a, as a provision for a Protestant
clergy, and the foundation of an ecclesiastical establishment. So great
was Pitt's desire to complete the resemblance between the colony and
Great Britain, that he even contemplated the creation of an aristocracy,
by the introduction of a provision enabling the King to grant hereditary
colonial titles, the possession of which should include hereditary seats
in the provincial Council. The two latter clauses were opposed by Fox,
and the latter of them, though sanctioned by Parliament, was never
carried out in practice. But Fox, bitter as he was at this time in his
general opposition to the government, agreed cordially in the general
principles of the bill, avowing his conviction that "the only method of
retaining distant colonies with advantage is to enable them to govern
themselves," so that each party in the British Parliament is entitled to
a share of the credit for this pattern of all subsequent colonial
constitutions--Pitt for the original genius for organization which his
contrivance of all the complicated details of the measure displayed, and
Fox for his frank adoption of the general principle inculcated by his
rival, even while differing as to some of the minor details of the
measure. During these years the country was increasing in prosperity,
and the minister was daily rising in credit; more powerful and more
popular than the most successful or the most brilliant of his
predecessors. But during these same years two great constitutional
difficulties had arisen, one of which, indeed, the deep sense which both
parties felt of the danger of investigating it shelved almost as soon as
it was seen; but the other of which, besides the importance which it
derived from the degree in which it involved the principle of the
supreme authority of Parliament, and brought under discussion even that
which regulates the succession to the crown, imperilled the existence of
the ministry, and threatened a total change in both the domestic and
foreign policy of the nation.

The Prince of Wales, who had come of age in the summer of 1783, had at
once begun to make himself notorious for the violence of his opposition
to his father's ministers, carrying the openness of his hostility so far
as, during the Westminster election to drive about the streets with a
carriage and all his servants profusely decorated with Fox's colors;
and, still more discreditably, by most unmeasured profligacy of all
kinds. The