Five days later, George, who was afterwards Marquis, Townshend, brought forward a Militia Bill. Pitt took this occasion of responding to Fox's challenge by unfolding a plan of his own. No scheme, he said, could be carried out without the co-operation of the Government, the Army, the Law, and the country gentry. But he unfortunately came under none of these descriptions. He knew no secrets of Government; he had too early been driven from the profession of arms; he had never studied the law; he was no country gentleman. His plan was made the groundwork of a Bill, which occupied much time in the Commons, but was lost in the Lords. It provided for an infantry militia of fifty or sixty thousand men, to be summoned compulsorily by the civil power: to be exercised twice a week, one of these days to be Sunday, if the clergy did not raise too much objection. It was to have the same pay as the infantry, but plain clothing, 'not pretending to all the lustre of the army.' The non-commissioned officers were to be private soldiers, not fewer than four to every eighty men. What millions, he said, would have been saved by such a force during the last thirty years! And what an inglorious picture for this country, to figure gentlemen driven by an invasion like a flock of sheep, and forced to send money abroad to buy courage and defence! If this scheme should prove oppressive, provincially or parochially, he was willing to give it up. But surely it was preferable to waiting to see if the wind would blow you subsidiary troops. These, always an eyesore, you would never want again if this Bill were passed. This speech marked another step forward in Pitt's career; for he opened his plan with a plain precision, a mastery of detail, and a business-like clearness the House had not expected from him. 'He had never shone in this light before.'[314] [Sidenote: Dec. 10, 1755.] Two days later, again the treaties were discussed in both Houses. The debate in the Lords does not concern us. It was spirited and bitter. Temple raised the storm, while the future George III. sate and took notes. In the Commons there was a new feature. Newcastle, doubtful of the zeal of Fox and Murray on his behalf, had retained for his defence Hume Campbell, the brother of Marchmont; with the Paymastership as a retaining fee, had not Fox, who always had his eye on this lucrative place, vetoed the appointment.[315] Walpole describes the new gladiator as eloquent, acute, abusive, corrupt, insatiable. To this accumulation of epithets we need and can add nothing. He had been in opposition with Pitt, and had had a brush with him already, but had almost given up attendance in Parliament.