Those opinions were, that it was almost
certain that the disease would not be permanent, though no one could
undertake to fix its duration with the least appearance of probability.
And, as the royal authority could not be left in abeyance, as it were,
for an uncertain period, it was indispensable to appoint a Regent to
conduct the affairs of the kingdom till the King should, happily, be
once more in a condition to resume his functions.
In considering the line of conduct adopted in this emergency by Pitt and
his great rival Fox, Pitt has one manifest advantage on his side, that
it is impossible to attribute the course which he took to any personal
motive, or any desire for the retention of official power; while it is
equally impossible to doubt that Fox was in no slight degree,[116] and
that Lord Loughborough, the prince's chief adviser on points of law, was
wholly influenced by the hope of supplanting the ministry. Pitt had
never the least doubt that on the establishment of the Regency he should
be dismissed, and was prepared to return to the Bar. But his knowledge
of the preference which the Prince entertained for his rival did not
lead him to hesitate for a single moment as to the propriety of placing
him in a situation to exercise that preference. On the reassembling of
Parliament, he at once took what he conceived to be the proper
parliamentary course of proceeding; at his suggestion committees in both
Houses were appointed to take a formal examination of the royal
physicians; and, when those committees had reported that the King was
for the present incapable of discharging his royal functions, though
likely at some future period to be able to resume them, he moved the
House of Commons to appoint another committee, to search for "precedents
of such proceedings as might have been taken in the case of the personal
exercise of the royal authority being prevented or interrupted by
infancy, sickness, or infirmity, with a view to provide for the same.
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