Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/498

 384 BURKE 1789 There was but one man in tlie Parliament of that time who had devoted any serious attention to the affairs of the colonies, or who could be said to have formed any opinions of his own on the philosophy of colonisation. His speech Burke and on Conciliation with America, delivered in 1775, shews that " he had devoted himself as warmly to colonial affairs then^ as he had in later years to questions connected with the government of India and the French Revolution. But in 1788 the American question had burnt itself out, with such results to minds like Burke^s that matters relating to the colonies had lost whatever interest they once possessed — even if the more sensational incidents connected with French and Indian politics had left him any appetite for Hisatten- Smaller game. There is nothing to show that his attention attwStod by was ovor directed to the settlement of New South Wales, °' either at the time when the Government scheme was slowly evolving itself, or in later years. And if it had been, there is no reason to believe that he would have interfered with a view to the amendment of the Ministerial plans, however deeply impressed he might have been with their impolicy. The state of his mind on colonial questions at that time may be seen in his speeches in the House of Commons on the •Quebec Government Bill, introduced by Pitt in 1791.* By coniierva- far the most advanced statesman of his day, Burke was not in conflict with the established policy of the country on general hend. Goldsmith immortalised him in his sketch of Burke in the Betaliation — Though f roxi^t with all learning, still straining his throat To persuade Tommy Townshend to lend him a vote. He was bom in 1732, and was the grandson of Charles, second Viscount Townshend. Lady Exeter, a relative, by her will made in 1776, left him her fortune of £70,000, after a life interest in it to her husband. — Grenville Papers, voL i, p. 167. He was a Lord of the Treasury in 1765 in the first Rockingham administration, which lasted for twelve months ; and on the formation of the second Rockingham Cabinet in 1782, which included Fox and Burke, he was appointed a Secretary of State on the retirement of Fox. This administration was formed in March and dissolved in July of the same year, when it was succeeded by the Earl of Shelbume's Ministry, which existed from July to the following April ; the coalition between Fox and North then coming into power. Syaney was in office under Lord Shelbume as Home Secretary, and was appointed to the same department in Pitt's Ministry in December, 1783. tive whig. Digitized by Google
 * Parliamentary History, vol. xxiz, pp. 364, 416.