Sheridan, and others of their friends, resigned office. Nevertheless the new ministry was decidedly Whig, and professed the same principles as their predecessors. Mr. Pitt, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, and leader of the House of Commons, was, at this time, accounted a good Whig. Fox, after his resignation, continued in opposition, and soon afterwards entered into his famous. Coalition with Lord North, which immediately placed the government in a very perilous position. The comparative strength of parties in the House of Commons was estimated to afford the ministry 140 votes, Lord North 120, Fox 90, and the residue uncertain. Preliminaries of peace, which recognised the independence of the American colonies, had been agreed upon by the government, and presented to Parliament. It was decided that their acceptance should be a test question between the new Coalition and the ministry. Accordingly, a motion of censure upon the terms of the preliminaries was proposed by Lord J. Cavendish, on February 21, and agreed to by the House of Commons, by 207 to 190 votes. Three days afterwards, the ministry resigned. Owing to the difficulties of the situation, there was a ministerial interregnum, which extended to the beginning of April. In the interim, the king made an unsuccessful attempt to induce Mr. Pitt to form a government; and the Commons, on March 24, passed an address, praying his Majesty to form a strong and united administration, which was graciously received, and responded to through Earl Ludlow. On March 31, a motion was made for a further address upon the subject; but the House being of opinion that it was premature to interpose again with their advice so soon after his Majesty's gracious reply to their former address, the motion was withdrawn.i Adolphus, Geo. III. v. 3, pp. 159, 464, 466. And see Fitzmaurice, Life of Ld. Shelburne, v. 3, cc. iv., v. 1782. 1783. 1783 3. Duke of Portland's First Administration. He At length, on April 2, 1783, the celebrated Coalition Ministry' was formed, under the nominal presidency of the Duke of Portland. It included Lord North and Mr. Fox, heretofore such bitter and, as was supposed, irreconcilable opponents. The other cabinet offices were chiefly filled by followers of Fox, who was himself the virtual prime minister. The Coalition was unpopular with the nation on public grounds, and was vehemently assailed both in and out of Parliament. Lord North and his friends attempted to vindicate their conduct by arguments of expediency. The king himself resented the Coalition for personal reasons. had long entertained a great aversion to Fox, which was aggravated by the friendship that had sprung up between Fox and the Prince of Wales. Lord North was formerly a favourite with the king, but he now looked upon him as a deserter to the enemy's camp. He therefore resolved to take the earliest opportunity of ridding himself of his obnoxious advisers. Nothing remarkable occurred during the remainder of the session in which the ministry was appointed. But, on the reassembling of Parliament, in the autumn of 1783, the king's speech announced that the treaties of peace had been signed. Mr. Pitt, as leader of the Opposition, reminded ministers that these treaties were substantially identical with the preliminary articles, upon which they had turned out their predecessors in office. Early in the session, Mr. Secretary Fox introduced his famous India Bill. Its principal feature was that it vested the J Fitzmaurice, Life of Ld. Shelburne, v. 3, cc. vii., viii. Russell's Mem. of Fox, v. 2, p. 95. For the principal arguments for and against the Coalition, see Adolphus, v. 3, pp. 460–464; Lewis, Adminis. p. 60. 1 Parl. Hist. v. 23, p. 1140. government of India, for four years, in a commission of seven persons, named in the Bill, and not removable by the crown, except upon an address from the two Houses of Parliament. Pitt denounced the plan as dangerous to the constitution, and a violation of the chartered rights of the East India Company. 'm A protest-signed by Lord Rockingham, the Duke of Portland, Lord Fitzwilliam, and other peers-to a Bill for the management of the East India Company's affairs, in 1773, contained the following passage, which, from its striking applicability to Mr. Fox's Bill, was much quoted at the time:-'The election of executive officers in Parliament is plainly unconstitutional, and an example of the most pernicious kind, productive of intrigue and faction, and calculated for extending a corrupt influence in the crown. It frees ministers from responsibility, while it leaves them all the effect of patronage.' But though the measure was unpopular in the country, the Coalition were sufficiently strong to carry it through the House of Commons without difficulty. In the Lords it obtained a different reception. Lord Temple, at the instigation of the king himself," brought about its rejection, in that House, on December 17, by 95 to 76 votes. On the following day the king dismissed the ministry, and again appealed to Pitt to assume the reins of government. 4. Mr. Pitt's First Administration.- December 1783. On December 19, 1783, Mr. Pitt's first administration was formed.° Earl Temple, who had been appointed a Secretary of State, advocated an immediate dissolution of Parliament. But Pitt would not agree to this, being of opinion that the time had not yet come when the country could be appealed to with success. He wisely determined to give the public feeling time 1783. 1783. 1784. to gather strength,'" whereupon Temple resigned, on the 22nd instant, leaving the youthful premier to bear the brunt of the severest contest ever waged in Parliament. For though Pitt possessed the unlimited confidence of the king, and the support of the House of Lords, yet a powerful majority of the House of Commons was arrayed against him. His cabinet consisted of seven persons, all of whom, save himself, were peers. His only assistant in the House of Commons was his friend Dundas. He was assailed at once by every imaginable device of a hostile Opposition-votes of want of confidence, censures upon the government, obstructions and defeats in every shape. But he stood firm; and though frequently urged by his supporters, and even by the king himself, to dissolve Parliament, he refrained from doing so until he considered that the country was prepared to sustain him. It was not until March 24 that the prorogation took place, to be followed by an immediate dissolution. But such was the inveteracy of the Opposition that Pitt was obliged to prorogue before the passing of an Appropriation Act. Upon the reassembling of Parliament, however, it appeared that the amount of unauthorised expenditure had been very small, so that no objection was urged, or indemnity sought for, in regard to the same. The sense of the country, in reference to the great issues involved in the contest between Pitt and the Coalition, had been expressed at the time by numerous addresses. to the king. It was afterwards unmistakably pronounced by the return of a House of Commons which gave a triumphant support to the new administration. Above 160 members lost their seats at this election, nearly PT. B. Macaulay, Life of Pitt, in office, in December 1783, to the disEncy. Brit. solution of Parliament, in March 1784, see Mir. of Parl., 1841, pp. 1953, 1954. $ 3 Hats. Prec. 208. all of whom were Oppositionists. Upon the meeting of Parliament, an amendment was moved to the address in answer to the royal speech, to rescind the paragraph which expressed approval of the late dissolution; but it was negatived by a majority of more than two to one.t In the course of this session, Pitt introduced his India Bill, which was carried by a majority of 271 to 60. It created a Ministerial Board of Control for the affairs of India, to act in concert with the Court of Directors of the East India Company. This system of double government' continued in operation until after the great mutiny of 1857, when, by the Act 21 and 22 Vict. c. 106, the government of India was assumed by the queen herself, acting through a responsible Secretary of State. Mr. Pitt's majority in the House of Commons continued unshaken during the whole period of his administration, which lasted upwards of seventeen years. The unpatriotic conduct of Fox and his followers in regard to the French Revolution, and consequent war between England and France, contributed largely to the popularity of the government." It so alarmed and disgusted the aristocratic section of the Whig party as to induce them in 1792 to desire a Coalition with the government. For a time Fox himself was not unfavourable to union, but jealousy of Pitt would not suffer him to take a subordinate place in a ministry headed by his great rival. So he drifted off into more violent opposition, and openly avowed republican ideas. Whereupon the Duke of Portland, with other eminent Whig leaders, agreed, in the summer of 1794, to coalesce with Pitt. This Coalition was publicly ratified by the introduction of five new cabinet ministers from the ranks of the Opposition to the Treasury Bench. The 1784. |