r war
with Spain, he should have found great difficulty in consenting to such
a measure. Pitt was affected by the kind, yet dignified, behaviour of
the young king. "I confess, sire," said he, with emotion, "I had but
too much reason to expect your majesty's displeasure: I did not come
prepared for this exceeding goodness: pardon me, sir; it overpowers,--it
oppresses me."

Pitt retired with a pension of L3,000 per annum, which was to be
continued for three lives. The peerage was offered him, but he declined
it personally, accepting it only for his wife and her issue. He was
succeeded in office by Lord Egremont, son of the great Tory, Sir William
Wyndam. At the same time Lord Temple retired from office, and the privy
seal was given to the Duke of Bedford. The resignation of Mr. Pitt, with
his honours and rewards, were published in the Gazette on the following
day, and in the same paper a letter was published from the English
ambassador at Madrid, which was replete with assurances of the pacific
intentions of Spain. On this circumstance, combined with the resignation
of Mr. Pitt, Burke remarks:--"It must be owned that this manouvre was
very skilfully executed: for it at once gave the people to understand
the true motive to the resignation, the insufficiency of that motive,
and the gracious-ness of the king, notwithstanding the abrupt departure
of his minister. If after this the late minister should choose to
enter into opposition, he must go into it loaded and oppressed with the
imputation of the blackest ingratitude; if, on the other hand, he should
retire from business, or should concur in support of that administration
which he had left, because he disapproved its measures, his acquiescence
would be attributed by the multitude to a bargain for his forsaking
the public, and that the title and his pension were the considerations.
These were the barriers that opposed against that torrent of popular
rage which it was apprehended would proceed from this resignation. And
the truth is, they answered their end perfectly."

This reasoning of Mr. Burke was strictly correct. The friends and
partisans of Mr. Pitt raised violent clamours against Bute, for
displacing a man who had raised the nation from its once abject state to
the pinnacle of glory; and addresses, resolutions, and condolences
were set on foot in London and the greater corporations, with a view
of exciting the smaller cities and boroughs in England to follow the
ex