The pamphlet was composed as a manifesto of the Rockingham section of the Whig party, to show, as Burke wrote to his chief, how different it was in spirit and composition from "the Bedfords, the Grenvilles, and other knots, who are combined for no public purpose, but only as a means of furthering with joint strength their private and individual advantage." The pamphlet was submitted in manuscript or proof to the heads of the party.

Friendly critics excused some inelegancies which they thought they found in occasional passages, by taking for granted, as was true, that he had admitted insertions from other hands.

Here for the first time he exhibited, on a conspicuous scale, the strongest qualities of his understanding.

Contemporaries had an opportunity of measuring this strength, by comparison with another performance of similar scope.

The letters of Junius had startled the world the year before.