tently acting with him. He added that it might be difficult to
give him the Foreign Office at once, but he could certainly have it in a
few months' time. On 16th June Malmesbury saw Fox at Burlington House,
and found him in an unusually acrid and suspicious mood, from the notion
that the whole affair was a plot of Pitt to break up the Whig party.
Beside which, Fox said that it was idle to expect Pitt to admit the Whig
leaders on an equal footing. Malmesbury, however, maintained that, if
Fox and the Duke were agreed, they would lead the whole of their party
with them, at which remark Fox became silent and embarrassed.

Pitt, on the other hand, was very open to Loughborough, and expressed a
wish to form a strong and united Ministry which could face the
difficulties of the time. The chief obstacle to a coalition, he said,
was Fox's support of French principles, which must preclude his taking
the Foreign Office immediately. The remark is noteworthy as implying
Pitt's expectation that either Fox might tone down his opinions, or the
Revolution might abate its violence. Further, when Loughborough
reminded him of the ardour of his advocacy of the Abolitionist cause, he
replied that some concession must be made on that head, as the King
strongly objected to the way in which it was pushed on by addresses and
petitions, a method which he himself disliked. Further, he freely
admitted that the "national Aristocracy" of the country must have its
due weight and power.[49] These confessions (assuming that Loughborough
reported them correctly) prepare us for the half right turn which now
becomes the trend of Pitt's political career. In order to further the
formation of a truly national party, he was willing, if necessary, to
postpone the cause of the slaves and of Parliamentary Reform until the
advent of calmer times.

At this stage of the discussions, then, Pitt was willing to meet the
Whigs half way. But the chief difficulty lay, not with Fox and his
friends, but with the King. When Pitt mentioned the proposal to him,
there came the characteristic reply: "Anything complimentary to them,
but no power."[50] How was it possible to harmonize this resolve with
that of Fox, that the Whigs must have an equality of power? Grenville
was a further obstacle. How could that stiff and ambitious man give up
the Foreign Office to Fox, whose principles he detested? We hear little
of Grenville in these days, probably because of his marriage to Lady An