Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 2).djvu/90

68 "To all this I answered, after some sentences of respect to him, that you had by no means abandoned the public; that the times promised many events of such a nature as would probably force you from retirement, to do justice to your own honor, by striving to serve even an inanimate public. That as to the ordinary trammels of Opposition, after what had happened, I thought you would not and even could not submit to them. That L Rockingham's indecision, to give it no harder name, was not to be cured by crabbed conversations or messages in town; that he, the Duke, knew the little effect of that medicine; that L  Rockingham was now where we last left him; that his and some of his friends' indecision had been always stated by me as more fatal than a manly negative; that your taking an active part in such circumstances was and would be only a foil in the eyes of the public to a bad government, and would shew us all together as totally contemptible; that it was better for us all to leave Administration undisturbed, than thus to shew our own impotence and distraction in both Houses of Parliament; that, thinking as I did, I could only promise his Grace to give your Lordship as true an account of his sentiments as I could, but that it was impossible for me to recommend to Lord Shelburne what I would not do myself were I in his situation.

"In reply to all this, he repeated frequently his request, adding that he was afraid that there were some prejudices and dislikes remaining since last Session, which, says he, have not been much diminished, I suppose, by that negotiation in the summer; but, says he, Burke is not now in Parliament, though I suppose indeed he is to come in. This brought on a little discussion of Burke, in which we pretty much agreed, and which I closed with these words,—'My Lord, I love Burke, I admire him, even in his wanderings; but when those wanderings come to be adopted seriously and obstinately by men of far higher description than himself, they then become alarming indeed.' 'That strange negotiation,' says the Duke, 'I assure you I had nothing to do with. I first heard of it