e involved in
questions of the moment, give him a supreme place as a teacher of
political wisdom. In character he was pure, generous, and
tender-hearted. His fervid imagination extended the area of his
sympathies, and sometimes prejudiced his opinions. As a speaker he was
eloquent, and now and again carried his audience completely with him,
but he never caught the tone of the house of commons; his longer
speeches were too much of the nature of exhaustive treatises to be
acceptable to its members; he had little tact, an impatient temper, and
often spoke with execrable taste. The chief article in his political
creed was his belief in the excellence of the constitution. He was an
ardent reformer of abuses, but with the constitution itself he would
have no meddling. Unlike Pitt, he saw that the only effectual check to
corrupt influence was to be found in government by a party united for
the promotion of national interests upon some common principle. Such a
party might, he believed, be based on the whig families, if only they
would keep themselves free from court intrigue and selfish jealousies.
He was a whig of a different type from Newcastle and Bedford; he built
his hopes on the Rockinghams and inspired their policy. That he never
sat in a cabinet was chiefly because in those days such a distinction
was confined to men of higher birth.

[Sidenote: _REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT._]

Decided action with regard to America was a pressing necessity. The
measures of retaliation adopted by the colonists were depressing trade
at home. Petitions against the stamp act were presented from the
merchants of London, Liverpool, Glasgow, and other towns, setting forth
the loss inflicted on manufacturers and their work-people by the
stoppage of the American trade, and the difficulties arising from the
non-payment of debts due from America, which amounted to L4,000,000. The
ministers resolved on the repeal of the act, and on a bill declaring the
right of parliament to legislate for the colonies on all matters
whatsoever. Some of the king's household having voted against the
government, Rockingham went to the king to remonstrate with him. George
told him that he was for repeal, and that Rockingham might say so. Two
days later the ministers heard that Lord Strange, one of the court
party, was saying that the king was against repeal, and wished it to be
known. This made a great stir, and the "ministerial lives were thought
not worth three days' p