Next day, the 24th, the King upon his Throne received the members of the House of Commons, who, with Fox at their head, brought up their Address of the 22nd. In his answer, as prepared by Pitt, the King assured them that, "after such an adjournment as the present circumstances might seem to require," he should not interrupt their meeting by any exercise of his prerogative, either of Prorogation or Dissolution. On this assurance Fox agreed that the House of Commons, after meeting again on the 26th for the issue of Writs, should adjourn for some Christmas holidays. But he insisted upon it that the adjournment should be only for the shortest period-not to extend beyond the 12th of January, and the House then to go again into Committee on the state of the nation. It was useless to divide the House against a chief who commanded a sure majority.

Fox and his friends continued sanguine of the issue. Thus he wrote to Lord Northington at Dublin :—“I neither quit your house nor dismiss one servant till I see the event of the 12th." And in the same strain

spoke his friend Mrs. Crewe.

"Well," she said to

Wilberforce, "Mr. Pitt may do what he likes during the holidays; but depend upon it, it will be only a mince-pie administration."

So overwhelmed with business was Pitt at this period, that among Lady Chatham's papers I find only one letter from him between the 11th of November and the 16th of March. Here is what that letter says of politics :

"Berkeley Square, Dec. 30, 1783.

"You will easily believe it is not from inclination I have been silent so long. Things are in general more promising than they have been, but in the uncertainty of effect the persuasion of not being wrong is, as you say, the best circumstance and enough; though there is satisfaction in the hopes at least of something more."

CHAPTER V.

1784.

Difficulties of Pitt's position-His India Bill - His public spirit Fox's popularity declines - Proceedings of the "Independents". Party conflicts in the Commons - Address to the King - Pitt attacked in his coach-Revulsion of national feeling - Schemes of Fox The Great Seal stolen - Dissolution of Parliament.

WHEN, at the age of twenty-four, Mr. Pitt was called upon to fill the highest place in the councils of his Sovereign, he found himself surrounded by most formidable difficulties-the greatest perhaps that any Prime Minister of England ever had to grapple with. Arrayed against him was a compact majority of the House of Commons, led on by chiefs of consummate oratorical ability—by Burke and Sheridan, by Fox and Lord North. The finances, at the close of an unprosperous war, were in the utmost disorder. The commercial system with the now independent colonies was as yet undetermined, and required prompt and final regulation. Our foreign relations, which at last had left us almost without a single ally, called for vigilant foresight and conciliatory care. But as claiming precedence above all others was the East India question. It was necessary for the new Cabinet, without the loss of a single hour, to frame a new measure in place of that which the House of Lords had rejected. It was neces

VOL. I.

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also that the measure should be submitted both to the Court of Directors and the Court of Proprietors, and their approval, if possible, obtained before that of the House of Commons was asked.

By incessant labour Mr. Pitt and his colleagues attained this object. Their Draft Bill was not only prepared, but was approved by both sections of the East India body, previous to the meeting of the House of Commons on January the 12th.

The expected day came at last. Fox rose at the unusual hour of half-past two, and moved the order of the day. He was soon interrupted by the newly-elected members, Pitt among them, who came up to the table to take the oaths. When that ceremony had concluded, Pitt and Fox rose together-the Minister holding in his hand, as he stated, a Message from the King which he desired to deliver; but the Opposition chief insisted on his own previous right to speak, and the Speaker, being appealed to, decided that Mr. Fox was in possession of the House.

A debate of many hours ensued. Mr. Fox, in his principal speech, took up very dangerous ground. His great object seemed to be to secure himself against a Dissolution. With this view he ventured to assert that the Crown did not possess the right, as Burke afterwards termed it, of a "penal Dissolution "-the privilege, namely, of dissolving Parliament in the midst of a Session, and in consequence of the votes it had given. There had been no instance of the kind since the Revolution; and there was a pamphlet by Lord Somers, in which it might be thought, from some doubtful expres

sions, that the right was controverted. "But we are told," continued Fox, "that nothing has yet happened to make the Dissolution of the Parliament necessary. No! What does that signify? Let us go into the Committee, and make it impossible!"

Mr. Pitt, on his part, strongly pressed that the Members should not pledge themselves by any vote against him until they had an opportunity of seeing the new Bill for the government of India, which he had prepared and was ready to bring in. Being, in the course of the debate, repeatedly attacked on the point of secret influence, he was permitted to speak a second time. This he did in a tone of lofty denial and disdain. "I came up no back stairs," he said. "When I was sent for by my Sovereign to know whether I would accept of office, I necessarily went to the Royal Closet. I know of no secret influence, and I hope that my own integrity would be my guardian against that danger. This is the only answer I shall ever deign to make to such a charge; but of one thing the House may rest assured, that I will never have the meanness to act under the concealed influence of others, nor the hypocrisy to pretend, when the measures of my administration are blamed, that they were measures not of my advising. former Ministers" (and here he looked at Lord "take these charges to themselves, to them be the sting."

If

any

North)

At half-past two in the morning the House divided on the question of going into Committee, which was carried by a majority of 39. In Committee Fox proceeded to move three Resolutions:-First, that any per