THE "LONE FURROW" IN 1783.
(To TILE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR." J SIR,—In view of Lord Rosebery's recent utterances,'and the multitude of conjectures raised thereby, it may not be with- out interest to recall his remarks in his Life of Pitt (chap. 3) dealing with the omission of Shelburne from the " lute-string " Administration of 1783 :—
" There was one remarkable omission, nothing was offered to Shelburne. That Pitt, who was gasping in a famine of capacity, should pass by the ablest statesman available savours of insanity but his action was deliberate ; it bad been determined months before He (Shelburne) had ruined his life by a
great mistake ; he had misread his lesson, and misunderstood his master ; but the fault, as is usual, seemed to the pupil not to be with himself, but with his teacher. After a cool survey of Bute and Holland, and the politicians of that kidney, he had decided ghat Chatham was the grand type, and only 4,iasorred too late that it was also an impossible one. He could readily see that he must be satisfied with less eloquence and a paler fire, but *bat seemed within his reach was the patriotic spirit, the attempt to
be above and aloof from party easy to emulate were the mysterious retirement and the haughty demeanour. . . . . . All thil Shelburne compassed, but what be never understood, until if was too late, was that these were not Chatham's aids but Chatham's drawbacks."
The " grand type " is, as you urge, still "impossible," but it may be that the lone furrow of our own day is only a pleasant fiction, useful, no doubt, under "existing circumstances," but to be discarded when business is meant.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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