There was no one who knew his character better than the princess dowager, yet she not only shrank from speaking to him herself, but when it was proposed that the Duke of York should be the go-between on the occasion, we find her in a state of alarm lest her favourite son, by taking such a step, should incur his brother's serious displeasure. In so dangerous a crisis, Lord Temple said it was his duty to hasten to the rescue of his royal master. If his Majesty should send for him he would obey the summons; or if the king felt any delicacy in taking that step, he would "save him the blush" by demanding an audience. The queen was requested to communicate Lord Temple's proposition to the king, but very properly, and very decidedly, declined the mission. Lord Denbigh, a lord of the bedchamber, at last volunteered his services, but had scarcely given his consent before his heart failed him. The king, he told Lord Temple, disliked to be talked to upon such subjects, and as he was the person who would certainly be made the victim, he ear nestly requested that the only letter which he had written on the subject might be destroyed.

At length, at the request of the Duke of Bedford, the Duke of York undertook to lay the views of the Grenville party before his royal brother, and at the same time to demand an audience for the duke. But the season for such a negotiation had gone by. The measure, said

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;