Few events in the annals of the House of Commons are more remarkable
than the sudden rise of Pitt. His maiden speech--in support of
Burke's Bill for economical reform--placed him at once in the first
rank of parliamentary orators. "I was able to execute in some
measure what I intended," was Pitt's own modest account of this
speech in a letter to his mother. The opinion of the House of
Commons and the town was wholly different: his speech was regarded
as masterly--astonishing in one so young and new to Parliament.
Selwyn had not heard it, but in the following letter he tells
Carlisle of the general impression it had made; and on June 13th he
gives his own critical opinion of Pitt's third speech. The detailed
description by Storer, who supplemented Selwyn's letters of the
debate of February 26th, adds to our knowledge of this memorable
debate.


(1781,) Feb. 27, Tuesday.--I have received no comfort or pleasure for
some days, but what I had last night by a letter from Mrs. Sowerby to
Lady Gower, and which Lady Gower was so good as to send to me.

I find by that that the children at Trentham are well, and that
Charlotte is so altered for the better as to be reconnoissable. But of
you and of Caroline, Lady C., Louise, I know nothing. The weather has
been so wet that I have not proposed to Storer his visit to George, of
which I shall profit. For my own pleasure, I long to see him.

We were in the House of Commons last night till half [an] hour past
twelve. The majority of our side against the second reading of Burke's
Bill,(153) and in fact, by a following question of rejecting it, was of
43, if I mistook not. I was not in the House to hear anybody speak a