Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 5.djvu/308

294 exchequer; Keppel—made a viscount—first lord of the admiralty; general Conway, commander of the forces; the duke of Richmond, master-general of the ordnance; Dunning—as lord Ashburton—chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. Burke was not admitted to the cabinet, for the whigs were too great sticklers for birth and family; but his indispensable ability insured him the pay-mastership of the forces—by far the most lucrative office in the hands of government, but the salary of which he was pledged to reduce by his bill.

Rigby had held this office, as the creature of the Bedford family, fourteen years, with all its enormous emoluments—no less than one million sterling of the country's money commonly lying in the hands of the holder! This enormous balance was notoriously made use of by Rigby in private stock-jobbing speculations, and the whole interest of it was lost to the country. Well might he denounce the change of the ministry!

Colonel Barre came in for Welbore Ellis's post, as treasurer to the navy; Thomas Townshend became secretary of war, instead of Jenkins; Kenyon, attorney-general; the duke of Portland, lord-lieutenant of Ireland, in place of the earl of Carlisle; Burgoyne, notwithstanding his surrender at Saratoga, was made commander of the troops in Ireland; Sir William Howe and lord Howe, the two brothers so distinguished for their miserable management of the earlier part of the American war, were duly rewarded for it—Sir William, as lieutenant-general of the ordnance, and lord Howe as admiral of the Channel fleet. The duke of Manchester became lord chamberlain, and lord Howard, of Effingham, treasurer of the household. Pitt was offered a place as a lord of the treasury; but he had already declared, on the 8th of March, on the debate on lord John Cavendish's motion, that he would never accept a subordinate situation. Dundas remained in office, as lord advocate, and John Lee was made solicitor-general. Such was the new administration: it embraced, as leaders, five Rockinghamites and five Shelburnites. The eleventh member of the cabinet, Thurlow, belonged to neither side, but was the king's man. Fox saw himself in office with him with great repugnance, and Burke felt the slight put upon him in excluding him from the cabinet.

On the 28th of March, the ministry, as completed, was announced in the house, and the writs for the re-elections having been issued, the house adjourned for the Easter holidays, and on the 8th of April met for business. The first affairs which engaged the attention of the new administration were those of Ireland. We have already seen that, in 1778, the Irish, encouraged by the events in North America, and by lord North's conciliatory proposals to congress, appealed to the English government for the removal of unjust restrictions from themselves. Burke warmly supported these appeals, especially as they regarded the freedom of trade, at the expense of his seat for Bristol. Little relief, however, at that time, was granted, owing to the opposition of the English merchants. An act, never-the-less, for the relief of the Roman catholics—similar to the one carried in England at the same time—was passed, and another for embodying a national militia. In the following year, the Irish in Dublin, Cork, and other principal cities, again inspired by the success of America, formed themselves into non-importation associations, binding themselves not to use English manufactures, the like of which could be manufactured in Ireland, until more liberal principles of trade actuated England.

There were many and grievous provocations to this. To prevent the Americans being supplied with Irish produce,