1806.] 
without fuccefs, the latter was fuddenly 
recurred to, March 25, 1784, foon after a 
- very equivocal meffage, tending to cajole 
the houfe of commous into fecurity. 
The voice of the nation, upon this oc- 
,cafion, produced a confiderable effect, and 
the elections in general proved highly fa- 
vourable to the new minifters. In con- 
fequence of this, Mr. Pitt, who was re- 
turned for the univerfity of Cambridge, 
again brought forward his amended bill 
for the regulation of India, and carried it 
triumphantly through the houfes of com- 
mons and peers. The remainder of the 
feffion alfo gave birth to two other impor- 
tant projects, the one for the prevention 
of {mugeling, and the other, called the 
Commutation A&, by which certain du- 
ties were transferred from tea to windows. 
Bat the new minifter was placed in a 
very delicate and embarraffing fituation, 
by a motion of Mr. Alderman Sawbridge 
{June 16th, 1784) ‘* that a committee be 
appointed to enquire into the prefent fate 
of the Cominons of Great Britain in Par- 
liament.”. The alderman affected to be 
defirous of refigning this bufinefs to the 
chancellor of the exchequer, who had cn 
a former occafion brought forward quef- 
tions upon the fame fubject, and in whofe 
hands he fhould have conceived it attended 
with a greater profpect of fuccefs. 
Mr. Pitt, however, extricated himfelf 
with great adroitnefs: but fiom that mo- 
ment he appears to have loft all preten- 
fions to confifency. 
He declined the propofal on account of 
the preflure of public bufinefs, which did 
not leave bis mind {ufficiently at leifure 
toenter on the difquifition and arrange- 
ment of a fubjeét fo peculiarly compli- 
cated and extenfive. He alfo added, that 
‘¢ this was not, in his opinion, ‘the proper 
time for bringing forward the queftion, 
and that it might be urged with a greater 
probability of fuccefs on fome future oc- 
cafion. He declared bis own refolution to 
offer fomething on the fubjeét early in the 
next feffios ; and although the precipitate 
difcuffion had not his approbation, the 
bufinefs itfelf fhould have every fupport 
he was ableto afford it. The previous 
queftion was moved and carried by his 
friend, Lord Mulgrave, towards the cloie 
ef the debate |! 
Mr. Pitt being now invefted with full 
power as premier, exercifed al the. func- 
tions of that high office, without either 
check or controul. Finding that he pol- 
fefled a decifive majority, both in the ca- 
binet and the two houfes of parliament, 
he appears from this moment to have 
. Montuty Mac, No. z4o. 
Memoirs of the Right Hon. William Pitt. 
141 
yielded himfelf wholly up. to a tempera~ 
ment naturally lofty in the extreme, and 
to have cared but little for that popu'arity 
which he had courted with equal affiduity 
and fuccefs, fo long as it turned to his ad- 
vantage. 
Soon after the enagtion of the India 
Bill, which has reduced the political im- 
portance of the Court of Dire&tors toa 
mere fhadow, a commercial treaty with 
France was entered into; and it has al- 
ways been allowed that on this occafion 
the terms proved highly advantageous ta 
England; A gentleman, fince ennobled, 
(Lord A.) who had left the oppofition 
bench, and attached himfelf to the for- 
tunes of the new premier, appears to have 
been the author of this meafure; and he 
was accordingly appointed to carry it into 
effect. 
Mr. Pitt, who deferves great credit for 
eountenancing the plan, nearly at the fame 
time adupted and adyocated another re- 
lative to the finances, whence he derived 
vreat reputation; and having already 
hiated at a period when the national debt 
might poflibly be extinguifhed, the coun- 
try, if not wholly fatished, feemed at 
leaft to be covtent under his adminiftra- 
tion. 
Thus a commercial nation began once 
more to flourifh, by cultivating the arts 
of peace: but unhappily the premier 
feented ambitious of every {pecies of glory, 
and he was now for the firft time deter- 
mined to exhibit himfelf in the charaéter 
of a wareminifter. Accordingly, forget- 
ful that the wounds inflifted by the Anie= 
rican war, although cicatrized, were not 
yet wholly healed, and that hoftilicties 
without an adequate abject in view, or 
the apology of an immediate and invinci- 
ble neceflity, muf always be deffruétive 
to the beft interefis of a manufacturing 
country, he determined on attacking Rof- 
fia. After a variety of intrigues in <al- 
moft every court on the cont§nent, he at 
length cemented an alliance, in which 
Engiifh money, as ufual, was to be weigh- 
ed out againft foreign blood. The fuv- 
je&t in difpute can now fcarcely be men- 
tioned without ridicule, for it was one in 
which the interefts of Great Britain do 
not appear to have beei immediate y ime 
plicated, as it wholly turned on the quef> 
tion whether the imperial Catharine or 
the Grand Sultan was to obtain poffefiion 
of Oczakow, On this oceafion, the good 
fenie of the nation fided againft the mini- 
fier, and he was faved from the diferace 
of a hopelefs fruggie, by the petitions of 
the meichants and manufacturers, joined 
fi Ig te 
