of nineteen, and this defeat, which
would not have been regarded in more recent times as fatal to a Ministry,
however fatal for the time being to the measure thus condemned, was
instantly used by the King as a pretext for ridding himself of the
advisers whose advice he detested. The King resolved to dismiss the
ministers, and to dismiss them with every circumstance of indignity that
should render their dismissal the more contemptuous. On the midnight of
the day following the final defeat of the measure in the House of Lords a
messenger delivered to the two Secretaries of State, Fox and North, a
message from the King stating that it was his Majesty's will and pleasure
that they should deliver to him the seals of their respective offices,
and that they should send them by the Under-Secretaries, Mr. Frazer and
Mr. Nepean, as a personal interview on the occasion would be disagreeable
to the King. The seals were immediately sent to Buckingham House and
were promptly handed over by the King to Lord Temple, who on the
following day sent letters of dismissal to the other members of the
Cabinet Council.

When the House of Commons met, under conditions of {236} keen excitement,
Fox and North took their seats on the Front Opposition Bench with their
vast majority behind them eager to retaliate upon the King, who had
defied their voices and insulted their leaders. A young member, Mr.
Richard Pepper Arden, rose in his place and moved a new writ for the
borough of Appleby, in the room of the Right Honorable William Pitt, who
had accepted the office of First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of
the Exchequer. We are told that this motion was received with loud and
general laughter by the Opposition, who regarded Pitt's conduct as a
piece of foolhardy presumption. And indeed at first Pitt's position
seemed difficult in the extreme. It was hard to form a Government in the
face of a hostile majority in the Commons, and in the Lords Pitt's
perplexity was increased by Lord Temple's sudden and sullen resignation
of the office to which he had been so newly appointed. Various reasons
have been given for Temple's mysterious and petulant behavior. Some have
thought that he resigned because he was in favor of an immediate
dissolution, while Pitt was opposed to such a step. Others believe that
he was eager for some high mark of royal favor, possibly a dukedom, which
was refused by the King and not warmly advocated by Pitt. In spite o