UNEQUAL TO HIS POSITION. men admired his singular fortune. But that such a man should be Prime Minister of England, and at such a time, seemed absolutely preposterous. By some the appointment was considered as a premonitory symptom of the mental disease with which the King was again afflicted while the new arrangements were in the course of formation. By the Leader of Opposition the arrangement was pronounced a notorious juggle't. - an opinion which was not far from the truth, so far as the retiring Minister was concerned. Dundas, the private friend and confidential colleague of Pitt throughout his administration, though, perhaps, of all the late Cabinet, the least unwilling to be released from the cares of office, could not flatter his chief that a Cabinet directed by Addington would hold together, even as a temporary expedient." From the commencement, to the close of its miserable existence, the head of the administration was assailed with a pitiless and unceasing storm of ridicule, which reminded old Parliament men of the stories their fathers used to tell of Sir Spencer Compton, Sir Thomas Robinson, and the Duke of Newcastle. Addington Fox's Correspondence. "Our friends, who, as an act of friendship and attachment to you, agree to remain in office, do it with the utmost chagrin and unwillingness; and, among the other considerations which operate upon them, is the feeling that they are embarking in an administration under a head totally incapable to carry it on.' Dundas to Pitt, 7th February, 1801.-Earl STANHOPE'S Life of Pitt, vol. iii. p. 279. 561 Ch. 41. 1801 562 Ch. 41. 1801 Health of the GENERAL CONTEMPT FOR ADDINGTON. himself furnished the cue by which the popular contempt of his pretensions was condensed in a single phrase. During the King's illness, the principal obstacle to his recovery was want of sleep. The new Minister, acting upon a reminiscence of his early days, recommended the trial of a hop pillow, which his father had prescribed in similar cases. The hop pillow was used, it is said, with success, and contributed mainly to the restoration of his Majesty's health. When this anecdote was spread abroad, the Prime Minister became known by the title of the Doctor, and was seldom spoken of by any other name. The derangement of the King's mind, to which reference has been made, became apparent a few days after Pitt's resignation. The pain and anxiety attendant upon the dismissal of a Minister who had served him for seventeen years, coupled with the agitation caused by the attempt to make him violate what he believed to be an irrevocable and unalterable engagement, had thrown his infirm mind once more off its balance. On the 18th of February, the King closed the correspondence which had so much troubled him, by a short note, in which his late Minister was, for the first time, addressed as My Dear Pitt.' At this time he * Earl STANHOPE's Life of Pitt, vol. iii. App. xxxii. The King parted from his illustrious servant without any of the illfeeling which, on his part, had marked the retirement or dismissal of former ministers who had thwarted or attempted to thwart his will. But he could not trust himself to see Mr. Pitt. 'I thought,' MENTAL EXCITEMENT OF THE KING. was under medical treatment for a feverish cold. On the 21st he became delirious, raved about the Catholic Bill, and spoke of Pitt, Grenville, and Dundas with imprecations. The Willises were then called in, and it was found necessary to put him under restraint. The presence of the Willises, though perhaps necessary, increased his irritation. He declared that he was not mad, and that if the elder Willis was sent for, there would be a Regency; in which event, he repeated what he had often said in his former illness, that he would never resume the functions of Sovereignty. Meanwhile, public business, much of which was urgent, could not proceed. The Bill for the repeal of the Brown Bread Act of last Session, which had given so much offence to the people, that it was thought necessary to hurry a repealing enactment through both Houses in a single day, awaited the Royal Assent; and it was thought a measure of such urgency that the Royal Assent was obtained at a time when the King was not a responsible he said to General Harcourt, we should both, perhaps, say something we should be sorry for; we might both be warm in argument, and therefore I thought it much better that we should put our thoughts on paper, and I sent for the Speaker as the friend of both.' He repeatedly said that his motives were conscientious, and that he held the oath so sacred, he could not give way. He spoke highly of Mr. Pitt, and he said the Speaker had told him that Mr. Pitt, though he regretted the thing, could not but revere the King for his steadiness and conscientiousness.'-Lady HARCOURT'S Diary, MSS. For other particulars relative to the King's illness, not before published, I quote the same authority. 563 Ch. 41. 1801 564 Ch. 41. 1801 agent. DERANGEMENT OF THE KING. The Chancellor took the Commission for the Bill to the Queen's house; but the physicians would not permit him to see the King. Dr. Willis, however, undertook to get the Commission signed, and the Chancellor suffered this very questionable proceeding to take place. The physician told his Majesty that his signature was required to something for the comfort and happiness of his people; upon which, according to Willis's statement, the afflicted Sovereign made a touching reply, 'Is it,' said he, for the happiness of my people? Then I will sign my best George R.'y On the 22nd of February, Mr. Addington thought it right to inform the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, and his own colleagues, together with Mr. Pitt and Lord Grenville, of the King's y Lady HARCOURT's Diary. It is recorded by Lord Malmesbury that the Chancellor said, when he returned from the palace, that his Majesty was in the perfect possession of his understanding. Diary, vol. iv. p. 17, Correspondence. But according to Lord Colchester, the Chancellor told Lord Hardwicke he had not seen the King.-Life of Lord Colchester, v. i. p. 245. He told Fox the same thing.-Fox's Correspondence, vol. iii. p. 336; and ROSE's Diary, vol. i. p. 315. According to Rose, Loughborough said, that Willis, when he came out of the King's room, told him that there would be no difficulty in obtaining the royal signature to a dozen papers respecting which no detailed statements were necessary. And this professional opinion, reaching Lord Malmesbury by hearsay, is magnified into an imputation on the Chancellor of making a statement wilfully false upon a subject of the gravest importance. Lord Malmesbury's accuracy, when relating the political gossip of the day, is not to be relied on. THE PRINCE OF WALES AND MR. PITT. insanity. The Prince, on the following day, sent for Pitt, to consult him, as he said, on the present distressing occasion. Pitt said, he presumed that his Royal Highness had sent for him as one of his Majesty's Ministers. The Prince replied, that he had done so, and that he wished to know, in case of the continuance of the King's illness, what were the steps he meant to take? Pitt said, that he would answer his question, and give him his best opinion, on the express condition, that his Royal Highness would refrain from advising with those who were in opposition to His Majesty's Government. The Prince acquiesced, reserving only the liberty of maintaining his confidential intercourse with his friend, Lord Moira. At this point, Pitt seems to have terminated the interview, in order that he might consult his colleagues of the Cabinet de facto. On the 25th, he saw the Prince again, and informed him that he had determined, should the necessity arise, to propose a restricted regency, precisely similar to that which he proposed in 1788; and that, in this view of his duty, he was supported by all the Cabinet, including the Duke of Portland, Lord Loughborough, and Earl Spencer, who, on the former occasion, had differed from him on this point. He reminded the Prince, that the sense of Parliament had been clearly expressed in favour of restriction; and, that His Royal Highness, with every one concerned, would do well to assent to it. The Prince gave utterance to some expressions of discontent, 565 Ch. 41. 1801 |