It has been said that Charles Abbot (Lord Colchester), the Speaker who lies buried here at East Grinstead, broke Pitt's heart by an act of unswerving integrity.

CHARLES ABBOT lives as the central figure of the most dramatic scene in the House of Commons since the days of Cromwell. In 1807, when he was fifty and at the zenith of his career as one of the greatest of Speakers, a motion was brought forward involving the impeachment of Viscount Melville, First Lord of the Admiralty, for what amounted to embezzlement of Navy funds. Melville was the life-long friend of Pitt, who sought to save him by moving the previous question.

The House, fiercely agitated, voted 216 for and 216 against the resolution. The decision lay with the casting vote of the Speaker, who was torn between a sense of public duty and his regard for Pitt. It was long before he could decide. His distress was terrible, wrote an eye witness. Agitation overcame him, and his face grew white. The House waited in an agony of suspense, but for ten minutes he sat speechless and immovable in the chair, in a silence such as has seldom hushed a parliament. At length his voice was heard; he gave his vote; he condemned Lord Melville.

Pitt was overcome at the ruin of the fair fame of the man he loved. At the sound of the Speaker's voice he crushed his hat over his eyes to hide the tears that streamed from them, then pushed his way in haste out of the House. He sank under this, his last defeat, and died a few months later.

It was not the first or the last contribution by Speaker Abbot to the service of his country. Two simple things he did that reflect the practical sagacity of his mind. Short-term Acts could expire unnoted, with serious consequences to the nation where their renewal was contemplated; and Abbot secured an annual reading of the titles and purposes of such Acts, so that they could be continued from year to year as desired. It is by reading one such Act at the opening of each session that Parliament asserts its independence, considering the Act before it turns to the King's Speech.

The second important small thing he did was to provide all courts and justices with copies of new Acts. He did splendid work for the preservation of national records, and his association with the British Museum led to the acquisition of collections of which his taste and scholarship made him an unerring judge. He opposed Roman Catholic emancipation, but on the whole was a liberal-minded man. He also started the census of the English people, having secured the passing of the Act in 1800.

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