put forward in another place, but, as regards the extraordinary ferocity of the attack, there is no evidence that Shelburne was a consenting party. "I find," he writes to Fox the following day, "that Colonel Barré's conduct, however blamed, meets with partizans. You will hear what Lord Bute says of it."[1] Barré himself gave the following account of the transaction:
"When I came into Parliament Mr. Pitt, though out of office, possessed the House of Commons. Administration had, it is true, a great majority, but neither cordial nor spirited enough to produce one single man who would step forth and attack the insolent opposer of their measures. I took upon myself the dangerous and invidious task. A few days after I was pressed to go to Court, nay, it was urged as a measure. I obeyed, and there was honoured with more than common attention. I was soon universally pointed at as a most extraordinary probationer in parliamentary business, but being unfortunately a volunteer, as such I remained unnoticed and unrewarded. En politique malhabile, I had stipulated no terms, and of course met with that coldness which will ever be shewn to parliamentary spirit, unassisted by parliamentary intrigue."[2]
Fox, in order to quiet the apprehensions of Shelburne, assured him that "Lord Bute had no idea that carrying on the German war was compatible with what they had to do besides,"[3] alluding to the war with Spain, which had just been declared, nor was Pitt himself unaware of the power of the weapon which had thereby been placed in the hands of the Peace party, for he was heard to say in conversation "That now was the time; if those he had left had any spirit, which they had not," said he, "they would send and recall every man from Germany and so ruin me—but there's no danger of it."[4]
Bedford alone "had the spirit," and decided, on the reassembling of Parliament, though himself a colleague of Bute, to move a resolution as an amendment to the
