e Administration.[666]

Presumably the national crisis was not yet acute enough to satisfy Pitt
that he might conscientiously oppose Addington. But that he was drifting
to this conviction appears in the following letter from Rose to the
Bishop of Lincoln.

_Feb. 11, 1804._[667]

I showed Mr. Pitt your letter because it expressed so entirely
my own view of the interesting subject: he appeared at first
against anything like hostility, but I think is now disposed to
point out pretty strongly the neglect of proper measures of
defence in the naval and military departments and to suggest
the necessary ones; so [as] to throw on the Government the just
responsibility and odium of rejecting them if they shall
determine to do so.

Rose then states that the Bishop of St. Asaph calls the new Volunteer
Bill "the most wishy-washy thing that ever was produced." He also adds
that the King is ill, probably of dropsy. The fact was even worse. A
chill caught in drenching rain developed into the former mental malady.
Thus the nation was for a time kingless, leaderless, and open to a
deadly thrust from Boulogne. For a short time his life was in danger,
and all the troubles of a Regency loomed ahead. The Prince of Wales
having ventured on the compromising prophecy that the illness "_must_
last several months," Pitt quoted to his informant, Malmesbury, the
damning line

Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought.

In truth, there now began a series of intrigues, in which the Prince,
Fox, and the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire played the leading parts,
for assuring a Regency and the formation of a Fox Administration. While
England needed to keep her gaze on Boulogne, the intriguers thought only
of the death or lunacy of the King, the accession of the Prince and the
apportionment of the spoils of office. Sheridan on this occasion played
his own game and for this was heartily cursed by the expectant
Creevey.[668]

In view of these last complications and the prospect of an invasion,
Pitt revised his former judgement, and informed Malmesbury that, while
declining the offers of the Grenvilles to help to overthrow Addington,
he would not refuse to take office if for any reason Ministers resigned.
On that day (19th February) Melville wrote to him from Melville Castle
that the outlook was full of horror, and everything depended on the
formation of a steady and pe