[Footnote 115:  Russell’s “Life of Fox,” ii., 187.]

[Footnote 116:  Fox’s private correspondence is full of anticipations that the Regent’s first act will be to dismiss Pitt, and to make him minister.  In a letter of December 15 he even fixes a fortnight as the time by which he expects to be installed; while Lord Loughborough, who was eager to possess himself of the Great Seal—­an expectation in which, though well-founded, he would, as it proved, have found himself disappointed—­was led by his hopes to give the Prince counsel of so extraordinary a nature that it is said that the ministers, to whose knowledge it had come, were prepared, if any attempt had been made to act upon it, or even openly to avow it, to send the learned lord to the Tower. ("Diary of Lord Colchester,” i., 28.) In an elaborate paper which he drew up and read to the Prince at Windsor, he assured his Royal Highness, speaking as a lawyer, that “the administration of government devolved to him of right.  He was bound by every duty to assume it, and his character would be lessened in the public estimation, if he took it on any other ground but right, or on any sort of compromise.  The authority of Parliament, as the great council of the nation, would be interposed, not to confer but to declare the right.  The mode of proceeding should be that in a short time his Royal Highness should signify his intention to act by directing a meeting of the Privy Council, when he should declare his intention to take upon himself the care of the state, and should at the same time signify his desire to have the advice of Parliament, and order it by proclamation to meet early for the despatch of business....  It is of vast importance in the outset that he should appear to act entirely of himself, and, in the conferences he must necessarily have, not to consult, but to listen and direct.”  The entire paper is given by Lord Campbell ("Lives of the Chancellors,” c. clxx.).]

[Footnote 117:  Hume’s account of this transaction is, that the Duke “desired that it might be recorded in Parliament that this authority was conferred on him from their own free motion, without any application on his part; ... and he required that all the powers of his office should be specified and defined by Parliament.”]

[Footnote 118:  “Parliamentary History,” xxvii., 803—­speech of Mr. Hardinge, one of the Welsh judges, and M.P. for Old Sarum.]

[Footnote 119:  I take this report, or abstract, of Lord Camden’s speech from the “Lives of the Chancellors,” c. cxlvii.]

[Footnote 120:  “Memorials of Fox,” ii., 292.]

[Footnote 121:  The proceedings of the Irish Parliament on this occasion will be mentioned in the next chapter.]

[Footnote 122:  Mr. Hallam (iii., 144, ed. 1832) gives a definition of the term “unconstitutional” which seems rather singular:  “By unconstitutional, as distinguished from ‘illegal,’ I mean a novelty of much importance, tending to endanger the established laws.”  May not the term rather be regarded as referring to a distinct class of acts—­to those at variance with the recognized spirit of the constitution or principles of government, with the preservation of the liberties of the people, as expressed or implied in the various charters, etc., but not forbidden by the express terms of any statute?]