's promise of support, given at the time of
the King's lunacy in February-March 1801, was not morally binding three
years later when the existence of the nation was at stake in the
Napoleonic War. At such a time an enlightened patriot does not stand
upon punctilio, but gladly takes a second place if he can thereby place
in authority an abler man. Addington alone could release Pitt from the
debt of honour incurred in February 1801, and faithfully discharged for
three weary years, at the cost of the alienation of friends and the
derision of opponents. He never spoke or wrote that word of release, but
held Pitt to the bargain with an insistence which would be contemptible
were it not in large measure the outcome of a narrow complacent nature
blind to its own shortcomings.

Pitt, also, behaved weakly. The original promise, to support an untried
man, was a piece of astounding trustfulness; and when the weakness of
Addington's Administration involved the nation in war and brought it to
the brink of disaster, he should openly have claimed release from a
pledge too hastily given, leaving the world to judge between them. As it
was, for nearly a year he wavered to and fro between the claims of
national duty and private honour, thereby exasperating his friends and
finally driving the Grenvilles, Windham, and Spencer to a union with Fox
which in its turn blighted the hope of forming a national
Administration. Finally, he made only one effort to induce the King to
accept Fox. True, the situation was a delicate one; for pressure brought
to bear on George on that topic would have brought back the mental
malady. But the Grenvilles, viewing the situation with pedantic
narrowness, considered the attempt so half-hearted as to warrant their
opposition to the new Cabinet. On the whole, then, Pitt's
punctiliousness must be pronounced a secondary but vital cause of the
lamentable _denouement_, which left him exposed at forty five years of
age, enfeebled by worry and gout, to a contest with Napoleon at the
climax of his powers.

FOOTNOTES:

[649] Addington desired the retirement of St. Vincent. See "Dropmore
P.," vii, 121; Stanhope, iv, 21.

[650] Pellew, ii, 114-6.

[651] "Lord Colchester's Diaries," i, 415; Pellew, ii, 121-4.

[652] Pretyman MSS.

[653] G. Rose, "Diaries," ii, 156; "Lord Colchester's Diaries," i, 416,
417; Pellew, ii, 119-28.

[654] Hawkesbury's remissness (so Vorontzoff told Rose) then lost an
opportunity of gain