Now unable to bear the tax; others tell me you are able. take the business into your own hands; you will see how and where it pinches, and will certainly let us know it, in which case it shall be eased." Not one of the American agents in England "imagined the colonies would think of disputing the stamp-tax with parliament at the point of the sword." "It is our duty to submit," had been the words of Otis. "We yield obedience to the act granting duties," had been uttered by the legislature of Massachusetts. "If parliament, in their superior wisdom, shall pass the act, we must submit," wrote Fitch, the governor of Connecticut, elected by the people, to Jackson. "It can be of no purpose to claim a right of exemption," thought Hutchinson. "It will fall particularly hard on us lawyers and printers," wrote Franklin to a friend in Philadelphia, never doubting it would go into effect, and looking for relief to the rapid increase of the people of America. The agent for Massachusetts had recommended it. Knox, the agent for Georgia, wrote publicly in its favor. 1765. April. Still less did the statesmen of England doubt the result. Thomas Pownall, who had been so much in the colonies, and really had an affection for them, congratulated Grenville in advance "on the good effects he would see derived to Great Britain and to the colonies from his firmness and candor in conducting the American business." No tax was ever laid with more general approbation. The act seemed sure to enforce itself. Unless stamps were used, marriages would be null, notes of hand valueless, ships at sea prizes to the first captors, suits at law impossible, transfers of real estate invalid, inheritances irreclaimable. Of all who acted with Grenville in the government, he never heard one prophesy that the measure would be resisted. "He did not foresee the opposition to it, and would have staked his life for obedience." CHAPTER XII. THE MINISTRY OFFEND THE KING AS WELL AS THE COLONIES. ADMINISTRATION OF GRENVILLE CONTINUED. 1765. April. APRIL-MAY, 1765. EVENTS within the palace delayed the conflict with America. The king, in his zeal to give the law to his ministers and to govern as well as reign, lost his opportunity of enforcing the stamp act. No sooner had he recovered from the illness, of which the true nature was kept secret even from the members of his cabinet, than, bearing in mind that the heir to the throne was an infant of but two years old, he fearlessly contemplated the contingency of his own incapacity or death; and, though his nerves were still tremulous from mental disease, he, with the aid of Lord Holland, framed a plan for a regency. The manifest want of confidence in his ministers roused their jealousy; and, when they received his orders to prepare a bill for carrying his design into effect, they thought to fix in the public mind their hostility to Bute and win popularity by disqualifying the princess dowager. To this end, in the choice of the regent, the king was to be “restrained to the queen or any other person of the royal family." He approved the minute entirely, not knowing that, in the opinion of Bedford, Grenville, Halifax, and Sandwich, his own family did not include his mother. At the request of the Duke of Cumberland, the king, again without consulting his four ministers, gave directions that his uncle and his brothers, five in all, should be specially designated as fixed members of the council. This they at first declined to approve, and yielded only on condition that he should renounce the privilege which he had reserved of appointing four others. To Grenville he refused this concession, and accepted it only after concert with Northington, the chancellor. Grenville had certainly just cause of complaint; and on Sunday, the twenty-eighth of April," with a firm and steady countenance," and at very great length, he expostulated with the king on his withholding confidence from his ministers. The king at first started and professed surprise; and, as the conversation proceeded, grew "exceedingly agitated and disturbed, changed countenance, and flushed so much that the water stood in his eyes from the excessive heat of his face : but he neither denied nor admitted the charge; used no words of anger, of excuse, or of softening; and only put on a smile, when, at a "late hour," the tedious minister "made his bow." وو 1765. May. The bill for the regency was committed to Halifax, to be presented to the house of lords. On the second reading, they consented, by a large majority, to leave to the king the naming of the regent. "But who are the royal family to whom the selection is restrained?" asked the Duke of Richmond, in the debate of the first of May. "Does it include the Princess Amelia and the May 1. princess dowager?" Talbot, one of the king's friends, answered that it included both; and such was the opinion of the chancellor. "The royal family are those who are in the order of succession, one after another," answered May 2. Bedford, unmasking the malice in which the bill had been conceived. Richmond wished that, in the doubt, the judges should be consulted. On this, Sandwich moved an adjournment. The king, who had never intended to appoint his mother, was anxious to save her name from disagreeable discussion in parliament. When, therefore, he received the report of the occurrence, Halifax was authorized to use words whose meaning would admit of no dispute. But, before he could deliver his message, Richmond proposed to include among those eligible to the regency "the princess dowager, and others descended from the late king." The motion was rejected by the ministers; after which, Halifax, using the king's authority, renewed the same motion, except that he May 5. omitted the princess dowager. In this way the bill passed the house of lords. The ministry had not intended so much; they had circumvented the king, and used his name to put a brand upon his mother. Bute's friends were thunderstruck, while the Duke of Bedford almost danced for joy. The king's natural affection was very strong; he suffered the utmost agitation, even to tears; and declared that Halifax “had surprised him into the message." When, 1765. on the fifth, he admitted Grenville, he colored with emotion, complained of the disregard to his mother as an offence to her which he could not bear; and, with the embarrassment of a man who begs a favor which he fears may be denied, entreated its removal. Grenville obstinately refused himself to make the necessary motion; but, true to his character as the man of compromises, he consented with no good grace that the name of the princess dowager should be inserted in the house of commons by one of her own servants. This was done, and he advocated the alteration in a speech, chiefly designed to shield the ministry from the charge of inconsistency. "If Lord Halifax is even reprieved," it was said, "the king is more enslaved to a cabal than ever his grandfather was." The ministers believed themselves strong enough to compel their sovereign to conform in all things to their advice. Bedford, therefore, in defiance, tried the experiment of mentioning to him his suspicions that Bute had been "operating mischief to overthrow the government." Grenville also was earnest that the king's ministers should be suffered to retire, or be seen manifestly to possess his favor. But they drew out no satisfactory answer; though Grenville was led to believe his own services indispensable, and admitted into his mind the pleasing delusion that they would be required, even should his old enemy, the Duke of BedMay 13. ford, be dismissed. On Monday, the thirteenth, the king, in his impatience of ministers who did not love each other and only agreed to give him the law, invoked the aid of his uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, and authorized negotiations with Pitt, with Temple, and the great whig families, for constructing a new administration, in which Charles Townshend should be one of the secretaries of state, and Northumberland, Bute's son-in-law, at the head of the treasury. 1765. May 13. On that same day, the regency bill, with the amendment rehabilitating the princess dowager, was accepted by the house of lords. It so happened that in the same sitting a bill came up raising the duties on silks, for the benefit of English weavers. In the commons, it had been countenanced by Grenville, who was always the friend of the protective policy; and it had the approval of the king. But Bedford, having, like Edmund Burke, more liberal views of political economy, spoke on the side of freedom of trade; and the bill was refused a second reading. On Tuesday, the silk-weavers went in a large body to Richmond to petition the king for redress. Cum- May 14. berland, at that time, was explaining his commission to Rockingham and Newcastle, both of whom were zealous for the proposed change. The Earl of Albemarle, therefore, communicated, in his name, with Pitt, who terminated a conversation of four hours without an engagement, yet without a negative. Edmund Burke, as he watched the negotiation, complained of Pitt's hesitancy, and derided his “fustian." Temple and Grafton were summoned to town. Of Grafton, Cumberland asked if a ministry could be formed out of the minority, without Pitt; and received for answer that "nothing so formed could be stable." "The wings of popularity were on Pitt's shoulders." Lord Temple, who had not one personal quality May 15. that fitted him to become a minister, but derived his importance from his rank and wealth, some popularity and his connection with Pitt, already began to be estranged from his brother-in-law, whom he envied and disliked, and reconciled to Grenville, his brother and apparent heir, whom he was now well pleased to see in office. His mind, like Bedford's, was haunted with the spectre of Bute's influence; and the whim seized him to gratify his capricious resentment to the utmost, and show his importance by creating embarrassments. He scouted the idea of placing at the |