ron to the Black Sea
to assist the Turks, while Frederick William invaded Livonia, and on the
27th an ultimatum was despatched to St. Petersburg.[229]

The next day a royal message to parliament announced the augmentation of
the navy. Pitt sought to obtain a pledge that parliament would support
the government in its proposed action. He met with strong opposition.
Fox and others in both houses maintained that our true policy was to be
on good terms with Russia, and that Russia had an undoubted right to
retain Ochakov. "The balance of Europe," it was urged, could not be
overset by its retention; it was a matter which did not concern England;
a war with Russia would be disastrous to English trade and manufactures;
if Russia became a power in the Mediterranean so much the better, as its
fleet would be a check on the fleets of France and Spain. Burke
vehemently protested against England embarking on an "anti-crusade" by
assisting "destructive savages," as he called the Turks, against a
Christian power. Four times, in one form or another, the question was
debated in the commons. The government majorities were large, though
less than normal. In the cabinet Grenville opposed the armament, and
Pitt found that the feeling of the country generally, and specially of
the city of London and the mercantile class, was strong on the same
side. He yielded on April 16; a messenger was sent in hot haste to St.
Petersburg to prevent the presentation of the ultimatum, and the
Prussian king was informed that the fleet would not sail to the Baltic.
Catherine was triumphant; she kept Ochakov and the line of the Dniester,
made terms with the Turks without the intervention of other powers on
August 11, 1791, and concluded a definite peace at Jassy in the
following January. Freed from her wars with Sweden and the Porte, and
from the danger of foreign intervention in both cases, she was again
able to pursue her designs on Poland. She complimented Fox on the part
he had played, and placed his bust in her palace between those of
Demosthenes and Cicero. Pitt, who had lately refused the king's offer of
the garter, sarcastically referred in parliament to the compliments his
opponent received from a foreign sovereign.

Pitt's prestige was for a time seriously injured by this failure and
people talked of a possible change of government. Leeds considered that
as foreign secretary he was specially compromised, and resigned the
seals. As it was more difficu