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

[215] his illustrious friend had not asked him to do it;

Chap. XXXVII.} 1768. Oct.

and continued saying ‘He shall still be my pole star,’¹ even while the emoluments of office were for a time attracting him to advise a public declaration from the King, that Townshend's revenue Act should be executed, and ‘Boston,’ ‘the ringleading Province,’ be ‘chastised.’²

The removal of Shelburne opened the Cabinet to the ignorant and incapable Earl of Rochford, who owed his selection to the mediocrity of his talents and the impossibility of finding a Secretary of State more thoroughly submissive.³ He needed money, being so poor as to have once told Choiseul with tears in his eyes, that if he lost the embassy which he then filled, he should be without resources⁴ He had a passion also to play a part, and in his moments of glorying, would boast of his intention to rival not Chatham, he would say, but Pitt;⁵ though he could not even for a day adhere steadily to one idea. ‘His meddlesome disposition,’ said Choiseul, ‘makes him a worse man to deal with than one of greater ability.’ ‘You,’ answered Du Chatelet,⁶ ‘may turn his foibles and defects to the advantage of the King.’ After his accession, the Administration was the weakest and the worst which England has known since its Revolution.

It had no sanction in public opinion, and the subservient Parliament was itself losing its authority and