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

[534] the condition of ‘full power and full confidence;’ a

Chap. XXVI.} 1782. March 22.

clear approval at first setting out of every engagement to which he stood already committed as to men and as to measures; and authority to procure ‘the assistance and co-operation of the Rockinghams, cost what it would, more or less.’ ‘Necessity,’ relates the king, ‘made me yield to the advice of Lord Shelburne.’ Thus armed with the amplest powers, the mediator fulfilled his office. Before accepting the offer of the treasury, Rockingham, not neglecting two or three minor matters, made but one great proposition, that there should be ‘no veto to the independence of America.’ The king, though in bitterness of spirit, consented in writing to the demand. ‘I was thoroughly resolved,’ he says of himself, ‘not to open my mouth on any negotiation with America.’

In constructing his ministry, Rockingham wisely composed it of members from both fractions of the liberal party. His own connection was represented by himself, Fox, Cavendish, Keppel, and Richmond; but he also retained as chancellor Thurlow, who bore Shelburne malice, and had publicly received the glowing eulogies of Fox. Shelburne took with him into the cabinet Camden; and, as a balance to Thurlow, the great lawyer Dunning, raising him to the peerage as Lord Ashburton. Conway and Grafton might be esteemed as neutral, having both been members alike of the Rockingham and the Chatham administrations. Men of the next generation asked why Burke was offered no seat in the cabinet. The new tory party would give power to any man, however born, that proved himself a bulwark to their fortress; the old whig party reserved the highest places for those