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

[45] Townshend on the floor of the House, ‘the authority

Chap XXVII.} 1766. Dec.

of the laws shall not be trampled upon. I think it the highest injury to the nation to suffer Acts of the British Parliament to be broken with impunity.’¹ He did not fear to flatter the prejudices of the King, and court the favor of Grenville and Bedford; for he saw that Chatham, who had ‘declared to all the world, that his great point was to destroy faction,’ was incurring the hatred of every branch of the aristocracy.² Eight or nine³ Whigs resigned their employments, on account of his headstrong removal of Lord Edgecombe from an unimportant post.⁴ Saunders and Keppel left the Admiralty, and Keppel's place fell to Jenkinson. The Bedford party knew the weakness of the English Ximenes, and scorned to accept his moderate bid for recruits. But the King continually cheered him on ‘to rout out’ the Grandees of England, now ‘banded together.’⁵ ‘Their unions,’ said Chatham in return, ‘give me no terrors.’ ‘I know my ground,’ he wrote to Grafton;⁶ ‘and I leave them to indulge their dreams. Faction will not shake the King nor gain the public. Indeed, the King is firm, and there is nothing to fear;’ and he risked an encounter with all his adversaries.

To Shelburne, who was charged with the care of the Colonies, he gave his confidence and his support. He claimed for the Supreme-Government, the right of dominion over the conquests in India, and the