In an instant all was confusion.The adherents of the deceased statesman looked on the Duke of Portland as their chief.The King placed Shelburne at the head of the Treasury.Fox, Lord John Cavendish, and Burke, immediately resigned their offices;and the new prime minister was left to constitute a government out of very defective materials.His own parliamentary talents were great; but he could not be in the place where parliamentary talents were most needed.It was necessary to find some member of the House of Commons who could confront the great orators of the opposition; and Pitt alone had the eloquence and the courage which were required.He was offered the great place of Chancellor of the Exchequer; and he accepted it.He had scarcely completed his twenty-third year.
The Parliament was speedily prorogued.During the recess, a negotiation for peace which had been commenced under Rockingham was brought to a successful termination.England acknowledged the independence of her revolted colonies; and she ceded to her European enemies some places in the Mediterranean and in the Gulf of Mexico.But the terms which she obtained were quite as advantageous and honourable as the events of the war entitled her to expect, or as she was likely to obtain by persevering in a contest against immense odds.All her vital parts, all the real sources of her power, remained uninjured.She preserved even her dignity: for she ceded to the House of Bourbon only part of what she had won from that House in previous wars.She retained her Indian empire undiminished; and, in spite of the mightiest efforts of two great monarchies, her flag still waved on the rock of Gibraltar.There is not the slightest reason to believe that Fox, if he had remained in office, would have hesitated one moment about concluding a treaty on such conditions.Unhappily that great and most amiable man was, at this crisis, hurried by his passions into an error which made his genius and his virtues, during a long course of years, almost useless to his country.
He saw that the great body of the House of Commons was divided into three parties, his own, that of North, and that of Shelburne; that none of those three parties was large enough to stand alone; that, therefore, unless two of them united, there must be a miserably feeble administration, or more probably, a rapid succession of miserably feeble administrations, and this at a time when a strong government was essential to the prosperity and respectability of the nation.It was then necessary and right that there should be a coalition.To every possible coalition there were objections.But, of all possible coalitions, that to which there were the fewest objections was undoubtedly a coalition between Shelburne and Fox.It would have been generally applauded by the followers of both.It might have been made without any sacrifice of public principle on the part of either.Unhappily, recent bickerings had left in the mind of Fox a profound dislike and distrust of Shelburne.Pitt attempted to mediate, and was authorised to invite Fox to return to the service of the Crown."Is Lord Shelburne," said Fox, "to remain prime minister?" Pitt answered in the affirmative."It is impossible that I can act under him," said Fox."Then negotiation is at an end," said Pitt; "for I cannot betray him."Thus the two statesmen parted.They were never again in a private room together.
As Fox and his friends would not treat with Shelburne, nothing remained to them but to treat with North.That fatal coalition which is emphatically called "The Coalition" was formed.Not three quarters of a year had elapsed since Fox and Burke had threatened North with impeachment, and had described him, night after night, as the most arbitrary, the most corrupt, the most incapable of ministers.They now allied themselves with him for the purpose of driving from office a statesman with whom they cannot be said to have differed as to any important question.
Nor had they even the prudence and the patience to wait for some occasion on which they might, without inconsistency, have combined with their old enemies in opposition to the government.
That nothing might be wanting to the scandal, the great orators, who had, during seven years, thundered against the war, determined to join with the authors of that war in passing a vote of censure on the peace.
The Parliament met before Christmas 1782.But it was not till January 1783 that the preliminary treaties were signed.On the 17th of February they were taken into consideration by the House of Commons.There had been, during some days, floating rumours that Fox and North had coalesced; and the debate indicated but too clearly that those rumours were not unfounded.Pit was suffering from indisposition: he did not rise till his own strength and that of his hearers were exhausted; and he was consequently less successful than on any former occasion.His admirers owned that his speech was feeble and petulant.He so far forgot himself as to advise Sheridan to confine himself to amusing theatrical audiences.This ignoble sarca** gave Sheridan an opportunity of retorting with great felicity."After what Ihave seen and heard to-night," he said, "I really feel strongly tempted to venture on a competition with so great an artist as Ben Jonson, and to bring on the stage a second Angry Boy." On a division, the address proposed by the supporters of the government was rejected by a majority of sixteen.