latter. The Association of the Friends of the People had disavowed the doctrines of Major Cartwright and Mr. Horne Tooke; but there had been no disavowal of the others (meaning Mr. Pitt and the Duke of Richmond). In reply to Mr. Pitt, who had reproached him with not seeing danger in the writings attacked, he avowed he did not see danger because he knew that the good sense and the constitutional spirit of the people of this country were a sure protection against the absurd theories which had been alluded to. Nor did Mr. Pitt see danger till he saw, or thought he saw, in these writings, the means of stirring up division among the friends of freedom.

Unhappily, these divisions grew more and more marked. Yet, after the debate on the proclamation, an attempt was made to form a coalition between Mr. Fox and Mr. Pitt. Mr. Dundas, who always had the highest opinion of Mr. Fox's talents, and Lord Malmesbury, who was still personally attached to him, appear to have made the first overtures. Lord Malmesbury represented that, unless Mr. Fox accepted this offer, he could only expect to come into office by some violent outbreak, which would almost change the form of government. Mr. Dundas hinted that the offices of Secretary of State for Home affairs, two or three other cabinet offices-those of Lord President and Lord Privy Seal included, two or three Privy Councillor's places in the House of Commons—and several minor offices might be at the disposal of Mr. Fox.

Mr. Fox was at first favourably disposed to this junction. He said "It was so right a thing, it must be done."* He made no stipulation of Mr. Pitt's leaving the Treasury, but spoke of fair and even conditions to share equally all power

* Lord Malmesbury, vol. ii. p. 432.

and patronage; he evidently looked himself to the conduct of foreign affairs. Presently, however, he began to hesitate; he doubted Mr. Pitt's sincerity; he said the honour, indeed the pride, of the party must be consulted. Mr. Pitt, on his side, found great difficulty with his friends, and probably with the King; he could not at once, said Mr. Dundas, give the foreign office to Mr. Fox, owing to his language in Parliament on the French Revolution; he suggested, desired union, but made no direct acceptable offer.

were.

It is probable that no favourable issue to these negotiations could have been attained, unless the two principal persons concerned had been far more in earnest than they Mr. Fox was at no time fond of office; he did not like either the devotion of his time or the restraint upon his freedom of speech which office required. Mr. Pitt, on the other hand, greedy of power, reigned without a rival, and feared no abilities, except those of Mr. Fox, which he might find more formidable in the Cabinet than in the House of Commons.

But whatever may have been the inclinations of these two statesmen, there was a third politician, who looked with dread to any additional influence to be allotted to Mr. Fox. Lord Malmesbury gives us an account of a meeting at his house, which was attended by Lords Loughborough and Porchester, Burke, Windham, Sir Gilbert Elliot, Anstruther, Dr. Lawrence, and Elliot of Wells. "Burke, with his usual eloquence, talked for an hour. He said the Duke of Portland was riding in a ship with two anchors, one cast in the Palais Royal, the other in Berkeleysquare; that he was the instrument of Fox's schemes, or rather of Fox's abettors; that these had seduced Fox's

principles, had made him believe that a government like ours was not a proper one for great talents to display themselves in; that by working on his ambition, which, carried to excess, becomes wickedness, they had made him from these reasons approve and praise the French Revolution; that if he was to renounce them, it was because he must become a convert or a hypocrite; that he saw little of the first, that he dreaded we should be the dupes of the latter." Nothing can be more unlike Mr. Fox than this representation; his adherence to the principles of the Constitution had always been open and consistent; he had never gone the lengths of the Duke of Richmond, who was now in the Ministry; and he had given to Reform of Parliament only a general and guarded support. As to Mr. Fox's becoming a hypocrite, nothing can show the insanity of Mr. Burke more than such an insinuation.

That Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox should not have been able to form a junction at this time is a circumstance calculated to excite more regret than surprise. It is true there did not exist any such difference of political opinion as should have forbidden the union. On Parliamentary Reform Mr. Pitt had gone further than Mr. Fox, but both statesmen were agreed that no Ministry could be formed on the basis of proposing Reform as a measure by which the Government should stand or fall. They both voted in favour of the abolition of the slave trade. Both had a dislike of penalties on religious dissent; both were cautious in the steps they took for removing those penalties. Mr. Pitt, indeed, had supported the maintenance of the Corporation and Test Acts. On the great question of France, the Revolution had now taken a shape which inspired disgust in Mr. Fox as well as in Mr. Pitt; Mr. Fox was averse to war,

and Mr. Pitt, pledged to financial economy, was determined to maintain neutrality as long as he thought it possible.

But while Mr. Pitt was thwarted by followers jealous of a great intellect obscuring their scanty light, Mr. Fox was bound to obtain for his friends an influence in the Government which neither the King, nor the Tory party, nor the Burke Whigs would have seen without alarm. Lord Holland mentions a story, that Mr. Fox had a personal interview with Mr. Pitt, in which an objection was raised to Mr. Sheridan by Mr. Pitt, and that Mr. Fox honourably adhered to his political friend. But this obstacle, if it ever arose, was only a small part of the difficulty. Had Mr. Pitt consented to place in the Cabinet Mr. Fox and three of his friends, whom would he have named? The Duke of Portland and Lord Fitzwilliam would have opposed his views. Lord Spencer, Mr. Grey, Mr. Sheridan, and Mr. Windham would have differed in the Cabinet as they had done in Parliament.

Thus the position of public affairs made the union of Mr. Fox with Mr. Pitt impracticable. The absurd condition that Mr. Pitt should leave the Treasury, suggested by Lord Fitzwilliam, served to make that impossible which, in the opinion of all Mr. Burke's friends, nearly all Mr. Pitt's, and more than half of Mr. Fox's, was undesirable. Mr. Pitt, therefore, was left in sole possession of the Government.

CHAPTER XXXII.

GREAT BRITAIN-WAR WITH FRANCE.

may

MR. PITT, thus left without a rival in the Cabinet, was forced to choose a policy. His temper was pacific; his plan of government no less so; he had already built up a great fame by financial economy, domestic reforms, and a commercial alliance with France. Was the whole work to be overthrown? Was he to undertake to restrain and bring to reason the madmen who had already broken loose from their home and were roaming over the Continent? We be sure that Mr. Pitt's inclination was averse to such a risk; that he would gladly have avoided war, and maintained a position of neutrality. But neither in the disposition of the French Assembly, nor in the inclinations of the governing classes at home, did he find support for his pacific wishes. There was in the Convention a party which, in the period between the King's deposition and his death, exercised great power, and which, equally with Mr. Burke, was bent on war. This was the party of the Girondins, led by M. Brissot, and often called by his name. This party, as soon as they saw that the King was helpless, sought his destruction. They conceived that a war with all Europe would tend to this result. But Robespierre, who was favourable to peace, pointed out an