glad times, the chronicler falls back on mere externals, such as Pitt’s occasional reluctance to attend the parish church at Wimbledon, or his fondness for fishing in Lord Spencer’s lake on the lower land east of the Common. Clearly the neighbourhood must have attracted him; for in August 1784 he leased the house next to Lord Ashburton’s, on the north side of Putney Heath, scarcely two miles distant from the abode of Wilberforce. He resided there up to the autumn of 1785, when the opportunity of buying the house at Holwood drew him to the scenes of his boyhood, near Hayes, in Kent. Nevertheless the Surrey Common was to win him back. For, during his last term of office, he purchased
Bowling Green House, on the old Portsmouth road, near the middle of that beautiful space.
There it was that he fought his duel with Tierney on Whitsunday 1798. There, too, he breathed his last, on 23rd January 1806. In the dark days that followed on the news of Austerlitz, his thoughts turned with one final flicker of hope towards the news which he expected from his special envoy to Berlin, the Earl of Harrowby, formerly Dudley Ryder The news proved to be heart-breaking. But fancy persists in wondering whether, perchance, during the time of waiting, the dauntless spirit did not for a brief space fling off the thraldom of the present and flit across the open to dwell with fond remembrance on that spring sowing of the flower-beds of his friend Wilberforce.368
After the severe disappointments of the session of 1785, the signs of friskiness vanish from the life of Pitt. Up to that time his hopefulness is of almost boyish intensity. Confidence in himself, and in the goodness of his cause, and determination to carry out a work of national revival, lead him to grapple with great enterprises in a way that astonishes friends and baffles opponents. The nation having given him a mandate in 1784, he hopes to solve the most urgent of existing problems. They are the restoration of public credit, the reduction of the National Debt, the reform of Parliament, the subordination of the East India Company to the control of Parliament, the opening up of freer trade not only with Ireland but also with France, and the preservation of peace, so that, as he phrased it—“Let peace continue for five years, and we shall again look any Power in Europe in the face.”369
Here was a programme which transcended anything previously seen. But to it were added the many unforeseen events and problems that provide a full stock in trade for an ordinary parliamentary leader. The Warren Hastings affair alone would have occupied a whole session under a quiescent Minister; and we may here note that Pitt’s conscientious treatment of it, as a matter on which Ministers and members must vote according to their convictions, tended to relax the bonds of party discipline to a dangerous extent.
Indeed, there is only one of his important actions during the first years of power that needs apology. This is the persistence with which he pressed against Fox the demand for a complete scrutiny of the Westminster election. Despite the fact that that wearisome and very expensive inquiry brought to light few bad votes, and did not exclude Fox from Parliament (for as we saw, he sat as Member for Orkney), the Prime Minister refused to put an end to “this cursed business,” as Pulteney termed it,370 until his own supporters compelled him to desist. How are we to explain this conduct? It led to waste of time and temper in Parliament, besides annoying many of his friends, and straining to breaking-point the allegiance of his composite majority. There can be no doubt that he committed a blunder, and one which Englishmen detest; for his conduct seemed ungenerous to a beaten foe and a violation of the unwritten rules of fair-play
Nevertheless, it is likely that he acted, not from rancour, not from a desire to ban his enemy, least of all under any dictation from Windsor (of this I have found no sign), but rather from the dictates of political morality. That there had been trumping up of false votes was notorious; for the votes polled exceeded the total number of voters; and Pitt, as the champion of purity at elections, may have deemed it his duty to probe the sore to the bottom. In these days an avowed champion of Reform would be praised for such conduct. In that age he was condemned; and it was certainly tactless to single out Fox from among the many candidates for whom corrupt practices had been used. Such an act appeared the outcome of personal pique, not of zeal for electoral purity. So at least men looked on it in the spring of 1785. Pulteney, Wraxall, and the ordinary ruck of members failed to see anything but personal motives in the whole affair.371 Fox, who always gauged the temper of the House aright, carried it with him when he protested that he had little expected to find Pitt acting as the agent of the Crown in his persecution; that it was clearly the aim of the Ministry to ruin him, for he was a poor man. “Yet,” he added, “in such a cause I will lay down my last shilling. If ultimately I lose my election, it will be for want of money, not from want of a legal majority of votes, while Westminster will be deprived of its franchise because I am unable to prosecute a pecuniary contest with the Treasury.”
This is the most effective type of parliamentary speech. It avoided all reference to the abstract principles which were at stake, and it appealed with telling force to the sporting instincts of squires. Little wonder is it that Pitt’s followers went over to the side which seemed to stand for fair play to a poor man in his contest with a spiteful bureaucracy. A few days later Pitt could muster only a majority of nine (21st February 1785), and this clearly foreshadowed the end of the scrutiny, which came with a vote hostile to Ministers on 3rd March. On a subordinate motion, six days later, several malcontents returned to their allegiance, thus proving, in Wraxall’s words, that “they wished to control and restrain, but had no desire to overturn, the Administration.”
372
This affair deserves mention here because it illustrates what was the chief weakness of Pitt. His secluded childhood, his education apart from other youths, even at Cambridge, his shyness in general company, and his decided preference for the society of a few friends, gave him very few opportunities for knowing ordinary men. He therefore was slow in understanding the temper of the House, and he never gained what we may call the Palmerston touch. Well would it have been for him if he had mixed more with men and shown towards members of the House the affability with which Fox and North charmed friends and foes alike. But, like Peel, Pitt had neither parliamentary graces nor small talk for the lobby. In truth he was too shy or too proud to unbend with ease. Or rather he did so only in a circle of friends or among his juniors. Then his sense of fun could go to surprising lengths, witness that historic romp when Lady Hester Stanhope, two of her younger brothers, and young William Napier (the future historian) managed to get him down and blacken his face. In the midst of their jubilant triumph there came a knock at the door. Two Ministers were announced as desirous of taking his commands on some question. For a few minutes State business stood still until the Prime Minister shook off his assailants and washed his face for the interview. Then the boys marvelled more at the change of manner than of colour. The Prime Minister threw up his chin, loftily inquired the cause of the visit, imparted his decision, stiffly dismissed the Ministers—and resumed the romp. 373 Clearly there were two Pitts.
His rather stilted manners at Westminster were doubtless a reflection—a lunar reflection—of the melodramatic splendours of his father. Never was a colleague or a subordinate introduced to Chatham’s presence until the effects of light were Rembrandtesque, and the telling phrase had been coined. But where the father triumphed by the force of his personality, the son only half succeeded. For he was more a Grenville than a Pitt, and he inherited from that family some of its congenital stiffness. Hence the efforts which the son put forth, as if with the aim of fulfilling the precept of St. Paul to Timothy—“Let no man despise thy youth”—were calculated, not to impress beholders, but rather to freeze them.
Far different was the easy good nature of Fox, which often salved the wounds inflicted in the course of debate. It is said that Lord North, after one of the debates on the American War, in which Fox had mercilessly belaboured one of the Ministers, good-humouredly remarked to the orator, “You were in fine feather to-night, Charles; I am glad that it was not my turn to be fallen upon.” Fox, we may add, reciprocated these sentiments. However he might threaten North with impeachment, he was ready in private to shake him by the hand; and shortly before the fall of that Minister he publicly asked his pardon for offending him by his tremendous indictment, adding that he meant it not. To us this sounds unreal. Either the indictment against the author of the nation’s ruin was not quite sincere, or the apology was hollow. Pitt, with his exceptionally high standard of truthfulness,374 could not have tendered it. Fox did; and Wraxall praised his conduct, adding that Pitt was less placable, and was wanting in those frank, winning, open ways which made friends and retained them through adversity.375
This rather superficial verdict—for Wraxall knew Pitt only very slightly—summed up the views of the easy-going mass, which cares nothing for principles, little for measures, and very much for men, provided that they keep up the parliamentary game according to the old rules and in a sportsmanlike way. It must always be remembered that few members of Parliament took their duties seriously, and looked on the debates mainly as a change from the life of the other fashionable clubs. To such an assembly the political philosophy of Burke was foolishness, and the lofty principles of Pitt, mere
Pharisaism. Its ideal would have been Esau, provided that he had held fast to the customs of primogeniture.
We have little or nothing that directly shows the impression produced on Pitt by his discovery of the shallowness and fickleness of his supporters. Perhaps it intensified his natural shyness and awkwardness of manner, which Wilberforce assures us were very great. Certainly he did not mix more with men. “Pitt does not make friends” is a significant entry in Wilberforce’s Diary for March 1785.376 This inability to make a wide circle of friends was not incompatible with those rarer gifts which link a man closely to those with whom he had real kinship of spirit. If we may read Shakespeare’s thoughts into the well-known words of Polonius to Laertes, the poet supremely admired a man who inspired the few with ardent affection and held the many at arm’s length. In regard to character, then, we may honour Pitt for the very characteristic which to men like Wraxall seemed a blemish.
Nevertheless, it was a serious failing in a parliamentary tactician. Onlookers, who saw only the cold and reserved exterior, described Pitt as the embodiment of egotism and pride. His friends knew full well that he was the soul of kindness. Dundas and Wilberforce testify to his affable behaviour to subordinates, his fund of good temper, which was proof even against contradiction and the advent of bad news. Wilberforce mentions a case in point. Pitt had long been ruminating on some revenue proposal, and at length mentioned it to the AttorneyGeneral, only to learn that there would be grave legal objections to the scheme; far from showing annoyance, he received the announcement “with the most unruffled good-humour,” and, giving up his plan, “pursued his other business as cheerfully and pleasantly as usual.”377
It is not thus that a proud and egotistical nature sees his castle vanish into air. Anecdotes such as this have been known only since the year 1897. Now we know the real Pitt; the men of these times saw only the professional mask; and therefore we find exclamations like that of Sir Gilbert Elliot who, after hearing the almost inspired speech of Pitt on the abolition of the slave-trade, remarked: “One felt almost to like the man”;378 or again Lady Anne Hamilton in her “Memoirs of the Court of George III,” asserted that Pitt was always cold and carried his frostiness even into his carouses.
This certainly was the general belief. In one particular Pitt’s behaviour often gave colour to the charge of pride or egotism. His letters were as stiff as his parliamentary attitudes. Worst of all, he very often left letters unanswered; and this applied not merely to begging letters, against which silence is a Prime Minister’s panoply, but even to important matters of State. We find Eden, in the midst of the commercial negotiations with France, writing from Paris in despairing terms about the Prime Minister’s silence, and finally suggesting that all his letters of the last fortnight must have sunk in the Channel. Sir James Harris, too, when fighting an unequal battle against the French party in Holland, begged Pitt to send a few lines to encourage the hard pressed friends of England. For four months not a line came; and at last Harris begged Carmarthen to cajole a letter out of his chief: “Is it impossible to move him, who speaks so well, to write one poor line to these sound shillings and pence men?”379 The excuse doubtless was, that Pitt was overworked in Parliament (as indeed he stated to Eden);380 but, even with the then scanty facilities for dealing with a vast correspondence, he should certainly have handled it with more method and tact. Careless correspondents will readily conjecture how much a Prime Minister may harm his prospects by subjecting friends and foes alike to a peculiarly annoying slight.
Pitt, then, owed little or nothing to social graces; and Horace Walpole gave a very superficial judgement, when, in his companion sketches of Pitt and Fox, he stated that the former “cultivated friends to form a party.” On the contrary, he harmed his party by cooling his friends.
The men who most helped Pitt to keep in touch with his following were Dundas, Grenville, and Jenkinson. They did not, as Wraxall avers, hold the first place in his confidence. That was still held by Wilberforce; and to their friendship we may apply the apt remark of Montaigne, that the amity which possesses and sways the soul cannot be double. For political reasons Pitt after the year 1784 came into closer contact with his subalterns, among whom Dundas and Grenville claim notice.
Henry Dundas (1742–1811), a younger son of the Right Honourable Robert Dundas, Lord President of the Scottish Court of Session, and of Anne Gordon of Invergordon, was born at Edinburgh, where he was educated first at school, then in the University The atmosphere in which he grew up was strictly legal; and his ancestry, no less than his upbringing, seemed to fit him for success at the Bar, at which he appeared in 1763. His rise was rapid, and in 1774 he entered Parliament as member for Midlothian. At Westminster he attached himself to North’s party and became known as a hard worker and hard hitter. United as these powers were with a manly presence, genial gifts, and the full fund of Scottish shrewdness, he acquired favour and became Lord Advocate. Grace and persuasiveness of speech he lacked; a harsh voice, a still harsher accent, and awkward gestures told against him; but above these defects he rose triumphant, thanks to indomitable courage, which enabled him unabashed to bear the heaviest blows of debate. Napoleon once expressed his admiration of Blücher, because, however badly he was beaten, “the old devil” came up again as though nothing had happened. So it was with Dundas in his many encounters with Fox. He might be repulsed but never routed. His features were bold and handsome, and, if they were “tinged with convivial purple,” that perhaps enhanced their charm. For the House loved a bon vivant, who entertained with lairdly lavishness and had good store, not only of wine, but of broad stories.
Wraxall, while admitting Dundas’s appearance to be “manly and advantageous,” avers that his conviviality was part of a deep-laid scheme for managing men and tightening his grip on the Administration; for “never did any man conceal deeper views of every kind under the appearance of careless inattention to self-interest.” The same insinuation is wittily conveyed by the authors of “The Rolliad” in a skit on the Cabinet Meetings which Dundas was supposed to hold in his villa. “March 9th, 1787. Got Thurlow to dine with us at Wimbledon —gave him my best Burgundy and blasphemy to put him into good humour. After a brace of bottles ventured to drop a hint of business. Thurlow cursed me, and asked Pitt for a sentiment. Pitt looked foolish, Grenville wise. Mulgrave stared. Sydney’s chin lengthened. Tried the effect of another bottle. Pitt began a long speech on the subject of our meeting. Sydney fell asleep by the fire”—and so on.
In one respect Dundas was the great political agent of the age. He managed Scotland, so thoroughly, indeed, that he has been termed “the foremost Scotsman of the eighteenth century.”381 No civilian since the time of John Knox has ever controlled the energies of that people so thoroughly as Henry Dundas. What the great Reformer achieved by an appeal to their highest aspirations, the party manipulator achieved by an appeal to the purse. Since the collapse of the Stuart cause material interests had been paramount; and their deadening effect on national character appears in the political torpor which lay upon Scotland until the strident call of the French Revolution awakened her. The men north of the Tweed had even more reason than Englishmen to desire Parliamentary Reform; for, as will be seen in a later chapter, in all Scotland there were only 1303 electors; and these returned 45 members as against 44 who misrepresented Cornwall. But so long as the Scots slumbered, it mattered not whether they had 45 members or 4; for the return of 45, and their course of conduct at Westminster were alike prescribed by Dundas. The soporific fruit which drugged the Scottish people and kept their representatives close to his heel was “patronage.” Dundas it was who dispensed all important prizes both in Church and State. Valuable livings at home, lucrative posts in India or speedy advancement in the navy, these and many other rewards were in his hands. His influence at the Admiralty and at the India Board of Control was immense; he worked hard for his men; and it may be admitted that his choice of officials, especially for India, was often sound. Certain it is that he opened up golden avenues to hundreds of poor Scottish families, so that he was often hailed as the benefactor of his people.
In one respect Dundas conferred a substantial boon. He persuaded Pitt to extinguish the embers of hatred to the reigning dynasty which still smouldered in the Highlands, by restoring the estates that were confiscated after the “Forty-five.” By this act of clemency Pitt and Dundas linked their names to the work of reconciliation so tactfully begun by Chatham, and helped to foster the sentiment of British nationality, which bore a rich harvest on the fields of Salamanca and Waterloo. It is not surprising, then, that Dundas had the small governing clique in Scotland entirely at his beck and call. One of his forty-five henchmen at Westminster, Ferguson of Pitfour,
