e same measure, and
carried it triumphantly by a majority of more than two hundred. It
established that Board of Control and that double system of government
which existed, with some modifications, until the Act of 1858, following
upon the Indian Mutiny, effected a radical revolution in the
administration of India. The enemies of Pitt's measure declared that its
abuse of patronage was as flagrant as and more enduring than that
proposed by Fox, and for a long time public discontent {239} expressed
itself loudly against the extreme favor that was shown to Scotchmen in
the filling up of appointments.

The financial affairs of the country called for a bold hand and found it.
Lord North had muddled the finances of England almost as completely and
almost as hopelessly as contemporary French financiers were muddling the
finances of France. Pitt faced something that was not altogether unlike
financial chaos with a courage which was well and with a genius which was
better. The picturesque institution of smuggling, capitalized by wealth
and rank in London, and profitably employing some forty thousand
adventurous spirits, withered before the spell of Pitt's dexterous
manipulations. A window tax compensated for a lightened tea duty that
made smuggling merely a ridiculous waste of time, and its most sinister
effect may still be noticed here and there in England in the hideous
imitations of windows painted on to the walls of houses to support a
grotesque idea of harmony, without incurring the expense of an actual
aperture for light and air. Pitt raised the loans necessary to meet the
yawning deficit and to minimize the floating debt, and he astonished his
world by introducing the amazing elements of absolute honesty and
admirable publicity into the transaction. The principle of patronage
that had made previous loans a scandalous source of corruption was
gallantly thrown overboard; and the new minister announced to the general
amazement that the new loans would be contracted for with those who
offered the lowest terms in public competition. A glittering variety of
new taxes, handled with the dexterity of a conjuror, and extracting
sources of revenue from sources untaxed and very justifiably taxable,
rounded off a series of financial proposals that inaugurated brilliantly
his administration, and that had their abiding effect upon the welfare of
the country. The crown of his financial fame was his plan for the
redemption of the