ABSTRACT

During the summer and autumn of 1769, Burke’s Present Discontents in draft form was being much dis­ cussed by the Rockingham connec­ tion. The Marquess (1730-1782) had enjoyed office for little more than a year, but for Edmund Burke those short months had provided an immense stimulus. During its course, he began to formulate those theories of government which were to appear in The Present Discontents. The re­ cently ennobled Chatham (17081778) succeeded Rockingham and was in turn followed in December 1767 by the Duke of Grafton (1735 - 1810), who resigned in January 1770. Lord North (1732-1792) then became first minister, and held office for more than a decade of fateful de­ cision. Four months after North's ele­ vation, ‘bur credo” appeared. Burke told Charles O'Hara (c. 1715-1776) in May that it was approved by the thinking part of the people. The advantage thus gained was lost, he thought at the end of 1770, by a failure to follow it up with a whole

succession of further pamphlets and manifestos. Why these were not written and spread abroad is not clear. The Present Discontents, the first surviving mention of which is dated in a letter of 29 June 1769, was by then obviously awaited with impatience. Sir George Savile (17261784) read a draft and made some suggestions for its im provem ent; Rockingham made others. Meanwhile, Burke was working hard at writing and revision. He had anticipated some arguments in his Observations and had before that vigorously de­ fended the Rockingham Ministry’s record in a Short History. There was no obvious reason why Burke should not have continued to produce tracts, except perhaps that odd disability to press an effective action which al­ ways bedevilled the Rockingham con­ nection.4