, finding himself unequal to meet the Spanish crisis, resigned
the seals, and Rochford took the southern and Halifax the northern
department. Hawke was succeeded at the admiralty by Sandwich, who worked
hard, though he appears to have applied his industry and abilities too
largely to personal arrangements. Bathurst, an insignificant person,
became lord chancellor, Thurlow attorney-general, and Wedderburn,
hitherto a bitter opponent of the ministry, solicitor-general; he ratted
disgracefully, and was perhaps insincere from the first. Determined to
attain the chancellorship, he may have intended to force North to give
him office, by showing himself dangerous in opposition. George Grenville
died in November, 1770, and several of his friends, headed by the Earl
of Suffolk, a man of small ability, went over to the ministerial side.
Suffolk was made privy seal and, on the death of Halifax in the
following June, became secretary of state. He was succeeded as privy
seal by Grafton, who, in accepting the office, showed his lack of
confidence in his colleagues by stipulating that he should not be
summoned to cabinet meetings. Besides the serious blow which the
opposition at large sustained in the death of Grenville, Beckford's
death, soon after his egregious performance at St. James's, deprived
Chatham of an eager follower and the city party of its leader. Later in
the year, too, died Granby, who a few months before repented of the
support he had given to the ministry and had joined the opposition.

The violent language employed by the newspapers on the opposition side
laid them open to reprisals. Constant resort to indictments by the
attorney-general, and the exception of seditious libels from privilege
of parliament, indicate the desire of the king's party to treat press
offences in a special way. They were gratified by a ruling of
Chief-justice Mansfield in the case of Almon, a bookseller, who was
tried on an _ex officio_ indictment for selling Junius's _Letter to the
King_. Mansfield laid down that in cases of libel the jury could only
deal with the facts of printing and publishing; it belonged to the judge
to decide the character of the statement. This was not a new doctrine;
it had been declared and acted upon by many earlier judges. The
newspaper press, however, had by this time become important, and
Mansfield's ruling infringed on the liberties of those engaged upon it,
for, while that was the law, a man after being indict