which made such a reform in Parliament as
would bring it into unison with public opinion a mere question of time.
Whatever may have been Pitt's ultimate designs, however, no word of such
a reform was uttered by any one. On the contrary, Pitt stooped to
strengthen his Parliamentary support by admitting some even of the
"king's friends" to a share in the administration. But its life lay
really in Pitt himself, in his immense popularity, and in the command
which his eloquence gave him over the House of Commons. His popularity
indeed was soon roughly shaken; for the ministry was hardly formed when
it was announced that its leader had accepted the earldom of Chatham.
The step removed him to the House of Lords, and for a while ruined the
public confidence which his reputation for unselfishness had aided him
to win. But it was from no vulgar ambition that Pitt laid down his title
of the Great Commoner. The nervous disorganization which had shown
itself three years before in his despair upon Temple's desertion had
never ceased to hang around him, and it had been only at rare intervals
that he had forced himself from his retirement to appear in the House of
Commons. It was the consciousness of coming weakness that made him shun
the storms of debate. But in the Cabinet he showed all his old energy.
The most jealous of his fellow-ministers owned his supremacy. At the
close of one of his earliest councils Charles Townshend acknowledged to
a colleague "Lord Chatham has just shown to us what inferior animals we
are!" Plans were at once set on foot for the better government of
Ireland, for the transfer of India from the Company to the Crown, and
for the formation of an alliance with Prussia and Russia to balance the
Family Compact of the House of Bourbon. The alliance was foiled for the
moment by the coldness of Frederick of Prussia. The first steps towards
Indian reform were only taken by the ministry under severe pressure from
Pitt. Petty jealousies, too, brought about the withdrawal of some of the
Whigs, and the hostility of Rockingham was shown by the fierce attacks
of Burke in the House of Commons. But secession and invective had little
effect on the ministry. "The session," wrote Horace Walpole to a friend
at the close of 1766, "has ended triumphantly for the Great Earl"; and
when Chatham withdrew to Bath to mature his plans for the coming year
his power remained unshaken.

END OF VOL. VII.

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