Fox replied with urbanity and compliment, for there was at this time a marked courtesy in the language of the two protagonists, as of men who did not know how soon they might be allies. Pitt denounced Newcastle, and Fox did not defend him. This, too, must be noticed. Why, Fox now asked, had Pitt not made this noble speech sooner, when we were indeed asleep, before the French had wakened us. 'If he had made it,' said Fox, 'I am sure I should have remembered it: I am not apt to forget his speeches.' Let Pitt himself take in hand a Militia Bill. It was evidently Fox whom Pitt had described as treating the thirteen regiments with contempt, at least Fox now fitted the cap on himself. He said that he thought obloquy too harsh a term to apply to his language on that occasion; nevertheless, he should not disown anything he had said. But he must make a clear distinction between these noble persons. He thanked God there was one noble duke, able and willing to save his country, who went to the King, and offered to go and try if, with his lowlanders, he was not a match for any highlanders. This was an elaborate compliment to Bedford, whose political lowlanders were now at the service of the Government, though not the Chief himself. Fox at the same time made an invidious comparison to the detriment of the Duke of Montagu, and was on the point of saying that he must discriminate between dukes, for though some deserved everything from their country for the part they took, yet he should not be for trusting others to raise a regiment who could not raise half a crown. There was evidently money to be made out of these patriotic impulses.[312] Pitt excused himself for not having sooner raised the cry of danger on the ground that he had been lulled into composure by the previous Speech from the Throne. When he became alarmed he made representations in private, so long as he was allowed to do so. But now the alarm must be sounded in Parliament itself, for we have invited into our bowels a war that was the child of ignorance and connivance. If there be justice in Heaven, Ministers must some day answer for this. Nugent, an Irish adventurer of the type known to comedy, paid his court to Newcastle by a burlesque attack on Pitt. And even Robinson appeared once more on the scene with a panegyric on himself, which, though ridiculous to his audience, was by no means superfluous. The other notable speeches, delivered by Charles Townshend, Sackville, and Beckford, do not affect our subject.[313] [Sidenote: Dec. 8, 1755.]