George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 5, 13th edition.

‘ [300] down your Majesty's displeasure?’ asked the dis-

chap. XV.} 1765. July.

carded minister. ‘I have found myself too much constrained,’ answered the king; ‘and when I have had any thing proposed to me, it was no longer as counsel, but what I was to obey.’ Grenville then told him, that he understood the plan of his new administration was a total subversion of every act of the former; that nothing having been undertaken as a measure without his Majesty's approbation, he knew not how he could let himself be persuaded to see it in so different a light, and most particularly the regulations concerning the colonies. ‘I beseech your Majesty,’ he continued, ‘as you value your own safety not to suffer any one to advise you to separate or draw the line between your British and American dominions. Your colonies are the richest jewel of your Crown. For my own part I must uniformly maintain my former opinions both in Parliament and out of it. Whatever is proposed in Parliament must abide the sentence passed upon it there; but if any man should venture to defeat the regulations laid down for the colonies, by a slackness in the execution, I shall look upon him as a criminal and the betrayer of his country.’

The conditions on which the new ministry took office, were agreed upon at the house of the duke of Newcastle, and did not extend beyond the disposal of offices. They introduced no system adapted to the age, no projects of reform; they gave no pledges in behalf of liberty, except such as might be found in the traditions of their party and their own personal characters. The old duke of Newcastle was the type of the administration, though he took only the post