[Pageheading: _PITT'S RETURN TO OFFICE._]

Fox readily agreed to his own exclusion, which he had fully expected,
and urged his followers to join Pitt, but Grenville and his friends
refused to serve without Fox, while the friends of Fox and the more
immediate followers of Addington refused to serve without their
respective leaders. Addington always considered that Pitt had treated
him ungenerously in driving him from office, when it was open to him to
return to the head of affairs with the full consent of the existing
ministers. More recently it has been the fashion to blame Pitt for
bringing too little pressure to bear upon the king and thus losing the
support of Fox and Grenville. Neither charge appears to be justified.
Through the whole length of the Addington administration Pitt showed
himself fully sensitive of what was due to the king, with whom he had
worked cordially for eighteen years, to Grenville who had resigned in
his cause, and to Addington who had assumed office under his protection.
There was no trace of faction in Pitt's attitude towards the ministry.
He merely opposed what he believed to be dangerous to the country, and
when he was convinced of the necessity of removing Addington from a
share in public business, he endeavoured to effect his purpose in such a
way as to give the minimum of offence.

On the other hand, Pitt's intended combination in a supreme crisis of
his country's destiny with his life-long antagonist, Fox, was a heroic
experiment, perhaps, but still only an experiment. The failure of the
ministry of "All the Talents" renders it exceedingly doubtful whether
such an alliance would have proved successful, and Fox's lukewarm
patriotism would have been dearly purchased at the expense of the
alienation of the king, perhaps even of his relapse into insanity. Nor
is it certain that the strongest pressure would have induced George III.
to accept Fox at this date. Addington was still undefeated and might
have remained in office if Pitt had refused to assume the reins of
government without Fox. Grenville is undoubtedly more responsible than
any one else for the weakness of Pitt's second administration. It was
from a sense of loyalty to Grenville that Pitt had suffered the
negotiations for his return to office in 1803 to fall through, and now
when the two statesmen could return together, and when, if ever, a
strong government was needed, either a quixotic sense of honour or a
wounded pride indu