llor intimated to Pitt his majesty's
desire to receive the plan of a new administration.

_V.--The Last Ministry_

The king's opposition made the inclusion of Fox in the new ministry
impossible. His hostility to Fox, however, was not simply on political
grounds; he believed him to be responsible for the excesses of the
Prince of Wales. Pitt was in consequence obliged to be content with a
restricted choice of ministers, and had to face a powerful opposition in
parliament. Addington was persuaded to join the ministry early in 1805.

During the summer of 1804 Bonaparte and his host lay menacingly at
Boulogne, awaiting that command of the channel "for six hours," which
the great warrior recognised as essential to his plans. Meanwhile, Pitt
laboured to form another coalition, and, at the cost of heavy subsidies,
was successful. Russia, Austria, and Sweden joined in the league against
Napoleon; Prussia still hesitated.

In the summer of 1805 Napoleon was again at Boulogne, but his plan of
invasion was wrecked by the failure of the French fleet to reach the
Channel. When Napoleon learned that the fleet had gone south, and that
the attack upon England had been thwarted, he straightway marched his
army to mid-Europe. Pitt had staked everything on the new coalition, and
the surrender of the Austrians at Ulm was news of the utmost bitterness
to him. But a splendid corrective came soon afterwards in the crowning
naval victory of Trafalgar. Although the nation's feelings were divided
between joy at the triumph and grief at the death of the illustrious
victor, Pitt's popularity, which had been somewhat uncertain, was
enormously enhanced by the event. The Lord Mayor proposed his health as
"the saviour of Europe."

Pitt's reply was nearly as follows: "I return you many thanks for the
honour you have done me, but Europe is not to be saved by any single
man. England has saved herself by her exertions, and will, I trust, save
Europe by her example." With only these two sentences the minister sat
down. They were the last words that Pitt ever spoke in public.

He was suffering much at this time from gout, and his general health was
undermined by anxiety. In December he journeyed to Bath, and at Bath
there reached him the news of the destruction of his coalition at
Austerlitz. The battle was the cause of his death. He was struck down by
a severe internal malady and he was in a state of extreme debility when
on January 11, 1806, he