dealing with, were active members of an advanced political association; but they joined the Rockingham ministry, broke off from it when, on the death of its chief, Shelburne became Premier, and coalesced with North, not only without any co-operation, but, so far as is known, without any consultation with their unofficial friends. The manner in which these first attempts at Radical organization were made, and the indefinite character of their influence, are illustrated by the history of perhaps the most important of them all, having regard to the number and the position of its originators and members. This was the body called first the "Westminster Committee of Correspondence," and afterwards the "Westminster Committee of Association." This committee was established on the 2nd of February, 1780, and it continued to exist until April, 1785. The minutes during that period are consecutive, although for a great part of the time the meetings were few and irregular.[1] The interest for us in the account of this committee arises from the fact that it contained a great number of members of both Houses of Parliament, and that it interested itself quite as much with the proceedings of Parliament as with outside agitation. It seems, indeed, to have been for some time the centre of deliberation of that section of the party which Macaulay calls the Ultra Whigs, and which he speaks of as one of the combinations with which the younger Pitt might have associated himself at the commencement of his career, and with which for a time he did work on behalf of Parliamentary reform.[2] The great Whig historian speaks of this section as distinguished from that with which Fox was connected, whereas the orator was quite as intimately associated with them as he was with the official Whigs, and was the chairman of the Westminster committee during the whole period of its existence, and presided at the majority of its meetings.
