people, justly jealous at all times of their national
adherence to truthfulness and honesty, a most unfavorable impression of
his character. As has been already mentioned, Fox was so indignant at
having been made the instrument to assure the Parliament and the nation
of a falsehood, that he for a time broke off all communication with
him.[115] Yet a singular caprice of fortune, or, it would be more proper
to say, a melancholy visitation of Providence, before the end of the
following year led Fox to carry his championship of the same Prince who
had so abused his confidence to the length of pronouncing the most
extravagant eulogies on his principles, and on his right to the
confidence and respect of the nation at large. In the autumn of 1788 the
King fell into a state of bad health, which in no long time affected his
mind, and, by the middle of November, had so deranged his faculties as
to render him incapable of attending to his royal duties, or, in fact,
transacting any business whatever. Parliament was not sitting, but its
re-assembling had been fixed for the 4th of December, and before that
day arrived the King's illness had assumed so alarming a character, and
it appeared so unsafe to calculate on his immediate recovery, that the
minister summoned a Privy Council, the summons being addressed to the
members of the Opposition as well as to his own followers, to receive
the opinions of the physicians in attendance on his Majesty, as a
necessary foundation for the measures which he conceived it to be his
duty to propose to Parliament. Those opinions were, that it was almost
certain that the disease would not be permanent, though no one could
undertake to fix its duration with the least appearance of probability.
And, as the royal authority could not be left in abeyance, as it were,
for an uncertain period, it was indispensable to appoint a Regent to
conduct the affairs of the kingdom till the King should, happily, be
once more in a condition to resume his functions.

In considering the line of conduct adopted in this emergency by Pitt and
his great rival Fox, Pitt has one manifest advantage on his side, that
it is impossible to attribute the course which he took to any personal
motive, or any desire for the retention of official power; while it is
equally impossible to doubt that Fox was in no slight degree,[116] and
that Lord Loughborough, the prince's chief adviser on points of law, was
wholly influenced by the hope of