dy were increased by the rapidity with
which he travelled; and when he reached his journey's end he was
suffering from fever. Ill as he was, he saw the King at Richmond, and
undertook to form an administration.

Pitt was scarcely in the state in which a man should be who has to
conduct delicate and arduous negotiations. In his letters to his wife,
he complained that the conferences in which it was necessary for him to
bear a part heated his blood and accelerated his pulse. From other
sources of information we learn that his language, even to those whose
cooperation he wished to engage, was strangely peremptory and despotic.
Some of his notes written at this time have been preserved, and are in a
style which Louis the Fourteenth would have been too well bred to employ
in addressing any French gentleman.

In the attempt to dissolve all parties, Pitt met with some difficulties.
Some Whigs, whom the court would gladly have detached from Lord
Rockingham, rejected all offers. The Bedfords were perfectly willing to
break with Grenville; but Pitt would not come up to their terms. Temple,
whom Pitt at first meant to place at the head of the treasury, proved
intractable. A coldness indeed had, during some months, been fast
growing between the brothers-in-law, so long and so closely allied in
politics. Pitt was angry with Temple for opposing the repeal of the
Stamp Act. Temple was angry with Pitt for refusing to accede to that
family league which was now the favorite plan at Stowe. At length the
Earl proposed an equal partition of power and patronage, and offered, on
this condition, to give up his brother George. Pitt thought the demand
exorbitant, and positively refused compliance. A bitter quarrel
followed. Each of the kinsmen was true to his character. Temple's soul
festered with spite, and Pitt's swelled into contempt. Temple
represented Pitt as the most odious of hypocrites and traitors. Pitt
held a different, and perhaps a more provoking tone. Temple was a good
sort of man enough, whose single title to distinction was, that he had a
large garden, with a large piece of water, and a great many pavilions
and summer-houses. To his fortunate connection with a great orator and
statesman he was indebted for an importance in the state which his own
talents could never have gained for him. That importance had turned his
head. He had begun to fancy that he could form administrations, and
govern empires. It was piteous to see a well-m