“Those repeated changes of Administration have been the principal cause of the present grievance [the King’s debts]. I lament it as much as any man can do. Under an Administration, whose principles I approved, ten years ago I accepted a small office, and was contented with it; those whom I served knew I never molested them on my own account. I had formed principles from which I have never deviated,--principles not at all calculated for an ambitious man. I thought the public had waged a glorious war; and that the war would be concluded by a necessary peace. It was never my idea to cry up the peace as the chef-d’œuvre of a great minister. The peace was an advantageous one; because, in the situation in which the country then stood, it was better to come to such a peace, than to run the risk of another campaign. If the Ministers had no other choice, they made a good choice; if the case was otherwise, they made a bad one. Whether they had or had not, never came to my ears. I never considered the country so reduced that we could not recover. A steady manly resistance of the impatience of those who wanted to ease themselves of the burdens left by the war, put the country at length into a situation to meet other wars. Upon this system I have ever been against popular measures. I do not dislike popularity; but for the last seven years I have never given my vote for any one of the popular measures. I supported the Cyder-tax with a view to the ease of the people, and I afterwards opposed the repeal of the tax--a vote of which I never repented. In 1765, I was for the American Stamp Act; the propriety of passing which I took very much upon the authority of the right honourable gentleman; and when, in the following year, a bill was brought in for the repeal of that act, I directly opposed it; for I saw the danger of the repeal. And when, again, in the year 1767, it was thought necessary to relieve the people from the pressure of taxation, by lessening the revenue to the extent of half a million, I was against that measure also. There appeared on the public stage a strange phenomenon--an individual grown, by the popularity of the times, to be a man of consequence. I moved the expulsion of Mr. Wilkes. Every subsequent proceeding against that man I have supported; and I will again vote for his expulsion, if he again attempts to take his seat in this House. In all my memory, therefore, I do not recollect a single popular measure I ever voted for--no, not even the Nullum Tempus Bill. I was against declaring the law in the case of general warrants. I state this to prove that I am not an ambitious man. Men may be popular without being ambitious; but there is rarely an ambitious man who does not try to be popular.” (Cavendish, vol. i. p. 298.)--E. [209] See some able comments on this question in Burke’s celebrated tract on “Present Discontents,” (Works, vol. ii. p. 309.)--E.