What that advice had been he would not then say; it was lodged in the breast of his Majesty, nor would he declare the purport of it without the royal consent, or till he saw a proper occasion.

But, though he would not declare affirmatively what his advice to his sovereign was, he would tell their lordships negatively what it was not.

It was not friendly to the principle and objects of the bill."[87] The debate lasted till near midnight.

Of the speakers, a great majority declared against the bill; and, on the division, it was rejected by a majority of nineteen.[88] This took place on the 15th of December.

On the 18th, as the ministers had not resigned--not regarding a single defeat in the Upper House as a necessary cause for such a step--the King sent messengers to them to demand their resignation, and the next day it was publicly announced in the House of Commons that Pitt had accepted the office of Prime-minister.
But Fox, who had anticipated the dismissal of himself and his colleagues, was by no means inclined to acquiesce in it, or to yield without a struggle; and on the 17th one of his partisans in the House of Commons, Mr.Baker, one of the members for Hertfordshire, brought forward some resolutions on the subject of the late division in the House of Lords.