ready to give. "It was your communication," said Rigby to Adam, "that put an end to everything."[1]
An interview had meanwhile taken place between Fox and North, at which it was formally agreed that they should forget their former differences, and coalesce in order to overthrow the Government. They agreed to make the reform of Parliament an open question, and to join in opposing the Address on the Peace which was about to be moved. With the latter object North drew up an amendment to be moved by Lord John Cavendish. To some further overtures for support made by Rigby to North on behalf of Shelburne, North replied, "It is too late."[2]
The Address upon the Peace was studiously moderate in tone. "We agreed," says the Duke of Grafton, "that no triumphant words could be carried, or ought to be proposed." The debate upon the Address took place in both Houses on the 17th of February, when it at once appeared that the coalition was an established fact. Lord Pembroke and Lord Carmarthen were the mover and seconder in the House of Lords; Mr. Thomas Pitt and Mr. Wilberforce in the House of Commons. The amendments, moved respectively by Lord Carlisle and Lord John Cavendish, were cleverly drawn so as to engage Parliament to confirm the peace, but asking time to consider; in other words refusing to approve them.[3]
The chief supporters of the amendment in the House of Lords were Lord Townshend, Lord Stormont, Lord Sackville, Lord Walsingham, Lord Loughborough, and Lord Keppel who had just resigned. Against them were ranged the Duke of Grafton, Lord Grantham, Lord Howe, the successor of Lord Keppel at the Admiralty, Lord Hawke, Lord Shelburne, and the Chancellor. The Duke of Richmond, who had also resigned, expressed himself dissatisfied with the Preliminaries, but refused to vote against them; Lord Gower adopted a similar course.
The principal points selected for attack in the
