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

[247] North was frequently dropping hints to the king, that

Chap. XI.} 1779.

the advantage to be gained by continuing the contest would never repay the expenses; and the king, though unrelenting in his purpose of reducing the colonies to obedience, owned that the man who should approve the taxing of them in connection with all its consequences was more fit for a madhouse than for a seat in parliament.

On the twenty-first of June he summoned his min-

June 21.

isters to his library,¹ and, at a table at which all were seated, he expressed to them in a speech of an hour and a half ‘the dictates of his frequent and severe self-examination.’ Inviting the friends of Grenville to the support of the administration, he declared his unchanging resolution to carry on the war against America, France, and Spain. Before he would hear of any man's readiness to come into office, he would expect to see it signed under his hand, that he was resolved to keep the empire entire, and that consequently no troops should be withdrawn from America nor its independence ever be allowed. ‘If his ministers would act with vigor and firmness, he would support them against wind and tide.’ Yet the ministry was not united; and, far from obtaining recruits from the friends of Grenville, it was about to lose its members of the Bedford connection. And his chief minister, cowering before the storm, and incapable of forming a plan for the conduct of the war, repeatedly offered his resignation, as an excuse