"Imagine the lack of judgment Fox has shown by putting himself and his friends in such an embarrassing position," wrote Wilberforce; "he perceived that what he had said had offended so many people that he was obliged to seize the first favorable occasion to explain and extenuate his words. {353} After this retraction, Sheriden terminated the day by a worse blunder than I have ever seen committed by a man of any intelligence. Since I have been in Parliament the battles have been warm enough, but I do not remember of ever having heard such a tumult as he raised by threatening us with the danger of exciting the Prince of Wales, and urging him to vindicate his rights: these are exactly the expressions used. You comprehend what an advantage all this gives us; above all, when there is joined thereto our great hope of the king's recovery." The favorable progress in the malady of the King, decided the chancellor to renounce his treachery. When the Duke of York declared in the House of Lords that his eldest brother claimed no rights, but desired to place his authority entirely in the hands of Parliament, Lord Thurlow, quitting the wool-sack, followed him, protesting his inviolable attachment and fidelity to the sovereign who had governed England for twenty-seven years with the most religious respect for its Constitution. He was moved by his own words, troubled perhaps, by the recollection of his secret perfidy, and finally concluded: "If ever I forget my king, may God forget me!" A murmur of disgust followed: the intrigues of the chancellor were well known. Pitt rushed precipitately from the hall, his heart bursting with contempt. "Oh the wretch! the wretch!" repeated he loudly. The resolutions proposed by Pitt recognized the exclusive right of Parliament to confer the regency. In an ardent and eloquent address, Fox sustained the pretensions of the Prince of Wales, declaring that Pitt would never have thought of limiting his power if he had not felt that he did not merit the prince's confidence, and that he would never be minister. {354} "With regard to my feeling myself unworthy of the confidence of the Prince," said Pitt, "all that I am able to say is that there is only one way for me, or any other, to merit it; that is to do what I have done by seeking constantly in the public service to do my duty towards the king, his father, and towards the entire country. If by seeking to merit thus the confidence of the prince, he finds that I have lost it, in fact; however painful and disagreeable this circumstance may be for me, I should regret it; but I say boldly that it would be impossible to repent of it."