On the ninth of December the question of approving the
preliminaries came up before both Houses of Parliament.
There was a long debate in the Commons. Pitt was not present,
confined, it was said, by gout; till late in the day the
House was startled by repeated cheers from the outside. The
doors opened, and the fallen Minister entered, carried in the
arms of his servants, and followed by an applauding crowd.
His bearers set him down within the bar, and by the help of
a crutch he made his way with difficulty to his seat. "There
was a mixture of the very solemn and the theatric in this apparition,"
says Walpole, who was present. "The moment was so well timed, the
importance of the man and his services, the languor of his emaciated
countenance, and the study bestowed on his dress were circumstances
that struck solemnity into a patriot mind, and did a little furnish
ridicule to the hardened and insensible. He was dressed in black
velvet, his legs and thighs wrapped in flannel, his feet covered with
buskins of black cloth, and his hands with thick gloves." Not
for the first time, he was utilizing his maladies for purposes
of stage effect. He spoke for about three hours, sometimes
standing, and sometimes seated; sometimes with a brief burst
of power, more often with the accents of pain and exhaustion.
He highly commended the retention of Canada, but denounced
the leaving to France a share in the fisheries, as well as other
advantages tending to a possible revival of her maritime
power.
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