ABSTRACT
F or the last seven years of his life Chatham ceased attending Parliament regularly. Once he came to plead for greater toleration to the dissenters ; and he was always ready to spend his remaining strength on behalf of America, to avert or stop a fratricidal war or to prevent the total loss of the colonies. But for the heart-breaking task of arousing from apathy a generation bent on kissing the rod, he was now too old and too infirm. Had he been blessed with allies as courageous and as jealous for liberty as himself, Chatham might have found it easier to carry on the struggle without faltering; but when he surveyed the forces on which he could reckon, a grave despondency for the nation settled upon his spirits.
