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office of Secretary of State at the time that Shelburne, then twenty-nine years of age, accepted the seals under Chatham, was divided into the Southern and Northern departments. The former had the management of Home and Irish affairs and of the correspondence with the States of Western Europe, India, and the Colonies; the latter that of the correspondence with the States of Europe not included in the sphere of the Southern Department, the Secretary of which ranked officially before his colleague. During the administration of Rockingham a proposal had been made to separate the American from the European business, and to appoint Dartmouth Colonial Secretary, putting an end at the same time to the inferior position occupied by the Board of Trade, which in fact was to be raised into a separate and independent department. This scheme, however, was not carried out, and the old distribution of business still existed when Rockingham resigned, and continued until the time of his second administration, when in 1782 the Foreign Office was first established on the lines which have continued to the present day.

The evils of a divided administration of the Colonies had attracted the attention of Chatham. His first act on acceding to power was to determine once and for all to put an end to it. It was possible either, as Rockingham had intended, to make a third Secretaryship of State, or to reduce the Board of Trade to a mere "Board of Report