clared himself satisfied, but Burke,
from a feeling that the indispensable confidence between them was impaired,
at once expressed a strong desire to resign his post. Lord Rockingham
prevailed upon him to reconsider his resolve, and from that day until Lord
Rockingham's death in [v.04 p.0827] 1782, their relations were those of the
closest friendship and confidence.

The first Rockingham administration only lasted a year and a few days,
ending in July 1766. The uprightness and good sense of its leaders did not
compensate for the weakness of their political connexions. They were unable
to stand against the coldness of the king, against the hostility of the
powerful and selfish faction of Bedford Whigs, and, above all, against the
towering predominance of William Pitt. That Pitt did not join them is one
of the many fatal miscarriages of history, as it is one of the many serious
reproaches to be made against that extraordinary man's chequered and uneven
course. An alliance between Pitt and the Rockingham party was the surest
guarantee of a wise and liberal policy towards the colonies. He went
further than they did, in holding, like Lord Camden, the doctrine that
taxation went with representation, and that therefore parliament had no
right to tax the unrepresented colonists. The ministry asserted, what no
competent jurist would now think of denying, that parliament is sovereign;
but they went heartily with Pitt in pronouncing the exercise of the right
of taxation in the case of the American colonists to be thoroughly
impolitic and inexpedient. No practical difference, therefore, existed upon
the important question of the hour. But Pitt's prodigious egoism,
stimulated by the mischievous counsels of men of the stamp of Lord
Shelburne, prevented the fusion of the only two sections of the Whig party
that were at once able, enlightened and disinterested enough to carry on
the government efficiently, to check the arbitrary temper of the king, and
to command the confidence of the nation. Such an opportunity did not
return.

The ministerial policy towards the colonies was defended by Burke with
splendid and unanswerable eloquence. He had been returned to the House of
Commons for the pocket borough of Wendover, and his first speech (January
27, 1766) was felt to be the rising of a new light. For the space of a
quarter of a century, from this time down to 1790, Burke was one of the
chief guides and inspirers of a revived Whig party.