r objecting to the abolition of
some of the offices which it was proposed to sweep away, such as that of
the "third Secretary of State, or Secretary for the Colonies," that of
"Treasurer of the Chamber," and others of a similar character. And, as
the minister succeeded in defeating him on several, though by no means
all, of these points, Burke at last gave up the bill, Fox warning the
House at the same time that it should be renewed session after session,
and boasting that even the scanty success which it had met with had been
worth the struggle.

The other direct attack was made by Mr. Dunning, who, perhaps, did not
then foresee that he himself was destined soon to fill one of the
offices which had come under the lash of Burke's sarcasm, and who a few
days afterward, in moving that it was necessary to declare "that the
influence of the crown had increased, was increasing, and ought to be
diminished" rested no small portion of his argument on the treatment
that Burke's bill had received. He affirmed that, though Lord North had
declared that "the influence of the crown was not too great," the
divisions on that bill, and on many other measures which had been under
discussion, were irrefragable proofs of the contrary. He quoted Hume and
Judge Blackstone as testifying to the existence and steady increase of
that influence, and "could affirm of his own knowledge, and pledge his
honor to the truth of the assertion, that he knew upward of fifty
members in that House who always voted in the train of the noble lord in
the blue ribbon,[64] but who reprobated and condemned, out of the House,
the measures they had supported and voted for in it." Mr. T. Pitt even
instanced "the present possession of office by Lord North as an
indubitable proof of the enormous influence of the crown."

It was not strange that Lord North opposed a resolution supported by
such arguments with all the power of the government, basing his own
opposition chiefly on the wisdom "of maintaining the rule long since
established by Parliament, never to vote abstract propositions." But he
presently saw that he was in a minority, and was forced to be content
with adopting and carrying an amendment of Mr. Dundas, one of the
members for Edinburgh, who flattered himself that by the insertion of
_now_ he converted a general assertion into a temporary declaration,
which might at a future time be disavowed as no longer applicable. A
majority of eighteen[65] affirmed the