y a grant from
William III. to the first Earl of Portland, in virtue of which he held
the forest of Inglewood and the socage of Carlisle, valued at about
L30,000, as appurtenances to the estate expressly granted. Lowther
contended that the grant did not convey these appurtenances and applied
to the treasury for a lease of them. Without officially informing the
duke of his claim, the treasury granted the lease. As between subject
and subject the duke's title would have been indisputable, for his house
had had undisturbed possession for over sixty years, but as regards
claims of the crown there was an ancient maxim: _Nullum tempus occurrit
regi_--"Time does not bar the king's rights". The attempt of the
treasury to revive this maxim was considered oppressive, and was
generally attributed to the influence of Bute and the court, and to a
desire to injure a political opponent and gratify a powerful supporter.
The feeling was strengthened by the characters of the two disputants,
for Portland was a man of high reputation, Lowther a cynical tyrant. On
February 17, 1768, Sir George Savile, a great Yorkshire landowner and a
member of the Rockingham party, whose integrity and wealth gave him
weight in the house, brought in a bill called the _Nullum tempus_ bill,
to make sixty years' possession a bar to claims of the crown. It was
opposed by the ministry, and North succeeded in adjourning the motion,
though only by 134 to 114. Parliament was dissolved in March, and the
new parliament passed the bill.

The union with the Bedford party lessened any chance of American
conciliation. Hillsborough ordered the Massachusetts assembly to rescind
its circular letter. It refused, and, acting on Hillsborough's
instructions, Bernard dissolved the assembly. Other colonies rejected
the command to disregard the letter; they would stand or fall with
Massachusetts. In New York, however, the "whig party" was defeated at
the elections, the assembly complied with the mutiny act, and its
legislative authority was restored. Bernard sent home disquieting
reports; the revenue laws were openly defied, and the officers forcibly
prevented from executing them; he was himself insulted by the mob, and
had not, he wrote, "the shadow of authority". There were no troops
nearer than New York. Bernard, an upright and fairly able man, though
too apt to dispute with his disputatious opponents, was extremely
unpopular, for it was known that he advised the ministers to t