LORD NORTH. from wondering at Grafton's resignation, the difficulty is to discover any motive which could induce him to remain. The The government was now a mere wreck. Duke of Bedford's nominees still adhered to it,Weymouth, Gower, and Rigby. There were also Lord Rochford, and the colonial minister, who had almost lost the Colonies. The only man of mark who remained was Lord North, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. 423 Ch. 10. 1770 constructs a But the King was determined not to yield. He Lord North told General Conway he would rather abdicate, or new cabinet. appeal to the Sword." And, as Lord North was the only one of his adherents who could pretend to reconstruct the government, he laid his commands. upon that nobleman to undertake the task. If it had been the intention of the court to insult and defy public opinion, a more appropriate selection of a minister could not have been made. Lord North had recently, when speaking in his character of leader of the House of Commons, gone out of his way to remind the House that he had opposed every popular measure for the last seven years. He had supported the cider-tax, and afterwards opposed its repeal. He had voted for the American Stamp Act. He had been against the reduction of the land-tax. He moved the first expulsion of Wilkes, and supported every subsequent proceeding against that champion of popular rights. He had even n Lord Albemarle's Memoirs of Rockingham, vol. ii. p. 179. 424 Ch. 10. 1770 Opinions of Lord North. LORD NORTH'S The refused his assent to the recognition by Parliament of the plain law of the land with respect to General Warrants. Nor would he agree to a statute of limitation upon dormant claims of the crown. But the truth is, the appointment of North was a matter of the last necessity. There was no other man capable of conducting the public business through Parliament who would undertake the office. Even Conway, though he no longer belonged to the Rockingham party, refused to remain in the cabinet. There was no doubt about the stability of a court administration; for the court could command a parliamentary majority. difficulty was to find any public man of character who could accept office on the King's terms; the first condition upon which every minister had hitherto insisted being the expulsion of the King's friends. Lord North was probably the only man of parliamentary reputation who would have forborne to press this essential article. But no creeping ambition actuated his conduct. When he enumerated his unpopular votes as a proof that he was not ambitious, I have no doubt that he spoke with perfect sincerity; although it so happened that the very course which seemed to him to lead in an opposite direction, was the one which conducted him to power. He had never been in connection with either of the great Whig parties; he knew, as every man knew, their pride, their jealousy, their selfishness, their want of public spirit. Though him POLITICAL TENDENCIES. 425 Lord North. self of a gentle temper and an easy disposition, Ch. 10. Lord North's political tendencies were all in 1770 favour of power and authority. He supported Loyalty of the King against the aristocracy; the Parliament against the people; and the nation against the Colonies. His loyalty at this critical period postponed for many years the progress of good government, and involved the nation in great calamity. Had Lord North shrunk from the post of danger, it is not likely that any other man could have been found to occupy it. The King must have given way. Chatham and his friends, Temple and the Grenvilles, Rockingham and his followers, much grown in public importance since their short tenure of office, would have come into power, if not with acclamation, at least with more general assent and confidence than had attended the advent to office of any previous administration. The same causes which had so long prevented the union of these parties might, indeed, have soon again dissolved this auspicious coalition. But, in all probability, great results would have been first obtained. The dissolution of Parliament, followed, perhaps, by the amendment of its constitution, and the settlement of the American question, might have resulted from the new administration. And, if nothing else had been accomplished, the monarchy might, by these means, have escaped an agitation which, twenty years afterwards, imperilled its existence; the country would have been spared the 426 1770 EFFECTS OF THE DISPUTES WITH AMERICA. Ch. 10. ignominious loss of thirteen colonies; the burden of an enormous debt, and those unfriendly feelings on the part of our emancipated dependencies, the most dire effects of the quarrel, which it may take more than a century to allay. ADDENDA TO CHAP. X. warrant. (A. p. 413.) Upon the maturest consideration, I am bold Illegality of to say, this warrant is illegal. . . . . If a superior jurisdiction should declare my opinion erroneous, I submit, as will become me, and kiss the rod; but I must say, I shall always consider it as a rod of iron for the chastisement of the people of Great Britain.'-Charge to the Jury by PRATT, C. J., Money v. Leach. ham's views. (B. p. 418.) Lord Chatham also viewed the matter in Lord Chatthe same light. Mr. Yorke's refusal is of moment; and I can readily believe it, from my opinion of his prudence and discernment. No man with a grain of either would embark in a rotten vessel, in the middle of a tempest, to go he knows not whither.'-Correspondence, vol. iii. P. 398. cellor Yorke. (C. p. 419.) A touching anecdote is related of his last Decease of moments. When he was asked whether the Great Seal Lord Chanshould be put to the patent for his barony of Morden,—' I had hoped,' he said, 'it was no longer in my possession.'— LORD HARDWICKE'S Narrative. Grafton. (D. p. 422.) Lord Camden had expressed the strongest dis- Camden and approbation of the course which the cabinet resolved to pursue with regard to the Middlesex election and the American colonies. He had even addressed a formal letter of remonstrance to Grafton on both those questions. Finding his opinion overruled, he had ceased, for more than a year, to attend the cabinet councils, with the exception of that one memorable meeting at which the Duke proposed the repeal of Townshend's Act. The King had urged Grafton to dismiss the Chancellor before the meeting of Parliament in |