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Highly flattering as the offer was, and ſeaſonable as the act would have been (proceeding from a ſet of gentlemen whoſe motives muſt have been pure and diſintereſted, not only in ſuch an unequivocal mark of regard for a falling miniſter, but from the mode of carrying their object into effect,) the author entertained doubts of Mr. Pitt accepting the proffered bounty, and therefore thought it right to apprize him of the intention. This occaſioned a long diſcuſſion on the ſubject, which ended in Mr. Pitt expreſſing a poſitive and fixed determination to decline the acceptance of the liberal and generous offer: a determination that nothing could ſhake: for when it was urged that it never could be known to him who the ſubſcribers were, and that they were men whoſe fortunes put them out of all probability of ever ſoliciting the ſmalleſt favor from him; his reply was, that if he ſhould, at any future time of his life, return to office, he ſhould never ſee a gentleman from the city without its occurring to him that he might be one of his ſubſcribers."
This poſitive determination was communicated the author to the Baronet before alluded to,
