s innocent of the charges that had made him
obnoxious to the fury of the populace. He swore that he never, either
directly or indirectly, aided, assisted, or supported, or in the least
promoted or encouraged the Stamp Act, but on the contrary did all in
his power, and strove as much as in him lay, to prevent it. The court
listened to him in melancholy silence and then adjourned, "on account
of the riotous disorders of the previous night and universal confusion
of the town," to a day nearly two months later.

It was a thankless privilege to be a stamp officer in those stormy
hours. Most of the stamp officers were forced to resign under pressure
which they might well be excused for finding sufficiently cogent. In
order to make the new law a dead letter the colonists resolved that
while it was in force they would avoid using stamps by substituting
arbitration for any kind of legal procedure. With a people in this
temper, there were only two things to be done; to meet their wishes, or
to annihilate their opposition. It is possible that Grenville might
have preferred to attempt the second alternative, but by this time
Grenville's power was at an end.

{93}

CHAPTER XLVII.

EDMUND BURKE.

[Sidenote: 1730-82--Rockingham and his Ministry]

The friction between Grenville and the King was rapidly becoming
unbearable to George, if not to his minister. George was resolved to
be rid of his intolerable tyrant at the cost of almost any concession.
He was now fully as eager to welcome Pitt back to office as he had once
been hot to drive him out of it. Again Cumberland was called in; again
Cumberland approached Pitt; again Pitt's willingness to resume the
seals was overborne by the stubbornness of Temple. The King was in
despair. He would not endure Grenville and Grenville's bullying
sermons any longer, and yet it was hard indeed to find any one who
could take Grenville's place with any chance of carrying on Grenville's
work. Cumberland had a suggestion to make, a desperate remedy for a
desperate case. If Pitt and the old Whigs were denied to the King, why
should not the King try the new Whigs and Rockingham?

The old Whig party, as it had lived and ruled so long, had practically
ceased to exist. So much the King had accomplished. Saint George of
Hanover had struck at the dragon only to find that, like the monster in
the classical fable, it took new form and fresh vitality beneath his
strokes. There was a W