feated in an attempt to
vindicate the rights of juries, because they adopted a method of
procedure of which he did not approve; they were, his friend Calcraft
wrote to him, "completely disgraced," and Chatham styled their bill "a
compound of connexion, tyranny and absurdity".[83] While the opposition
was in this distracted state the ministerial party was united. In three
years' time at most opposition in parliament was practically dead, and
the ministry was thoroughly popular in the country.[84]

[Sidenote: _A DIVIDED OPPOSITION._]

During the remainder of the session of 1769-70 the opposition made a
good fight. In the lords Chatham and Rockingham co-operated in attempts
to persuade the house to condemn the action of the commons with
reference to the Middlesex election, and in debates on American affairs;
but Rockingham refused to join in moving an address to the king to
dissolve parliament. Chatham's motion was avowedly made in order to
stimulate popularity out of doors, and Rockingham, who disliked his
demagogic arts, thought it uncalled for and refused "to be sworn every
day to keep his word" to the people. Chatham persevered, and the motion
received little support. In the commons George Grenville, Dowdeswell,
who as Grenville's health declined became virtually leader of the
opposition, Burke, Barre, Wedderburn, an able and ambitious Scottish
lawyer, and others, aided by the extreme section of which Beckford and
Alderman Sawbridge were conspicuous members, caused the ministry much
trouble. North was the chief speaker on the ministerial side. The court
party, or king's friends, so far as they may in any degree be regarded
as distinct from the rest of his supporters, seem to have been headed by
Rigby, who since 1768 had lived in luxury on the vast profits of the
paymaster's office. Dowdeswell's motion that in matters of election the
house is bound to judge according to the law of the land was so
threatening an attack that North met it by tacking to it an amendment to
the effect that the declaration of Wilkes's incapacity was agreeable to
that law, and the minority reached 180 against 244. The king, anxiously
watching all that passed in parliament, felt that even this majority was
satisfactory. "A little spirit," he wrote to North, "will soon restore
order in my service."

The opposition were encouraged, and proceeded to attack two of the
sources from which the crown derived its influence. As the expenses of
the cust