O, dread was the time, and more dreadful the omen,
When the brave on Marengo lay slaughtered in vain,
And beholding broad Europe bow’d down by her foemen,
Pitt closed in his anguish the map of her reign!
Not the fate of broad Europe could bend his brave spirit
To take for his country the safety of shame;
O, then in her triumph remember his spirit,
And hallow the goblet that flows to his name.
II.
Round the husbandman’s head while he traces the furrow
The mists of the winter may mingle with rain.
He may plough it with labour and sow it in sorrow,
And sigh while he fears he has sow’d it in vain;
He may die ere his children shall reap in their gladness;
But the blithe harvest-home shall remember his claim;
And their jubilee-shout shall be softened with sadness,
While they hallow the goblet that flows to his name.
III.
Though anxious and timeless his life was expended,
It toils for our country preserved by his care,
Though he died ere one ray o’er the nations ascended,
To light the long darkness of doubt and despair;
The storms he endured in our Britain’s December,
The perils his wisdom foresaw and o’ercame,
In her glory’s rich harvest shall Britain remember,
And hallow the goblet that flows to his name.
MINISTRY OF ALL THE TALENTS (1806).
Source.—Diaries ... James Harris, first Earl of Malmesbury, 1844. Vol. iv., p. 349.
February 1.—His Royal Highness was cold with me for several days; but when he found my opinion to be the prevalent one, and even that of the King himself, he very handsomely gave way, and, having sent for me, by a fair and honest avowal of his mistake, left me more satisfied with him than before. The new Ministry was appointed a few days after this.
Lord Grenville and Fox were its two leaders, and their respective adherents and friends made up the Cabinet.[9]