also that, after the insult to
George III in London on 29th October 1795, Pitt proposed a loan of
L18,000,000 and new taxes, which Parliament refused. The facts are that
Pitt asked for that loan on 7th December 1796, and it was subscribed in
twenty-two hours. On the same day Parliament voted the new taxes.

CHAPTER XIII

DEARTH AND DISCONTENT

The Waste Land Bill will turn the tide of our affairs and enable
us to bear without difficulty the increased burdens of the
war.--SINCLAIR TO PITT, _13th March 1796_.

On 29th October 1795 occurred an event unparalleled within the memory of
Englishmen then living. An immense crowd, filling the Mall, broke into
loud hissing and hooting when George III left Buckingham House in the
state carriage to proceed to Westminster for the opening of Parliament.
The tumult reached its climax as the procession approached the Ordnance
Office, when a small pebble, or marble, or shot from an air-gun, pierced
the carriage window. The King immediately said to Westmorland, who sat
opposite, "That's a shot," and, with the courage of his family, coolly
leaned forward to examine the round hole in the glass. Similar scenes
occurred on his return to St. James's Palace. The mob pressed forward
with an eagerness which the Guards could scarcely restrain, calling out
"Peace, Peace; Bread, Bread; No Pitt; No Famine." With some difficulty
the gates of the Horse Guards were shut against them. Opposite Spring
Gardens a stone struck the woodwork of the carriage; and the intrepid
monarch alighted at St. James's amidst a commotion so wild that one of
the horses took fright and flung down a groom, breaking his thigh.
Thereafter the rabble set upon the state carriage, greatly damaging it;
and when George later on proceeded in his private carriage to Buckingham
House, he again ploughed his way through a din of curses. Pitt kept
discreetly in the background, or he would have been roughly handled.

A loyalist caricature of the period gives an imaginative version of the
incident. In it Pitt figures as the coachman whipping on the horses of
the royal carriage amidst a shower of stones, eggs, and cats. The King
sits inside absolutely passive, with large protruding eyes; Lansdowne,
Bedford, Whitbread, and others strive to stop the wheels; Fox and
Sheridan, armed with bludgeons, seek to force open the door; while
Norfolk fires a blunderbuss at the King. The sketch illustrates the
fierce parti