In  happier  circumstances,  and  under  a  more  enlightened
master,  he  might  have  earned  a  respectable  name  as
a  statesman  ;  for,  if  without  great  political  insight
or  understanding,  he  was  at  least  furnished  with  good
sound  common-sense,  sufficient  to  have  enabled  him
to  steer  safely  through  many  difficulties.  Moreover,
to  this  useful  attribute  he  added  a  temper  so  sweet
that  it  was  almost  impossible  to  ruffle  it,  and  a  wit  so
ready  and  sparkling  that  it  even  amused  those
against  whom  it  was  directed.  During  the  fierce
debates  upon  the  American  war,  North  not  infrequently
met  the  attack  of  an  embittered  member  of  the  opposi-
tion with  a  witty  rejoinder  which  dissolved  the  house
into  laughter  at  the  expense  of  the  assailant ;  and,
during  the  same  period,  it  was  not  an  unknown  ex-
perience for  a  speaker,  engaged  in  holding  up  the
leader  of  the  government  to  the  scorn  of  all  honest
men  and  succeeding  ages,  to  be  suddenly  disconcerted
by  discovering  his  victim  peacefully  sleeping  upon
the  treasury-bench.1

Such  were  the  characteristics  of  the  man  who  was
nominally  to  rule  England  for  twelve  years,  to  the
country's  undoing  ;  and,  in  spite  of  his  many  at-
tractive qualities  and  genuine  political  ability,  it  must
be  admitted  that  he  was  entirely  unfitted  to  be  the
minister  of  a  monarch  determined  to  overstep  the
limits  to  which  custom  had  confined  a  constitutional
king.  Indeed,  the  very  virtues  which  caused  him  to
be  an  adored  father  and  charming  companion,  became
serious  defects  when  he  entered  into  the  service  of


1  Walpole's  Memoirs,  4,  52-56  ;  Walpole's  Letters,  7,  361-363.  An  inter-
esting sketch  of  Lord  North  is  contained  in  Lord  Brougham's  Statesmen  of  the
Time  of  George  III.
