Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/49

Rh mittee, because the political events of that time were of the greatest national importance, and they were affected mainly by the influence and energy of men who found in the committee their point of contact with the people. But there is another matter of great personal as well as historic interest, illustrated by the minutes of the transactions of these few but eventful months, that is, the relation between Pitt and those whom Macaulay calls the "Ultra Whigs." During this period the North Ministry was destroyed; the long determination of the King not to make peace with the colonists was broken down; Fox and Sheridan, Shelburne and Burke, were in office under Rockingham; and William Pitt had made it known that he did not intend to enter any Ministry in the formation of whose policy he had not a potent voice—and at that time Pitt was a sincere and earnest reformer. At the beginning of this year everybody knew that the end of the war and the end of North's Ministry would come together, and that both must come soon. On the 22nd of February General Conway moved a resolution in the House of Commons for ending the war, and it was lost only by one vote, the numbers being 193 to 194. This was a sign, and the reality followed closely. On the 27th Conway moved—"That the further prosecution of offensive hostilities for the purpose of reducing the revolted colonies to obedience by force, would weaken the efforts of Great Britain against her European enemies, increase the mutual enmity so fatal both to Great Britain and America, and, by preventing a happy reconciliation with that country, frustrate the desire expressed by his Majesty of restoring the blessings of peace and tranquillity." A motion made by ministers for adjournment was defeated by a majority of nineteen, and General Conway's resolution was carried without a division. So the long-lived and disastrous administration of Lord North received its fatal wound; but yet it could not for some weeks be got decently buried out of sight. Confusion, irritation, and passion were displayed, not only in Parliament, but in all political quarters, and it was not until the 20th of March that North formally announced his resig-