Mr. Pitt fainted away before Lord Wellesley left the room. After this he saw his friends only at rare intervals, and contrary to the advice of his physicians. The Bishop of Lincoln, his former preceptor, apprised him of his danger. "How long do you think I have to live?" asked Pitt, turning toward his friend and physician, Sir Walter Farquhar. Sir Walter answered that he was unable to say; that possibly he might yet recover. An incredulous smile passed over the face of the dying man. Then turning to the Bishop, he said, "I fear, I have, like too many other men, neglected prayer too much to allow me to hope that it can be very efficacious now; but," rising in his bed as he spoke, and clasping his hands with the utmost fervor and devotion, he added, emphatically: "I throw myself entirely upon the mercy of God, through the merits of Christ!" Some hours later he breathed his last.
Pitt lived and died poor. Parliament paid his debts, which amounted to £40,000; it provided for the support of his three nieces and defrayed the expenses of his funeral. Great consternation seized the entire nation upon hearing of his death. Within three months England had lost both Nelson and Pitt, the hero of heroes, and the great pilot of her political government. In the presence of a growing peril and of an implacable enemy, by the premature death of two men, England found herself weakened and disarmed: she was not, however, to abandon all hope. Mr. Pitt had said, with great modesty, that it did not appertain to any single man to save Europe. Between the day of the death of the great minister and the definitive conclusion of peace, there were yet to be long years of resistance, as persevering and as desperate as the aggression.
Chapter XXXIX.
George III. And The Emperor Napoleon.
(1806-1810.)
Lord Grenville succeeded Pitt, as Prime Minister. His alliance with Fox had brought forth fruits; the Cabinet now had the good fortune to contain only eminent men: Fox, Grey, Windham, Lord Sidmouth, Lord Henry Petty, second son of Lord Landsdowne, whose title he was one day to wear, and whose renown he was to sustain. Canning alone was excluded.
Fox had charge of foreign affairs. His physical strength already failing, had nevertheless triumphed over the health of his great rival. Years before, Lady Holland, in comparing the two in their early youth, had said to her husband that she had seen at the house of Lady Hester Pitt, the little William who was only eight years old, but was the most extraordinary child that she had ever seen: "he is so well educated," said she, "and has such good manners, that he will be all his life a thorn in the flesh, for Charles. Remember well what I say to you."
The thorn had fallen: after seventeen years of exclusion from power, amidst the alternatives of passionate struggles and of midly indolent discouragements, Fox seized the rudder in an hour of dolorous and patriotic agony. His admiration for the Emperor Napoleon, and the sympathy which he had constantly shown for France, inclined him naturally towards peace. He immediately made overtures; his envoys were moderate in their demands as in their tendencies. A happy chance furnished the minister with the opportunity of rendering a signal service to the emperor. An adventurer had offered to assassinate the enemy of England. Mr. Fox at once notified Talleyrand. However they might differ in their methods, the emperor and his minister were equal adepts at flattery. "Thank Mr. Fox," replied Napoleon, "and say to him, whether the policy of his sovereign causes us to continue much longer at war, or whether as speedy an end as the two nations can desire, is put to a quarrel useless for humanity, I rejoice at the new character which, from this proceeding, the war has already taken, and which is an omen of what may be expected from a cabinet, of the principles of which I am delighted to judge from those of Mr. Fox, who is one of the men most fitted to feel, in everything, what is excellent, what is truly great."
The conditions of peace proposed by England were moderate; for the first time, those of France indicated seriously the desire for peace. Only one stumbling-block hindered the success of the negotiations: England would not treat without Russia. Napoleon refused absolutely to admit Russia among the number of the contracting powers. "The obstacle is for us, insurmountable," wrote Fox to Talleyrand; "if the emperor could see, with the same eye that I behold it, the true glory which he would have a right to acquire, by a just and moderate peace, what happiness would not result from it for France and for all Europe!"