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482 added my little aid: having fully opened our minds to each other, and found little difference in our opinions.

"I did not aim at any particular knowledge of Lord Shelburne's opinions, as I had heard from Lord Camden that they tallied to a great degree with my own. But I was, however, much pleased with the following paragraph of a letter which, dated November 4th, 1775, I received from Lord Camden. 'The mention of the last lord's (Shelburne's) name gives me an opportunity of acquainting your Grace that I was desired by him to deliver a handsome and a frank message to your Grace, which I could not well do then, nor indeed can I now; because I cannot venture to recollect the words, and I am afraid of going too far. Thus much I can safely say, that he will fairly open his mind, and tell your Grace very frankly how far he will go, and where he will stop: and in my opinion, he and his friends Barré and Dunning have a manly and explicit way of proceeding which pleases me.'

"After some conversation with Lord Shelburne on public affairs, in consequence of the above message, we became good political friends, and remained so, with the exception of a few immaterial squabbles, to the end of his life. It is but justice to the eminent personages, who composed this Opposition, to say that there never existed at any time, such another in purity of intention towards the public, to whose benefit and welfare their measures were solely directed."

The King still further aggravated the position by issuing a proclamation for repressing rebellion and sedition, the terms of which seemed equally pointed at the Opposition in England and at the colonists in America, while a Bill was brought forward extending the Prohibitory Bill, so as to include not only New England, but the other Colonies as well. The answer of America to the Boston Port Bill had been the first meeting of Congress. The answer to the attack on Concord had been the first organization of the con-