did not at once furnish the Board with an account of their places of residence, with striking them off the list. Loyal addresses were indeed many, but enlistments were as few as the signatures to the addresses were numerous.[1]
Under the influence of feelings similar to those of Shelburne, Grafton, who for some time past had been dissatisfied with his position, resigned the Privy Seal, after making a vain attempt to induce the King and the Prime Minister to retrace their steps. About the same time Rochfort, who had held the Seals of the Southern Department ever since the resignation of Shelburne in 1768, resigned his place, and was succeeded by Weymouth. The additions which were thereupon made to the Ministry clearly indicated the nature of the ideas which the King intended to govern it. The Privy Seal was given to Dartmouth, while Lord George Sackville, now become Lord George Germain, filled the place of Dartmouth as Secretary of State for the Colonies.
Grafton now threw himself into a vigorous opposition. His great object was to unite the various sections of the Whig Party, and after many difficulties, chiefly occasioned by the hesitations of the friends of Rockingham, he succeeded in concerting a plan of action for the coming session, which enabled the Opposition to act with greater vigour and union during the winter of 1775 than it had done for some time past. "The light," he says, "in which the business appeared to me was partly this: that if a cordial reconciliation was not speedily effected with the Colonies, to lose America entirely would be a lesser evil than to hold her by a military force, as a conquered country; and that the consequences of holding that dominion by an army only, must inevitably terminate in the downfall of the constitution and liberties of Britain. Thus success itself would be dreadful. To prevent these threatening consequences, the Opposition was most honourably engaged: and it was with the most hearty concurrence with the principal men who composed it, that I
- ↑ The principal speeches of Shelburne in 1775 will be found in the Parliamentary History, xviii. 162, 448, 722, 920, 1083, 1220.
