adviser and author of his fall.* The Duke of Bedford was apparently of the same opinion. To Grenville, for instance, his Grace writes on the 8th of July "I can hardly bring myself to believe that any people will be hardy enough to undertake an Administration, which is constructed on no better foundation than the support of Lord Bute's favouritism." His creature Rigby echoes the words of his patron. "The Duke of Cumberland's political system," he writes, “grafted upon the Earl of Bute's stock, seems of all others the least capable of succeeding." On the other hand, more than one discomfited member of the late Government ascribed the downfall of their party mainly to the enmity which existed between the Princess Dowager and the Duchess of Bedford. These gentlemen, wittily observed George Selwyn, put him in mind of thieves, who, "when on their way to execution, always assign their ruin to bad women." S

* Grenville Papers, vol. iii. p. 215. The King assured Grenville at their farewell interview that Lord Bute had "had no hand in advising the present change."—Ibid. + Grenville Papers, vol. iii. p. 70.

Walpole's Corresp., vol. v. p. 43, note.

§ Walpole's Reign of George 3, vol. ii. p. 208.

CHAPTER XVI.

Marquis of Rockingham, Premier-Death of the Duke of Cumberland-Unhappy married life of the Duchess of Brunswick (Princess Augusta) -Ministerial jealousy of the influence of Lord Bute-Arrival of alarming intelligence from North America - First symptoms of Revolutionary feeling-Diminution of Colonial Trade-Debates in Parliament-The "Declaratory Act "-Repeal of the Stamp Act.

THE members of the new Government kissed hands on the 10th of July, the same day on which Grenville delivered up the Seals to the King. The Rockingham Administration, even at its outset, presented but an indifferent prospect of stability. It was composed, for the most part; of an undisciplined force, deficient alike in Parliamentary influence, in oratorical skill, in official experience, and administrative abilities. In addition to these difficulties, there lay before them the disheartening prospect of having to contend against the powerful Bedford and Grenville parties; against the underground intrigues and dangerous popularity of Temple, and, not impossibly, the open hostility, and the crushing eloquence of Pitt. Scarcely, indeed, could the undertaking appear more hopeless to others, than to the new Ministers and to their friends. Lord Rockingham, conscious of his own shortcomings, freely admitted the weakness of his position. Conway spoke of the attempt as a "perilous one.' ." Walpole thought it a "wild proposal;" Lord Mansfield denounced it as madness and desperation.*

• Walpole's George 3, vol. ii. p. 190. Grenville Papers, vol. iii. p. 208.

"It was a mere lute-string administration," said Charles Townshend" pretty summer wear, but it would never stand the winter." Lord Chesterfield also writes to his son-"It is an heterogeneous jumble of youth and caducity, which cannot be efficient." * If the new Ministers, however, were deficient in experience and in abilities of a high order, they possessed, on the other hand, the advantages of birth, fortune, and clear judgment. They were united, moreover, by the bonds of mutual esteem. They were agreed on the capital political questions of the day. Their intentions were pure, and their reputations stainless.

The chief of this respectable phalanx, Charles Marquis of Rockingham, had, previously to his having been called upon to fill the high office of First Minister of the Crown, held no more responsible a post than that of a Lord of the Bedchamber. He was the son of a country gentleman of the name of Watson, who, on the demise of a kinsman, had succeeded to the Barony of Rockingham. On the female side, however, he was descended from the celebrated Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, whose noble estates had passed into his possession, and whose more aristocratic and euphonious name he had adopted. The father of the Marquis had allied himself to the fortunes of Sir Robert Walpole, by whom he had been repaid, for his political partisanship and personal attachment, with no niggard liberality. During the twenty years that Walpole was at the head of the Treasury, honours were showered on him with almost unexampled rapidity. He became a Knight of the Bath, Lord-Lieutenant of the county of York, Baron of Waith, Viscount Higham, Earl of Malton, and, lastly, Marquis of Rockingham. "I suppose, "I suppose," was the good-natured remark of Sir Robert Walpole, "that we shall soon see our

* Lord Chesterfield's Letters, vol. iv. p. 403. Edited by Earl Stanhope.

friend Malton in opposition, for he has had no promotion in for the last fortnight."

the peerage

With the titles and splendid domain of his father, Lord Rockingham inherited also the Whig principles of his family, evidence of which he afforded, in a somewhat romantic manner, when only in his sixteenth year. He was an Eton boy, at home for the Christmas holydays, when the news reached Wentworth House that the Duke of Cumberland was in full march to give battle to Charles Edward and the Highland Clans. The young Lord was seized with so irresistible a desire to display his loyalty and valour, that, having enlisted a faithful groom into his service, he quitted Wentworth early one morning on pretence of hunting, and at the first favourable opportunity directed his horse's head towards the North. The earliest tidings of the missing heir, which were received by his relatives, were contained in a letter from himself dated from the Camp at Carlisle.*

Lord Rockingham, at the period when he was appointed First Lord of the Treasury, was in his thirty-sixth year. Attached to the pursuits and amusements of private life, it was with no feigned reluctance that he was induced to accept that high and responsible post. Hitherto he had been chiefly known to his fellow-countrymen on account of the large sums of money which he was in the habit of betting on horse-races, and as a munificent patron of the Turf. The Duke of Cumberland, however, had discovered in him higher qualities than the world had yet given him credit for, whence his Royal Highness had not only prevailed upon the King to offer him the Premiership, but, by his arguments and entreaties, induced the Marquis to surmount his aversion for office. In his own opinion, Lord Rockingham told the Duke, he should be much better able to serve his Sovereign, if allowed to remain in a private and independent

Rockingham Papers, vol. i, p, 138.

position; but, he added, that if his friends thought otherwise, he was willing to sacrifice his inclinations to his duty, and to serve in any capacity which might be most for the advantage of the State.*

The King, like the rest of the world, appears to have entertained but a mean opinion of Lord Rockingham's qualifications for filling high office. "I thought," he said on one occasion," that I had not two men in my Bedchamber of less parts than Lord Rockingham."+ Much of this want of appreciation of his abilities was doubtless attributable to his timid and embarrassed manner of speaking in Parliament. To the close of his life he never rose to address the House of Lords without a nervous feeling of distress. Once, while he was wincing under the merciless raillery of Lord Sandwich, Lord Gower is said to have slily whispered to the latter-" Sandwich, how could you worry the poor dumb thing so!" Again, on another occasion, we find the King writing to his First Minister-"I am much pleased that Opposition has forced you to hear your own voice, which I hope will encourage you to stand forth in other debates."§

But if Lord Rockingham, as a Minister, laboured under many difficulties, he enjoyed, on the other hand, numerous advantages, derivable from high birth, from the possession of a princely fortune, from sound sense, from a vigorous understanding, and a high reputation for private virtue. He was superior to all duplicity; his political integrity was beyond all suspicion; even his enemies admitted that he held the interests of his country deeply at heart; and, lastly, he was gifted with a power of ac

* Rockingham Papers, vol. i. pp. 192, 197. “Like Godolphin, he loved gaming; and his singular wager with Lord Orford on a race between two geese at Newmarket has been recorded by Horace Walpole; but he overcame this propensity on entering public life." Bedford Corresp., vol. iii. p. 307, note by Earl Russell.

+ Walpole's Reign of George 3, vol. i. p. 291.

Earl Stanhope's Hist. of England, vol. v. p. 167.

§ Rockingham Papers, vol. i. p. 271.