CHAPTER VII.
THE NEW MINISTRY--WARREN HASTINGS--BURKE'S PUBLIC POSITION The six years which followed the destruction of the Coalition were, in some respects, the most mortifying portion of Burke's troubled career.
Pitt was more firmly seated in power than Lord North had ever been, and he used his power to carry out a policy against which it was impossible for the Whigs, on their own principles, to offer an effective resistance.

For this is the peculiarity of the king's first victory over the enemies who had done obstinate battle with him for nearly a quarter of a century.

He had driven them out of the field, but with the aid of an ally who was as strongly hostile to the royal system as they had ever been.

The king had vindicated his right against the Whigs to choose his own ministers; but the new minister was himself a Whig by descent, and a reformer by his education and personal disposition.
Ireland was the subject of the first great battle between the ministry and their opponents.

Here, if anywhere, we might have expected from Burke at least his usual wisdom and patience.