tell them the
amount due on goods. The excise, though in a less confused state, was
also in urgent need of regulation. Pitt abolished the whole mass of
existing duties with their percentages and drawbacks, and put a single
duty on each article as nearly as possible of the same amount as before.
These duties and all other taxes he brought into a consolidated fund on
which all public debts were secured. Simple as this change appears, it
involved about 3,000 resolutions. While it only slightly increased the
revenue, it was a great benefit to merchants, it simplified the work in
public offices, prevented officials from abusing their power, and
enabled Pitt to get rid of a large number of custom-house sinecures,
and so at once to effect an economy and dry up a source of corruption.
The bill received a warm welcome from Burke, and was passed without a
division.

[Sidenote: _BILL FOR RELIEF OF DISSENTERS._]

Pitt's position in the commons was not yet one of command. In 1788 his
party, those who recognised him as their leader, was said to number only
52, while Fox's party, the regular opposition, was estimated at 138; the
"crown party" which might be reckoned on to uphold the government for
the time being "under any minister not peculiarly unpopular," consisted
of 185, and the rest were "independent" members, whose votes were
uncertain. Pitt then had to walk warily. His practical temperament was
in his favour. That the country should be well governed, and that it
should be governed by himself, which was the same thing to him, as it is
probably to all great ministers, was the object of his life. Compared
with that, special questions were of small importance. There was nothing
doctrinaire in his turn of mind; the abstract righteousness of a cause
did not appeal to him, and could not divert him from the pursuit of his
main object. In 1787 a bill for the relief of dissenters by the repeal
of the test and corporation acts of the reign of Charles II. was brought
in by Beaufoy, a supporter of the government. In reality the dissenters
suffered very little from these acts, for they were relieved by annual
acts of indemnity. Yet their grievance was not wholly sentimental, and,
even had it been so, it would still have been a grievance. The
opposition was divided; North opposed the bill, Fox warmly advocated it.
Pitt consulted the bishops. All save two were against it. He valued the
support of the Church, and declared himself against the