being the feelings of the late minister and of the present
minister, a rupture was inevitable; and there was no want of persons
bent on making that rupture speedy and violent. Some of these persons
wounded Addington's pride by representing him as a lacquey, sent to keep
a place on the Treasury bench till his master should find it convenient
to come. Others took every opportunity of praising him at Pitt's
expense. Pitt had waged a long, a bloody, a costly, an unsuccessful
war. Addington had made peace. Pitt had suspended the constitutional
liberties of Englishmen. Under Addington those liberties were again
enjoyed. Pitt had wasted the public resources. Addington was carefully
nursing them. It was sometimes but too evident that these compliments
were not unpleasing to Addington. Pitt became cold and reserved. During
many months he remained at a distance from London. Meanwhile his
most intimate friends, in spite of his declarations that he made no
complaint, and that he had no wish for office, exerted themselves to
effect a change of ministry. His favourite disciple, George Canning,
young, ardent, ambitious, with great powers and great virtues, but with
a temper too restless and a wit too satirical for his own happiness, was
indefatigable. He spoke; he wrote; he intrigued; he tried to induce a
large number of the supporters of the government to sign a round
robin desiring a change; he made game of Addington and of Addington's
relations in a succession of lively pasquinades. The minister's
partisans retorted with equal acrimony, if not with equal vivacity. Pitt
could keep out of the affray only by keeping out of politics altogether;
and this it soon became impossible for him to do. Had Napoleon, content
with the first place among the Sovereigns of the Continent, and with
a military reputation surpassing that of Marlborough or of Turenne,
devoted himself to the noble task of making France happy by mild
administration and wise legislation, our country might have long
continued to tolerate a government of fair intentions and feeble
abilities. Unhappily, the treaty of Amiens had scarcely been signed,
when the restless ambition and the insupportable insolence of the First
Consul convinced the great body of the English people that the peace, so
eagerly welcomed, was only a precarious armistice. As it became clearer
and clearer that a war for the dignity, the independence, the very
existence of the nation was at hand, men looked wi