Note 41 — Chapter IV

Lord North at first refused the Exchequer from a distrust of his ability to encounter Mr. George Grenville on financial questions. Lord Barrington was then applied to, and had consented, when Lord North agreed to accept.—(Lord Barrington’s Life, pp. 105–112.) The latter proved perfectly equal to his office, and had he risen no higher would have left a considerable name as a statesman of extensive “knowledge, of a versatile understanding fitted for all sorts of business, and a most accomplished debater.” Unhappily for himself and his country he wanted firmness to resist the solicitations of his Sovereign, and submitted to be the instrument of carrying into effect measures which have stamped his Administration with indelible disgrace.—An interesting account of Lord North is given in Lord Brougham’s Statesmen of the Time of George the Third, vol. i. pp. 1–49, and above all in Lady Charlotte Lindsay’s Letter in the Appendix, pp. 391–7.—E.