rejected their proposal that he
should offer to make way for Pitt, and Pitt himself told them that their
action was improper.

[Sidenote: _PITT RESIGNS OFFICE._]

Pitt would willingly have continued in office. He loved power, and he
knew that England needed him and the strong ministry of which he was the
head and soul, but he was not a man to barter principle for office. His
message to the king is intelligible, as a prime minister of our own time
has pointed out, without so mean an interpretation.[317] He recognised
that while the king lived catholic emancipation could not be gained save
at too high a price. George was sixty-two, and his life was thought to
be precarious; no one could foresee that he would outlive Pitt, who was
twenty years younger. An attempt to force the question on him would
have again brought on insanity, and would perhaps have killed him. Pitt
was deeply moved by the king's words, and yielded to feelings of pity
and personal affection for the sovereign he had served for seventeen
years. On March 14 he gave back the seal of the exchequer into the
king's hands. Once again then, and not for the last time, did George
defeat the policy of his ministers and drive them from office. In this
case the blame chiefly rests on the traitor Loughborough, who, for his
own purposes, happily to be foiled, interfered between the king and Pitt
and excited the king's religious prejudices. But George's conduct at
this crisis cannot be viewed wholly apart from his earlier attempts at
personal rule, for it proves that he was unable to understand that his
ministers were responsible for his political acts. His refusal to assent
to emancipation deprived Ireland of the happy results which Pitt
expected, and brought much trouble on the country. As regards its effect
on the empire at large, it is enough to say that it took the helm of
state out of the hands of Pitt.

FOOTNOTES:

[301] Grenville to Whitworth, Nov. 1, 1799, MS. Russia, R.O.

[302] Acton to Nelson, Aug. 1, 1799, _Nelson and the Neapolitan
Jacobins_, p. 325.

[303] The latest discussions on this affair are in Captain Mahan's _Life
of Nelson_, 2nd edition, 1899; _Engl. Hist. Rev._, April, 1898, July,
1899, October, 1900; _Athenaeum_, July 8 and Aug. 5, 1899; Mr.
Gutteridge's _Nelson and the Neapolitan Jacobins_ (Navy Records Soc.),
1903, containing documents, with the _Diario Napol._ and the _Compendio
di Micheroux_ from the _Archivio Storico per le province