202 CHARACTERISTICALSKETCHES— LORD NORTH. June 2 5» 



his adminiftration was marked with errors of the moft 

 confpicuous fort. 



To carry on the operations of war with propriety* 

 depends perhaps as much upon the particular temper of 

 the rainiller, and the mode in which the energies of 

 his mind operate, as on the reafoning faculties he pof- 

 fefl'es, and the power of judging as to what ought to be 



done, The talents of Lord North, in as far as refpefts 



the reafoning faculty, will perhaps admit of a fair com- 

 parifon with thofe of any other minifter in Britain, 

 without fufFering by the parallel. — But, as a w;.r mi- 

 nifter, the timidity of temper proceeding from his a- 

 verlion to buille and conteft, threw him into embarraff- 

 ments, that perhaps the meaneft of his opponents never 

 could have experienced. Feeling then, as he muft 

 Ihave done, this natural defeft, nothing could have been 

 more injudicious in him than his agreeing to continue 

 in office, when he found he muft be placed in a ficua- 

 tion fo little congenial to his own natural prbpenfities 

 of temper and difpofuion : Nor can any other apology 

 be offered for him, but that native love of fway, which 

 the human heart can never refolve to aliandon but 

 with reluctance. And where, it may be a'ked, is the 

 man, who, polTeffed of the cordial good-will of his fo- 

 vereign, and the general favour of a great and tree peo- 

 ple, would deliberately refolve to refign the power and 

 emoluments of office, merely becaufe he might conjec- 

 ture that his own diCpofitions were not fuited to the na- 

 ture of the bufinefs in which he is about to engage, 

 efpecially when he is fenfible too of no deficiency, in 

 regard to the faculty of judging with propriety ? — Where 

 is the man who can form, without trial, a juft eftimate 

 of his own powers ? and where is the man who can re- 

 fift the flaflering invitations of a great prince, lupport- 

 td by the applaufe of a mighty people ? This exertion 

 prefuppofes a daring inflexibility of temper, very diifer- 

 ent from that which nature bellowed upon Lord North. 



