ABSTRACT
Newcastle had just formed his Ministry when the news of a slight skirmish in a far-off American forest heralded the great war which was to be immortally linked with Pitt’s name. At the end of May 1754, the twenty-two year old Colonel Washington, at the head of some 150 Virginians, overpowered a small French detachment under M. de Jumonville sent to oppose him from Fort Duquesne near the Ohio. On November 14, 1754, the opening day of the session, Pitt introduced his Chelsea Pensioners Bill, then went away for his brief honeymoon at West Wickham. Before Christmas the House was chiefly occupied with election petitions, but members as a rule took little interest in proceedings which, thanks to Newcastle’s well-disciplined majority, were a foregone conclusion in favour of his candidates. During the rest of the session, which lasted till April 1755, Pitt took little part in debate.
