kness had invited foreign aggressions and was
powerless to avenge them. Finally, the Grenvilles joined Fox; and thus
the King's perversity nullified the efforts of Pitt to form an
Administration worthy to cope with Napoleon.

Nevertheless, the challenge flung down to England by the French
regicides in 1793 was such as to enhance the person of the Monarch in
these islands; and the Revolutionary War, which was fatal to several
dynasties on the Continent, served to consolidate the power of the House
of Brunswick. For, though Pitt sought to keep the war from becoming a
royalist crusade, it almost inevitably assumed that character. During
hostilities there can be but two sharply defined parties. Accordingly,
Pitt, who opened his career with a bold attack upon the prerogatives of
George III, ended it as his champion, even consenting to surrender a
cherished conviction in order that the Monarch's peace of mind might not
be troubled. Was ever a Minister beset by more baffling problems, by
more hampering restrictions? Peace might have solved and shattered
them. But peace he could not secure in the years 1796, 1797; and when
finally it came it proved to be no peace, merely a pause before a still
greater cycle of war.

The grandeur of Pitt's efforts for ensuring the independence of Europe
has somewhat obscured his services as Empire builder. Yet, with the
possible exception of Chatham, no statesman has exercised a greater
influence on the destinies of the British race. On two occasions he
sternly set his face against the cession of Gibraltar; he took keen
interest in the settlement of New South Wales; his arrangements for the
government of Canada deserve far higher praise than they have usually
secured; and his firmness in repelling the archaic claims of Spain to
the shores of the Northern Pacific gained for his people the future
colony of British Columbia. Cherishing a belief in the pacific nature of
Bonaparte's policy at the time of the Treaty of Amiens, he condoned the
retrocession of the Cape of Good Hope and of Malta, on condition of the
gain of Ceylon and Trinidad; but after the revival of French schemes of
aggression in the East he saw the imperative need of planting or
maintaining the Union Jack at those commanding points. He, who has been
accused of excessive trust in allies, prepared to forego the alliance of
Russia rather than give up Malta; and, even before Nelson gained the
mastery at sea, Pitt sent forth an expediti