Life of Coimt Rumford. 121 



was accepted, as a temporary dalliance of Lord North 

 with his own fate, which was to be a little longer de- 

 ferred. 



The humiliations which successively were visited on 

 the schemes^ and enterprises of the ministry reflected 

 reproaches upon themselves which they sought to shift 

 upon secretaries and subordinates, as having been in- 

 competent blunderers. Cuvier says and Mr. Thomp- 

 son alone could have been a qualified informant that, 

 as Under-Secretary of State for thirteen months, " he 

 had been disgusted by the want of talent displayed by 

 his principal, for which he had himself not unfrequently 

 been made responsible." It was too much to expect 

 that the ministry and their secretaries, who had con- 

 ducted the war, should be the agents for devising and 

 ratifying terms of peace. Interest, therefore, was con- 

 centrated upon the Cabinet, with the knowledge that a 

 rupture there could alone bring the problem to a solu- 

 tion. When the mortifying intelligence of what had 

 occurred at Yorktown and Gloucester reached England, 

 king and ministry still stood by each other, and the 

 majority in Parliament still confirmed their policy, 

 though with a halting decision. But the opposition in 

 Parliament made Lord George the target of their 

 assaults, as it was within his Department that the meas- 

 ures which had proved so impotent in the direction of 

 Colonial affairs had been administered. The Premier, 

 Lord North, abandoned him, and he rebigned, receiv- 

 ing, however, some special marks of the King's favor in 

 pensions and a peerage. Viscount Sackville, as he was 

 now entitled, had, in his turn, in foresight of his resig- 

 nation, an opportunity to reward so faithful a friend 

 as he had found in his Under-Secretary. Accordingly 



