THE

HE king early in February, 1804, was again seriously indisposed. No doubt was entertained of his suffering a recurrence of his former, and it may now be called habitual, malady. Threatened with invasion by a powerful armament from the opposite coast, and placed in the hands of the most feeble administration to which its destinies had yet been confided, the country was agitated and alarmed at this sudden incompetency of the sovereign. His illness continued avowedly from the 14th of February to the 14th of March, when the lord chancellor declared that "the king was in such a state as to warrant the lords commissioners in giving the royal assent to several bills." A further proof of his convalescence was given by his appearance in public, and by the change of his ministers early in May.

Mr. Addington had established himself completely in the king's confidence. His congenial intolerance

in matters of religion, and the conciliating weakness of his capacity and character, recommended him to George III. But after the signature of the peace of Amiens, he and his colleagues lost ground every day with parliament and the public. They had to contend against two oppositions, called the old and new; headed, the one by Mr. Fox, the other by lord Grenville. Mr. Pitt had given the ministers an inconsistent and barren support during the discussions of the peace, while some of his most attached and admiring friends opposed them. Mr. Canning teased the Addingtons in, and still more effectually out of parliament, by an incessant warfare of wit, ridicule, and personality. Mr. Pitt, after first sinking into languid approval, and then withdrawing himself for a short time, re-appeared in direct and vehement opposition. Opinion was divided on the motives of his conduct. It was said that he became alarmed at Mr. Addington's complete and exclusive possession of the royal confidence, and especially provoked by the appointment of Mr. Tierney to the treasurership of the navy. This appointment was regarded as a defiance of Mr. Pitt, to whom Mr. Tierney was particularly obnoxious, and branded by Mr. Pitt's friends with ingratitude on the part of Mr. Addington.

The weak point of the ministry was the administration of the navy. Lord St. Vincent, acting upon false notions of economy, had reduced the naval force of the kingdom from the extensive scale and complete organisation to which it had been raised by lord Spencer; and a lord of the admiralty (captain Markham) compromised the government

and himself in the house of commons, by either gross ignorance, or very indiscreet colouring of fact. Mr. Addington having now to contend with three distinct oppositions, combined under Mr. Pitt, Mr. Fox, and lord Grenville, was reduced to feeble majorities, resigned his office, and was immediately succeeded by Mr. Pitt, whose appointment as first commissioner of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer appeared in the Gazette on the 12th of May.

The nation had hoped to see a government composed of the leading men of the leading parties, whose Mr. Pitt, Mr. Fox, and lord Grenville

united talent, character, and experience should inspire confidence, and give strength at a moment of unexampled public danger. The mutual relations and feelings of the parties, and of the individuals, at the moment, promised this result. But the king pronounced sentence of exclusion upon Mr. Fox; lord Grenville with his friends declined becoming parties to this principle; and Mr. Pitt placed himself at the head of a cabinet substantially recruited from the preceding. It appears to have been the opinion of Mr. Pitt's friends, and his own, that he could achieve every thing by his single prowess. This opinion was expressly and eloquently avowed by Mr. Canning in parliament, during a discussion upon estimates, in 1802:- "Look at France,

the

army

"We rest our determination solely on our strong sense of the impropriety of our becoming parties to a system of government, which is to be formed at such a moment as the present on a principle of exclusion."

Letter of Lord Grenville to Mr. Pitts

and see what we have to cope with; consider what has made her what she is. A man. You will tell me that she was great, and powerful, and formidable before the date of Bonaparte's government; that he found in her great physical and moral resources; that he had but to turn them to account. True, and he did so. Compare the situation in which he found France with that to which he has raised her. I am no panegyrist of Bonaparte; but I cannot shut my eyes to the superiority of his talents, to the amazing ascendant of his genius. Tell me not of his measures and his policy. It is his genius, his character, that keeps the world in awe. Sir, to meet, to check, to curb, to stand up against him, we want arms of the same kind. I am far from objecting to the large military establishments which are proposed to you; I vote for them with all my heart but, for the purpose of coping with Bonaparte, one great commanding spirit is worth them all."

Mr. Pitt was censured for yielding to the king's hatred of the principles and person of Mr. Fox, and to a principle of government abhorrent to the constitution. But his situation was delicate. The king had appeared in public for the first time since his illness only two days before Mr. Pitt's appointment was announced in the Gazette, and his convalescence was so precarious, that the usual report of convicts under sentence of death was delayed for some months. Discussion and excitement might have produced melancholy consequences. On the other hand, the safety of a great empire was at stake; and it may be questioned whether duty to the nation,

and humanity to the sovereign, would not have been best consulted and reconciled by relieving George III. at that moment from awful responsibilities under which his mind was momentarily liable to break down. No direct proposition, however, for the appointment of a regent was made, and, in compliance with suggestions of delicacy, the precise nature of the king's illness was not formally declared.

Mr. Pitt retained of the Addington ministry the duke of Portland, lords Eldon, Westmoreland, Chatham, Castlereagh, and Hawkesbury, forming a majority of his cabinet. Two of these, the duke of Portland and lord Westmoreland, were thrown upon him by reversion; and a third, lord Chatham, was his brother. He brought in with him lords Melville, Harrowby, and Camden. A seat in the cabinet, with the chancellorship of the duchy of Lancaster, was given to lord Mulgrave. Mr. Canning was a powerful auxiliary in debate; but that incubus upon political freedom and individual talent in the existing system of British government, called oligarchy, shut him out from a seat in the cabinet, and condemned him to the subordinate place of treasurer of the navy. That surely was a most vicious principle of government which kept down Mr. Canning, at the precious stage of life in which manhood has gained experience without losing vigour, whilst it made cabinet ministers of lords Castlereagh and Hawkesbury.

It was scarcely possible for any single talent to make head against opposition at home, and the power of the enemy abroad, with such an administration; and it soon proved that Mr. Pitt was no longer the "great commanding spirit" invoked by