On the signature of the Treaty of Peace with France in 1783, it had been stipulated that a Treaty of Commerce should likewise be concluded; and in 1786, under the auspices of Pitt, a treaty of this character was made, the first article providing that 'The wines of France imported directly from France into Great Britain shall in no case pay any higher duties than those which the wines of Portugal now pay.' Pitt, spite of his well known _penchant_ for Port, had yet a sneaking liking for Champagne, arising no doubt from his early familiarity with the wine when he went to Reims to study, after leaving the University of Cambridge. It was with Champagne that he was primed on the memorable occasion when he, Lord Chancellor Thurlow, and Mr. Secretary Dundas galloped after dusk through an open turnpike-gate without paying toll, and only just missed receiving the contents of a loaded blunderbuss, which the turnpike man, fancying they were highwaymen, fired after them. The party had been dining with the President of the Board of Trade at Addiscombe, and a rhymester of the epoch commemorated the incident in the following lines: 'How as Pitt wandered darkling o'er the plain, His reason drowned in Jenkinson's Champagne, A rustic's hand, but righteous fate withstood, Had shed a premier's for a robber's blood.' [Illustration: DUNDAS AND PITT AS SILENUS AND BACCHUS (After Gilray).] [Illustration: WILLIAM PITT (After Gilray).] Tickell has noted the appreciation of Brooks' Champagne shown by Pitt's great rival in the lines addressed to Sheridan, and purporting to be an invitation to supper from Fox. The illustrious member for Westminster promises his guest that 'Derby shall send, if not his plate, his cooks, And know I've bought the best Champaign from Brooks.'[348] Brooks' Club enjoyed a high reputation for its Champagne, and we find Fighting Fitzgerald emptying three bottles there without assistance, the same evening on which he bullied the members into electing him.[349]