e which Pitt had laid down in 1763 as a
condition of his own. He consented to his demands for a change of policy
in America, for the abolition of general warrants, and the formation of
a Protestant system of German alliances as a means of counteracting the
family compact of the house of Bourbon. The formation of the new
ministry seemed secured, when the refusal of Earl Temple to join it
brought Pitt's efforts abruptly to an end. Temple was Pitt's
brother-in-law, and Pitt was not only bound to him by strong family
ties, but he found in him his only Parliamentary support. The Great
Commoner had not a single follower of his own in the House of Commons,
nor a single seat in it at his disposal. What following he seemed to
have was simply that of the Grenvilles; and it was the support of his
brothers-in-law, Lord Temple and George Grenville, which had enabled him
in great part to hold his own against the Whig connexion in the Ministry
of 1757. But George Grenville had parted from him at its close, and now
Lord Temple drew to his brother rather than to Pitt. His refusal to
join the Cabinet left Pitt absolutely alone so far as Parliamentary
strength went, and he felt himself too weak, when thus deserted, to hold
his ground in any ministerial combination with the Whigs. Disappointed
in two successive efforts to form a ministry by the same obstacle, he
returned to his seat in Somersetshire, while the king turned for help to
the main body of the Whigs.

[Sidenote: The Rockingham Ministry.]

The age and incapacity of the Duke of Newcastle had placed the Marquis
of Rockingham at the head of this section of the party, after it had
been driven from office to make way for the supremacy of Bute. Thinned
as it was by the desertion of Grenville and Townshend, as well as of the
Bedford faction, it still claimed an exclusive right to the name of the
Whigs. Rockingham was honest of purpose, he was free from all taint of
the corruption of men like Newcastle, and he was inclined to a pure and
lofty view of the nature and end of government. But he was young, timid,
and of small abilities, and he shared to the full the dislike of the
great Whig nobles to Pitt and the popular sympathies on which Pitt's
power rested. The weakness of the ministry which he formed in July 1765
was seen in its slowness to deal with American affairs. Rockingham
looked on the Stamp Act as inexpedient; but he held firmly against Pitt
and Shelburne the right of Parliamen