, they both believed, be content to carry out the
king's will. Grenville, though he had opposed Bute in the cabinet with
reference to the negotiations with France, professed that as prime
minister he would try to win his complete approval, and with only one
exception allowed Bute to form his administration for him. Bute and his
master thought they had secured a useful tool, a subservient and
hard-working drudge. They were mistaken in their man; Grenville was
independent and self-confident. He took the two offices of first lord of
the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer. Dashwood retired with Bute
and the barony of Despencer was called out of abeyance in his favour.
Halifax and Egremont remained secretaries of state and Henley lord
chancellor. Bedford distrusted Bute and refused to take office. The new
administration promised to exercise economy, and Grenville took care
that the pledge should be redeemed. Its frugality did not make it
popular; it did not command the confidence of the nation, and was
generally considered a feeble continuation of its predecessor.

The king prorogued parliament on April 19, 1763; his speech described
the peace as honourable to his crown, and claimed, or at least implied,
that it had induced the enemies of the Prussian king "to agree to a
peace which he had approved". On the 23rd appeared No. 45 of the _North
Briton_ with a violent denunciation of the speech. It declared that the
king had given "the sanction of his sacred name to the most odious
measures and to the most unjustifiable public declarations from a throne
ever renowned for truth, honour, and unsullied virtue". That the
ministers were responsible for the king's speech was well understood,
and was clearly recognised in the article. George took the article as
conveying an accusation of falsehood against himself personally, and
there was some excuse for this interpretation of it. Other numbers of
the paper had been violent, and had been passed by without notice. His
present ministers were not deficient in political firmness; he ordered
them to prosecute the writer. Halifax thereupon issued a general
warrant, that is a warrant directed against persons not named, ordering
the king's messengers to search for the authors, printers, and
publishers of the _North Briton_, arrest them and seize their papers.
Warrants of this kind to be executed on persons not named, without
evidence of their identity or guilt, had hitherto been held lawf