. He cannot and does not think of this as he did of the
Preliminary Treaty. But debate it; and he will, he must, debate
as warmly for it. He can take no distinction without seeming to
abandon Addington; and that he will not do. He cannot object to
any part of the Peace in public, without weakening the grounds
upon which he contends peace upon the whole to be preferable to
war, and _that_ he will not do. ... Leave it possible for Pitt
to say six or eight months hence that the Preliminaries promised
well, but that the Treaty did not come up to them. I do not
promise you that he ever will say this. But I am fairly
persuaded that, if you force from him a public approbation of
the Treaty, you defer for at least as many months as have passed
since the debates of October, the chance of his coming to see
things almost as you and I see them....

_April 27 1802._

Since I wrote to you, I have seen Lord Grenville, and I think
the plan of action, which he tells me had been concerted between
you and him, so perfect, that I retract everything in what I
wrote to you (if anything there were) which could be construed
as making against it. To debate "about it and about it," as much
as you will, to move for papers, to move for taking the Treaty
into consideration--all this may be done with great and good
effect, but a condemnation of the Treaty, such as would force
P[itt] into a defence of it, and identify him with the makers of
it, is what of all things is to be avoided. I hope you think
so.--Whether P[itt] _will_ save us I do not know. But surely he
is the only man that _can_.

All was in vain. Pitt, having promised to support Addington, deemed
himself in honour bound to fulfil that pledge. But, as the events of the
year 1802 showed more and more the imbecility of the Addington Cabinet,
torturing doubts preyed upon his mind. His friends, especially Canning,
now began to discern the pathos of his position, but sought to draw him
from his seclusion at Walmer. An opportunity occurred in the month of
May. Pitt's birthday was on the 28th. Would not all who foresaw ruin
for England in the supremacy of "the Doctor" welcome a demonstration on
behalf of his predecessor? For more than a year Pitt's friends had been
puzzled and abashed by his unexplained retirement, witness the
uncharitable surmise