explained in the Provincial Act offered by him to the House of Lords. Confiding in the friendship of Dr. Addington, he requested of him to preserve this in his memory; that, in case he should not recover from the long illness under which he laboured, the Doctor might be enabled to do him justice, by bearing testimony, that he persevered unshaken in the same opinions. To this he added that, unless effectual measures were speedily taken for reconciliation with the Colonies, he was fully persuaded, that, in a very few years, France would set her foot on English ground; that, in the present moment, her policy might probably be to wait some time, in order to see England more deeply engaged in the ruinous war, against herself, in America, as well as to prove how far the Americans, abetted by France indirectly only, might be able to make a stand, before she took an open part by declaring war upon England."[1]
The speech which Lord Shelburne made on the above occasion marked his position as the destined successor in the lead of the section of the party which recognized Chatham as their chief. Lord Camden rated his oratorical powers above those of any peer of his time, Lord Chatham alone excepted.[2] Lord Thurlow complimented him on the correctness and minuteness of his information,[3] and Walpole does not deny him a high place amongst the debaters of his time. Jeremy Bentham, indeed, does not join the latter in his commendation. "Lord Shelburne," he says, "used to catch hold of the most imperfect scrap of an idea, and filled it up in his own mind, sometimes correctly, sometimes erroneously. His manner was very imposing, very dignified, and he talked his vague generalities in the House of Lords in a very emphatic way, as if something good were at the bottom, when in fact there was nothing at all."[4] Jeremy Bentham, however, cannot be considered
