636 



BRITAIN. 





Britain. 



Change of 

 ministry. 



Tumults 

 in America 

 1766. 



Jan. It, 



Stamp act 

 repealed. 



pic, by the party of Leicester house. These were 

 discovered by Mr Grenville, who no longer thought 

 of keeping measures with the Leicester house cabi- 

 net ; but urged an immediate dismission of Stuart 

 M'Kenzie, the brother of Lord Bute, and of the 

 Duke of Northumberland and Lord Holland, his 

 known supporters. 



Mr Pitt and Lord Temple answered the applica- 

 tion of the court, by insisting on a total change of 

 men and measures. Finding them immoveable, the 

 court applied to the Duke of Newcastle, and that 

 body of the Whigs afterwards known by the name of 

 the Rockingham party. Had these men joined in a 

 manly adherence to Mr Pitt's terms, it is probable 

 that secret influence would have received an irrecover- 

 able blow ; but unhappily the Newcastle party pro- 

 ved flexible, and the Duke of Cumberland, the ne- 

 gociator, had the happiness to see, before his death, 

 the new administration settled in office. 



The privy seal, with the patronage of the church, 

 was given to the Duke of Newcastle. The Marquis 

 of Rockingham became first Lord of the treasury ; 

 Mr Dowdeswell, chancellor of the exchequer ; the 

 Duke of Grafton and General Conway, secretaries 

 of state. The admiralty was assigaed to Earl Eg- 

 mont ; and the great seal to Lord Northington. 

 Lord Temple, with great bitterness, but Mr Pitt, with 

 a proper decorum, condemned an acceptance of place 

 at a time when the court might so easily have been 

 brought to terms. The new ministers, on the other 

 hand, charged the friends of Mr Pitt with undue in- 

 flexibility, and with preferring to put all to hazard, 

 when some great points might, with certainty, be se- 

 cured. 



The oppressive and vexatious regulations of the 

 stamp act excited, as had been predicted, an immedi- 

 ate and general discontent throughout America ; a 

 npirit which broke out into open tumult in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Boston. Intelligence of this alarming 

 spirit had reached ministers before the meeting of 

 parliament, which was opened by a speech truly 

 marked with the liberal principles of the new mini- 

 sters ; and recommending conciliation to America. 



On this occasion, Mr Pitt, with great manliness, 

 stated his approbation of many of the new ministers, 

 and declared, that he was disposed to hope well from 

 their measures. " But confidence," he added, " is a 

 plant of slow growth in an aged bosom." George 

 Grenville having inveighed against the Americans, 

 the spirit of the patriot took fire, and burst forth in- 

 to one of the most eloquent replies that ever echoed 

 within the walls of any assembly. It concluded with 

 emphatically urging the immediate, absolute, and un- 

 conditional repeal of the tamp act. 



A bill was accordingly almost immediately intro- 

 duced for its abolition ; and, notwithstanding a vio- 

 lent opposition, it passed both houses by a great ma- 

 jority. It was accompanied with a declaratory act, 

 asserting the power and right of Great Britain to 

 bind the colonies in all cases whatever. 



This last act, when it reached America, was uni- 

 versally regarded as a mere salvo for the honour of the 

 mother country ; and, on that account, scarcely di- 

 minished the joy which was expressed at the repeal 

 f the stamp act ; nor, according .to all human pro- 



bability, would it have been ever enumerated by the Brita 

 Americans among their grievances, if the British go- ' v 

 vernment had not returned to the practical plan of GE 

 taxation for a revenue. The Rockingham adminis- 

 tration had the merit of reconciling America ; and 

 of other measures which, although of less import- 

 ance, were also patriotic and popular. Several ob- 

 noxious taxes were repealed, and general warrants 



were declared illegal. Unhappily for the good of 

 i i. , i i 



their country, their duration was short ; and, it is 



still more- to be regretted, that they fell by the in- 

 fluence of that man who, on other great occasions, had 

 never swerved from the interests of the state. Lord 

 Chatham, probably prompted by resentment at the 

 late dereliction of the Rockingham Whigs, accepted 

 a carte blanche from the court to come into power. 

 He could not be ignorant, that the great cause of 

 that offence, which the court secretly cherished a- 

 gainst the Rockingham Whigs, was owing to their 

 lenity towards America ; yet he alienated himself 

 from that moderate and respectable party, and vain- 

 ly trusted to carry his own plans respecting Ameri- 

 ca into effect in a ministry composed of Whigs and 

 Tories, a discordant junction, which Mr Burke so 

 aptly compared to a tesselated pavement. In the Chang 

 new ministry, the Duke of Gratton was appointed mln ' 3t 

 first lord of the treasury ; Mr Pitt, now created Earl 

 of Chatham, accepted the office of lord privy seal. 

 Their associates in office were the Earl of Shelburne, 

 Lord Camden, and Mr Charles Townsend. The 

 last, who was by no means attached to the Whigs, 

 was made chancellor of the exchequer. Scarcely had iji 4X t 

 the ministry commenced their career, when the impoli- tea ; n 

 tic system of taxing the colonies was renewed. He in- cd ini 

 troduced a bill for imposing a tax on tea, glass, colours, An J" 

 imported into America; glossing over the measure as 

 coming within the acknowledged principles of com- 

 mercial regulation ; whilst the payment of these du- 

 ties into the British exchequer virtually amounted 

 to direct taxation. This passed with little or no op- 

 position at home. In this and other financial acts. 

 Lord Chatham bore no part ; being confined by ex- 

 treme illness from executing any of the duties of his 

 office. When, on the death of Mr Charles Towns- 

 end, Lord North succeeded to his place, Chatham 

 was convinced, that his influence on public trans- 

 actions was at an end, and he resigned ; but he had 

 not resigned before intelligence had arrived of the 

 effects ot Mr Townsend's new stamp act. America rj; 5co 

 presented a scene of discontent bordering on rebellion ; tenis 

 and though tranquillity was apparently restored at Amei 

 Boston, by an armed force, it was not of long du- 

 ration. In the mean time, a war had broken out in War 

 the East Indies between the British and Hyder Ally, H y 

 which was carried on with various success. The 

 Irish obtained an act, by which the parliament of 

 that country, determinable formerly at the king's de- 

 cease, was appointed to be chosen every eight years. 

 Other events of lesser moment occurred in this year; 

 but the public attention was chiefly engrossed by the 

 reappearance of Mr Wilkes. 



This gentleman, who had incurred a sentence of 

 outlawry, returned to England just before the gene- 

 ral election ; and, with his usual boldness, offered 

 himself to represent the city of London. The livery, 



