George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 4, 15th edition.

‘ [248] determined purposes’ of favor, ‘in the present or

chap. X.} 1756.

any future day,’ that ‘his own lively imagination could not have suggested a wish beyond them.’¹ For the chief of the Treasury Board, he selected the Duke of Devonshire, with Legge as chancellor. Temple presided over the Admiralty. George Grenville was made treasurer of the navy. To Charles Townshend, who could ill brook a superior, and who hated Pitt, was offered a useless place, neither ministerial nor active; and his resentment at the disdainful slight was not suppressed, till his elder brother and Bute interceded, and ‘at last the name of the Prince of Wales was used.’ Thus began the political connections of Charles Townshend with George the Third, and they were never broken. Restless in his pursuit of early advancement, he relied on the favor of that prince, and on his own eloquence, for the attainment of power. While he identified himself with none of the aristocratic factions, he never hesitated, for his own ends, to act under any of them. Pitt, applauding his genius for debate, despised his versatility.

But the transition in England from the rule of the aristocracy to a greater degree of popular power, was not as yet destined to take place. There was an end of the old aristocratic rule; but it was not clear what should come in its stead. The condition of the new minister was seen to be precarious. On entering office Pitt's health was so infirm, that he took the oath at his own house, though the record bears date at St. James's. The House of Commons, which he was to lead, had been chosen under the direction of Newcastle, whom he superseded. His subordinates even ventured