The first effort of the opposition tended to prevent the dissolution. Fox boldly contested the right to dissolve, in the midst of a session. Pitt sustained the attack, with a lofty and courageous boldness; he had no intention, he said, to counsel the king to dissolve, but he was not able to pledge himself never to give an advice that might become necessary. Accused of having used secret influences, he responded with disdain, that he had not come there through back-stairs influences, but when sent for by the king, had simply obeyed orders; he had used no secret influences, and he trusted that his integrity would be sufficient to preserve him from this danger: "I have neither meanness enough," said he, fixing his eyes on the opposition, "to act under the concealed influence of others, nor hypocrisy to pretend, where the measures of an administration, in which I had share, were blamed, that they were measures not of my advising; and this is the only answer I shall ever deign to make on the subject." {342} Pitt was beaten at the outset upon a parliamentary question, and again when he presented the bill which he had substituted, for the project planned by his adversaries for the government of India. The council which he proposed was to have no share of the patronage. "My intention is," said he, "to institute a council of political control, in place of a council of political influence." General Conway accused the cabinet of corrupt practices in the country. Pitt interrupted him: "I have the right," said he, "to summon the very honorable General to specify a case where the agents of the ministers have overrun the country, practising corruption. These are assertions that ought not to be made unless one is able to prove them. As for my honor, I intend to remain the only judge of that; I have at least the same advantage over the honorable general that the young Scipio had over the veteran Fabius: _Si mulla allia re, modestia certe et temperando linguæ adolescens senem vicero._"