struggle for existence, and could not afford to
tolerate sedition. Looking back on issues then incalculable, we may
think that repression was carried farther than was necessary; but
anything was better than the least sign of weakness in dealing with
seditious practices. Excited meetings, over one of which Fox presided,
were held to condemn the bills. Numerous petitions, mostly got up by the
corresponding society, were presented against them; and many were
presented in their favour. They were violently opposed by the minority
in parliament, and Fox declared that if they became law, obedience would
no longer be a question of duty but of prudence, a direct incitement to
rebellion only to be excused as uttered in the heat of debate, an excuse
which is also needed for some foolish and intemperate language on the
other side. The sedition bill, which was limited to three years, was
amended by giving up the clause empowering magistrates to dissolve
meetings at their discretion as dangerous to the public peace. The two
bills were passed in both houses by overwhelming majorities. The treason
act was only to last during the king's life, and both acts proved quite
harmless, for neither was ever called into operation.

Pitt's budget for 1796 included another loan of L18,000,000 and several
new taxes, one of them on salt. He proposed duties on legacies and on
collateral successions to real estate. The first was easily carried, but
Fox, in spite of his democratic professions, seized on the proposal to
make landed estates equally liable with other property to taxation, as
an opportunity for thwarting the government by exciting the selfishness
of the landed gentry, and Pitt found that so many of his supporters were
hostile to the tax that he withdrew his proposal. Nor was the inequality
redressed until 1853, when Gladstone, following Pitt's lead, made all
successions alike liable to duty. As at the end of the session in May
parliament was near the term of its natural life, a new parliament was
elected. The returns showed that the government had lost no ground in
the confidence of the country: as a rule, the large constituencies
elected supporters of Pitt; indeed, twenty-three of Fox's small
following were returned for nomination boroughs.

The policy of England in 1796 was closely connected with the course of
the war between her Austrian ally and the French. In March Bonaparte
took the command of the army of Italy. He defeated the Austr