should be omitted; indeed, that statesmen of the present century agree
in holding that an arrangement of such importance should be made by the
Houses of Parliament, in concurrence with the sovereign, and not by the
sovereign alone, is shown by the steps taken to provide for a Regency in
the event of the demise of the reigning sovereign while the heir was a
minor, in the last and in the present reign, the second bill (that of
1840) being in this respect of the greater authority, since Lord
Melbourne, the Prime-minister, did not propose it without previously
securing the approval of the Duke of Wellington, in his character of
leader of the Opposition.

We pass over for a moment the administration of Lord Rockingham, as we
have already passed over the taxation of our North American Colonies by
Mr. Grenville, because it will be more convenient to take all the
transactions relating to that subject together when we arrive at the
time when the troubles arising out of the policy of the different
administrations toward those Colonies were brought to a head by the
breaking out of civil war. Lord Rockingham's ministry, which succeeded
Mr. Grenville's, had, as is well known, but a brief existence, and was
replaced by the cabinet so whimsically composed by Mr. Pitt, who
reserved to himself the office of Privy Seal, with the Earldom of
Chatham; the Duke of Grafton being the nominal head of the Treasury, but
the direction of affairs being wholly in the hands of the new Earl, till
the failure of his health compelled his temporary retirement from public
life. Lord Chatham was brother-in-law to Mr. Grenville, to whom in the
occasional arrogance and arbitrariness of his disposition he bore some
resemblance; and one of the earliest acts of his administration, when
coupled with the language which he held on the subject in the House of
Lords, displayed that side of his character in a very conspicuous light.