Grenville, as obdurate as the winds of which Pitt had talked, and who, having checked a glorious war, seemed to promise himself other triumphs over his countrymen, expatiated on the haughtiness of Pitt, and denounced curses on the Ministers that should sacrifice the sovereignty of Britain over her Colonies. Conway retorted on the inhumanity of Grenville, and that sort of intrepidity that menaced two millions of people, who were not in a situation to revenge themselves; and by apt allusion to Grenville’s remorseless despotism, told him that Count d’Ocyras,[244] the most intrepid Minister that ever was, had yet rescinded the duties in the Brazils. In confirmation of Mr. Pitt’s arguments, he told the House the packet would depart in two days; was it advisable to let it carry this precipitate, and perhaps useless Address to America? useless, if the Stamp Act was repealed, as he avowed he hoped it would be. Nugent argued on the danger of giving way; on the spirit of resistance this would infuse into the Irish; and on the contempt with which France would treat our demands, if we knew not how to govern our own subjects. The resolutions of the House, unenforced, would, he said, be holding a harlequin’s sword over the heads of the Colonists. Lord Granby declared for, and Sir George Saville against, the Address. Beckford was bitter on Grenville; and Norton so abusive on Yorke, that Sir Alexander Gilmour told him, in his own famous phrase, that he could have kept company with nothing but _drunken porters_. Colonel Onslow with more good humour, said, he looked upon the altercation between the two learned gentleman (Yorke and Norton) as a race for the Chancellorship. Much personal heat, however, ensued, and put an end to the debate, when the motion for leaving the Chair, which had been proposed by Yorke, was carried (and the Address consequently rejected) by 274 to 134; the very majority being greater than the whole amount of the Opposition; though Lord Bute’s friends and all the Scotch and the Tories, and Lord Granby, and near a dozen of the King’s own servants, voted in the minority. It was matter of ridicule, that in the lists given out by Lord Sandwich, _their_ faction had been estimated at 130; and Lord Bute’s tools had vaunted that he could command fourscore or ninety votes. The astonishment and mortification of Grenville and the Bedfords were unequalled. They had quarrelled with and defied the Favourite when they were in power; and were now seeking and courting his support, when he seemed to have lost his power almost as much as they had.