It was not unusual for Mr. Pitt, when he addressed the House on a topic of sufficient magnitude to call forth his powers, to be followed by plaudits so loud and long-continued that the next speaker found difficulty in securing quiet in order to be heard.  While in the youth was recognized the sagacity of the late Lord Chatham, it was declared that the eloquence of the father was exceeded by that of the son.  Signal services to the country were augured, even by his opponents, from one of such extraordinary abilities and manifest integrity of purpose.  He began to be looked upon as capable of holding the highest trusts, fitted for the gravest responsibilities.  Hardly can history furnish a parallel to the case of so young a person solicited by his sovereign to take the lead of his administration, and declining the honor.  Yet such, in this instance, was the fact.

A change in the Ministry having become necessary, it was proposed that Mr. Pitt should be appointed First Lord of the Treasury in the place of Lord Shelburne.  That this appointment should be made was known to be expressly desired by the King.  The friends of the young statesman were delighted.  They advised by all means that the offer should at once be accepted.  But, undazzled by his own unprecedented success, he weighed the matter coolly and deliberately.

That Mr. Pitt had a due sense of his own powers is evident.  Early in his political life he had expressed his unwillingness to hold office under circumstances where he must execute measures which had originated in other minds rather than his own.  As this was declining beforehand all subordinate office, an excessive modesty could hardly have been the cause of his backwardness at this juncture.  It must be sought elsewhere.  It is found in the opinion which he entertained that the Ministry now about to be formed could never be an efficient one.  The union which had recently taken place between parties whose political enmity had been extreme indicated to him an equally extreme opposition to the Government.  The coalition between Lord North and Mr. Fox would, he anticipated, be the occasion of such a tide of hostility in the House of Commons as he was too wary to be willing to stem.

It was argued that he was needed; that an exigency had arisen which no one but himself could adequately meet; the country, in her adverse hour, must have his services; the King desired them, solicited them.  With a remarkable degree of reticence he declined all these overtures, and in a letter addressed to his sovereign gave a most respectful, but decided negative.