s his
majesty's favourite minister, did not appear to be enough to subdue the
averseness. However then we may hope, that untainted virtue and superior
abilities, when more intimately known, may be found calculated to
surmount prejudices and conciliate affection; it seems but too evident,
that in the critical moment, those men, by whom alone we have
endeavoured to prove, that the country could be well served, would not
voluntarily have been thought on.

But it does not seem to have been enough considered, at what time the
coalition was made. The Rockingham connexion, along with thousands of
their fellow citizens, who were unconnected with any party, were
induced, from the purest views, to disapprove of the late treaty of
peace. The voting with the friends of lord North upon that question, was
a matter purely incidental. By that vote however, in which a majority of
the commons house of parliament was included, the administration of lord
Shelburne was dissolved. It was not till after the dissolution was
really effected, that the coalition took place. In this situation
something was necessary to be done. The nation was actually without a
ministry. It was a crisis that did not admit of hesitation and delay.
The country must, if a system of delay had been adopted, have
immediately been thrown back into the hands of those men, from whom it
had been so laboriously forced scarce twelve months before; or it must
have been committed to the conduct of persons even less propitious to
the cause of liberty, and the privileges of the people. A situation,
like this, called for a firm and manly conduct. It was no longer a time
to stoop to the yoke of prejudice. It was a time, to burst forth into
untrodden paths; to lose sight of the hesitating and timid; and
generously to adventure upon a step, that should rather have in view
substantial service, than momentary applause; and should appeal from the
short-sighted decision of systematic prudence, to the tribunal of facts,
and the judgment of posterity.

But why did I talk of the tribunal of facts? Events are not within the
disposition of human power. "'Tis not in mortals to command success."
And the characters of wisdom and virtue, are therefore very properly
considered by all men, who pretend to sober reflection, as independent
of it. If then, as I firmly believe, the coalition was founded in the
wisest and most generous views, the man, that values himself upon his
rational nature, will