Henry Pelham

Surely, Sir, I am not to look upon every man as my enemy who differs from me in opinion upon any point of religion. This would be a most unchristian way of thinking.

Henry Pelham FRS (25 September 1694 – 6 March 1754) was a British Whig statesman who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1743 until his death in 1754. He was the younger brother of Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, who served in Pelham's government and succeeded him as prime minister. Pelham is generally considered to have been Britain's third prime minister, after Robert Walpole and the Earl of Wilmington.

Pelham's premiership was relatively uneventful in terms of domestic affairs, although it was during his premiership that Great Britain experienced the tumult of the 1745 Jacobite uprising. In foreign affairs, Britain fought in several wars. On Pelham's death, his brother Newcastle took full control of the British government.

Quotes

• P. Charles has repass'd the Rhine, and gone with his whole army into Bohemia. This may be bad for the King of Prussia, but it leaves us att the mercy of the French; and shews plainly, that without some stipulation by way of treaty, and with the Dutch being partys, we can have no certainty as to the operations of the present war. £150,000 is given in order to keep the Prince in Alsace; and he is gone before the Court of Vienna can receive the money, tho' not before we have paid it. The same will be the case with every sum of money we advance. The Allys will take it, and then act, as suits their own convenience and security best.
  • Letter to the Duke of Newcastle during the War of the Austrian Succession (26 August 1744), quoted in John B. Owen, The Rise of the Pelhams (1957), p. 227

• I am not so apprehensive of the strength or zeal of the enemy, as I am fearful of the inability or languidness, of our friends. I see, the contagion spreads in all parts; and, if your Grace was here, you would scarce, in common conversation, meet with one man who thinks there is any danger from, scarce truth in an invasion, at this time. For my part, I have long dreaded it; and am now as much convinced as my late friend lord Orford was, that this country will be fought for some time before this year is over. Be that as it will, we must do our best.
  • Letter to the Duke of Argyll after the Pretender landed in Scotland (20 August 1745), quoted in William Coxe, Memoirs of the Administration of The Right Honourable Henry Pelham, Collected from the Family Papers, and Other Authentic Documents, Vol. I (1829), p. 258

• I wish it was in my power to keep touch with you all, but when I came into the Treasury I found a vast arrear and the expenses have increased, and the revenue diminished ever since, this I hope will plead my excuse.
  • Letter to Robert Trevor (8-19 November 1745), quoted in Historical Manuscripts Commission, The Manuscripts of the Earl of Buckinghamshire, the Earl of Lindsey, the Earl of Onslow, Lord Emly, Theodore J. Hare, esq., and James Round, esq. (1895), p. 133

• Peace is what I want, both for the sake of my king, my country, and myself. Peace will be had. I heartily wish it may be no worse, than what is represented in your paper. If so, I am sure it is to be defended; but if not so, it must be defended, and shall be, by me at least, if I have the honour to serve the king, at the time of trial.
  • Letter to the Duke of Newcastle (8-19 April 1748), quoted in William Coxe, Memoirs of the Administration of The Right Honourable Henry Pelham, Collected from the Family Papers, and Other Authentic Documents, Vol. I (1829), p. 415

• I did indeed disapprove of his complimenting H.R.H. and his Grace to their own destruction, and I think the events have shewn it, I mean by amusing them that this war could be carried on another year, that Holland would bring such an army into the field as would turn the balance in our favour, when he must know, if he knew anything at all, that they were no government, that they were a bankrupt people, and could not pay the very small sums they owe to us for our advanced payments for them. This I disliked, and this is the principle upon which I have acted.
  • Letter to Lord Hardwicke (25 September 1748), quoted in Philip C. Yorke, The Life and Correspondence of Philip Yorke, Earl of Hardwicke, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, Volume I (1913), p. 676

• What does the king say? Does he make no observation upon that silence on all business, in the duke of Bedford's letters? I am sure he sees it, and, if he does not take notice of it, it proceeds from the apprehensions he has of another rupture; and, as I have long seen, quiet is what he loves better than all of us put together. If the idleness or ignorance of any one does not give him personal trouble, he will take no notice of it.
  • Letter to the Duke of Newcastle (25 July-5 August 1750), quoted in William Coxe, Memoirs of the Administration of The Right Honourable Henry Pelham, Collected from the Family Papers, and Other Authentic Documents, Vol. II (1829), p. 366

• I have promised the king, and I will keep my word, that I would never enter into any cabal again, to prevent his Majesty from either removing, or bringing into his service, any person he had either a prejudice to, or a predilection for.
  • Letter to the Duke of Newcastle (7-18 September 1750), quoted in William Coxe, Memoirs of the Administration of The Right Honourable Henry Pelham, Collected from the Family Papers, and Other Authentic Documents, Vol. II (1829), p. 389

• Surely, Sir, I am not to look upon every man as my enemy who differs from me in opinion upon any point of religion. This would be a most unchristian way of thinking; therefore I must think, that the Jews are in much the same case with the other dissenters from the church of England: we ought not to look on them as enemies to our ecclesiastical establishment, but as men whose conscience will not allow them to conform to it; therefore we may, in charity we ought to, indulge them so far as not to endanger thereby our ecclesiastical establishment; and from them we have less danger to fear than from any other sort of dissenters, because they never attempt to make converts, and because it would be more difficult for them to succeed in any such attempt.
  • Speech in the House of Commons on the Jewish Naturalisation Act 1753 (7 May 1753), quoted in The Parliamentary History of England, from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, Vol. XIV. A. D. 1747–1753 (1813), column 1414

• Gentlemen, the honour you have done me for many years in intrusting me with being your representative has dignified me to an advanced age in life, so that I may now sincerely say that I am grown old in your service, but I hope that, now that no other consideration will divert me from prosecuting every scheme to promote the trade of the County of Sussex which is a maritime and corn country: and the bounty for debenture to encourage the exportation of corn having been falsely reported to be taken off, I must beg leave to assure that no such thing was intended. Well must I consider what the consequence of such an act would be which must reduce the rent of lands a third in value, greatly lessening the estates of all landed gentlemen, impoverish gentlemen and yeomen of small fortunes, and farmers of long leases must be inevitably ruin'd. As trade and particularly the corn trade is the chiefe concern of the County of Sussex, it shall be my constant care to encourage and support the same be encouraging our farmers in their agriculture and extending our commerce abroad we have no reason to fear being what we ever have been, a rich and powerful people.
  • Speech to the gentlemen, clergy and freeholders of Sussex in Lewes following his nomination to represent Sussex in the next Parliament (29 August 1753), quoted in Donald Grove Barnes, A History of the English Corn Laws from 1660–1846 (1930; 1961), p. 46

• The Memorial I have read, and doubt not its being a very proper one; I am no judge of the propriety of such draughts, especially in French, which language I understand very imperfectly. But that we must speak strong, and abide by what we say, I know very well.
  • Letter to the Duke of Newcastle (18 August 1753), quoted in William Coxe, Memoirs of the Administration of The Right Honourable Henry Pelham, Collected from the Family Papers, and Other Authentic Documents, Vol. II (1829), p. 491

Quotes about Henry Pelham

• Pelham was a timid and peace-loving politician, without any commanding abilities or much strength of character. He was a good man of business, and both an able and an economical financier. His temper was somewhat peevish, but his manners were conciliatory, and his opinions were tolerant. Though not a brilliant orator, he was an able debater and an excellent parliamentary tactician. His speeches were marked by readiness and common-sense.
  • George Fisher Russell Barker, 'Pelham, Henry (1695?-1754)', Dictionary of National Biography, Volume XLIV. Paston—Percy, ed. Sidney Lee (1895), p. 246

• It has been remarked by a firm friend of Mr. Pelham, that, in the House of Commons, his language was often timid and desponding; and that the candour and openness of his temper, led him occasionally to depreciate the resources of the country, and to magnify the strength of the rival power. On no occasion was this remark more strongly verified, than in this debate; for, though his general arguments against any intemperate provocation of France, while the two states seemed to be in perfect amity, were sound and unanswerable, yet it cannot be denied that he made too many concessions in favour of France, and said, what it did not become a British minister to admit, that England was unable to cope single-handed with the House of Bourbon.
  • William Coxe, Memoirs of the Administration of The Right Honourable Henry Pelham, Vol. II (1829), p. 105

• My brother has all the prudence, knowledge, experience and good intention that I can wish or hope in a man.
  • The Duke of Newcastle to Lord Hardwicke (3 August 1742), quoted in Philip C. Yorke, The Life and Correspondence of Philip Yorke, Earl of Hardwicke, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, Volume I (1913), p. 303

• In the beginning of March the ministry of Great Britain had been left without a head by the death of Mr. Pelham, which was not only sincerely lamented by his sovereign, but also regretted by the nation in general, to whose affection he had powerfully recommended himself by the candour and humanity of his conduct and character, even while he pursued measures which they did not entirely approve.
  • Tobias Smollett, Continuation of the Complete History of England, Volume the First (1763), p. 192

• I do not load you with personal assurances; but I never knew a time when I thought it more incumbent upon me to exert myself in support of the government; and I rejoice, for your sake and for my own, that affairs are put into your hands, where my private friendship, and my political opinion unite, in engaging me to do all I can, and call upon me to act in character; and how great had my difficulty been, if a contrary determination had put me under the necessity, of demurring between the support of the king, and reconciling my conduct with the measures of those, who are incapable of acting a right part, where interest, ambition, or vengeance, can at all influence their actions.
  • Robert Walpole to Henry Pelham (25 August 1743), quoted in William Coxe, Memoirs of the Administration of The Right Honourable Henry Pelham, Collected from the Family Papers, and Other Authentic Documents, Vol. I (1829), p. 92