lost of sounding high any branch of prerogative. The Opposition not choosing to risk a division on the Committee, Harris, mentioned above, who was afterwards made one of the Lords of the Treasury, moved roundly to approve the preliminaries, with the addition of words acknowledging the prerogative in question. Had the treaty been glorious or salutary, there is no doubt but the prerogative would not have been called in aid; a proof how distinct are prerogative and the welfare of the nation. This Harris had written some abstruse books on language, and possessed a good share of reputation within a certain sphere. Lord Ilchester and Fox had brought him forth, and thought to make him a man of business, but he made only a very pliant courtier and wretched orator; and in the end, attaching himself to George Grenville, closed with all his arbitrary measures, and fell with him, with no other blemish on his character than of having thought too much as a scholar, and too little as a senator.[277] In his motion of approbation he said, “Peace was not made for the emolument of one country, but of many;” a truth so home, and that recoiled so forcibly on him, that it was the very reason why this country, for whose emolument it was _not_ made, ought not to have honoured it with its acceptance. Stanley spoke well and handsomely in defence of the treaty; and then Mr. Pitt rose. His speech it would be difficult to detail; it lasted three hours and twenty-five minutes, and was uttered in so low and faint a voice that it was almost impossible to hear him. At intervals he obtained the permission of the House to speak sitting, a permission he did not abuse; supporting himself with cordials, and having the appearance of a man determined to die in that cause and at that hour. This faintness and the prolixity with which he dwelt on the article of the fisheries, gave a handle to the courtiers to represent his speech as unmeasurably dull, tedious, and uninteresting. But it contained considerable matter, much reason, and some parts of great beauty:--but thunder was wanting to blast such a treaty, and this was not a day on which his genius thundered! His health or his choice had led him to present himself as a subject of affliction to his country, and his ungrateful country was not afflicted.