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or share in the arrangements of the cabinet; but combined them according to the dictates of his own will. Lord Temple, in particular, charged him with having acted the part of an imperious dictator, and refused the office of First Lord of the Treasury. The Administration which Pitt constituted, was made up of most heterogeneous materials. From its members, he was said, by his opponents, to expect and require vey implicit submission to his mandates. He himself, now created Lord Chatham, took the Privy Seal. The Duke of Grafton was made First Lord of the Treasury, and Charles Townshend Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Burke wrote a defence of the Rockingham Administration, in a plain, simple style, without any of his usual digressive, though His object is to

beautiful embellishments. appear a fair, candid witness, when he is really a dexterous advocate. In a seeming narration of the several measures, he embodies inferences most favourable to his friends.

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Speaking of the principal act, he thus spoke :

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In that space of time, the distractions of the British empire were composed, by the repeal of the American stamp-act; but the constitutional superiority of Great Britain was preserved, by the act for securing the dependence of the colonies.

'Private houses were relieved from the jurisdiction of the excise, by the repeal of the cider-tax.

The personal liberty of the subject was confirmed, by the resolution against general warrants.

The lawful secrets of business and friend ship were rendered inviolable, by the resolution for condemning the seizure of papers."

He proceeds to their other acts. Here we may observe, that he merely takes for granted the two leading points in dispute with the

Grenville party, on the one hand, and the Chatham, on the other. Burke, in this defence, resembled a merchant, who, professing to give a fair, impartial statement of contested accounts, should take credit to himself for the principal items in dispute. He very prudently satisfies himself, as to the two main articles, with mere concise assertion, and reserves illustration and enlargement for less questionable measures. His defence, if not an impartial discussion of political proceedings, is a very artful, plausible, party memorial.

He soon after made an ironical reply to this serious defence. This is in the form of a letter, signed with the celebrated name of Whittington; the author professing to be a tallow-chandler, and common-council-man, in Cateaton-street, and, like his name-sake, to think himself destined to be Lord Mayor before he died. The letter is addressed to the Public Advertiser. I shall make extracts, for the perusal of such of my readers, as

either have not read, or have forgotten the Epistle of Whittington.

"In the multitude of counsellors there is safety. If SOLOMON means privy-counsellors, this nation ought to be safe beyond all others, since none can boast such a variety of ministers, and none can such a multitude of privy-counsellors.

• Ministers, now-a-days, are pricked down for the year, like sheriffs; and if none were to make more of their offices than the last did, I fancy we should see them fine off. Now you can no more guess who is in office. to-day, by the court-kalendar of last year, than you can tell the present price of stocks by LLOYD'S List of Christmas 1745.

• But the main design of my taking pen in hand, was to refute the silly author of a late silly publication, called A short Account of a late short Administration.

This half-sheet accomptant shows his illhumour in the very title; he calls one year and twenty days a short Administration; whereas I can prove, by the Rule of Three Direct, that it is as much as any Ministry in these times has a right to expect.

Since the happy accession of his present Majesty, to this day, we have worn out no less than five complete sets of honest, able, upright Ministers, not to speak of the present, whom G-d long preserve!

• First, we had Mr. PITT's Administration; next, the Duke of NEWCASTLE'S ; then, Lord BUTE's; then, Mr. GRENVILLE's; and, lastly, my Lord ROCKINGHAM'S.

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Now, Sir, if you take a bit of chalk, and reckon from the seventh of October, 1760, to the thirtieth of July, 1766, you find five years nine months, and thirty days! which, divided by five, the total of Administrations gives exactly one year and sixty days each, on an average, as we say in the

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