nterests, the landed interests alone were consulted,
and the country gentlemen, who had never been celebrated for liberal
measures in their legislation, were to crowd the house of commons, and
to decide upon the affairs of the nation. The Earl of Chatham himself,
at a later period, seems to have doubted the efficacy of his plan of
reform, for he admitted that the knights of the shires or the country
members of the house of commons, "were not the most enlightened or
spirited part of the house." All history, indeed, tends to prove that
such a plan of reform would have proved abortive, so far as regards
the liberty and well-being of the great body of the people, and the
perfecting of the theory of the English constitution, so far as to
make its political practice agree with its principles. There can be no
question, indeed, but that all other interests would have been secondary
to that of the agricultural in the consideration of a parliament thus
constituted; whereas the aim of an enlightened legislature should be
to secure the interests of every section of the community, whether
agricultural, commercial, or manufacturing.

The Earl of Chatham signified his intention of supporting the Marquess
of Rockingham on the 24th, when the great question mooted by him was to
be discussed. On that day, however, it was announced that he was too ill
to attend, and Rockingham also was distressed in mind by the melancholy
suicide of the Honourable Charles Yorke. Under these circumstances, he
moved the adjournment of the question to the 2nd of February, which was
granted by the house; but before that time the Duke of Grafton, harassed
by these commotions and scourged by the press, especially by the
writings of Junius, had resigned his office, and the king had committed
the charge of government to Lord North. At the same time, the state of
the health of Sir John Cust, having induced him to resign the speaker's
chair, Sir Fletcher Norton was elected his successor. The Earl of
Halifax, moreover, was appointed privy seal in the room of Lord Bristol;
Mr. Wellbore Ellis was selected to be a vice-treasurer in Ireland;
Charles Fox was made a lord of the admiralty; and Mr. Thurlow was
created solicitor-general instead of Mr. Dunning. There were a few minor
substitutions and interchanges of offices, but these were the
principal; and Lord North's ministry was, therefore, for the most part
a continuation of that of the Duke of Grafton. The Marquess of G