On Burke's retirement from the House of Commons in 1794, he was granted a pension of £3,700 a year by the Prime Minister, the younger William Pitt. The pension was attacked in Parliament by Francis Russel, fifth Duke of Bedford, and James Maitland, eighth Earl of Lauderdale, on the grounds that it should have been submitted to Parliament for approval, and that it violated Burke's own plan for economic reform. Burke's Letter is addressed to William FitzWilliam, fourth Earl FitzWilliam, nephew and heir to Burke's old political chief, Charles Watson-Wentworth, second Marquess of Rockingham.