wer to do them, while his antagonist Pitt lived through long years
of office, long years that were as eventful as any years and more
eventful than most years in the history of the country. Fox had run up a
great debt for a little power. He had paltered with his honor, with his
principles, with his public utterances; he had staked more than he had a
right to stake on success, and he had lost, utterly and hopelessly. If
every error in life has to be paid for sooner or later, the price due
from Fox for his apostasy was very promptly demanded and was very heavy.

It is to be regretted that Pitt began his long period of authority by an
attempt as stubborn as it was ungenerous to keep his great rival out of
public life. The election for {238} Fox's constituency of Westminster
was one of the fiercest conflicts in English history. Every effort was
made to drive Fox out, every effort to put him in. Beautiful women--whom
Pitt described as "women of the people," in parody of the name they gave
to Fox of "the man of the people"--bribed voters with kisses, while the
friends of Pitt rallied every man they could muster to the polling
booths. Fox was returned, but the unconstitutional conduct of the High
Bailiff in granting the request of the defeated candidate, Sir Cecil
Wray, for a scrutiny, and in refusing to make a return till the scrutiny
was effected, might have deprived Westminster for a season of any
Parliamentary representation, and would have kept Fox out of Parliament
altogether if he had not been returned for the Kirkwall Borough through
the friendship of Sir Thomas Dundas. Pitt unfortunately backed up the
action of the High Bailiff with a vehemence of zeal that suggested
rancor, and that failed of its purpose. Fox was in the Commons to defend
himself and his cause, and he did defend himself with an eloquence that
even he never surpassed, and that gave its additional glory to its
ultimate success.

[Sidenote: 1784--Pitt as a financier]

However the generosity or the taste of Pitt's conduct towards Fox in this
instance might be questioned, there could be no question as to the rare
ability he soon made proof of as a statesman and as a financier. During
his few and troubled months of office before the dissolution, he had
introduced an India Bill to take the place of that of Fox, which the King
and the Lords had shattered. This Bill had been defeated by a majority
of eight. He now introduced what was practically th