the king, was under the consideration of Parliament, and must abide its decision. With regard to admitting the Duke of Bedford to a private audience, it had ever been a rule with him, added the king, to grant an interview to any nobleman who made the request to him. At the present moment, however, as he told the Duke of York, were he to admit the Duke of Bedford into his closet, it would, in all probability, be construed into treating with his Grace. The Duke of York again discussed the subject with his brother on the following morning, but to no better purpose; and thus fell to the ground, the united efforts of the Grenville and Bedford sections of the Whig party to expel the Rockingham administration from power.

The bill for the repeal of the Stamp Act was triumphantly carried in the House of Commons by a large majority. "It was clear," said Grenville, "that both England and America were now governed by the mob." The bill, though it met with a violent opposition from the Lords, was finally carried in that House by a majority of thirty-four, and on the 18th of March received the royal assent; an event which, in the words of Burke, caused more universal joy throughout the British dominions, than perhaps any other that could be remembered.

CHAPTER II.

The King's Health Suffers from Mental Excitement - Popularity Hunting of the Rockingham Administration — Ministers Disinterested in Their Conduct of Public Affairs - Further Unsuccessful Attempts to Induce Pitt to Enter the Cabinet -The King, by the Advice of Lord Chancellor Northington, Reopens Negotiations with Pitt - Idle Attempt of Princess Amelia to Bring the King and Lord Bute Together - Consequences of the Popular Opinion That Lord Bute Continued to Influence the King's Mind.

In the meantime, the king's health had again given way under the mental excitement occasioned by the continued embarrassment of his affairs. On the morning of the 1st of February he was observed to be flushed and heated. In the course of the day it was thought necessary to bleed him. His agitation on the following morning was excessive; it was evident to all who approached him that his mind was very ill at ease; in the afternoon it was announced that he was too unwell to be present at the drawing room. "I am willing," he said to his physicians, "to do anything for my people, if they would but agree among themselves." Happily on the 4th he was considerably better.

The frequent charge which has been brought against the members of the Rockingham adminis

tration of having paid an undue deference to public opinion was assuredly not undeserved. In fact, the king on one occasion very plainly told them that he feared their yearning after popularity would be the ruin of themselves, if not of their country. It was the error of young and inexperienced men; the almost natural consequence of a feeble administration; yet though we may admit the justice of the charge, we are not necessarily to infer that every popular measure which they introduced into Parliament was fraught with danger to the commonwealth. It may possibly be true, as has been asserted, that the negotiations which they entered into with the popular idol, Wilkes, were the effect of pusillanimity, and also that the restoration of Lord George Sackville to the Privy Council was a somewhat unworthy concession to powerful family influence. It may also be true that certain measures which they carried through Parliament owed their existence quite as much to a yearning for popular favour, as to any intrinsic advantages comprehended in the measures themselves. But, on the other hand, to use the words of Burke, they at least "treated their sovereign with decency; they discountenanced the dangerous and unconstitutional practice of removing military officers for their votes in Parliament;" and lastly, the notable facts that they prevailed upon the House of Commons to condemn the use of general warrants and the seizure of papers in cases

of libel, are sufficient to endear the Rockingham ministry to every Englishman who has the love of liberty or of his country at heart. But still higher praise remains to be awarded them. In an age of great political profligacy, they were the first to set the example of that purity and disinterestedness which have since become the distinguishing characteristics of British statesmen. No act of corruption ever tainted their administration. They were the first to discountenance the disgraceful practice of purchasing the votes of members of Parliament; and, moreover, be it ever remembered to their credit that, when they quitted office, not one of them had enriched himself by a pension or a sinecure. Even the hardened old placeman, Newcastle, refused for the second time a pension at the hands of his sovereign.

The Rockingham ministry had scarcely been seven months in power, before unmistakable symptoms of its approaching dissolution had begun to manifest themselves. Ministers, indeed, had never ceased to entertain a hope that, sooner or later, Pitt would be induced to coalesce with them, either as a colleague or as their leader, and consequently they had shown him a consideration which, taking into account the contempt with which he had treated them, amounted, according to their enemies, almost to subserviency. They had raised his friend, Lord Chief Justice Pratt, to the peerage, by the title of Baron Camden;

one of the treasurerships of Ireland had been offered to his brother-in-law, James Grenville; his friend, Lord Lyttelton, had had the refusal of the appointment of cofferer of the household; and lastly, his confidential legal adviser, Mr. Nuthall, had been appointed one of the secretaries of the treasury. Moreover, ministers, during the period that the Repeal Bill had been passing through Parliament, had suggested to the king the propriety of making direct overtures to Pitt himself, but great as was his Majesty's anxiety to establish a vigorous administration, he very naturally objected to the fruitless and humiliating overtures which he was repeatedly called upon to make to the popular idol. To Lord Rockingham he writes on the 9th of January, 1766: "I have revolved, most coolly and attentively, the business now before me, and am of opinion, that so loose a conversation as that of Mr. Pitt and Mr. Townshend is not sufficient to risk either my dignity or the continuance of my administration, by a fresh treaty with that gentleman, for if it should miscarry, all public

'Nuthall was famous in his day for his encounters with highwaymen, one of whom died of the wounds which he received at his hands. He himself was destined to perish by the hands of another of the fraternity. In March, 1775, while crossing Hounslow Heath on his return from Bath, his carriage was stopped by a highwayman, who demanded his purse, and, on its being refused, fired at and wounded him mortally. On reaching the inn at Hounslow, he sat down to write a description of the fellow to the chief magistrate for Westminster, Sir John Fielding, but had scarcely finished his letter when he expired.