[
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effect.
On the last day of January the weakness of
the ministry appeared on a division respecting an election for some of the boroughs in
Scotland; in a very full house they had only a majority of eleven.
The grooms of the bedchamber, and even
Lord George Sackville voted against them, whilst
Charles Townshend, the paymaster, declined to vote at all. On the same day
Bedford and
Grenville were asked, if on Bute's opening the door, they were ready to negotiate for a change of administration, and they both sent word to the king, that his order would be attended to, with duty and respect, through ‘whatever channel it should come.’
Had Pitt acceded to the administration, he would have made the attempt to bring the nation to the conviction of the expediency of ‘giving up all right of taxation over the colonies.’.
Left to themselves, with the king against them, and the country gentlemen wavering, the ministers, not perceiving that the concession was a certain sign of expiring power, prepared a resolution to the effect, that ‘the king in parliament has full power to bind the colonies and people of America, in all cases whatsoever.’
