William Pitt, like his great opponent Fox, had established himself with his first speech, which secured the encomiums of all who were present. "We had a debate on Monday, when Mr. Pitt for the first time made such a speech, that it excited the admiration very justly of every man in the House. Except he had foreseen that particular species of nonsense which Lord Nugent was to utter, his speech could not be prepared; it was delivered without any kind of improper assurance, but with the exact proper self-possession which ought to accompany a speaker. There was not a word or a look which one would have wished to correct. This, I believe, in general was the universal sense of all those who heard him, and exactly the effect which his speech had on me, at the time I heard it." So wrote Anthony Storer to Lord Carlisle on February 28, 1781; and Wraxall was not less complimentary. "It was in reply to Lord Nugent that Pitt first broke silence, from under the Gallery on the Opposition side of the House. The same composure, self-possession, and imposing dignity of manner, which afterwards so eminently characterized him when seated on the Treasury Bench, distinguished him on this first essay of his powers, though he then wanted three months to have completed his twenty-second year. The same nervous, correct, and political diction, free from any inaccuracy of language, or embarrassment of deportment, which, as First Minister, he subsequently displayed, were equally manifested on this occasion. Formed for a popular assembly, he seemed made to guide its deliberations, from the first moment that he addressed the members composing it."[219] Burke declared that the young man "was not merely a chip of the old block, but the old block itself"; Walpole doubted "whether he will not prove superior even to Charles Fox"; while Fox, the most generous of men, when some one said to him, "Pitt will be one of the first men in the House of Commons," replied, "He is already." Pitt, although but twenty-three years of age, felt so sure of himself that he declined an offer of office from Rockingham, declaring "he would never accept a subordinate post under Government;" and, although he was a barrister without practice and with an income of less than £300, refused Lord Shelburne's invitation to become Vice-Treasurer of Ireland with a salary of £5,000, and thereupon was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer. [219] _Historical Memoirs of My Own Times._