Mr. Pitt, on retiring, urged Mr. Addington to accept the control of the government. "Addington," said he, "I see nothing but ruin, if you hesitate." He at the same time urged his friends to retain their places; he even consented to present the Budget which had been prepared, and which was unanimously passed. His support of the new cabinet was assured; nevertheless, Dundas, who had followed his friend into retirement, wrote to him from Wimbledon, on the 7th of February, at the time when Mr. Addington was still endeavoring to form his ministry, that he did not know what the speaker would attempt, but he was convinced that any administration of which Addington was chief, could not fail to break, up almost as soon as formed. The devoted friends of Mr. Pitt, who had remained in office at his solicitation, saw this with regret and chagrin; and among their mortifications was the feeling that they had joined a ministry under a chief absolutely incapable of directing them. This was the general sentiment. Discouraged and sad, even before the cabinet was formed, the king remained pre-occupied and deeply agitated. He read over his coronation oath, and exclaimed: "Where is that power on earth to absolve me from the due observance of every sentence of that oath, particularly the one requiring me to maintain the Protestant reformed religion? Was not my family seated on the throne for that express purpose, and shall I be the first to suffer it to be undermined, perhaps overturned? No! I had rather beg my bread from door to door throughout Europe, than consent to any such measure. If I violate it, I am no longer legal sovereign of this country, but it falls to the House of Savoy." {389} So much emotion and foreboding anxiety, shattered the tottering reason of the monarch; he had lost that faithful support, that sure guide on whom he had relied for more than seventeen years past. The conscience of the king was agitated and troubled. Upon recovering from a swoon, the old king repeated this verse from the Psalms: "Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, it is a people that do err in their hearts, for they have not known my ways." He murmured afterwards, "I am better, I am better now, but I will remain true to the Church." The malady had declared itself, and public prayers were ordered. The Prince of Wales sent for Mr. Pitt--still minister, in fact. "I will not hesitate," said Mr. Pitt, "to give to your Highness the best counsel that I am able; but with all the respect that I owe you, there is one thing that I demand of you permission to establish. It is this condition: that your Highness will interdict yourself from deliberating with those who have agitated so long in direct opposition to the government of his Majesty." The prince consented; not, however, without some show of temper.