\ 
30 ANNUAL REGISTER, 
of ‘the new opposition,”* suddenly 
subsided. The sun of truth had 
chased away the mists and fogs, 
which the malignant spirit of party 
and prejudice had raised to ohscure 
their conduct; and their real cha+ 
racter, talents, wisdom, and virtue, 
appeared in all that brilliancy and 
purity, which belonged to the ag- 
gregate of that rare assemblage of 
statesmen, of whom it was com- 
posed. To this last description of 
oppositiont no great increase of 
number on the present occasion was 
discernible; but public opinion was 
with them, anda similarity of pre- 
sent views indicated an approxima- 
tion towards Mr.Pitt and his friends; 
an union sufiiciently powerful to 
overthrow any administration from 
whence they were excluded. In 
supporting the address, the ‘‘ new 
opposition” only gave that part of 
it, which alluded to increase of 
force, their support, and this only 
as it was an earnest of more vigor- 
ous measures. 
Having noticed two descriptions 
of persons sufficiently distinct to 
be so discriminated, there remains 
but one more to be arranged under 
\its proper banners, namely, that of 
the “ old opposition,” of which Mr. 
Fox had been for so long a period, 
and still continued, the ostensible 
leader. This party, though “shorn 
of its beams,” by the defection of 
Mr. Burke, and those who thought 
with him onthe subject ofthe French 
revolution, was yet sufficiently for- 
midable, by the talents of the in- 
dividuals who composed it ;_ by the 
great property of some of those 
who still steadily upheld its princi- 
1803. 
ples and its cause; and by the ine 
fluence it possessed over a portion 
of the community at large; to have 
given great cause of disquiet to 
governments had it thought proper 
to martial itself in array against the 
minister, at the opening of the 
session. On the present occasion, 
however, personal animosity to 
Mr. Pitt and his friends, or a blind 
attachment to the pacific system, 
seems to have biassed men in op- 
position to those lights which must 
have derived to them from their 
superior talents and great political 
experience, They were apparently 
disposed to give a warm support to 
Mr. Addington; yet, in preserving 
their own consistency they qualified 
their approbation on the present 
ministers, with so many severe re- 
bukes and disquisitions on the con- 
duct of the last, of whom those 
now in power formed a part; 
that the latter could not accept 
those compliments of their present 
conduct, at the expence of that 
which had been the uniform tenor 
of their early political life. Nor 
was the approval of the address, by 
Mr.Fox and his friends, grounded on 
any other basis, save on that part of * 
his majesty’s speech, in which estab- 
lishments were generally recom- 
mended, by which they supposed, 
such only were meant as were ne- 
cessary for our security, and did 
not go to the extentof iricreasing our 
military establishments, which sys- 
tem they deprecated and disap- 
proved of in the strongest degree. 
‘They persisted in their belief of the 
pacific “‘ tone and temper” of the 
first consul; and assured. the 
* Vide historical part of the last volume, 1902. 
t Lords Grenville, Spencer, Buckingham, Fitzwilliam, Carlisle, &e. in the lords.— 
Messrs.Windham, Grenville, Elliot, Dr. Lawrence, &c. in the commons. 
legislation, 
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