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326 rightly intended, might have the air of experiment, without Lord Chatham's example or concurrence.

"I know not how to make your Ladyship sufficient excuses for troubling you upon any subject of business; I am afraid it is not a sufficient one, to say it is an case to my own mind to acquaint your Ladyship of it, so that if Lord Chatham should chance to hear of it, you might have the goodness to acquaint him of the motives of my conduct.

"As for the course of public affairs, what regards Parliament I conceive may, with common management, be carried through without difficulty. As for the Court, Lord Chatham knows my opinion, as it has been unvaried since I first waited upon him at Northend. As to foreign affairs, there are many accounts which certainly do not flatter the almost universal wish of peace; but if there should any certainty come of any such great event as a war, I shall presume to acquaint your Ladyship of it, without troubling you with too many particulars. In the meantime, I have every reason to believe nothing can so effectually keep it off as the report of Lord Chatham's health."

Grafton had now a great opportunity. Being rid of Charles Townshend, he might have reconstituted his Government on liberal principles, and reversed the American policy which Townshend had forced on him. But he chose to adopt a course which could not fail to lead to an exactly opposite result. The resignation of their offices by Northington and Conway again afforded a tempting opportunity to Bedford, who, broken by the untimely death of his son and his own failing sight, now no longer sought office for himself, but for his friends only. He, however, made the resignation by Shelburne of the management of Colonial affairs the condition of his support. As this resignation would render vacant three instead of two offices, the proposal of Bedford was not unwelcome, and suddenly remembering the old controversy about the division of work in the department of the