Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 1).djvu/159

Rh "What passed in the year 1757, in the struggle between Mr. Fox and Mr. Pitt, is too long to recapitulate. Mr. Pitt told him then he did not look upon him a man sui juris, because of the Duke of Cumberland. The fact is, Mr. Fox was not formed to be a man sui juris, else he would have been so. I have often thought Mr. Pitt then saw he could get the better of Mr. Fox when he pleased, but that he could not of the Duke of Cumberland. Mr. Fox bore all from Mr. Pitt which the superiority of his line, the favour of the people, on the great majority of whom he stood, the daringness of his temper, ready to risk everything, enabled him to surround himself with every time they appeared in publick.

"Not one of Mr. Fox's maxims did he dare to profess in publick, or if he did they were immediately run down by the great body of the people (while Mr. Pitt was in the midst of his system), and men were thus ashamed to perform in publick what they had promised to do in private, or did it as if they were ashamed. Mr. Fox's system was built upon the ridicule of those very qualities the professing of which enabled Mr. Pitt to gain the heart of every disinterested man, at a time when the publick was supposed to be in the greatest danger. Mr. Fox retired laughing, as it were, and talking of Mr. Pitt as a madman, but necessarily conscious of his own inferiority. He abandoned all hope of returning to power, and gave himself up to his next passion, which was covetousness. He had an opportunity of satisfying this to the greatest degree in the Pay-Office, and exerting all his abilities in the pursuit, by his management taking proper advantage of the rise and fall of the Publick Stocks, with the publick money, a great deal of which necessarily lay in his hands. This, together with the fondness for his family, which was without bounds, together with the connection of some friends whom he still kept attached to him, were sufficient resources to occupy his mind. He was therefore prevailed on with the greatest difficulty to alter his resolution and to come to Court to assist Lord Bute in October 1762, and these