It was distinguished by that famous effort which gave Single-speech Hamilton his nickname. Walpole, in recording and eulogising it, says: 'You will ask, what could be beyond this? Nothing but what was beyond what ever was, and that was Pitt.' Pitt, indeed, after sitting through the eleven hours of the debate, rose and delivered, with inimitable spirit and all the dramatic force that the greatest actor of his age could impart, a speech of an hour and a half, which contains his most famous figure, and which perhaps he never exceeded. 'His eloquence,' says Walpole, 'like a torrent long obstructed, burst forth with more commanding impetuosity.' For ten years he had been muzzled, and now he revelled in his freedom. 'He spoke at past one (in the morning) for an hour and thirty-five minutes. There was more humour, wit, vivacity, fine language, more boldness,--in short, more astonishing perfections, than even you who are used to him can conceive.' He 'surpassed himself, and then I need not tell you that he surpassed Cicero and Demosthenes. What a figure would they with their formal laboured cabinet orations make vis-a-vis his manly vivacity and dashing eloquence at one o'clock in the morning, after sitting in that heat for eleven hours!' This enthusiasm from the least enthusiastic of men adds to our regrets that so faint a memory of this dazzling speech remains. And yet perhaps we were wise to be grateful that we have only the description. It seems not impossible that the words taken down verbatim by some old parliamentary hand in the reporters' gallery would seem cold or tawdry without the soul and grace which animated them, and which haunted Horace Walpole for long years afterwards. Some of the allusions which have been noted down seem forced, some of the bursts incoherent, some of the irony obscure. But those who heard it palpitated with emotion, they saw the divine fire of the orator, while posterity can only grope among the cold ashes for the burning fragments poured forth in the wrath of the eruption. 'Haughty, defiant, conscious of injury, and of supreme abilities,' he offered a great contrast to Legge, who fought by his side with different weapons; for Legge was studiously moderate, deferential, and artful; 'gliding to revenge.' Yet Pitt himself began with expressions of veneration for the King, and of gratitude for 'late condescending goodness and gracious openings,' alluding to the offer of a seat in the Cabinet. It was obvious from this that he did not mean the door of the Closet to be closed on him, or to try again to force it by attack. But, he continued, the very respect he felt for that august name made him deprecate the unconstitutional use made of it in this debate.