of a design to invade the kingdom, though it is now known that
the preparations of which he made such a parade were merely a feint to
throw Austria off her guard.[154] During Addington's administration Pitt
had spoken warmly in favor of giving every possible encouragement to the
Volunteer movement, and also in support of a proposal made by an
independent member, Colonel Crawford, to fortify London; and one of his
first measures after his resumption of office was a measure, known as
the Additional Force Bill, to transfer a large portion of the militia to
the regular army. It was so purely a measure of detail, that it would
hardly have been necessary to mention it, had it not been for an
objection made to it by the Prime-minister's former colleague, Lord
Grenville, and for the reply with which that objection was encountered
by the Chief-justice, Lord Ellenborough; the former denouncing it as
unconstitutional, since, he declared, it tended to establish a large
standing army in time of peace; and Lord Ellenborough, on the other
hand, declaring the right of the crown to call out the whole population
in arms for the defence of the realm to be so "radical, essential, and
hitherto never questioned part of the royal prerogative, that, even in
such an age of adventurous propositions, he had not expected that any
lord would have ventured to question it."[155]

Pitt died in the beginning of 1806, and was succeeded by an
administration of which his great rival, Fox, was the guiding spirit
while he lived, though Lord Grenville was First Lord of the Treasury,
and, after Fox's death, which took place in September, the undisputed
Prime-minister. But the formation of the administration was not
completed without a step which was at once strongly denounced, not only
by the regular Opposition, but by several members of political
moderation, as a violation, if not of the letter, at least of the
spirit, of the constitution, the introduction of the Lord Chief-justice,
Lord Ellenborough, into the cabinet. It was notorious that he was
invited to a seat among that body as the representative of a small
party, the personal friends of Lord Sidmouth. For the ministry was
formed in some degree on the principle of a coalition; Lord Grenville
himself having been a colleague of Pitt throughout the greater part of
that statesman's first ministry, and as such having been always opposed
to Fox; while Lord Ellenborough had been Attorney-general in Addington's