CHAPTER VIII
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
Unhappily, whatever the upright Conway might will, power lay elsewhere—with the King and his Parliamentary myrmidons. The Rockingham administration was an accident, due to the royal disgust at Grenville. As soon as another Ministry could be got together, Rockingham was contemptuously dismissed. It is one of the most melancholy facts of English history that the Ministry, which did more by their incapacity and blindness to ruin England than any Ministry before or since, should have entered office under the mighty wing of Pitt. Grenville was doubtless mistaken ; but at least he knew his own mind, and the Stamp Act wears a dignified aspect compared to the patch-work of shilly-shally legislation which finally lost America. It must be remembered, however, that at first the new Ministry appeared as one favourable to the American colonists. Its chief opponent was Grenville, their implacable enemy. In America the fame of Pitt smelt as sweet under the name of Chatham. Conway continued in the Government, though the American department was undertaken by Shelburne. As late as the beginning of 1768 we find Franklin saying that there had been a talk of getting him appointed Under Secretary to Lord Hillsborough. 1 But just in proportion as their intentions were good, was the result insidious. When all is said and done, the most malignant policy is less mischievous probably in its results than a policy of drift. But it was a policy of drift, tempered by royal obstinacy, which ended in the Declaration of Independence. The fountain and origin of all the evil that followed lay in the extraordinary attitude of Chatham. It is impossible, I think, to account for his conduct on any hypothesis, except that he was for the time practically insane,
1 Works, Vol. VII. Letter, Ju. 9 > 1768*
®°S
The
Ministry of Chatham and afterwards of Lord North.