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444 The mystery how shall we explain, For sure as Dowdeswell said, "Thus early if they're fit to reign, They must be fit to wed?" Quoth Tom to Dick, "Thou art a fool, And little knowest of life: Alas! 'tis easier far to rule A kingdom than a wife."

But notwithstanding the wisdom of the utterance with which the above epigram credits the "dull" Dowdeswell, and the harmony which reigned in the Upper House, where Shelburne and Rockingham had together warmly opposed the Bill, the Old Whigs refused to join the friends of Shelburne in the House of Commons in a direct vote against the Bill. "At half-past one in the morning the House divided, and by the jarring of the Opposition the Ministers carried it by 300 to 64 to go into Committee, most of the Rockinghams voting with the Ministry, Sir George Saville with the minority."

The dissensions of the Opposition became still more marked when in the following year that old apple of discord, the affairs of the East India Company, was once more thrown down on the floor of Parliament. It has been seen that when at the close of 1767, the policy of Townshend and the Bedfords definitely prevailed over that of Shelburne, the dividend under the compromise then effected was limited to ten per cent, and the territorial revenue was left to the Company for two years, in consideration of an annual payment of £400,000. With certain additions this arrangement was renewed in 1769 for a further term of five years. Immediately afterwards the old scandals with which the Directors had represented themselves as capable of dealing, broke out afresh. The servants of the Company in India were never at a loss how to extort money. They were as ingenious, according to Barré, as the Governor of Gibraltar, who refused to give audience to the Jews when they brought him 1000 shekels, on