ent, and
carried it by eighty-seven votes to seventy-nine. The cause of this
strange turn of fortune was soon known. Pitt's cousin, Earl Temple, had
been in the royal closet, and had there been authorised to let it be
known that His Majesty would consider all who voted for the bill as his
enemies. The ignominious commission was performed; and instantly a troop
of Lords of the Bedchamber, of Bishops who wished to be translated, and
of Scotch peers who wished to be re-elected, made haste to change
sides. On a later day, the Lords rejected the bill. Fox and North were
immediately directed to send their seals to the palace by their Under
Secretaries; and Pitt was appointed First Lord of the Treasury and
Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The general opinion was, that there would be an immediate dissolution.
But Pitt wisely determined to give the public feeling time to gather
strength. On this point he differed from his kinsman Temple. The
consequence was, that Temple, who had been appointed one of the
Secretaries of State, resigned his office forty-eight hours after he had
accepted it, and thus relieved the new government from a great load of
unpopularity; for all men of sense and honour, however strong might be
their dislike of the India Bill, disapproved of the manner in which that
bill had been thrown out. Temple carried away with him the scandal which
the best friends of the new government could not but lament. The fame of
the young prime minister preserved its whiteness. He could declare with
perfect truth that, if unconstitutional machinations had been employed,
he had been no party to them.

He was, however, surrounded by difficulties and dangers. In the House of
Lords, indeed, he had a majority; nor could any orator of the opposition
in that assembly be considered as a match for Thurlow, who was now again
Chancellor, or for Camden, who cordially supported the son of his old
friend Chatham. But in the other House there was not a single eminent
speaker among the official men who sate round Pitt. His most useful
assistant was Dundas, who, though he had not eloquence, had sense,
knowledge, readiness, and boldness. On the opposite benches was a
powerful majority, led by Fox, who was supported by Burke, North, and
Sheridan. The heart of the young minister, stout as it was, almost died
within him. He could not once close his eyes on the night which followed
Temple's resignation. But, whatever his internal emotions might be, hi