George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 6, 10th edition.

‘ [64] for him not to give them his support.’ Respecting

Chap. XXIX.} 1767. March

measures, Rockingham gave assurances that his friends, without whom, he persuaded himself, nothing could be carried by the Bedfords, would not join in any thing severe against America.¹ But he was all the while contributing to the success of the policy which he most abhorred.

The King would not recede from the largest claim to authority on behalf of the imperial Legislature. Great pains had been successfully taken to irritate the people of England, especially the freeholders, against the Americans. ‘Our interests,’ it was said, ‘are sacrificed to their interests; we are to pay infinite taxes and they none; we are to be burdened that they may be eased;’² and they would brook no longer heavy impositions on themselves, which were not to be shared by the Colonies.³ The merchants complained of a want of gratitude, and of the failure to make remittances; many were incensed at the Petition from New-York for a relaxation of the Navigation Acts; still more at the partial refusal of that Province to billet the troops; and the angry feeling was exasperated by the report from its Governor, that it would never again pay obedience to British statutes, which there was not an army to enforce. Since the last winter, America had lost friends both in and out of Parliament. Conway, who kept his old ground, was only laughed at. ‘He is below low-water mark,’ said Townshend to Grenville.