By the Marquis of Rockingham's death, Lord Shel burne became prime minister ; and Mr. Pitt was associ ated with him as chancellor of the exchequer, in June, 1782. The task which devolved on him was one of great difficulty. Lord Shelburne's elevation had converted seve ral of his Friends into bitter enemies ; his peace with America and France was at best but a humiliating affair ; and the charge of managing the House of Commons was entrusted to Mr. Pitt. Scarcely arrived at the age of twenty-three, he had thus to make head against the most formidable opposition. Lord North was still in his place, with ability or extent of connection undiminished ; and the hostility of Mr. Fox, who had left the ministry at Rockingham's death, was at once strong and implacable. The quarrel of Lord Shelburne and Mr. Fox is a well known event ; the mode in which the latter sought for justice or revenge, is also well known, and very diversely judged of. We need only at present remark, that the combination of Lord North and Mr. Fox overpowered the new and unstable minister : he was compelled to resign, and Mr. Pitt went out with him, in the beginning of 1783. Prior to this event, we are told, a reconciliation had been attempted. ', Neither Mr. Pitt nor Lord Shelburne," says the Bishop of Winchester, ,, saw any reason why they should not act with Mr. Fox. It was therefore agreed that an offer should be made to him to return to office, for which purpose Mr. Pitt waited upon him by appointment. As soon as Mr. Fox heard the object of Mr. Pitt's visit, he asked whether it was intended that Lord Shelburne should remain first lord of the treasury ; to which Mr. Pitt answered in the affirmative. Mr. Fox immediately replied, that it was impossible for him to belong to any administration of which Lord Shelburne was the head. Mr. Pitt observed, that if such was his determination, it would be useless for him to enter into any farther discus sion, ' as he did not come to betray Lord Shelburne ;' and he took his leave. This was, I believe, the last time Mr. Pitt was in a private room with Mr. Fox ; and from this period may be dated that political hostility which con tinued through the remainder of their lives." The same feeling of integrity towards his colleague, induced Mr. Pitt respectfully to decline the offer of succeeding him, which the king condescended to make him in person. Ile again would not ,, betray Lord Shelburne ;" and, un der the Duke of Portland, the united party of Lord North and Mr. Fox came into office in their stead.
This famous coalition ministry was offensive at once to the king and to a great portion or the country. Mr. Fox's share in it was entirely approved of by none but his very warmest partisans. Mr. Pitt, though he was of those who thought it ,, monstrous, in the ardent defender of the peo ple's rights, to unite with the lofty assertorf the • • o eto gative," yet. pledged himself not systematically to oppose their measures. They had his support on more than one occasion ; but, on the first motion of Mr. Fox's celebrated India bill, he expressed his unqualified dissent from it, and resisted it in all its stages. We need hardly mention the fate of this bill ; it was pushed through the House of Commons by overpowering majorities ; but the king took the alarm at the great and permanent accession of influ ence which it seemed to confer on the ministers; Lord Temple made known his Majesty's feelings, and the bill was thrown out in the House of Lords. Mr. Fox and his colleagues were, in consequence, displaced.
The prospects of a prime minister, at this juncture, were far from inviting: the highest talents in the country, supported by the most powerful parliamentary interest, and embittered by defeat, were like to he arrayed against him ; he could have nothing to rely on but the king's fa vour and his own abilities. Mr. Pitt, however, did not hesitate to accept this office ; he was appointed first lord of the treasury, and chancellor of the exchequer, in De cember, 1783. The appalling state of matters soon be came apparent. The new minister's India bill was re jected by a majority of 222 to 214; and a similar fate attended all the subsequent motions on which he divided the House. Nevertheless, Mr. Pitt stood his ground. Strong in the favour of the king, in the consciousness of his own abilities, and firmly believing in the goodness of his cause, he exerted himself with the most extraordinary diligence to vanquish the opposition made to him, and fix himself securely in the confidence of the nation at large. In this contest, the versatility of his talents, the dexterity of his argumentation, the sharpness of his sarcasm, the ingenuity of all his measures, were not less wonderful than the firmness of mind, which prompted him at an age so early to encounter; single-handed, some of the most for midable obstacles that ever minister had to strive with.
By dint of unwearied exertions, he at length succeeded in reducing the majority which supported his opponents to a single voice ; and, finally, in drawing over that voice also to his own side. Having prospered so far, and what was more important, having now, as he thought, convinced the public of the rectitude of his measures, he determined to appeal more immediately to the general sense of the na tion, and the parliament was dissolved in March, 1784. The new election justified his hopes ; there was now a decided majority in his favour ; his India bill passed, and he became prime minister in substance as well as farm. He had earned his power with difficulty, and he kept it steadfastly. For the next seventeen years he was con stantly in office.
His conduct during this long administration was marked by great caution and skill ; for a considerable period, by the almost universal approbation of the country. The few faults found with it indicated how completely he had mastered the failings most likely to beset him. It was not the ardour of youth, its passion for dazzling schemes, or the indiscriminate zeal for splendid improvements, natural to one who had already declared himself so warmly in their favour, that were blamed ; it was rather a circumspect ness, bordering on jealousy, a reverence for existing in stitutions, a coldness or hostility to innovation, which looked like political apostacy in the once powerful advo cate for reform ; the errors, in short, of an old and narrow minded statesman, not of a young and highly-gifted one. If these features of his public character gave little testi mony as to the extent of his enthusiasm, or the warmth of his feelings, they indicated favourably respecting his prudence and the clearness of his judgment. Mr. Pitt had still a strong, though no longer a triumphant opposi tion to encounter in parliament ; the public confidence was yet but partially merited; and it seemed good policy to avoid all extraordinary movements which might expose him to misrepresentations, or put his still wavering sta bility in danger. Accordingly, though continuing to pa tronise the principles of freedom and liberality, which he had at first announced, he abstained from making any of them what are called cabinet questions; he spoke and voted in their favour, but did little more. He no longer took a lead among their abettors; some of them he came at last resolutely to oppose. The friends of parliamentary reform expected, that now, when the power was in his hands, the schemes he had twice proposed were at length to be realized ; but his motion for this purpose, in 1785, having, as we mentioned already, been rejected in the House of Commons, he never more recurred to the sub ject, except as a decided opponent of those who pushed it forward. His conduct underwent censures on this head; they were augmented by his opposition to the repeal of the test act—a piece of management which many stigma tized as a homage done to bigotry and popular prejudice, unworthy of the son of Chatham The same party who blamed him for his indifference to the cause of improve ment at home, also blamed him for the minute jealousy of his conduct with foreign powers. His disputes with Catharine of Russia about the fortress of Orchakow, and with Sjiain about the fur-trade of Nootka Sound, were ex claimed against as trifles which he was magnifying into causes of war. With the great body of the nation, how ever, he was still a decided favourite ; they forgot these alleged blemishes in his character, or reckoned them as beauties, while they felt the substantial good he was effect ing in many departments of domestic policy, and partici pated in the steady prosperity which the country enjoyed under his administration The improvements he had made in collecting the revenue, his plans for preventing con traband trade, his general skill as a financier, were uni versally applauded The probity and zeal with which he served the public had gradually secured him its confi dence; and his admirable talents for debate, the unrivalled clearness of his expositions, the sagacity of his manage ment, enabled him to influence, in the requisite degree, the deliberations of parliament, and verified, in the com mon opinion, the high expectations at first entertained of him. His ministry, if not brilliant, had hitherto been for tunate ; a few disappointed reformers might murmur, but the voice of the country was yet with him.