foot in the closet, but in the hope of rendering the King's personal situation not unhappy, as well as his business not unprosperous." The bill for the repeal of the Stamp Act was carried up to the Lords, on the 4th of March, by a large body of the House of Commons, and met, says George Onslow, "with not quite so civil a reception as such a bill, so carried in our House, and so conveyed as it was, by a hundred and fifty members to the other House, did, in my opinion, deserve." Scanty as is the allusion in the following letter to the debate which ensued upon the introduction of the Repeal Bill in the Upper House, it contains all that is at present known of the proceedings of that day. THE EARL OF HARDWICKE TO THE HON. CHARLES YORKE. "DEAR BROTHER, "St. James's Square, March 8, 1766. "I presume you have had an account of what passed yesterday at the House of Lords. Shall we amend or not amend? Your neighbourt spoke very well; Lord Camden rather better than before, and pleased the lovers of American liberty. Tom Tilbury‡ said nothing, because, as Lord C-d§ said this morning, he could not find out a third opinion. * Chatham Correspondence, iii. 12. + Lord Hardwicke probably meant Lord Mansfield, whose seat of Kenwood is in that immediate neighbourhood of Highgate, where Mr. Yorke resided. The nick-name of Lord Northington. § Probably Lord Chesterfield. 314 THE KING TO LORD ROCKINGHAM. [1766. "We are rather exercising our wits than really serving the public. Our friend, Lord Egmont, was recondite, but beyond me. Parliament had the right, but if we exercised it, we deprived the Colonies of a privilege against abuse. "P.S.-Have you seen the New York Gazette Extraordinary? Lord Mansfield says it is Justice Livingston's. It is very strong for independency." The Bill encountered two divisions in its progress through the Lords. On the first, 105 voted for the repeal and 71 against it; on the second, the numbers were, 275 to 167; 33 Lords entering their protest against it on the last of these occasions. The King writes to the Ministers the following letter. "LORD ROCKINGHAM, "I am glad the American affair has ended this day without any great altercation. If the Opposition have made a protest, I desire I may directly receive a copy of it." On the 18th of March, the Repeal of the Stamp Act, the subject of warm and acrimonious debates, both in the Lords and Commons, "received the royal assent; an event," says Burke, "that caused more universal joy throughout the British dominions than perhaps any other that can be remembered." foot in the closet, but in the hope of rendering the King's personal situation not unhappy, as well as his business not unprosperous." * The bill for the repeal of the Stamp Act was carried up to the Lords, on the 4th of March, by a large body of the House of Commons, and met, says George Onslow, "with not quite so civil a reception as such a bill, so carried in our House, and so conveyed as it was, by a hundred and fifty members to the other House, did, in my opinion, deserve." Scanty as is the allusion in the following letter to the debate which ensued upon the introduction of the Repeal Bill in the Upper House, it contains all that is at present known of the proceedings of that day. THE EARL OF HARDWICKE TO THE HON. CHARLES YORKE. "DEAR BROTHER, "St. James's Square, March 8, 1766. "I presume you have had an account of what passed yesterday at the House of Lords. Shall we amend or not amend? Your neighbour† spoke very well; Lord Camden rather better than before, and pleased the lovers of American liberty. Tom Tilbury‡ said nothing, because, as Lord C-d§ said this morning, he could not find out a third opinion. Chatham Correspondence, iii. 12. + Lord Hardwicke probably meant Lord Mansfield, whose seat of Kenwood is in that immediate neighbourhood of Highgate, where Mr. Yorke resided. The nick-name of Lord Northington. § Probably Lord Chesterfield. but if we exercised it, we deprived the Colonies of a privilege against abuse. "P.S.-Have you seen the New York Gazette Extraordinary? Lord Mansfield says it is Justice Livingston's. It is very strong for independency." The Bill encountered two divisions in its progress through the Lords. On the first, 105 voted for the repeal and 71 against it; on the second, the numbers were, 275 to 167; 33 Lords entering their protest against it on the last of these occasions. The King writes to the Ministers the following letter. "LORD ROCKINGHAM, "I am glad the American affair has ended this day without any great altercation. If the Opposition have made a protest, I desire I may directly receive a copy of it." On the 18th of March, the Repeal of the Stamp Act, the subject of warm and acrimonious debates, both in the Lords and Commons, "received the royal assent; an event," says Burke, "that caused more universal joy throughout the British dominions than perhaps any other that can be remembered." CHAPTER IX. HUME AND ROUSSEAU.—THE MILITIA BILL.-CHARACTER OF MR. TRECOTHICK.-DINNER IN CELEBRATION OF STAMP ACT REPEAL-MISTRUST OF GOVERNMENT IN CONTINENTAL STATES.-RESOLUTIONS ON GENERAL WARRANTS. EXCHARACTER OF RESIGNATION OF DUKE OF GRAFTON. TRACTS FROM LORD HARDWICKE'S "MEMORIALL." - DISMISSAL OF AFTER three years' residence in Paris, David Hume, the historian, arrived in England. He went to France a came back with the plain, unaffected Scotchman. He airs and feelings of a Frenchman. The incense he received had been too much for his philosophy. Passing his time in courts and coteries, he mistook adulation for affection, and on his return home used to launch out in encomiums on "the gallant nation so famous for its loyalty," contrasting their peaceable demeanour with the turbulence of his own countrymen. This Gallo-mania induced him to bring with him Jean Jacques Rousseau. They arrived in England in January 1766. Perhaps the characters of no two persons ever formed so strong a contrast as Rousseau and Hume. They were the Jean qui pleure and the Jean qui rit. The Frenchman being the crying, the Englishman, |