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 BURKE. 245 hew ministryý with great humour, mingled with the keenest irony. Whatever may have been the merits or demerits of the Rockingham ministry, they certainly deserve high commendations for the liberal manner in which they retired from their offices. Not one of them retained either place, pension, or reversion for themselves or their friends. A piece of disinterestedness which must have been se verely felt by Barke, from the narrowness of his private fortune. In July 1766, Mr. Burke being once inore free from all restraint, revisited his native land, endeared to him by long absence, and the remembrance of the friends of his earliet years, with many of whom he renewed his acquaintance. Towards the close of the year he returned to England, where a strong opposition had been organised against the measurès of the new administration. In this Burke took an aetive part, and soon distinguished himself as the head of the Rockingham party, in which, although supported by men of powerful talents, Dowdeswell, Counsellor Dun ning, and Colonel Barré, Burke always claimed pre-emi- nence. His speeches shone with a warmth of imagination united to a high degree of political knowledge, which the others could never attain. The opinion which Burke entertained of this ministry, which is commonly known by the Grafton administration, is thus humorously described by himself. Afier paying many imerited eulogiums to the character of Lord Chatbam, he claims the privilege of his- tory to speak of the administration he had formed, and thus proceeds:"He made an administration so checquered and speckled; he put together a piece of joining, so crossly indented and whimsically dove-tailed; a cabinet so va- riously inlaid; such a piece of diversified Mosaic; such a tessellated pavement without cement; here a bit of black stone, and there a bit of white; patriots and courtiers; king's friends and republicans; Whigs and Tories; treacherous friends and open enemies; that it was indeed a very curious show, but utterly unsafe to touch, and unsure to