THE KING'S ILLNESS.

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ranks of the old Ministry. "And thus, in an age preeminently fruitful of parliamentary talents, a Cabinet was formed containing hardly a single man who in parliamentary talents could be considered as even of the second rate." It was an eminently aristocratic Cabinet; for of its nine members five were peers, three the eldest sons of peers, and the only commoner, strictly speaking, was Addington himself, or "the Doctor," as he was now generally nicknamed. Before he could complete his arrangements, however, the King, whose feeble intellect, shaken by the Coronation Oath mania, had been seriously affected by the ministerial crisis, fell ill, and his life was even in danger. "I am better now," he said in one of the intervals of his paroxysms, "but I will remain true to the Church." Apprehensions were entertained of a revival of the Regency squabbles; but happily these were set at rest by the King's speedy recovery. The new Ministry was then installed in office. There is reason to believe that, at the last moment, Pitt would gladly have resumed the reins; but George the 3rd had never cordially liked his imperious Minister, and was too well pleased with the more flexible Addington to agree to a restoration of the status quo. Fox, in a letter to Lord Holland, writes:-"If the Speaker is employed, as is said, to make a new arrangement, it must be indeed a notorious juggle, and it seems to me not unlikely that it will proceed thus. The Speaker will converse with some men of consequence, possibly Grey or others, and will report that he cannot find it practicable to make a Ministry upon the principle of rejecting the Catholic claims, etc., and then Pitt will

54

' LILLIPUTIAN SUBSTİTUTÈS:

be restored, and the King will submit." * But Fox underrated the King's power of resistance, nor did he rightly understand the character of Addington, who, like most weak men, was obstinate and self-confident, and having unexpectedly attained to the highest office in the State was by no means inclined to surrender it. Still, to every person who clearly understood the critical circumstances of the country, the prospect of a feeble Government was sufficiently alarming. The general feeling seems very clearly expressed in a forcible caricature by Gillray, entitled 'Lilliputian Substitutes.' Here Lord Loughborough's huge wig almost conceals from view his successor in the Chancellorship, Lord Eldon. Next to it, on the Treasury Bench, is seen "Mr. Pitt's jack-boot," with Addington immersed in it chin-deep; yet stolidly convinced that it and all Pitt's clothes exactly fit him. "Well, to be sure," he exclaims," these here clothes do fit me to an inch !—and now that I have got upon this bench, I think I may pass muster for a fine tall fellow, and do as well for a corporal as my old master Billy himself." The new Foreign Secretary, Lord Hawkesbury, who, in debate, had used some wild talk about marching to Paris, wraps his attenuated figure in Lord Grenville's ample breeches. "Mercy upon me!" he cries; "what a deficiency is here!-ah, poor Hawkie! what will be the consequence

*Memorials of Fox,' iii. 188.

Loughborough, notwithstanding his servility on the Catholic question, had not secured the confidence of the King, who afterwards, on hearing of his death, exclaimed, "He has not left behind him a greater knave in my dominions."

PITT'S CONDUCT CRITICIZED.

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if these d-d breeches should fall off in the march to Paris, and then I should be found out a sans-culotte !" Lord Hobart, the Colonial Secretary, wields "Mr. Dundas's broadsword!" Another individual, of formidable proportions, finds fault with the "old slippers " of George Canning :-"Ah, d-n his narrow pumps! I shall never be able to bear them long on my corns!Zounds! are these shoes fit for a man in present pay free quarters ?"

Pitt's conduct at this period has drawn forth some severe comments from Sir George Cornewall Lewis,*which in spite of Lord Stanhope's demurrer,† we cannot but consider to be just and well deserved. He observes that it was as unintelligible to those of his contemporaries to whom it was known as it is to us at present. Mr. Abbot (Lord Colchester), Addington's confidential friend, and his successor in the Speakership, remarks in his diary :— "It is still a mystery why Mr. Pitt and his colleagues retired upon a question which they were not pledged upon to any one, which the Roman Catholics did not desire, and which they can now so readily forego." Lord Malmesbury, who lived on terms of intimacy with the great Minister's friend, appears to have been equally perplexed. Sir George Lewis thinks that two adequate motives for Pitt's resignation may be suggested; one, a strong and profound belief in the importance of his policy, and a conviction that by resigning, he should promote its chances of success; the other, an honour

* Sir G. C. Lewis, 'Administrations of Great Britain,' pp. 211, 212. + Earl Stanhope, 'Life of Pitt, iii. 310.

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A POLITICAL PROBLEM.

able feeling, that having authorised Lord Cornwallis and Lord Castlereagh to obtain the Roman Catholic support of the Union by a promise of ulterior relief, he was bound, if the King prevented him from fulfilling his promise, to retire from power. But, then, as Sir George Lewis points out, neither reason can be reconciled with his resignation of office in February because the King refused his consent to Catholic emancipation, and his readiness to resume office in March although the royal concurrence was still withheld. It must be presumed that, after the events of 1788, Mr. Pitt contemplated the possible effect of a political crisis on the King's excitable temperament. "We confess ourselves at a loss to justify," says Sir George Lewis, "and scarcely even to explain, the course which he pursued. Why if he were so willing to remain in March, he was so resolved on resigning in February, or why, if he were so resolved upon resigning in February, he was so willing to remain in March, we are equally unable to determine. What made Mr. Pitt's conduct the less creditable at this conjuncture was, that he signified his readiness to remain, without consulting some of the most important of his former colleagues, and particularly Lord Grenville, by whom this fact was communicated to Mr. Fox." We have already endeavoured to offer to our readers our humble solution of this curious political problem.

No doubt remains, however, that the King was, as we have said, thoroughly well satisfied with the change. He dubbed Mr. Addington "my own Chancellor of the Exchequer" and "my Chancellor of the Exchequer "; and, on his recovery, wrote to him in terms of affection

"ARCADES AMBO."

57

which he had never addressed to "great Chatham's son." "The King," he said, "is highly gratified at the repeated marks of the sensibility of Mr. Addington's heart, which must greatly add to the comfort of having placed him, with so much propriety, at the head of the Treasury. He trusts their mutual affection can only end with their lives." Happy Minister! Most gracious King!