HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



215 



indeod he met with all the success he 

 could d<isire. Accordingly, we find, 

 on the r2th of January, of the 

 present year, Mr. Addington raised 

 to the peerase, by the style and title 

 of viscount Sidmouth, and two days 

 afterwards succeeding the duke of 

 Portland, as lord president of the 

 council. The latter nobleman had 

 long been considered as a minister in 

 name only, his great age and infir- 

 mities having' rendered him totally 

 incapable of its funftions. It was 

 stated, however, in the gazette, that 

 his grace retired on account of ill 

 health. To the earl of Buckingham- 

 shire, one of lord Sidmouth's most 

 assured friends, was also giyen the 

 seals of the duchy of Lancaster, and 

 other near connexions of his were 

 admitted to the privy council. 



The return of the Addingtons to 

 a share in administration, did not 

 cause much surprise either to the 

 friends or enemies of that.itparty ; — 

 but that the minister should again 

 ally himself to the man, whose con- 

 du6t in office he had arraigned, in 

 terms of the bitterest sarcasm, 

 and severest invedlive, with refer- 

 ence to his general conduft of 

 the public interests both at home 

 and abroad ; whom he hnA re- 

 peatedly held up to view as Ignorant 

 and in'.'fricieiit, iuid whom he had 

 so receiifly exposed, with all the 

 bitterness of the most reproachful 

 scorn, indeed excited universal as- 

 tonishment. 



That there existed a strong necrs. 

 sity for ministers to call in parlia- 

 mentary and political aid, at this 

 period, cannot be doubted, but we 

 must be allowed to question the ef- 

 ficacy of the means adopted. What 

 the terms of the convention were, 

 which unit<(l parties recently en- 

 gaged ill the deepest hostility in. 



wards each other, vrc cannot pre- 

 sume to conjecture ; but, had they 

 even been such as would have ch- 

 s'.tred a stable and permanent union 

 between them (which a very short 

 prriod proved the contrary) still 

 it must be considered an unfor- 

 tunate measure for the intsTcst of 

 the existing administration, as, what 

 it gained in point of numbers, it lost 

 in credit and reputation ; ils manifest 

 weakness becoming thereby notori- 

 ous, and which, while it united and 

 invigorated -an opposition, already 

 too formidable, added nothi;ig to it- 

 self in point of ability or ciiara^ter. 



An event, however, was ap- 

 proaching which threatened, and iu 

 fact actually produced, a dissolution 

 of this strange and ill-assorted con- 

 nexion. A reference to our account- 

 of the debates in parliament, of the 

 present year, will shew the extreme 

 difficulty which the minister had, in 

 supporting his colleague. Lord Mel- 

 ville, under the charges brought a- 

 gainst him by Mr. Whitbread, ground- 

 ed upon the ttnth repoit of the coni- 

 Diissioners of naval enquiry : which 

 menaced the removal of his lordship 

 from the councils and confidence of 

 his majesty for ever, and thus de- 

 prive Mr. Pitt of an able, experi- 

 enced, and attached coadjutor. 



When the utmost efforts of admi- 

 nistration failed, in screening lord 

 Melville from the elfect of the par. 

 liamentary resolutions, moved against 

 him, we have seen that the mode of 

 procedure against his lordship, as a 

 delinquent, was warmly contested 

 within the walls of the house of com- 

 mons. The friends of the accused, 

 who were at first adverse to the mea- 

 sure of impeachment, and had pledg- 

 ed the house to a prosecution in (he 

 courts of law ; for reasons which it 

 would b* indelicate and imprudent 

 P 4 for 



