THE
RENEWAL OF
THE
WAR
For the
first
few of the
long
additional dozen
years
of war
which
were now to
ensue,
France
had the
advantage
of a concentrated
command
under
an
absolute
dictator,
whereas
the
British
Govern-
ment
was
weak
and
distracted
by changes.
Addington
as
Prime
Minister
did
not
have
the
confidence of
the
nation,
which
clam-
ored
for
the
return
of
Pitt,
but he held
on,
refusing
to
resign
for
a
year,
and
when Pitt
himself
returned
he
was
seriously
handi-
capped.
He
had
wished to include in his Cabinet
all
the
available
talent
from
both
parties,
notably
in the
person
of
Fox,
but
the
King
would
not
consent
to
the
inclusion
of
his
old
enemy,
and
although
Fox
willingly
stepped
aside,
some of
the
leading
Whigs
declined
to
join
unless
he
was
in
office.
The
result
was
a weak
Ministry
headed
by
a
man
overborne
by
ill health
and
pressure
of
work,
who
was
to
die
at the
beginning
of
1806 at
one
of
the
gloomiest
moments of
the
contest. At
last
the
King
agreed
to a
coalition
gov-
ernment which would include
Fox,
and
a
new
and
completely Tory
Ministry
came
into
power
which
was to
carry
on
for
the
remainder
of
the
war.
It had been
a
misfortune
for
England
that
Fox and
Pitt had
been
by
force
of
circumstances
brought
into
opposition
to
each
other rather than
collaboration.
Both
were
born
aristocrats
though
of
very
different
types.
Fox
was of
the
heavy-drinking, gambling,
sporting
sort,
loving
the
hearty country
life
of
his
day
even
more
than
his clubs in
town,
yet
equally
devoted,
as
so
many
were at
the
time,
to
love
of
literature
and
patronage
of the
arts.
Pitt,
ex-
traordinarily
austere,
and cold
for his
age,
when
he
headed the
Cabinet
at
twenty-four,
and with
a
will
of
steel,
was
in all
ways
a
contrast to
the
stout
and
jovial
Fox.
Both
men
were
disinterested
patriots
in
spite
of Pitt's inordinate ambition
and Fox's
easy-going
laziness.
Both were
in favor
of reform but
Pitt
in a
cool,
intel-
lectual
way
as
contrasted with
the
fervor
of
Fox's
generous
and
warm-hearted
nature. Pitt's
great
ability
in
organizing
and
finance,
perhaps
his
greatest
achievements were his
reorganization
of
governmental
machinery
and the re-establishment
of the
national
credit,
combined with
Fox's
equally great
abilities
of such
a
dif-
ferent
sort,
could
have
accomplished
much
in the
dangerous
time
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