is clear from Burke's pamphlets and speeches, and still more clear from
his private letters, and from the language which he held in
conversation, that he regarded Chatham with a feeling not far removed
from dislike. Chatham was undoubtedly conscious of his error, and
desirous to atone for it. But his overtures of friendship, though made
with earnestness, and even with unwonted humility, were at first
received by Lord Rockingham with cold and austere reserve. Gradually the
intercourse of the two statesmen became courteous and even amicable.
But the past was never wholly forgotten.

Chatham did not, however, stand alone. Round him gathered a party, small
in number, but strong in great and various talents. Lord Camden, Lord
Shelburne, Colonel Barre, and Dunning, afterwards Lord Ashburton, were
the principal members of this connection.

There is no reason to believe that, from this time till within a few
weeks of Chatham's death, his intellect suffered any decay. His
eloquence was almost to the last heard with delight. But it was not
exactly the eloquence of the House of Lords. That lofty and passionate,
but somewhat desultory declamation, in which he excelled all men, and
which was set off by looks, tones, and gestures, worthy of Garrick or
Talma, was out of place in a small apartment where the audience often
consisted of three or four drowsy prelates, three or four old judges,
accustomed during many years to disregard rhetoric, and to look only at
facts and arguments, and three or four listless and supercilious men of
fashion, whom anything like enthusiasm moved to a sneer. In the House of
Commons, a flash of his eye, a wave of his arm, had sometimes cowed
Murray. But, in the House of Peers, his utmost vehemence and pathos
produced less effect than the moderation, the reasonableness, the
luminous order, and the serene dignity, which characterized the speeches
of Lord Mansfield.

On the question of the Middlesex Election, all the three divisions of
the opposition acted in concert. No orator in either House defended what
is now universally admitted to have been the constitutional cause with
more ardor or eloquence than Chatham. Before this subject had ceased to
occupy the public mind, George Grenville died. His party rapidly melted
away; and in a short time most of his adherents appeared on the
ministerial benches.

Had George Grenville lived many months longer, the friendly ties which,
after years of estrangement and