of Lords,1 and the next day the king followed up his advantage, by at once dismissing his ministers. To make this dismissal as contemptuous as possible, he sent a message to Lord North, and Mr. Fox, commanding them to return their seals by their under-secretaries, as an audience would be disagreeable to his Majesty. Earl Temple, who had done the king this service, was intrusted with the seals for the purpose of formally dismissing the other ministers: the man who had been the king's chief agent in defeating them, was chosen to offer them this last insult.

But the battle was not yet won. The king had struck down his ministers, though supported by a vast Mr. Pitt as majority of the House of Commons: he had now premier, 1788. to support a minister of his own choice against that majority, and to overcome it. Mr. Pitt no longer hesitated to take the post of trust and danger, which the king at once conferred upon him. His time had now come; and he resolved to give battle to an angry majority,— under leaders of great talents and experience, — smarting under defeat, and full of resentment at the anconstitutional means by which they had been overthrown. He accepted the offices of First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer ; and the king's sturdy friend, Lord Thurlow, was reinstated as Lord Chancellor. Mr. Pitt had also relied upon the assistance of Earl Temple, whose zeal in the king's service was much needed in such a crisis; but that nobleman resigned the seals a few days after he had received them, assigning as his reason a desire to be free to answer any charges against him, arising out of his recent conduct.5

1 17th Dec., 1783. By a majority of 19.- Parl Hist., xxiv. 196.

2 Mr. Fox, writing immediately afterwards, said: "We are beat in the House of Lords by such treachery on the part of the king, and such meanness on the part of his friends in the House of Lords, as one could not expect either from him or them.". Fox Mem., ii. 221, 253.

8 Annual Reg., xxvii. [71]; Tomline's Life of Pitt, i. 230.

4 He was intended to lead the House of Lords. — Tomline's Life of Pitt, i. 232.

6 Parl. Hist., xxiv. 237.

Opposition in the Commons.

The contest which the youthful premier had now to conduct, was the most arduous that had ever devolved upon any minister, since the accession of the House of Hanover. So overpowering was the majority against him, that there seemed scarcely a hope of offering it an effectual resistance. His opponents were so confident of success, that when a new writ was moved for Appleby, on his acceptance of office, the motion was received with shouts of derisive laughter. And while the presumption of the boy-minister was ridiculed, the strongest measures were immediately taken to deprive him of his authority, and to intimidate the court, whose policy he supported. Many of Mr. Pitt's advisers, desparing of his prospects with the present Parliament, counselled an immediate dissolution: but the same consummate judgment and foresight, which, a few months earlier, had induced him to decline office, because the time was not yet ripe for action, now led him to the conviction that he must convert public opinion to his side, before he appealed to the people. Though standing alone, without the aid of a single cabinet minister, in the House of Commons,* - he resolved, under every disadvantage, to meet the assaults of his opponents on their own ground; and his talents, his courage and resources ultimately won a signal victory.

Attempts to

8

Secure of their present majority, the first object of the Opposition was to prevent a dissolution, which prevent a dis- they believed to be impending. The day after the dismissal of the late ministers, the Opposition insisted on the postponement of the third reading

solution.

19th Dec.,

1783.

1 Tomline's Life of Pitt, i. 237.

2 Pitt, to use the happy phrase of Erskine, was "hatched at once into a minister by the heat of his own ambition.”. · Parl. Hist., xxiv. 277. In the Rolliad, his youth was thus ridiculed:

1

"A sight to make surrounding nations stare,
A kingdom trusted to a schoolboy's care."

Tomline's Life of Pitt, i. 241, 242.

4 Ibid., i. 236.

of the Land-tax Bill for two days, in order, as Mr. Fox avowed, that it might not " go out of their hands until they should have taken such measures as would guard against the evils which might be expected from a dissolution." 1 On the 22d December, the House went into committee on the state of the nation, when Mr. Erskine moved an address to the Crown, representing "that alarming rumors of an intended dissolution of Parliament have gone forth;" that "inconveniences and dangers 66 were likely to follow from a prorogation or dissolution of the Parliament in the present arduous and critical conjunction of affairs;" and beseeching his Majesty "to suffer his faithful Commons to proceed on the business of the session, the furtherance of which is so essentially necessary to the prosperity of the public; and that his Majesty will be graciously pleased to hearken to the advice of his faithful Commons, and not to the secret advices of particular persons, who may have private interests of their own, separate from the true interests of his Majesty and his people."2 Notwithstanding assurances that Mr. Pitt had no intention of advising a dissolution, and would not consent to it if advised by others, the address was agreed to, and presented to the king by the whole House. In his answer the king assured them that he would "not interrupt their meeting by any exercise of his prerogative, either of prorogation or dissolution." This assurance, it was observed, merely referred to the meeting of Parliament after the Christmas recess, and did not remove the apprehensions of the Opposition. On the 24th December, a resolution was agreed to, that the Treasury ought not to consent to the acceptance of any more bills from India, until it should appear to the House that there were sufficient means to meet them.*

1 Parl. Hist., xxiv. 230.

2 Ibid., 246. The last paragraph of the address was taken from an ad dress to William III. in 1693.

8 Parl. Hist., xxiv 264.

4 Ibid., 267.

12th Jan., 1784.

These strong measures had been taken in Mr. Pitt's absence; and on his return to the House, after Christmas, the Opposition resumed their offensive attitude. Mr. Fox went so far as to refuse to allow Mr. Pitt to deliver a message from the king; and being in possession of the House, at once moved the order of the day for the committee on the state of the nation.

In the debate which ensued, the Opposition attempted to extort a promise that Parliament should not be dissolved; but Mr. Pitt said he would not "presume to compromise the royal prerogative, or bargain it away in the House of Commons." This debate was signalized by the declaration of General Ross that he had been sent for by a Lord of the Bedchamber, and told that if he voted against the new administration on the 12th January, he would be considered as an enemy to the king.2 Being unable to obtain any pledge from the minister, the Opposition at once addressed themselves to devise effectual obstacles to an early dissolution. The House resolved itself into the committee on the state of the nation, at half-past two in the morning, by a majority of forty against the ministers, when Mr. Fox immediately moved

against issue

a resolution, which was agreed to without a division, declarResolution ing it to be a high crime and misdemeanor to issue, after a dissolution or prorogation, money voted for appropriated service which had not been appropriated to such service by Parliament.

of money un

by Parlia

ment.

any

He then moved for "accounts of the several sums of money issued, or ordered to be issued, from the 19th December, 1783, to the 14th January, 1784, inclusive, to any person or persons towards" naval, ordnance, army, or civil

1 Parl. Hist., xxiv. 294.

2 lbid., 205, 299.

8 Com. Journ., xxxix. 858. These grants were revoted in the next Parliament, - a fact overlooked by Dr. Tomline, who states that the Appro priation Act of 1784 included the supplies of the previous session, without any opposition being offered. — Life of Pitt, i. 507; 24 Geo. III., Sess. ii. c. 24; Com. Journ., xxxix. 733; Ibid., xl. 56.

services, "or in any other manner whatever, for and towards services voted in the present session of Parliament, but not appropriated by any act of Parliament to such services." He also proposed to add, “that no moneys should be issued for any public service, till that return was made, nor for three days afterwards;" but withdrew this motion, on being assured that it would be attended with inconvenience. He further obtained the postponement of the Mutiny Bill until the 23d February, which still left time for its passing before the expiration of the Annual Mutiny Act.

tions.

These resolutions were followed by another, proposed by the Earl of Surrey, "That in the present situa- Earl of Surtion of his Majesty's dominions, it is peculiarly rey's resolu necessary that there should be an administration which has the confidence of this House and the public." This being carried, he proceeded to another, "That the late changes in his Majesty's councils were immediately preceded by dangerous and universal reports; that his Majesty's sacred name had been unconstitutionally abused to affect the deliberations of Parliament; and that the appointments made were accompanied by circumstances new and extraordinary, and such as do not conciliate or engage the confidence of this House."

All these resolutions were reported immediately and agreed to, and the House did not adjourn until half-past seven in the morning.1

want of confidence.

Two days afterwards the attack was renewed. A resolution was carried in the committee, "That the con- Resolutions tinuance of the present ministers in trusts of the declaring highest importance and responsibility, is contrary 14th Jan, to constitutional principles, and injurious to the 1784. interests of his Majesty and his people." The Opposition accused the minister of reviving the distracted times before the Revolution, when the House of Commons was generally at variance with the Crown; but he listened to Jan. 23d.

1 Parl. Hist., xxiv. 317.

2 lbid., 361.