man, but either of coming in now, or of waiting till public calamity or national distress drove Pitt from office, and that then he necessarily must come in to support the very measures which Pitt had not been equal to carry through for the public safety; that, therefore, it was not unreasonable to argue, that his coming into an equal share of power now with Pitt, was not only likely to prevent these public evils which threatened the community at large, but to insure to him and his friends a much more permanent and secure possession of office than if they waited till the King, against his will, and driven to it by distress, was forced to take them in; that, coming in now, his power necessarily must increase, from the palpable good effects it would produce; that on his coming in then it would diminish, from perhaps an unpopular and difficult task being put upon him, and from his not possessing the confidence of the Crown. This had some effect upon him. I left him and the Duke alone; and I was glad to learn that the next morning, when he called again at Burlington House, he was more accommodating and less taciturn than the preceding evening."

On the following day, the 17th, we find that Mr. Pitt stated some doubts about Fox, and these he said might be got over. He was a little apprehensive of Fox's opinions relative to the French revolution; and hinted that he was afraid he had gone too far: that this was an objection to his coming at once into the Foreign Department, because it would look like a change of system. On the next day, the 18th, Lord

Fitzwilliam being invited to give an opinion, insisted on the indispensable necessity of Pitt's resigning the Treasury for another Cabinet office. He expressed his dislike to Sheridan, said he might have a lucrative place, but never could be admitted to one of trust and confidence. On the 21st, the Duke of Portland told Lord Malmesbury that Fox was much more practicable, and said "it was so damned right a thing that it must be done." He however still held out on the impossibility of his acting under Pitt. When things had reached this point Mr. Burke interfered and put an effectual stop to the whole proceeding. He professed himself a warm advocate for a coalition, but observed "Mr. Fox's coach stops the way," and declared that the principles broached by Grey, &c., and not disavowed by Fox, had necessarily drawn a line of division in the party; that it was necessary to declare this distinctly and decidedly, and that for better security and in order to give a convincing mark of it to the public, Lord Loughborough should be made Chancellor and represent the party in the cabinet. On the other hand, Mr. Pitt's friends objected to the measure of coalescing with Fox, and on the 27th of June, the whole of the projected arrangement was at an end. Upon the 5th of July, Lord Loughborough related to Lord Malmesbury a conversation he had had a few days before with Fox, in which he said Fox appeared more harsh, impracticable, and opinionative, than he could have supposed him to be. That he saw no chance of anything being done while Fox remained in his present temper of mind. Fox had said to him,

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that although it should be the united opinion of all his friends that he ought to come into office, leaving Pitt in the post he now fills, he still should maintain his own, and although in that case he should so far defer to theirs as not to refuse coming into office rather than prevent an arrangement, yet that if that was to happen he would go into the House of Lords and not remain in the House of Commons. In the course of the summer a proclamation against sedition was issued. Before the terms were finally settled, the Duke of Portland was consulted, and held a meeting of his friends at Burlington House. The Duke of Bedford, who had been invited, asked if Mr. Fox was expected. On being told that he was not, the Duke took up his hat, and saying, "Then I am sure I have no business here," left the room.*

On July 30th, we find that Lord Malmesbury dined with Fox at St. Anne's Hill with no one present but Mr. Thomas Grenville. Fox argued much on what appeared to him to be the insincerity of Pitt, who he said only wished to separate and break up the party. "All this was said," adds Lord Malmesbury, "in great good humour. Much talk on foreign politics. We agreed on the general principle, but differed on particular points. His leanings about French politics are not quite correct. His opinion of the King of Prussia much too low. His partiality for a Russian connexion very great. Fox made Pitt's

quitting the Treasury a sine quá non, and was so

* See Lord Holland's "Memoirs of the Whig Party," vol. i. Burke's Works, vol. vi.

opinionative and fixed about it that it was impossible even to reason with him on the subject."

No more seems to have passed on this subject for four months. On the 11th of December, Charles Fox, the Duke of Devonshire, Lord Malmesbury, Mr. Grenville and Lord Fitzwilliam dined at Burlington House. Fox treated the prevailing alarm as totally groundless, said that there was not only no insurrection or imminent danger of invasion but no unusual symptoms of discontent or proneness to complain in the people. He did not doubt the necessity of assisting the Dutch if attacked, but he seemed inclined to think the opening the Scheldt was not a sufficient motive for war, and would not even be considered as such by the Dutch themselves. The rest entirely disagreed with these opinions, and Lord Fitzwilliam even blamed the Ministry for their supineness. On a subsequent day, Sir Gilbert Elliot, Lord Malmesbury, and Mr. Elliot of Wells dined with the Duke of Portland. They all urged upon the Duke their entire disapprobation of Fox's conduct and principles, and urged the Duke to come to a fair and short explanation with Fox, and separate from him amicably but decidedly. When, however, they urged the Duke of Portland to answer their appeal, he said nothing. "I," says Lord Malmesbury, "although I have often seen him benumbed and paralysed, never saw him or any one else so completely so before. All was one dead silence on his part: he seemed in a trance, and nothing could be so painful as these two hours, for our conversation lasted as long as that,

reckoning intervals of ten and fifteen minutes silence.' Yet one thing he did say, and that was that he was against anything that could widen the breach, and put it out of Fox's power to return, and drive him into desperate opposition.

On the 18th, Lord Fitzwilliam left London "from difficulty how to act, and distress of mind relative to Fox." But Mr. Burke, implacable and furious, pursued his purpose of separation. On the 22nd he harangued for an hour to Lords Loughborough, Malmesbury, and Porchester, Sir Gilbert Elliot, Wyndham, Dr. Lawrence and Elliot of Wells. He represented Fox as seduced by his abilities to believe that a government like ours was not a proper one for great abilities to display themselves in, that by working on his ambition they had made him approve and praise the French Revolution, &c. Wyndham tried in vain to stem this torrent of falsehood and misrepresentation. On the same day we find this passage in Lord Malmesbury's diary: "Fox carried me home; he expressed great horror of the décret,' of the 15th Dec. 1792, issued by the National Convention. He thought war likely. The Dutch he considered as adverse to it. He was in very good humour, and talked with great liberality on the difference of opinion between him and some of his friends."

On the 24th the Duke of Portland agreed to separate from his friend, manifesting at the same time "the great violence that this determination did to his private affection, and attachment to Mr. Fox.'

* Lord Malmesbury, vol. ii. p. 419-454.