Weaker than the ministry of lord Rockingham, to what
shifts were they not reduced to preserve their precarious power? These
are the men, who have been loudest in their censures of the late
coalition. And yet did not they form coalitions, equally extraordinary
with that which is now under consideration? To omit the noble lord who
presided at the treasury board, and to confine myself to those
instances, which Mr. Fox had occasion to mention in treating my subject.
Was there not the late chancellor of the exchequer, who has been
severest in his censures of lord North, and the lord advocate of
Scotland, who was his principal supporter, and was for pushing the
American measures, even to greater lengths, than the noble patron
himself? Was there not the master general of the ordnance, who has ever
gone farthest in his view of political reform, and declaimed most warmly
against secret influence; and the lord chancellor, the most determined
enemy of reform, and who has been supposed the principal vehicle of that
influence? Lastly, was there not, in the same manner, the secretary of
state for the home department, who was most unwearied in his invectives
against lord Bute; and the right honourable Mr. Jenkinson, who has been
considered by the believers in the invisible power of that nobleman, as
the chief instrument of his designs.
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