med still to increase steadily. No man was sanguine enough to see
hope for the colonies, when suddenly an occurrence, which in this age
could not appreciably affect the power of an English premier, snapped
Grenville's sway in a few days. This was only the personal pique of the
king, irritated by complaints made by the Duke of Bedford about the
favorite, Bute. For such a cause George III. drove out of office, upon
grounds of his own dislike, a prime minister and cabinet with whom he
was in substantial accord upon the most important public matters then
under consideration, and although it was almost impossible to patch
together any tolerably congruous or competent body of successors.

Pitt endeavored to form a cabinet, but was obliged, with chagrin, to
confess his inability. At last the Duke of Cumberland succeeded in
forming the so-called Rockingham Cabinet, a weak combination, but far
less unfavorable than its predecessor towards America. The Marquis of
Rockingham, as prime minister, had Edmund Burke as his private
secretary; while General Conway, one of the very few who had opposed the
Stamp Act, now actually received the southern department of state within
which the colonies were included. Still there seemed little hope for any
undoing of the past, which probably would never have been wrung from
this or any British ministry so long as all the discontent was on the
other side of three thousand miles of ocean. But this was ceasing to be
the case. The American weapon of non-importation was proving most
efficient. In the provinces the custom of wearing mourning was
abandoned; no one killed or ate lamb, to the end that by the increase of
sheep the supply of wool might be greater; homespun was now the only
wear; no man would be seen clad in English cloth. In a word, throughout
America there was established what would now be called a thorough and
comprehensive "boycott" against all articles of English manufacture. So
very soon the manufacturers of the mother country began to find
themselves the only real victims of the Stamp Act. In America it was
inflicting no harm, but rather was encouraging economy, enterprise, and
domestic industry; while the sudden closing of so enormous a market
brought loss and bankruptcy to many an English manufacturer and
warehouseman. Shipping, too, was indirectly affected. An outcry for the
change of a disastrous policy swelled rapidly in the manufacturing and
trading towns; and erelong the battle