d
of her illustrious citizen and delighted to do him honor. When he
visited England for the second time, in 1757, he was the Agent for the
General Assembly of Pennsylvania, he was Deputy Postmaster-General for
the British colonies, he was famous throughout the civilized world for
his discovery of the identity of lightning with the electric fluid. He
was in London for the third time when Rockingham took office. He had
lived nearly sixty years of a crowded, memorable, admirable life; he
was loaded with laurels, ripe in the learning of books and the learning
of the book of the world. Even he whom few things surprised or took
unawares would have been surprised if he could have been told that the
life he had lived was eventless, bloodless, purposeless in comparison
with the life he had yet to live, and that all he had done for his
country was but as dust in the balance when weighed against the work he
was yet to do for her. He was standing on the threshold of his new
career in the year when Edmund Burke entered Parliament.

The Rockingham Administration did its best to undo the folly of
Grenville's Government. After long debates in both Houses, after
examination of Franklin at the bar of the Commons, after the strength
and acumen of Mansfield had been employed to sustain the prerogative
against the colonies and the voice of Burke had championed the colonies
against the prerogative, after Grenville had defended himself with
shrewdness and Pitt had added to the splendor of his fame, the Stamp
Act was formally {104} repealed. Unhappily, the new Ministry was only
permitted to do good by halves. The same session that repealed the
Stamp Act promulgated the Declaratory Act, asserting the full power of
the King, on the advice of Parliament, to make laws binding the
American colonies in all cases whatsoever. This desperate attempt to
assert what the repeal of the Stamp Act virtually surrendered was
intended as a solace to the King and as a warning--perhaps a friendly
warning--to the colonies. Those who were most opposed to it in England
may well have hoped that it might be accepted without too much
straining in the general satisfaction caused by the repeal of the hated
measure. Even Franklin seemed to believe that the Declaratory Act
would not cause much trouble in America. The event denied the hope,
and indignation at the Declaratory Act outlasted in America the
rejoicing over the subversion of Grenville's policy. Never