NORTH, Frederick, Earl of Guildford, the favourite minister of George III., was of the same family as the preceding, and was born on the 13th April 1733. After receiving his education at Eton, and at Trinity College, Oxford, he resided for some time on the Continent preparing himself for his future career. An early entrance into Parliament was followed by a gradual rise through several cabinet offices, until in 1769 he became chancellor of the exchequer, and leader of the House of Commons, under the ministry of the Duke of Grafton. His success in this high position soon proved that he was a proficient in parliamentary strategy. Accordingly, on the resignation in 1770 of the nobleman at the head of the ministry, he was requested to assume the vacant office. The readiness with which North obeyed the request, and relieved the embarrassed mind of the king, made him a great favourite with George III., as he was already with the House of Commons. Yet the administration so suspiciously begun soon became remarkable for the calamities it brought upon the nation, and the strong and malignant opposition it excited. The refusal of the ministry to relieve the American colonists from the paltry duty on tea, led to disturbances in 1773 which issued in open rebellion in 1775. Then the Whig Opposition, led on by Burke and Fox, commenced a series of the most virulent attacks that had ever been witnessed in the British senate-house. Not content with execrating the public policy of the minister, they blackened his private character, cast taunts upon his capacity, raked up every family scandal, and even clamoured for his head. The Parliament hall resounded with the most confused and boisterous wrangling. Yet on many a stormy night Lord North fought almost single-handed against his great adversaries, meeting their bold measures with his consummate tact, counteracting the effect of their grand rhetorical displays with his strong common sense, and blunting the edge of their satire with his pungent wit and imperturbable good humour. For six years he thus kept his ground triumphantly. By that time, however, affairs were beginning to draw towards a crisis. The British were shamefully failing in their attempts to suppress the Americans; France and Spain had espoused the cause of the colonists; the public were waxing loud in their indignation against the ministry; and in 1781 William Pitt, entering Parliament, consummated the oratorical strength of the Opposition. Lord North, though he still held his original opinion regarding the justice of the American war, would then willingly have resigned. But he was repeatedly induced
Northallerton—by the opinionative king to pursue, in opposition to his inclination, that administration which was endangering the safety of the country. At length, in 1782, he was forced to give place to Lord Rockingham. The rest of the parliamentary career of Lord North did not retrieve his political reputation. Though the celebrated coalition which he formed with Fox overthrew the ministry of Lord Shelburne and Pitt, and raised him in 1783 to the post of secretary of state under the Duke of Portland, yet it became universally unpopular, and did not keep him in power for more than six months. This was the last time that North was in office. He died in 1792, five years after he had been struck with blindness, and two years after he had succeeded to the family estates and to the title of the Earl of Guildford. (For fuller information regarding the administration of Lord North, see BRITAIN. See also Lord Brougham's Statesmen of the Time of George III.)