notwithstanding his unwillingness to abandon his retirement, he thought it advisable that they should both recommence a regular attendance in Parliament.[1] Shelburne accordingly went to London, so he himself relates, and "as soon as he arrived he conveyed to the Marquis of Rockingham, through a channel highly respectable and of strict honour, a message to the following purpose; viz. that he was come to town in the design of being in perfect good humour, and of uniting in any plan of opposition which might prove of essential advantage to the public; that he had always wished to stand upon the ground laid down in the second address from the Committee of Association of the county of York; and that he still wished that Lord Rockingham would unite upon that ground; that if Lord Rockingham would propose any alteration in that plan which would tend, in an equal degree, to reform the Representation of this country, he would agree to it, and that he did not doubt but that the county of York, &c., would also accede thereunto; that if Lord Rockingham would explicitly propose any other radical and effectual plan, which would unite and satisfy the friends of the country, both within doors and without, he would be willing to co-operate with Lord Rockingham upon such ground; that he wished never to see more than two parties; that of the Crown, and that of the People; and that he thought any third party, distinct from both, ruinous to the kingdom.
"Lord Rockingham (after having been pressed for two days) refused to accede to any of the three above mentioned propositions; but had no plan of his own whatever to propose. A union on the ground of the American war, was the only idea suggested by Lord Rockingham; which was thought much too vague, too weak, as well as too inadequate to the situation of the country for Lord Shelburne to accede to."[2]
Such was the position of affairs, when instead of the anticipated victories the news arrived on the 25th of November 1781 of the surrender of the army of Lord
