ines of Adam Smith. Their commercial policy
tended to differ only in degree from that of the more rigid Tories.

To make it certain that the United States should fail to secure
favourable commercial rights, the ascendancy of the Whigs came to a
sudden end within a year from its beginning. The Shelburne Ministry,
which made the peace, had to meet the opposition not only of the Tories
but of the group led by Fox. In the session of 1783, the Whig party
{153} was thus openly split, and presently all England was scandalized
to see Fox enter into a coalition with no less a person than Lord North
for the purpose of obtaining office. Shelburne resigned on February
24, after the passage of a resolution of censure on the Peace; and
George III, after trying every expedient to avoid what he considered a
personal disgrace, was forced, on April 2, to admit Fox and North as
Ministers under the nominal headship of the Duke of Portland. So
Tories were restored to a share in the government, since nearly half of
the coalition majority depended upon Tory votes. In December, 1783,
the King, by a direct exercise of his influence, caused the Lords to
throw out a Ministerial bill for the government of India and,
dismissing the coalition Ministers, he appealed to William Pitt. That
youthful politician, who had first entered office as Chancellor of the
Exchequer under Shelburne, succeeded, after a sharp parliamentary
contest, in breaking down the opposition majority in the House, and in
a general election in March, 1784, won a great victory. Then, at the
head of a mixed Cabinet, supported by Tories and King's Friends as well
as by his own followers from among the Whigs, Pitt maintained himself,
secure in the support of George III, but in no sense his agent or tool.
In the {154} next few years, he made his hold secure by his skill in
parliamentary leadership and his success in carrying financial and
administrative reforms. This was the first peace Ministry since that
of Pelham, 1746-1754, which won prestige through efficient government.
It was, however, mainly Tory in temper, and as such distinctly cold and
unfriendly toward America. Pitt himself was undoubtedly in favour of
liberal commercial relations; but in that respect, as in the question
of parliamentary reform, he followed the opinions of his supporters and
of the nation.

The British policy toward the United States, under the circumstances,
was dictated by a strict adherence to