the three months' contest between the
great rivals led them to pronounce upon the transaction as a whole, and
to leave unnoticed what seemed for the moment to be the minor
issues--the moves, if we may borrow a metaphor from the chess-table,
which opened the game; and it may be observed that, though, on the 17th
of December, Pitt resisted Mr. Baker's resolution with his utmost
energy, in the numerous debates which ensued he carefully avoided all
allusion to Lord Temple's conduct, or to the measure which had led to
the dismissal of his predecessors, farther than was necessary for the
explanation of the principles of his own India Bill. It may even be
surmised that, if he had been inclined to recognize Lord Temple's
interference as warrantable, the breach between that peer and himself,
which occurred before the end of the week, would not have taken place,
since it seems nearly certain that the cause of that breach was a
refusal on the part of Pitt to recommend his cousin for promotion in the
peerage, a step which, at such a moment, would have had the appearance
of an approval of his most recent deed,[94] but which he could hardly
have refused, if it had been done with his privity. The battle, as need
hardly be told, was first fought among the representatives of the people
in the House of Commons; for there was only one occasion on which the
opinion of the Lords was invited, when they declared in favor of Pitt by
a decisive majority.[95] But in the Lower House the contest was carried
on for more than two months with extraordinary activity and ability, by
a series of resolutions and motions brought forward by the partisans of
the coalition, and contested by the youthful minister. In one respect
the war was waged on very unequal terms, Pitt, who had been but three
years in Parliament, and whose official experience could as yet only be
counted by months, having to contend almost single-handed against the
combined experience and eloquence of Lord North, Fox, and Burke.
Fortunately, however, for him, their own mismanagement soon turned the
advantage to his side. They were too angry and too confident to be
skilful, or even ordinarily cautious. The leaders on both sides made
professions in one respect similar; they both alike denied that a desire
of office influenced either their conduct or their language (a denial
for which Pitt's refusal of the Treasury, a year before, gained him more
credit than could be expected by Fox after his