th houses of
parliament in January, 1805. The parliamentary session which opened in
this month found Pitt's ministry apparently stronger than it had been at
the beginning of the recess. Despairing of any help from Grenville,
except in a vigorous prosecution of the war, he had sought a
reconciliation with Addington, who became Viscount Sidmouth on January
12 and president of the council on the 14th. Along with Sidmouth his
former colleague Hobart, now Earl of Buckinghamshire, returned to office
as chancellor of the duchy. To make room for these new allies, Portland
had consented to resign the presidency of the council, though he
remained a member of the cabinet, while Mulgrave was appointed to the
foreign office, in place of Harrowby, who was compelled by ill-health to
retire.

But this new accession of strength was soon followed by a terrible
mortification which probably contributed to shorten Pitt's life.
Melville, his tried supporter and intimate friend, was charged on the
report of a commission with having misapplied public money as treasurer
of the navy in Pitt's former ministry. It appeared that he had been
culpably careless, and had not prevented the paymaster, Trotter, from
engaging in private speculations with the naval balances. Although
Trotter's speculations involved no loss to the state they were,
nevertheless, a contravention of an act of 1785. Melville had also
supplied other departments of government with naval money, but was
personally innocent of fraud. There was a divergence of feeling in the
cabinet as to the attitude to be adopted towards Melville. Sidmouth,
himself a man of the highest integrity, was a friend of St. Vincent, the
late first lord of the admiralty, and had not forgiven Melville for his
part in the expulsion of himself and St. Vincent from office. He had
therefore both public and private grounds to incline him against
Melville. On April 8, Samuel Whitbread moved a formal censure on
Melville in the house of commons. Pitt, with the approval of Sidmouth
and his friends, moved the previous question on Whitbread's motion, and
declared his intention of introducing a motion of his own for a select
committee to investigate the charges. In spite of the support which Pitt
derived from the followers of Sidmouth the votes were equally divided on
Whitbread's motion, 216 a side. Abbot, the speaker, gave his casting
vote in favour of Whitbread, and the announcement was received by the
whig members wi