s listening disdainfully to his arguments, followed one of
these persistent interrogations by softly singing to himself, very
audibly, the words which belonged to a popular song, "Gentle shepherd,
tell me where." The House took the hint with delight, and the title of
Gentle Shepherd remained an ironical adornment of Grenville for the
rest of his life.

Bute's disregard of public opinion was contrasted to his disadvantage
with the conduct of Sir Robert Walpole, who bowed to the demonstration
against his far wiser system of excise. Bute forced his tax forward in
defiance of the popular feeling, and then, apparently alarmed by the
strength of the spirit he had himself raised, he answered the general
indignation by a sudden and welcome resignation on April 8, 1763. This
was the end of Bute's attempt to be the recognized head of a
government, though he still hoped and believed that he could rule from
behind the throne instead of standing conspicuously at its side. To
his unpopularity as a foreigner, to his unpopularity as a favorite,
public hostility added a fresh, if a far-fetched and fantastic reason
for detesting Bute. It was pointed out that he had Stuart blood in his
veins, that an ancestor of his had been the brother of a Scottish King.
Any stick is good enough to strike an unpopular statesman with, and
there were not wanting people to assert, and perhaps even to believe,
that Bute had entertained insidious schemes for raising himself to the
throne. Bute is said to have declared that he resigned in order to
avoid involving the King in the dangers with which his minister was
threatened. If he did feel any fears for the King's safety he had
certainly done his best to make those fears reasonable. It has not
often been given to any statesman to hold the highest office in the
state for so short a time, and in that time to accomplish so large an
amount of harm. And the immediate harm of that year and a half was
little as compared with the harm that was to follow, a fatal legacy,
{33} from the principles that Bute advocated and the policy that Bute
initiated.

[Sidenote: 1763--The retirement of Bute]

With Bute retired two of his followers, Dashwood and Fox. Dashwood
went to the Upper House as Lord Le Despencer; Fox accompanied him as
Lord Holland. The disappearance of Dashwood from the Commons was a
matter of little importance. The disappearance of Fox marked the
conclusion of what had been a remarkable, of wh