to show a bold front against Spain, it did not have the effect of bringing Chatham into office, and a rupture at this time all but ensued between him and the City, on the support of which he had always hitherto been able to reckon. In accordance with the practice of the time, press warrants had been issued to man the fleet. The City authorities, at the instigation of Wilkes, opposed them. Chatham strongly condemned their conduct. "There is reason, I perceive," he writes to Shelburne, "to fear a race of frivolous and ill-placed popularity about press warrants. I am determined to resist this ill-judged attempt to shake the public safety. In this state of things, I shall persevere to do my duty to my country, determined by principle, though unanimated by hope. As to what the City now intends to do, I wish to hear nothing of it; resolved to applaud and defend what I think right, and to disapprove what shall appear to me wrong and untenable. All the rest is to me, my dear Lord, nothing." He even suggested that the refractory aldermen should be brought to the Bar of the House of Lords. This suggestion was eagerly seized hold of by his enemies in the City. "Your Lordship may easily imagine," writes Shelburne, "that every art of exaggeration and misrepresentation has been employed to create mischief in the City, on the foundation of what dropped from you the other day, of calling aldermen to the Bar. However, I have reason to believe that the principles of our friends there, as well as their weight, are much too steady to be so affected."[1] It is perhaps one of the most striking proofs of Chatham's influence that he was able to induce the City to accept his advice.
Disaster after disaster now befell the Opposition. The death of Beckford and of Granby was followed by that of Grenville. Temple in consequence announced his intention of retiring into private life, while Camden wavered, uncertain to what political leader he should attach his fortunes.[2]
