It may be added that this persuasive young politician, W. W. Grenville, succeeded in securing his return at the top of the poll for the county of Buckinghamshire in 1784, as Pitt wrote to James Grenville (Lord Glastonbury)--“William was safe.” [Illustration: A MOB-REFORMER. 1780.] CHAPTER X. THE GREAT WESTMINSTER ELECTION OF 1784. The excitement caused by Wilkes’s election for Middlesex in 1768 was forgotten in the great Westminster contest of 1784. Although on each occasion the conflicts were in opposition to those ministerial interests which enlisted the Crown, the courtiers, and the following of placemen, state pensioners, with both branches of the service upon the Tory side in antagonism to popular rights and the freedom of election, in both instances of overstrained influence the Government had to submit to the mortification of defeat. The circumstances preceding the Westminster election were exceptional. The Fox and North Coalition Administration had, by an overstrained exercise of the royal prerogative, through a “back-stair” Court intrigue, and by defiantly unconstitutional means on the part of the king, lost their hold on power, temporarily--as they then supposed--but, as subsequent events proved, beyond recall. Fox had introduced his vast measure of reform for the reconstitution of our Eastern Empire. Passed by the majority commanded by the Coalition Ministry in the Commons, the Bill was--in direct deference to the king’s written instructions, freely heralded about--thrown out on the second reading in the Lords. Fox was feared by the king and the East India Company alike; it was apprehended that the great “Carlo Khan” was but beginning the work of revolution, and that all charters would be in equal jeopardy if that of the East India House was allowed to be revised. The wealth of the company was put into requisition to hurl from power the ministers who dared to legislate for the administration of the huge empire confided to their government; and the king chiefly aimed at the dismissal of the great Whig chief, against whom an unreasonable prejudice long continued to exist in the royal mind. On Fox’s defeat it was left to Lord Temple to constitute an administration which should satisfy the king; but although this juncture brought William Pitt to the front, it was found impossible to carry on the business of the country, the ministry, too weak to divide, being beaten on every measure introduced by their rivals; finally, the opposition majority carried the following damaging resolution by nineteen votes:-- “That it is the opinion of this House that the continuance of the present ministry in power is an obstacle to the formation of such an administration as is likely to have the confidence of this House and the people.”