as to make an agreement with the Tory North and his friends to attack Shelburne. All through the American War Fox had been speaking all kinds of evil of North, so that the friendship which was thus suddenly made was not likely to be respected. The two parties, however, which were led by Fox and North had together more votes in the House of Commons than the party led by Shelburne. They therefore succeeded in turning him out, and a new ministry was formed which is known as the Coalition Ministry, because Fox's friends coalesced, or joined together, with those of North.

2. The Contest between Pitt and the Coalition Ministry. The Coalition Ministry did not last long. It proposed a law about the government of India which offended a great many people, and the king turned it out of office. The king appointed young William Pitt, the son of Chatham, to be Prime Minister. No one so young as he was had ever been Prime Minister before. He was only twenty-four. Fox and North had many more votes in the House of Commons than he had, and the House voted that he ought to resign. He told them that he would not, unless they could show that he had done something wrong. Week after week the numbers who voted for him grew more, and the numbers who voted against him grew less. There were at that time a large number of members of Parliament who would vote for anybody who was likely to remain in office, because they expected to get offices for themselves and their friends, which would bring them money, and they did not care the least whether the

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thing for which they voted was right or wrong. These men began to think that Pitt was likely to win; and one reason why they thought this was because people who were not members of Parliament had begun to take an interest in him. Quiet people, who did not care much about politics, thought that the friendship between men who had not long ago been quarrelling, as Fox and North had quarrelled, could not possibly have been formed in order to do good to any one but themselves. At last Pitt advised the king to dissolve Parliament. A new Parliament was elected, in which Pitt had the greater number of the members on his side.

3. Pitt and Public Opinion. This support, given by the voters to the young minister, was a thing which could not have happened thirty years before. The feeling of those people who cared about politics had been just as strong in favour of Chatham at the beginning of the Seven Years' War as it was now in favour of Chatham's son. But Chatham had found that he could not keep office unless he made friends with Newcastle, and got the votes for which Newcastle paid. The reason was because a great many more people cared about politics in Pitt's time than had cared about them in Chatham's time. One cause

of this was, that just before the American War broke out the House of Commons allowed the speeches made by its members to be printed in newspapers, and in this way many people began to take an interest in politics who had taken no interest before. There were also more people who were well off from taking part in trade, and who did not like to see the

Government of England managed by a few great noblemen and their friends. A great many of the country gentlemen, too, took the side of Pitt and the king. The country gentlemen were much better fitted to take part in politics than they had been in the days of Walpole. Those who remained at home then had been very ignorant, and those who became members of Parliament usually only thought of what they could get for their votes. Now they were better educated, read more, thought more, and were more anxious to do their duty. The party which Pitt led was called the Tory party, because it was the party which thought that the Prime Minister ought to be chosen by the king.

4. The Proposed Reform Bill and the Commercial Treaty with France.-Pitt wished to make a good many wise reforms, some of which became law, though some were rejected by the House of Commons. He proposed a Reform Bill, that is to say, a Bill for allowing many more persons to vote at the election of members of Parliament than before, but the House of Commons would not allow this Bill to pass. He was more successful in making a treaty with France, by which goods were to be allowed to come from one country to the other without being subjected to very high duties. Up to that time nations had been in the habit of thinking that they were hurt if they bought goods made by another nation more cheaply than they could make them themselves. A great man, Adam Smith, had written a book called the Wealth of Nations,' to show that this was a mistake. had learned the lesson from him, and he now per

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suaded the English Parliament that Adam Smith's lesson was true. Nations, like men, are better off when their neighbours are better off. Pitt had a difficult task to perform in convincing Parliament that this was true. England and France had been fighting with one another for centuries, and many people thought that they never could do anything else. Pitt told his hearers that it was weak and childish to suppose that one nation could be for ever the enemy of another. He asked that Englishmen and Frenchmen should trade together, not merely because they would both make money, but because they would become more friendly to one another.

5. The Slave Trade.-Pitt had room in his large mind for things of even more importance than a treaty of commerce. Ever since the days of Queen Elizabeth Englishmen, like men of other nations, had been in the habit of carrying off negroes from Africa to work as slaves in the West Indies and in other parts of America. It was calculated that at the beginning of the reign of George III. no less than 50,000 unhappy black men were thus carried off every year in ships belonging to the merchants of Bristol and Liverpool. About the time when Pitt became minister, a young man named Thomas Clarkson gained a prize at the University of Cambridge for writing on the question whether it was right to make slaves of cthers against their will. Many young men would have forgotten all about the matter as soon as they had got their prize. As Clarkson was riding home he got off his horse, and sat down on the grass by the side of the road, asking

himself what he could do to put an end to the great evil about which he had been writing. He concluded in the end that the best thing would be to find out facts about slavery and the slave trade, and let the English people know what horrible things were being done. For some years he used to go about among the sailors at Liverpool, asking them to tell him what they knew. It was not at all a pleasant thing to do, for the sailors were often rude to him, and treated him very badly. But he learned a good deal that he wanted to know, and when he knew it he published it. By-and-by others began to inquire, and horrible tales were told. The wretched negroes who were seized in Africa were packed on shelves so closely that they had hardly room to breathe, especially as they passed across the hottest part of the Atlantic. They had not nearly enough given them to eat. In order to keep them in exercise they were brought up on deck and flogged to make them jump about. Whenever, as was often the case, the voyage was longer than was expected, and there was not food enough on board, the captain picked out those who looked least strong, and threw them into the sea, to be drowned or eaten by the sharks. In the House of Commons a friend of Pitt named Wilberforce did all he could to persuade Parliament to prevent this wicked trade in slaves. Pitt himself spoke strongly against the trade, but he was unable to persuade the members to stop it.

6. The King's Illness and Recovery.-After Pitt had been Prime Minister for nearly five years, the king went out of his mind. It was agreed that