titution.
Fox's attitude was unpopular, and Pitt's resolutions, and the Regency
Bill that followed, were carried through the Commons.

Towards the end of February, the third reading of the Regency Bill was
impending in the Lords. Pitt had proposed that the difficulty about
procuring the royal assent to the measure should be overcome by
empowering the chancellor by a joint vote of both houses to put the
Great Seal to a commission for giving the assent. But this expedient was
unnecessary. By February 22 the king was completely recovered. The
Regency Bill fell to the ground, and all the hopes which the Opposition
had reared upon it.

The day of thanksgiving for the king's recovery is regarded by Lord
Macaulay as the zenith in Pitt's political life. "To such a height of
power and glory," he says, "had this extraordinary man risen at
twenty-nine years of age. And now," he adds, perhaps less justly, "the
tide was on the turn."

_III.--The Struggle with France_

Pitt was able to declare, in the session that preceded the dissolution
of 1790, that "we are adding daily to our strength, wealth, and
prosperity," and, as a result of the elections, his parliamentary
majority was more than confirmed.

But symptoms of the coming stress were already manifest. The minister
was anxiously watching the course of the revolution in France; and,
while far from sharing the enthusiasm of Fox for the new principles, he
did not endorse the fierce hostility of Burke.

"I cannot regard with envious eyes," he said, "any approximation in
neighbouring states to those sentiments which are the characteristics of
every British subject."

But the development of events soon made it clear that the new France had
become a danger to the peace of Europe. As long as possible Pitt avoided
war, which was ultimately forced upon him in 1793 by France's attack
upon Holland, to which we were bound by treaty obligations.

From that time, until the peace in 1802, English naval enterprises were
generally successful, and English military enterprises generally failed.
Pitt has often been blamed for the faults of his country's generals; but
it is assuredly true that he did all that a civilian could do to secure
success in the field.

The heavy cost of the war, increased as it was by the subsidies paid to
Austria, and afterwards to Russia, compelled an entire departure from
Pitt's old financial methods. Each year brought an increase of taxation
and an increas