altar, or with a sword in them in the field fighting the enemies of his country.[1]
Grafton, on receiving Mr. Stewart's letter which those of Captain Dunant confirmed, could now only indulge in useless lamentations on the "unfortunate ignorance he had been in as to the disposition of the Corsicans, as well as their power to resist the attacks preparing against them by the French," as otherwise a more decided course of action would have been followed.[2] But the moment for action was gone by. "Dum Romæ consulitur, Saguntum expugnatur,"[3] exclaimed Paoli, as the enemies of his country closed around him. The islanders after a desperate struggle were forced to submit, and Paoli himself fled to England.
Grafton having failed to expel the French from Corsica, now betook himself to the easier task of expelling Shelburne from the Cabinet. To this he was perpetually urged by the Bedfords and by the King, from whom instigations to remove Shelburne fell daily.[4] Wilkes had on May loth been elected for Middlesex and the King remembered the events of 1763.[5] The Princess Dowager went about declaring that Shelburne was the only person in the world more guilty of habitual deception than Holland.[6] Even Camden had for some time past looked askant at him,[7] for the conduct of Shelburne on American questions was a perpetual commentary on the weakness of Camden, and it was the affairs of America which were now bringing matters to a crisis.
The riots which took place in Boston on the 10th June, in consequence of the seizure of the Romney sloop by the Custom House authorities, had raised excitement in that town to the highest pitch. In the midst of the excitement the circular letter of Hillsborough arrived. The Assembly refused to comply with the demands it contained, and was accordingly dissolved on the 21st of June; but not before
- ↑ Stewart to Shelburne, August 20th, 1768.
- ↑ Grafton to Shelburne, September 15th, 1768.
- ↑ Paoli to Mann, July 1768.
- ↑ Autobiography of the Duke of Grafton, 215.
- ↑ Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of George III., iii. 222, 245.
- ↑ Durand à Choiseul, February 1st, 1768.
- ↑ Chatham Correspondence, iii. 333, note. The King to Chatham, May 30th, 1767.
